The five bells of the Catholic parish church of St. Ludwig in the Nuremberg district of Gibitzenhof are ringing. With its mighty double-tower façade, St. Ludwig has been the largest Catholic church in the Franconian metropolis of Nuremberg since it was built in 1923. The construction of this large house of worship and the founding of the new parish in the rapidly growing Gibitzenhof became necessary after the mass influx of Catholics into the district. The predecessor building was a small emergency church dedicated to St. Mother Anne. In the years 1923-26, today's Ludwigskirche was finally built as a basilica with double towers in a Romanesque style by Otto Schulz. In 1945, the church and the nearby monastery of the Franciscans, who had taken over parish pastoral care, were almost completely destroyed. The reconstruction was completed with the solemn consecration of the house of worship by the Archbishop of Bamberg, Joseph Otto Kolb, in 1950. Since the last renovation, the interior of the church has been kept simple and focused on the essentials. The mosaic in the choir, which shows the Holy Trinity, is particularly noteworthy. In the year of the church consecration in 1926, five new bells were installed in the two towers. The Hahn foundry in Landshut supplied a chime with a slightly warped line of strikes. In 1942, as usual, all the bells, down to the smallest, fell victim to the war machine. Fortunately, bell 2 survived the Second World War and was returned from the bell cemetery in Hamburg in 1947. In 1956 there was finally enough money to complete the chime again. The Hahn foundry in Landshut was again commissioned to produce the chime in the same shape (again slightly warped). All the old inscriptions were retained. As before the war, the two large bells were hung in the east tower and the small ones in the west tower. There would be plenty of room for more bells in both bell chambers. Actually, the bells as individual instruments (especially the two largest), or the respective partial chimes in the individual towers, are quite successful. But overall the chimes suffer greatly from the distorted strike line. -- b°-c'-es'-f'-g' (all raised) Bell 1 St. Ludwig Tone: b°+6 Weight: 2980 kg Diameter: 172 cm Foundry: Hahn, Landshut Year cast: 1956 Inscription: MY NAME IS ST. LUDWIG - I PRAISE THE HOLY. I HONOR THE KING OF BAVARIA - I BLESS GOD MORE. KING LUDWIG III OF BAVARIA. Bell 2 St. Anne Tone: c'+3 Weight: 2000 kg Diameter: 149.5 cm Foundry: Hahn, Landshut Year cast: 1926 Inscription: EVEN IF YOUR CHURCH NEVER STANDS, MY VOICE WILL ALWAYS CALL! SAINT ANNE, PRAY FOR US! Bell 3 St. Mary Tone: es'+10 Weight: 1260 kg Diameter: 127.5 cm Foundry: Hahn, Landshut Year cast: 1956 Inscription: AVE MARIA, GRATIA PLENA! ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI! ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST - AVE MARIA! Bell 4 St. Francis Tone: f'+13 Weight: 900 kg Diameter: 114 cm Foundry: Hahn, Landshut Year cast: 1956 Inscription: OUR ROLE MODEL AND ADVISOR, SPREAD OUT YOUR ARMS! PROTECT THE CHURCH, PROTECT THE HOUSE! Bell 5 St. Joseph Tone: g'+8 Weight: 600 kg Diameter: 99 cm Foundry: Hahn, Landshut Year cast: 1926 Inscription: SAINT JOSEPH PATRON OF THE DYING, PRAY FOR US! ----------- At this point we would like to thank chaplain Tobias Fehn and Harald Vollmayer for making this recording possible and for their time this evening. -- Today the church is celebrating the Assumption of the Mother of God into heaven. A blessed feast of the Assumption of Mary to everyone!