Evangelical Church Wetterfeld (Laubach)

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North elevation of the church

The Evangelical Church in Wetterfeld , a district of Laubach in the district of Gießen ( Hesse ), is a baroque hall church with a crooked roof that was built between 1747 and 1749. The choir tower from around 1300 has been preserved, which characterizes the Hessian cultural monument with its three-story tower structure and the open lantern .

history

Old altar plate

There is evidence of a pleban in Wetterfeld for 1305 , which suggests the existence of a parish. The previous building, from which the tower is preserved, was built around 1300. In terms of church, Wetterfeld was assigned to the Archdeaconate of St. Johann in the Archdiocese of Mainz . The municipality of Röthges was a subsidiary of Wetterfeld until 1535. The church patronage was initially exercised by the knights of Bellersheim . In 1456 it passed to the Counts of Solms-Lich and in 1548 to the Counts of Solms-Laubach . With the introduction of the Reformation after 1550, the congregation switched to the evangelical creed. Michael Gerth acted as the first Protestant pastor from 1555.

At the beginning of the 17th century the tower was rebuilt and received its current window. In the course of this, the framework of the wall tabernacle was removed. During the Thirty Years' War the church was devastated by soldiers of the Imperial League in 1635 and lost its furnishings. The church, described as dilapidated, was renovated in 1670.

From 1747 to 1749 the old church was demolished and a new one was built with the help of collection funds. To finance the new building, the 274 seats were numbered and sold. The triumphal arch was removed in 1749 and the stucco molding continued into the choir room. An organ loft was built into the tower room and the “open stands”, which were intended for certain people, were removed on the ground floor and a sacristy was set up.

When the outer walls and the floor were drained in 1928, the foundations of the smaller previous church were discovered.

Since April 1, 2014, the four so-called WORM congregations, which previously had two pastors, have been connected to the parish and are looked after by a pastor's office. WORM is an acronym from Wetterfeld, Ober-Bessingen , Röthges and Münster .

architecture

East side of the church

The east- facing church is built at the main intersection on the western outskirts. Remnants of the old churchyard wall have been preserved.

The walled-up tower shaft has corner blocks. It has small, arched twin windows below the eaves and is accessed through a rectangular east portal. A pointed arched portal, which originally served as a priest's gate, is walled up on the south side. To the right of this, another arched double window has broken in. A pent roof leads over to the three-story, wooden, slated tower structure. Two floors with a square floor plan are divided by a strong cornice . The clock face of the tower clock is attached to the east side of the first floor. The second floor serves as a bell house and has rectangular sound holes. It houses a triple chime made of three steel bells. An open, octagonal lantern is placed on a curved monopitch roof, which is crowned by a tower knob, cross and weathercock.

The simple nave on a rectangular floor plan reaches the same wall height as the tower shaft. The crooked roof is slated. The church is illuminated on the long sides through three large arched windows.

Furnishing

18th century pulpit
Interior to the west

In the middle of the choir tower is the east gallery, which serves as an organ gallery. The area behind it is now used as a sacristy and is separated by a wooden wall with an openwork diamond structure. The interior of the church is closed off by a flat ceiling over a circumferential stucco molding and cove. A gilded pelican protrudes from the ceiling medallion and nourishes its young with its blood, a symbol of the sacrificial death of Christ. A snake winds its way under the pelican, above it is the Latin inscription: "MORTUOS VIVIFICO." (I bring the dead to life).

In the north and west, an angular gallery from the time it was built is built in, which rests on mighty square posts. The gallery parapet has paintings by F. Pauli depicting Jesus, the twelve apostles and the four evangelists . The organ gallery shows the crucifixion scene in the center, flanked by Paul and Luther as well as Moses and Aaron.

