Gedächtniskirche (Speyer)

The Gedächtniskirche der Protestation (English: The Memorial Church of the Protestation) is a United Protestant church in Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate commemorating the Protestation at Speyer.

Built between 1893 and 1904, the church was constructed in memory of the protest that took place at the Diet of Speyer by the Protestant rulers of the Holy Roman Empire in 1529. The tower is the tallest bell tower in the palatinate at 100 metres (330 ft).

In the latter part of the nineteenth century during the time of the Kulturkampf, relations between Protestants and Catholics were strained. The Gedächtniskirche was intended as a mother church for Protestant Christianity, although debates among the Protestants led to a delay of about 35 years between the original idea and the laying of the foundations.

The building of the memorial church was a reaction to Johann von Schraudolph's structural renewal and painting of the Speyer Cathedral in the years 1846 to 1856. Originally the intention was to renovate the Baroque Trinity Church, situated near the cathedral, but it was decided that a new building should be built instead.

In the decorative rose window, the protest is tied historically to events from the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible.

At first, the reformation church was planned to be built on the site of the "Retscher", a ruin of an old manor house belonging to the family Retschelin, near the Trinity church. It was believed that this was the site of the 1529 Diet. In order to build the so-called Retscher Church, a building union was founded. With the permission of the Bavarian King Maximilian II the union launched a public fundraising drive in 1857. Because the Protestants were also financing a monument to Luther in Worms, the donations were quite meagre. The Luther monument was unveiled in 1868, in the presence of the Prussian king and the crown prince, who would later become Emperor Wilhelm I. The Speyer parish used this event to make contact with the Prussian royal house, which would later become very valuable.

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