Dortmund - Marienkirche

Local tradition knows that Dortmund was founded by Charlemagne in the course of the Saxon Wars. The first written mention of "Throtmanni" dates back to 882. In 1152, a court day was held in Dortmund under King Frederick Barbarossa. Craftsmen and merchants settled and so Dortmund developed into a city. A fire in 1232 almost completely destroyed the town. The fire also caused the loss of the town's archives and with them all documents from the time before the fire. Dortmund's privileges, which had been lost in the fire, were renewed by Frederick II in 1236.

In 1293 the city was granted the brewing right and unprecedented development of the beer industry within the city began. In 1389, Dortmund survived the "Great Dortmund Feud" against the Count of the Mark and the Archbishop of Cologne. However, an economic decline was initiated. This process was continued and intensified by the Thirty Years' War and led to the city's decline, with the population falling to 4500 by 1793. Dortmund became an exclave of the Principality of Orange-Nassau. In 1808 Dortmund became part of the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Berg. After the Prussian victory over Napoleon, Dortmund fell to the Prussian province of Westphalia in 1815. From the mid of 19th century, Dortmund's renewed rise and transformation into an industrial city began due to coal mining and steel processing. Since the opening of the railroad in 1847, Dortmund became a transportation hub in the Ruhr region. Another contribution to development came in 1899 with the opening of the Dortmund-Ems Canal. This infrastructure paved Dortmund's way to becoming a major city. The city grew beyond the narrow confines of the medieval ramparts.

By the outbreak of WWII, the townscape had changed from a farming town to a metropolitan appearance. During WWII, more than 100 air raids destroyed more than 90 percent of the city, including its historic churches. Reconstruction proceeded quickly, and by 1950 the city had 500,000 inhabitants.

Today, with about 590,000 inhabitants, Dortmund is part of the "Ruhr district", a polycentric urban area. With a population of over 5 million, it is the largest urban area in Germany.

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This altar created by Conrad von Soest (1370 - 1422) around 1420 is considered a masterpiece of the late Gothic period. The triptych is the latest known work of the painter, which he completed shortly before his death.

The altar is preserved only as a fragment. It was originally designed as a lockable altar retable. The pictures belonged to a Gothic winged altar. In order to fit the panels into a Baroque altar structure about 16 meters high, they were trimmed in 1720. In the carved baroque altar the paintings were arranged differently. In the lower part were the two outer panels, clearly above them in a vaulted arch was the central panel. At the lower edge, the panels were painted over with banners about 20 cm high. In 1848, the back was covered with newspaper to protect it from final destruction.

In 1926, on the occasion of a restoration, the outer panels were to be sawed off. For an exhibition in Cologne, the parish had made the altar available. The curator of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne then proposed a deal to the parish: The museum wanted to take over the complete restoration and in return detach and keep the outer panels. The üarish turned that down.

During WWII, the baroque high altar was destroyed in a bombing raid but the panels had been removed and thus were saved.

In 1957, the paintings were placed in modern metal frames and in their original order.