St Nikolai Church Kiel 3D model

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The Nikolaikirche (Church of St Nicholas) in Kiel is the oldest extant building in the city. It was built in the 13th century as a Gothic hall church. 100 years later, the church was renovated, modelled on the Petrikirche in Lübeck. In the 19th century the church received a neo-Gothic facade. After severe damage caused in the Second World War, the building was rebuilt again with modern forms and constructions.

Saint Nicholas St. Nikolai is the main Protestant church and Kiel's oldest building. It's on the Old Market Square.

Construction of the Nikolai Church began shortly after the city was founded by Adolf IV of Schauenburg and Holstein around 1242. One hundred years later, the Gothic hall was rebuilt on the model of the Petrikirche in Lübeck and, with a long choir, was completed as a brick hall church with a three-aisled, almost square nave and a single-aisle choir. At the beginning of the 16th century, the tower was integrated into the building by the addition of the Council and Rantzau Chapels.

In 1526 Marquard Schuldorp (1495-1529)[1] introduced the Reformation at the Nikolai Church. In the following year Melchior Hofmann came to Kiel. His apocalyptic sermons and the accusations against the city's dignitaries of having enriched themselves in the church estate led to unrest. In addition, the dispute was fuelled by the Catholic city priest, the Augustinian Canon Wilhelm Pravest of Bordesholm Monastery.

The Propstei Kiel was established in 1811. The provost's office was connected with a parish office at Kiel's Nikolaikirche[2] Claus Harms became archdeacon in 1816 and the main pastor and provost in 1835. From 1854 to 1866 Karl Friedrich Christian Hasselmann was the main pastor.

In the years 1877 to 1884 the church was redesigned in neo-Gothic style. It received a new façade and was faced with machine bricks. The funeral chapels at the choir, built in the 17th century, were demolished. Inside, the rood screen, galleries and chairs were removed and the church was painted according to the taste of the time.

During the Second World War, the church building was severely destroyed in an Allied air raid on 22 May 1944. The burning tower helmet and the attic penetrated all the vaults of the nave and the southern aisle. The northern nave was also damaged. The valuable interior had been recovered in the years before. Because of a possible danger of the ruin collapsing, the choir walls and ship pillars were laid down in 1948[3] The reconstruction was largely carried out in 1950 by the architect Gerhard Langmaack in modern forms and constructions, such as concrete pillars and a reinforced concrete ceiling. The old vaults were not rebuilt; instead, the outer building was given a simple saddle roof that united all three naves. In 1986 the interiors of Peter Kahlcke, Kiel, were renovated.