Everglades City
by Reverend Dr Bob N. Wallace | Everglades Community Church
The Dresden bell rung at the beginning of worship is from the Dresden Frauenkirche (German: Church of Our Lady) a Lutheran church in Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. Destroyed during the Allied firebombing of Dresden towards the end of World War II, the church was reconstructed between 1994 and 2005. The bell was recovered and gifted to Everglades Community Church by Mimi Bruckert.
The story of the bell is an interesting one. The history of this bell is in a picture frame high above the bell in the Narthex; however, what follows is copied from that document. Read it with wonderment and gratefulness as the bell is rung three times before the 11 o’clock Sunday morning worship. That was suggested many years ago by Dr. Walter Burke (Stevie Burke) who suggested the three rings would be for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Legacy
In 1932 Mimi Bruckert recalls visiting with her grandmother in Dresden, Germany, and attending the Frauenkirche Church. During World War II, the Frauenkirche Church was destroyed by fire and has since been restored. In 1946 when the Russians controlled Dresden as part of East Germany, they removed all art, artifacts, and anything they wanted. Most of these items were sent back to Russia for their use. Anything they took from the churches, museums, that they did not want, they sold in government sponsored stores. Mimi’s mother attended the Frauenkirche Church before the war and purchased the bell in 1946 as a remembrance of this church. The bell was passed down thru Mimi’s family and was donated to Everglades Community Church by Mimi Bruckert. It is displayed in the church narthex (front entrance) and is rung each Sunday at eleven o’clock before worship.
The Frauenkirche Church was a classic baroque church that was originally built 1726 and 1743. Even though the Saxony Elector was a Catholic, the name of the church (Church of Our Lady) was built as a Lutheran Cathedral. Dresden city architect, George Bahr, was a Baroque master and was known for capturing the essence of the Protestant Movement by designing the altar, chancel, and baptismal font to located within clear sight of the congregation.
A famous organ master created a great organ for the church and Johann Sebastian Bach performed a recital on it.
The single most mesmerizing feature of the Frauenkirche Dresden, and perhaps in the entire city, is the dome. Made of sandstone and weighing upwards of 12,000 tons, this 314-foot-tall dome is referred to as the Stone Bell. Amazingly, there are no internal supports and it proved to be quite stable. This accomplishment is often compared to Michelangelo’s Dome at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Mimi Bruckert (1926-2013)
