Rubenow-panel, donated 1460

In connection with the plans pursued by the Greifswald patricians and mayor Heinrich Rubenow to set up a university, the clerics at St. Nikolai finally managed to put into practice their intentions of establishing a collegial foundation. The sinecures associated with the foundation served to pay the professors to be appointed, which one the one hand made it clear that made it clear how closely interrelated the institutions of university and foundation were, and on the other hand some of the urban patricians furthered their influence. At the same time the patronage rights over the Greifswald churches passed from the Eldena monastery to the university.

Mayor's chapel

The elevation to collegiate church resulted once more in a large amount of building work. In addition to the "Mayor’s chapel" fitted out after 1457, the fourth storey in the tower was added, encompassed by round angle towers with the north and south side crowned by striking battlements over a series of round arched blanks. After a change in plans, the tower was extended in about 1480 / 1500 with the two-storey octagon, which survives to this day. The total glare of this construction, the conspicuous and generous use of oversized glazed bricks there and for the large western portal in the tower cellar constructed at the same time and the double portal on the south side of the church is in clear contrast to the otherwise plain architecture of the church.

When the spire was added at the beginning of the 16th century, the tower reached a height of almost 120 m. However, it lost this spire as early as 1515 as the result of a devastating storm. The subsequent restoration work to the tower can be seen from the yellow brickwork

André Lutze

The second collapse of the tower and the restoration of St Nicholas