page_title: St. Nikolai, Kiel
section_title: Interior
hierarchical_section_title: St. Nikolai, Kiel / Interior
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein. Die Hauptorgel der Kirche wurde 1965 erbaut.
context_page_description: St. Nikolai is the name of a Protestant parish and its church in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the town's oldest building, at the Alter Markt. It was dedicated to Saint Nicholas. In the 19th century, it was remodeled in Gothic Revival style. Destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt with a simpler contemporary interior. It features notable artworks such as a bronze baptismal font from 1340, an altar from 1460, a triumphal cross from 1490, a wood-carved pulpit from 1705, and outside a bronze by Ernst Barlach from 1928.
context_section_description: The bronze baptismal font (Taufe) by Hans Apengeter dates back to 1344 and is the oldest artwork in the church. It is regarded as one of the best medieval bronzes in northern Germany. He created it after the Wismar Taufe of 1331 and the Lübeck Taufe of 1337. The Erzväteraltar (Altar of the patriarchs) from 1460 was made for the church of the Liel Abbey, and was moved to St. Nikolai in 1541 when the monastery was dissolved in the Reformation. The large Triumphkreuz (Triumphal cross) dates back to 1490. The Baroque pulpit is a woodcarving by Theodor Allers from 1705. It was a donation by Henning von Wedderkop to replace a 1522 pulpit. The church holds the oldest Nagelkreuz von Coventry in Germany, from 1947.
  On a commission by the town of Kiel, Ernst Barlach created a large sculpture as his first work of the kind. An angel with a sword dominates a wolf-like creature, as a symbol for the superiority of spirit and its victory over evil. The bronze was first installed at the Heiligengeistkirche of the former monastery, without a public celebration, because people objected to its style. First untitled, the sculpture was called Geistkämpfer (The Fighter of the Spirit) by the population. In 1937, the Nazi government removed the sculpture as entartete Kunst. It was hidden in Schnega in the atelier of Hugo Körtzinger, a friend of Barlach. After the war, Kiel bought the Geistkämpfer back and installed it in St. Nikolai in 1954. Copies of the sculpture are in front of the Gethsemane Church in Berlin, and in front of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minnesota.
  The main organ was built in 1965 by Detlef Kleuker of Brackwede. It had three manuals and pedalboard, 45 stops and 3,288 pipes. It was extensively restored in 1998 by the Ulrich Babel of Gettorf, to overcome problems which had arisen from electrification and the use of synthetic materials for the windchest. It was repitched by Eppo Rynko Ottes of (Barcelona). In the choir there is a small positive organ by the Babel organ works.
caption: Main organ
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX K10D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385", "Image DateTime": "2012:07:29 21:55:59", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2352", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[54, 19, 22379/1000]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[10, 8, 4963/200]", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[11, 28, 57]", "GPS GPSDate": "2011:04:22", "Image GPSInfo": "49908", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 33, 0, 1, 0, 22, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "50528", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6039", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/6", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:04:22 13:28:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:04:22 13:28:40", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "38", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3872", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "49874", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "57", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "3838"}