A NEIGH­BOR OF HPA: THE FLUSSS­CHIF­FER­KIRCHE

In the heart of the Spe­ich­er­stadt in Ham­burg, at the go-be­tween of water, shore and sky, one of the most re­mark­able churches of Ham­burg is lo­cated. Until today, the Flusss­chif­fer­kirche (River church), also known as “Flusi”, is more than just a unique thing. It’s al­most an ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal pi­o­neer of the trend to­wards mo­bil­ity, since the church could po­ten­tially drop its an­chor any­where at any time. Move­ment in­stead of stand­still – match­ing the life and beat of the port. And that’s why the firmly en­trenched river church is a wel­come con­stant. It’s an an­chor­age for those who seek help, is giv­ing pas­toral sup­port to the in­land skip­pers and reg­u­larly opens its hatches for church ser­vices. A very spe­cial neigh­bor for HPA. 

A CHURCH NAVE IN THE TRUEST SENSE

Below deck the term “nave” is brought to life. Rows of chairs pro­vide enough room for 130 peo­ple. The church win­dows show life and work on the river. If it wasn’t for the oc­ca­sional gen­tle sway­ing, you would hardly know that up until the be­gin­ning of the 1950s this was the in­te­rior of a barge. Yet it is pre­cisely these gen­tle waves which often cre­ate mov­ing mo­ments in the truest sense - the mood is very at­mos­pheric at Christ­mas for ex­am­ple when the ad­vent wreath gen­tly sways around. But no one gets sea­sick dur­ing the reg­u­lar ser­vices - and if they do, then it’s only the tourists vis­it­ing this in­sider tip in Ham­burg. Most other church-goers are used to the swell of the sea. Many of them have been com­ing for years; they have a real love of the water and have often sailed them­selves. A bond with the port which the HPA also shares.

Visit this spe­cial place your­self some time!

HIS­TORY OF THE CHURCH

A prin­ci­ple of Jo­hann Hin­rich Wich­ern, who founded the spir­i­tual wel­fare for skip­pers in Ham­burg in 1870 and to whom the River Church - Ger­many’s only float­ing church - is still in­debted.

In many re­spects, this con­tact with water lends the River Church spir­i­tual qual­i­ties (the Flood, calm­ing the storm, bap­tism etc). And with its con­nec­tion to the Elbe and the in­ter­na­tional work­ing en­vi­ron­ment of the skip­pers and the port, the River Church at­taches great im­por­tance to co­op­er­a­tion with ec­u­meni­cal or in­ter­na­tional part­ners in the city and be­yond.

Thus, the River Church is a meet­ing place for man with God, and at the in­ter­sec­tion be­tween water, the river banks and the sky it of­fers the op­por­tu­nity for un­der­stand­ing and cel­e­bra­tion, and a chance to strive for peace and jus­tice which tran­scend the bound­aries of cul­ture, lan­guage, age, sex and even ide­olo­gies.

Learn more about the float­ing church

 1870: Found­ing of the spir­i­tual wel­fare for skip­pers in Ham­burg

• 1951: The ship build in 1906 was ac­quired. Ren­o­va­tion fi­nanced through do­na­tions by the Amer­i­cans, Danes & Swedes

• 07.12.1952: San­tifi­ca­tion to a church

• 1961: Re­ceipt of a pipe organ which is still being played dur­ing every ser­vice

• Mai 1961: Used for spir­i­tual wel­fare for skip­pers for the first time

• 06.05.2010: In­stal­la­tion of the an­chor-cross – 4 m high, on the roof of the of­fice and café pon­toon, spon­sored by the joiner guild

• 2017: Re­ceipt of the Chris­mon prize of the jury (Protes­tant monthly mag­a­zine) in the cat­e­gory so­cial wel­fare work

...are being held every Sun­day at 3 pm

1st Sun­day of the month: Holy Com­mu­nion
2nd Sun­day of the month: Free topic
3rd Sun­day of the month: Held by the brother- and sis­ter­hood of 'Rauhes Haus'
4th Sun­day of the month: Ser­vice held in Low Ger­man

where ap­plic­a­ble 5th Sun­day of the month: Topic re­lat­ing to lit­er­a­ture

'If the peo­ple can't come to church, the church has to come to the peo­ple' - The River church is still true to this motto of Jo­hann Hin­rich Wich­ern, who founded the so­cial wel­fare for skip­pers in Ham­burg in 1870. Vol­un­tary work­ers travel through the port twice a week to look after the skip­pers and peo­ple on the Elbe. 

Fluss­schif­fer­kir­che 
Hohe Brü­cke 2 
D-20459 Ham­burg 

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