“Die Rote Kirche” echoes in the local vernacular. Today we stand before the Mutter-Gottes-Kirche. This basilica serves as the parish church for St. Jakobus Frankfurt am Main. Its history is interesting. It represents Niederrad’s changing religious landscape.
Niederrad was once dominantly Protestant. Catholics had to travel to Schwanheim or Frankfurt for worship until 1854. The journey took an hour. So local Catholics sought their own church. The first Catholic church association formed in 1857. Fundraising began.
Donations and support from the Bonifatiusverein allowed the first church’s cornerstone to be laid on April 11, 1869. This marked Niederrad’s first Catholic church since the Reformation. The Goldsteinstraße church was built in the Neo-Gothic style. After two years, the Frankfurt city priest Münzenberger blessed it. In 1873, Bishop Peter Joseph Blum consecrated the church to the Virgin Mary.
Niederrad industrialized in the late 19th century. Many Catholic workers settled here. The Catholic community grew. The original church became too small. A new church was proposed. World War I and hyperinflation delayed these plans.
In 1927, Pastor Johannes Lamp revived the church expansion. He established a new church building association. Architects Hans and Christoph Rummel, Wilhelm Wagner, and Martin Weber drafted expansion plans. However, a new church was cheaper than expanding the old one. The community decided to build a new Mutter-Gottes-Kirche designed by Hans and Christoph Rummel. It would be in the New Objectivity style.
The groundbreaking occurred on June 29, 1932. On August 14, Pastor Lamp laid the cornerstone. Bishop Antonius Hilfrich consecrated the basilica on December 16 and 17, 1933. Cost limited new furnishings. Gothic and Neo-Gothic art from the old church was moved into the modern one. Four years after consecration the facade was plastered only after pressure from the building police.
British air raids heavily damaged the Mutter-Gottes-Kirche during World War II. On March 18, 1944, the eastern side aisle wall collapsed. On March 22, the chancel rear wall and sacristy were destroyed. The original 1873 church was also badly damaged. The Rummel brothers’ basilica was provisionally rebuilt by 1948. Interior renovations lasted until 1952. The Neo-Gothic church was radically rebuilt in the mid-1950s. It became a community center but was demolished in May 2005.
Extensive renovations occurred from 1962 to 1964 under architect Hans Busch. The goal was to create a spacious and bright interior. Artist Joachim Pick integrated large windows into the western chancel wall. A wooden flat ceiling was installed. The pulpit, chancel lofts, and walls behind the side altars were removed. The exterior changed too. The facade was painted dark red. This earned the Mutter-Gottes-Kirche the nickname “Red Church.”
Another major renovation took place from 1981 to 1983. Building Director Wolfram Nicol oversaw the project. The goal was to restore some of the pre-1962 interior design. The wooden suspended ceiling was removed revealing the barrel vault. The interior walls were replastered. New elements were added. Artist Hubert Distler created a large chancel wall fresco. Sculptor Hubert Elsässer designed the ambo, altar, tabernacle, and Mary statue in the chancel. A new organ was installed. The basilica’s exterior was painted light red.
A new chancel cross was installed in 1995. Its corpus dates from the 13th or 14th century. In 2006, the parish church received a new copper roof.
The Mutter-Gottes-Kirche is a modern basilica in the New Objectivity style. It features a 14.7-meter-high nave, two lower aisles, a 40-meter-high tower, and the Weinberg Chapel. This chapel houses the tomb of Carl and May von Weinberg. Their financial support enabled the church’s construction. The Weinberg Chapel contains 15th and 18th-century art. It is a protected cultural monument.
The Winfried Albiez organ was installed in 1983. It has 52 registers and Rosalinde Haas recorded Max Reger’s complete organ works here. The church’s five bells were cast in 1948. All bells ringing together create the Salve Regina motif.