The Paulus-Haus is a pilgrim hospice in Jerusalem under the care of the German Association of the Holy Land. It is situated on the Nablus Road in the Eastern part of the modern city, directly opposite the Damascus Gate of the Old City. The monumental architecture is reminiscent of the crusader castles. [1]
At the end of the 19th century, there were already numerous Germans going on organised pilgrimages to Jerusalem, some offered by the German Association of the Holy Land, founded in 1895 through a merger between the Association of the Holy Grave (est. 1885) and the Palestine Union of the German Catholics. Since 1866 there has been a small guest house for German pilgrims on a street leading to the Jaffa Gate. At a meeting with the German Kaiser Wilhelm II during his travels through Palestine in 1898, the German Lazarist, Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt, suggested building a new, bigger and more suitable accommodation for pilgrims. [1] The Kaiser had already supported the construction of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer and the establishing of the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition on Mount Zion. With his support, the German Association of the Holy Land successfully acquired two parcels in the immediate vicinity of the Damascus Gate in 1899. [1] The pilgrim hospice project was taken on by the architect of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, Henrich Renard, who was also responsible for building the Abbey of the Dormition and the Dormitio Church on Mount Zion at the same time. The first foundation stone was laid on 20 March 1904. In 1908 the Saint Paul Hospice was opened and entrusted to the Catholic Sisters of St. Carl Borromaeus. It offered space for approximately 160 guests and it quickly became a much beloved place among German pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. [1]
Due to the outbreak of the First World War and the consequent halting of organised pilgrimages, the Paulus-Haus was closed and for a short time used as a headquarters and recuperation facility for German soldiers. [1]
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Jerusalem came under the control of the British Mandate of Palestine and became the seat of the high commissioner and the mandate administration. The Paulus-Haus was seized by the British Armed Forces and used as a general consulate until 1948. [1] When the British mandate ended, the building was returned to the German Association of the Holy Land. [1]
As a result of the division of Jerusalem after the Palestine War, the Paulus-Haus found itself in the Jordanian section of Jerusalem. [1] Due to the military action, the activity of the Schmidt's Girls College was interrupted and the school, housed since 1886 in the Old Hospice on what is today Hillel Street in Israeli West Jerusalem, was first moved into the Paulus-Haus in 1950, and into a newly constructed building adjacent to it in 1967.
Since 1967, the Paulus-Haus has resumed its role as a pilgrim accommodation and from 1989 onwards, along with the Schmidt's Girls College, has been entrusted to the international convent of the Sisters of the Congregation of Jesus.
The Kaisersaal (Emperor's Chamber) in Paulus-Haus has been preserved with its original layout and donated furniture from the time of Kaiser Wilhelm II. [1]
The museum of the German Association of the Holy Land has two archaeological finds from the time of Jesus on display, as well as items connected to the history of the Association and two models of the Temple Mount, one representing Conrad Schick's reconstruction of the Herodian Temple, and one of the Muslim Haram ash-Sharif. The museum was opened at the beginning of the 1990s in the basement of the Paulus-Haus. [2]
The rooftop terrace offers a sweeping view over the Old City of Jerusalem between the Mount of Olives, Temple Mount, Mount Zion and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Schmidt's Girls College is a German international school for Christian and Muslim girls. It was founded in 1885 and provides primary and secondary education to approximately 500 pupils.
Samuel Gobat was a Swiss Calvinist who became an Anglican missionary in Africa and was the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem from 1846 until his death.
Tabgha is an area situated on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel and a depopulated Palestinian village. It is traditionally accepted as the place of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and the fourth resurrection appearance of Jesus after his Crucifixion. The village population was expelled in 1948 during Operation Broom.
The German Templer Society, also known as Templers, is a Radical Pietist group that emerged in Germany during the mid-nineteenth century, the two founders, Christoph Hoffmann and Georg David Hardegg, arriving in Haifa, Palestine, in October 1868 with their families and a few fellow Templers in order to establish a colony. Templer theology is rooted in the legacy of preceding centuries during which various Christian groups undertook to establish the perfect Christian religion in preparation for Christ's promised return. The movement was founded by Christoph Hoffmann, [1815-1885] who believed that humanity's salvation lay in the gathering of God's people in a Christian community. He also believed that the second coming of Christ was imminent, and that according to Biblical prophecy it would take place in Jerusalem, where God's people were to gather as a symbol of the rebuilding of the temple.
