Frankfurt – Christmas is here. Just because. And there are a few echoes of the usual traditions on the afternoon before Christmas Eve: “The bells never ring sweeter”, intones carillonist Yuko Tajima and delights a small group on the Römerberg with the carillon of the Old Nikolaikirche. Of course, without notice, because a large number of visitors should be avoided in Corona times.
“I warmly welcome you to the first Christmas service in the Paulskirche for 77 years”, welcomed Pastor Andrea Braunberger-Myers. In her sermon in the evening service, she will remember the last Christmas service in the war year 1943, the time of destruction that only very old contemporary witnesses can still tell. But also of the basic right to religious freedom, which was resolved in the Paulskirche assembly in 1848 and which guarantees this “physical assembly at Christmas” under strict hygiene rules.
The Paulskirche was rebuilt as a meeting place and memorial with a plenary hall, but also with a tower cross and organ in order to preserve the ecclesiastical character. Because the Evangelical Church in Frankfurt and especially the Sankt Paulsgemeinde may continue to use the building, which is owned by the city, for services on request. But it is not easy to conjure up a Christmas atmosphere in the gleaming white, sober room with federal and state flags. Since the strict fire protection regulations forbid even an electrically lit Christmas tree, twelve blooming poinsettias, a small altar, a painted picture with the Paulskirchenkreuz and the crib of the Schaustellerverband Rhein-Main from the Christmas market at the Hauptwache must suffice as decorations.
“Come here now, you believers,” the solo singers and wind instruments begin. You feel a reflex, you want to get in the mood – but wait, that’s not possible. The readings sound, Emperor Augustus sends Mary and Joseph to Nazareth, the stable in Bethlehem makes the Lord “from the tribe of David” stranded. “Don’t be afraid!”, Braunberger-Myers announced. An encouragement to the believers, but also to the singers, who sing with “Come you shepherds” and “Es ist ein Ros sprung” against the acoustics that have always been difficult in the large, elliptical oval of the Paulskirche. Especially when 80 visitors get lost where there should actually be space for 800. The musicians didn’t have much more than a dress rehearsal to practice.
Out into the particularly quiet night
“Corona has radically curtailed our lives, the virus is putting bitter limits on our coexistence,” preaches city dean Achim Knecht. For more and more sick people, it also means death. “But the song of the Ros, which springs from the 16th century, refers to the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament and shows that life is stronger and can cast out again from a root.” Isaiah’s promise of the birth of Jesus in a devastated land without much hope arose.
But Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus also had a lot to do with the problems of our time. “On their way to Bethlehem, they appear homeless like refugees and spend Christmas Night among the poor as a nuclear family, to which we should now limit ourselves because of Corona.” The shepherds tend the flocks and protect them from predators, as they are in the character of many people. “Predators are selfishly setting the tone in our society as well. And so-called lateral thinkers unfortunately practice egoism instead of solidarity during the pandemic.” But God give comfort and a new beginning in Christ.
At the end the musicians get applause, the visitors go neatly into the city, which is now really a quiet night. Without the city bells, but with watchful eyes in front of the houses of God. Before the next service in the Paulskirche, the security guards treat themselves to a cigarette break, while vigorous ventilation and cleaning is the order of the day in the plenary hall.
A total of 180 visitors experience the two services on Christmas Eve. “After the second hard lockdown began, there were a few cancellations, but we were able to let in unannounced visitors,” explains Andrea Braunberger-Myers. It’s Christmas, after all. Gernot gottwals
Heard for everyone
The Christmas service in the Paulskirche can be listened to at www.paulsgemeinde.de.
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