The wooden, polygonal pulpit on the south side dates from the last third of the 18th century and is accessible from the attached wooden parsonage , which has openwork lozenges in the upper part. The pulpit fields have rectangular panels and profiled cornices at the top and bottom. The octagonal sound cover is decorated on the underside with an eight-pointed sun made of light and dark wood and crowned with a gilded dove. Opposite on the north side there is another stand with an openwork diamond work. The white frame is exposed on a panel of the door and shows circular tendrils with flowers. The simple block altar is wood-sighted and carries a wooden crucifix of the three-nail type . In the area of ​​the altar there are three grave slabs made of red sandstone. The eight-sided, neo-Gothic font from 1876 on an eight-sided, profiled base shows three passages in the upper part .

organ

Organ on east gallery

Johann Hartmann Bernhard repaired the old organ in 1821 and declared it to be missing. In 1823 he built a new instrument with a seven-axis prospect , which ten years later proved to be "very corrupt". Repairs were carried out by Johann Georg Bürgy , Conrad Jost (1846) and Johann Georg Förster (1859). The Lich company Förster & Nicolaus overtook the factory in 1952 and 1962/1963 in terms of technology and sound. Some registers have been replaced, a pedal coupler has been installed and the action moved around. The instrument has twelve registers , which are distributed over a manual and pedal. The disposition is as follows:

I Manual C – f 3
Wooden flute 8th'
Dumped 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Gemshorn 4 ′
Fifth 3 ′
octave 2 ′
Sifflet 1'
Forest flute 2 ′
third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Mixture IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Pedal C – h 0
Sub-bass 16 ′
Violonbass 8th'

Peal

The first known bell of the church consisted of three bells: the big one by Andreas Otto in Gießen (1843) and the middle and the small one by Georg Otto in Gießen (1866). During the First World War, the large and medium-sized units were drafted and replaced by FW Rincker in 1921 . In the Second World War, the Rincker bells had to be returned. In January 1952, the Rincker foundry brought a so-called loan bell from Pomerania into the tower, which was left over at the Hamburg bell cemetery. Only one year later, the two bronze bells were removed in favor of a triple bells of the Bochumer Verein (steel bells) and they were passed on to other parishes. The three steel bells have the chimes c 2 , es 2 and f 2 ( Te Deum motif) and are inscribed with the Gloria ( Lk 2.14  LUT ).

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of German art monuments , Hessen I. Administrative districts of Giessen and Kassel. Edited by Folkhard Cremer, Tobias Michael Wolf and others. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , p. 947.
  • Wilhelm Diehl : Construction book for the Protestant parishes of the sovereign lands and the acquired areas of Darmstadt (= Hassia sacra; 8 ). Self-published, Darmstadt 1935, p. 271 f.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.); Karlheinz Lang (Red.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. District of Giessen I. Hungen, Laubach, Lich, Reiskirchen (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8062-2177-0 , p. 361 f.
  • Peter Weyrauch : The churches of the old district of Giessen. Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Gießen 1979, p. 190 f.

Web links

Commons : Evangelische Kirche Wetterfeld  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Lang (ed.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. District of Giessen I. 2008, p. 362.
  2. ^ Gerhard Kleinfeldt, Hans Weirich: The medieval church organization in the Upper Hessian-Nassau area. (= Writings of the institute for historical regional studies of Hesse and Nassau 16 ). NG Elwert, Marburg 1937, ND 1984, p. 63.
  3. ↑ Röthges. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on April 18, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Wetterfeld. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on April 18, 2020 .
  5. ^ Weyrauch: The churches of the old district Gießen. 1979, p. 190.
  6. ^ Diehl: Construction book for the Protestant parishes. 1935, p. 271.
  7. ^ Weyrauch: The churches of the old district Gießen. 1979, p. 191.
  8. ^ Diehl: Construction book for the Protestant parishes. 1935, p. 272.
  9. ^ Official Journal of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau from January 1, 2013, p. 70: Münster, Ober-Bessingen, Röthges and Wetterfeld , accessed on March 26, 2018 (PDF).
  10. ^ Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen I. 2008, p. 947.
  11. ^ Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 29.2 ). tape 3 : Former province of Upper Hesse. Part 2: M-Z . Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1331-5 , p. 964-965 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 32 ′ 54.1 ″  N , 8 ° 57 ′ 20.1 ″  E