It just might be the city’s largest money box – and undoubtedly the heaviest. Weighing in at 400 pounds, the imposing offering box was constructed from iron by a blacksmith in 1763. With four locks on the exterior and one on the inside, this treasure chest is impressively secure.
Boxes like these used to stand in Hamburg’s churches to collect money for the city’s poor. St. Michael’s received this offering box as a gift from architect Ernst Georg Sonnin, who rebuilt the church after the first major fire in 1750, and his gift proved to be fireproof many years later: the offering box survived the second fire at St. Michael’s undamaged in 1906, making it one of the oldest objects here in the church, along with the baptismal font. When you drop money through the slot of the enormous money box today, you can rest assured that it still benefits people in need.
