Hosanna

Styrofoam model of the Hosanna in the bell exhibition at the Meckel Halle

The Hosanna bell in Freiburg's Minster church is the oldest Angelus bell in Germany.

The inscription on the hem starts with O King of Glory, come with peace

and continues When I piously sound, hasten to the people's aid, Mary.

In the year of our Lord 1258, on July 18, an unknown bell founder from the Basel area cast the bell during the time of the Zähringer Duke Konrad I. The Hosanna weighs 3.29 tons, its diameter is 1.61 meters, and its tone is E-flat.

It rings every Thursday evening to commemorate Christ's agony on the Mount of Olives. This goes back to a foundation letter of Johann Heinrich Föst from 1635. Following an endowment by Baroness Maria Magdalena von Flachsland, widow of Field Marshal Franz von Mercy, in 1665, it also sounds every Friday at 11 a.m. to commemorate the suffering and death at the Battle of Freiburg in 1644. Finally, it rings on the evening of November 27 in memory of Freiburg blackest day, the bombing in 1944.

Fritz Geiges’ artist’s view

Since 1301 at the latest, the Hosanna, as well as a sermon and a prayer bell, have hung in the "nüwen turne" (new tower). Der schönste Turm auf Erden (the most beautiful steeple on earth) was built around the belfry made from fir wood, which forms a kind of tower within the tower. The belfry's oldest beams of fir wood date from 1290/91. It is a masterpiece of medieval carpentry and has been preserved until today.

Commemorating the Hosanna in an exhibition
and announcing a free bell concert on Münsterplatz

Especially in case of danger, the Hosanna was rung. So in the Thirty Years' War, when the Swedes conquered Freiburg in 1632. The enemy wanted to collect the bell and levied a high ransom of 500 riksdaler - the equivalent of two houses. To raise the money, valuable chalices from the Minster treasury were melted down. This proves the importance Hosanna had for the people of Freiburg.

A few decades later, during the French occupation, even the city treasury had to be emptied to save the bell.

In 1821, the Archbishopric of Freiburg was founded, and the Minster rose from a parish church to a cathedral. A new festive bell was ordered from the Rosenlächer bell foundry in Constance in 1843. The Hosanna was allowed to stay, although its E-flat no longer fitted into the new harmony. Freiburg's voice could only appear as a soloist.

The two world wars brought Hosanna and its younger sisters into the greatest danger.

Donation of bells (Glockenspende) in 1917
on a transport cart on the porch of the Minster church (©Stadtarchiv)

In 1917 the delivery of non-ferrous metal for war purposes was imminent. It became emptier in the tower. But Hosanna was allowed to stay.

Bell cemetery in Hamburg harbor 1944 (©Bundesarchiv)

During the Second World War, things got tight again, but the Hosanna was once again exempt from delivery. It also survived the air raid on Freiburg on November 27, 1944.

In 1959, Archbishop Hermann Schäufele, then new in office, and his dyed-in-the-wool conservative vicar general Ernst Föhr ordered that new bells be cast for the cathedral because the ringing was felt to be too small for a cathedral tower.

Cathedral priest Otto Michael Schmitt and the foundation board of the cathedral parish almost had a stroke. A "new ostentatious ringing," as Der Spiegel wrote at the time, was inappropriate to them.

Schmitt didn't take up a collection for new bells; luckily, the Heidelberg bell founder Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling refused to melt down the Hosanna. He instead wanted to return the order for the new bells.

So the Hosanna was safe but remained a soloist because it clashed in tune with the other bells. This was later changed when 15 new bells were cast for the west tower. Those responsible in the diocese moved away from chordal towards more melodic sounds. Still, the Hosanna, now the third largest bell, continued to be rung only individually because of space limitations within the belfry.

A look into the new, extended belfry (©Axel Kilian).
Note the new clappers made from stainless steel
 that were installed in December 2016.

For Hosanna's 750th birthday in 2008, the bell tower was extended by one floor, which gave her more space. Since then, it can be rung together with the other bells.

This led to the idea of a bell festival for Freiburg's 900th anniversary in 2020. Corona blew it all. On September 16 of this year, a bell concert will finally take place on Minster square.

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