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The beautiful St. Andrew’s Church with its high steeple between old trees is still the geographical and historical centre and the widely visible landmark of our town Teltow. This House of God is said to be the oldest municipal building, its origins date back to the 12th century. Only the ground plan and the outer walls, built of field stones in the 13th century, remain from the original structure after several city fires.
The name Sankt Andreas Kirche dates from the Catholic period before the Reformation. The first Lutheran pastor took office in Teltow in 1546. The crown on the church steeple is a symbol of the patronage right of the Margraves (Markgrafen) of Brandenburg over the church, who wanted to make Teltow widely recognisable as their crown estate. As late as the beginning of the 19th century, the town carried the byname “Kronen-Teltow”.
After the town fire of 1801, the interior of St. Andreaskirche was designed according to the specifications of the Prussian architect Karl-Friedrich Schinkel. He gave it a neo-Gothic form with a classicist orientation and had a flat ceiling installed in the nave. For the rededication of the church on 13 September 1812, a larger-than-life crucifix was erected in the sanctuary. It was sculpted by the South Tyrolean wood carver Franz Tavella from Brixen and is considered the main ornament of the sanctuary.
A stone panel on the east side of the outer wall commemorates the renewal of the church in 1910. A wooden barrel vault was fitted under the flat coffered ceiling and an organ gallery was erected on the west side.
The organ which is still in existence today was built by the famous organ builder Alexander Schuke from Potsdam. Also preserved are the painted ornamental flat carvings on the pulpit and baptistery, as well as the banners on the cheeks of the benches and on the pillars of the gallery by the sculptor August Mattausch. The artist Professor August Oetken from Berlin could be won over for the painting and colour design, including of the choir windows unfortunately destroyed during the war. Even the famous Lyonel Feininger immortalized our church and the unmistakeable roofs of the old town! On his painting “Teltow II”, you can admire the view of the church. The original is hanging in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, a copy can be seen in the Heimatmuseum Teltow. Between 2007 and 2011, the church’s appearance was refreshed and it also received three new bells.
