Heraldic panes of the Reformed Insel Chapel

History of the work

In the side windows of the Reformed Insel chapel, small coloured glass pictures with coats of arms, known as cabinet panels, are set among round bull's-eye panes. According to the German Wikipedia, each of the five side windows contains three such panels; they show the arms of people and firms involved in building the chapel. In the left side window these are the architect Karl Indermühle, the master builder Keller-Bürgi, the then hospital director Victor Surbek, father of the painter of the same name, and the organ builders K. Goll & Cie. The glass painter himself is also represented there with his coat of arms.

The City of Bern gives no date. Wikimedia Commons dates the panels to 1908, the year the chapel was completed according to Wikipedia; the city heritage office's building inventory, however, gives 1906 as the year of construction and speaks of historicising craftsmen's arms in lead.

The chapel stands on its own on the top of the Friedbühl hill above the hospital, according to the building inventory roughly where the place of execution with its gallows once stood. Indermühle designed it in the Heimatstil (Swiss vernacular revival); it was paid for by private donations and at first served Reformed and Catholic worshippers equally. The choir windows are by Leo Steck (1916) and Paul Zehnder (1961/62). The interior was later redesigned by the architect Patrick Thurston, in 2007/08 according to Wikipedia, around 2012 according to the building inventory.

According to the stained-glass database Vitrosearch, Hans Drenckhahn was born in Basel in 1878, the eldest son of the glass painter Heinrich Drenckhahn, and died in 1953. He trained with his father, passed his journeyman's examination in April 1896 and worked as a glass painter and heraldic artist; he was valued above all as a restorer. Before 1909 he already ran his own workshops in Bern and in Thun. Among other things he carried out restorations for the Bern Historical Museum, restored the stained glass in the town hall of Stein am Rhein from 1914 to 1920 and that of Sumiswald church in 1934. His estate of more than 1200 designs, tracings and notes is held by the Vitrocentre Romont.

When visiting, look for the glass painter's own coat of arms in the left side window, set among those of his clients.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Reformierte Inselkapelle · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Freiburgstrasse 30C (Inselspital, reformierte Kapelle) · Vitrosearch: Drenckhahn, Hans (Patricia Sulser 2016) · Vitrosearch: Pause der Standesscheibe Bern aus der Kirche Oberbalm (Hans Drenckhahn 1914) · Wikimedia Commons: Kabinettscheiben der Inselkapelle