Church and memorial

Only a few churches were built during the time of National Socia­l­­ism. One of them is the Luther Church in the St. Lorenz South district, built in 1937. At that time, the parish council and pastors were in charge there and were considered to be exemplary by the National Socialist church leadership in Lübeck.

The church displays typical features of representative buildings from this period. It was decorated with works of art made by ­artists with a völkisch-nationalistic orientation.

In 1949, the urn of pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink was buried in the church. The pastor had preached in the Luther Church until his arrest and later murder by the Nazi regime.

Since the end of the 1980s, people in the congregation have been actively dealing with their history and the decoration of their church. In 1993, the Luther Church was declared a listed building.

Since 2014, a newly developed exhibition tells the story of the congregation and its pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, who be­came known as one of the four Lübeck Martyrs. In the same year, the chancel was redesigned by Werner Mally. With his installation “Contemplation” and the cross “Conspirare”, the Munich artist encourages the discourse on the Nazi era.

Today the Luther Church serves as the parish church of the Luther-Melanchthon congregation, which was merged in 2000.

exhibition