Gottlob Christoph Jonathan Hoffmann was born in Leonberg in the Kingdom of Württemberg, Germany. His parents were Beate Baumann (1774-1852) and Gottlieb Wilhelm Hoffmann (1771-1846), who was chairman of the Unitas Fratrum congregation in Korntal. Gottlieb's theological thinking was inspired by reading the works of Johann Albrecht Bengel, whose studies had led him to the conclusion that Christ would return in 1836.
Augusta Victoria Compound is Community hospital and Church complex on the northern side of Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem and one of six hospitals of the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network. The compound was built in 1907–1914 by the Empress Augusta Victoria Foundation as a center for the German Protestant community in Ottoman Palestine, in addition to the slightly older Church of the Redeemer from Jerusalem's Old City. Apart from the hospital, today the complex also includes the German Protestant Church of the Ascension with a c. 50 metre high belltower, a meeting centre for pilgrims and tourists, an interreligious kindergarten and a café, as well as the Jerusalem branch of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology.
The Catholic Church in Israel is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, in full communion with the Holy See in Rome. The Catholic Church in Israel is divided into three main jurisdictions: the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, and the Salesian Mission. Each of these jurisdictions has its own responsibilities and areas of operation.
The Russian Compound is one of the oldest districts in central Jerusalem, featuring a large Russian Orthodox church, the Russian-owned Sergei's Courtyard and the premises of the Russian Consulate General in Jerusalem, as well as the site of former pilgrim hostels, some of which are used as Israeli government buildings, and one of which hosts the Museum of Underground Prisoners. The compound was built between 1860 and 1890, with the addition in 1903 of the Nikolai Pilgrims Hospice. It was one of the first structures to be built outside the Old City of Jerusalem. The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design's main campus is adjacent to the compound.
Jerusalem's role in first-century Christianity, during the ministry of Jesus and the Apostolic Age, as recorded in the New Testament, gives it great importance, both culturally and religiously, in Christianity. Jerusalem is generally considered the cradle of Christianity.
Bethany, locally called in Arabic Al-Eizariya or al-Aizariya, is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate of Palestine, bordering East Jerusalem, in the West Bank. The name al-Eizariya refers to the New Testament figure Lazarus of Bethany, who according to the Gospel of John, was raised from the dead by Jesus in the town. The traditional site of the miracle, the Tomb of Lazarus, in the city is a place of pilgrimage.
The Muristan is a complex of streets and shops in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was the location of the first Bimaristan of the Knights Hospitaller. The name Muristan is derived from the Persian word Bimārestān, meaning "hospital".
Abbey of the Dormition is a Catholic abbey belonging to the Benedictine Order in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, just outside the walls of the Old City near the Zion Gate. The Abbey is said to mark the spot where Mary, mother of Jesus, died.
Conrad Schick (1822–1901) was a German architect, archaeologist and Protestant missionary who settled in Jerusalem in the mid-nineteenth century. For many decades, he was head of the "House of Industry" at the Christ Church, which was the institute for vocational training of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews.
The New Church of the Theotokos, or New Church of the Mother of God, was a Byzantine church erected in Jerusalem by Emperor Justinian I. Like the later Nea Ekklesia in Constantinople, it is sometimes referred to in English as "the Nea" or the "Nea Church".
Schmidt's Girls College is an international German school for Christian and Muslim girls, located in East Jerusalem. It was founded in 1886 and approximately 500 pupils attend the school today. It includes a grundschule program, as well as the Deutsche Internationale Abiturprüfung program. It also offers a Tawjihi program. Although it is owned and supported by the German Association of the Holy Land, it is currently in the care of the international convent of the Sisters of the Congregation of Jesus. Lessons are taught in German and the spoken language outside of class is English. The teaching staff is composed of both Arab and German teachers.
The Church of Saint Mary of the Germans was a Catholic church, built in Romanesque style, now in ruins, located in the Old City of Jerusalem on the northeast slope of Mount Zion.
The German Association of the Holy Land, German: Deutscher Verein vom Heiligen Lande (DVHL), is a Roman Catholic organisation, which aims to strengthen the relationship between Christians in Germany and the Holy Land. DHVL was founded in 1895 in Rhenish Prussia as a legal entity under state protection. The Association's main office is in Cologne.
Wilhelm II's voyage to the Levant in 1898 was a state visit that the German Emperor undertook in the Ottoman Empire between 25 October and 12 November 1898.
The German Templer colonies in Palestine were the settlements established in Ottoman Palestine and Mandatory Palestine by the German Pietist Templer movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. During and shortly after World War II, these colonies were depopulated, and its German residents deported to Australia.