Old Catholic Parish Church in Refrath

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Old Catholic Parish Church in Refrath
View to the church tower

The old Catholic parish church Refrath (called Taufkirche Refrath ) is a listed church building in Alt Refrath , a district of Bergisch Gladbach in the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis ( North Rhine-Westphalia ).

History and architecture

The church emerged from an own church at Salhof of the Merheimer counts. The Counts of Berg have been attested as collators since 1233. A wooden church from the ninth century and a rectangular building from 972 are attested as predecessor churches.

The plastered quarry stone building from around 1200 stands on a walled, abandoned cemetery. At its core it is a rectangular hall with a flat ceiling and a strongly drawn-in triumphal arch . In the first half of the 13th century, a larger choir was added across the width of the nave and a compact west tower was added. During the renovation from 1765 to 1766, a sacristy was built in the apex of the choir . After the new parish church was built from 1864 to 1871, the old church fell into disrepair and was restored from 1907 to 1909. A total restoration was carried out from 1954 to 1957. The building was statically secured and internally re-plastered in 1983. In addition to the rectangular windows that were subsequently broken in, there are two of the original tiny arched windows in the nave . Remnants of Gothic wall paintings from around 1430 to 1440 were uncovered in the choir room in 1908 and last restored in 1983.

The exception of the Schallarkarden the bell storey tower is unstructured with a blunt pyramid roof closed. The former opening on the upper floor was walled up, the ground floor is opened in a pointed arch to the nave.

War crimes in World War II

Towards the end of the Second World War , Allied troops who had occupied the place were in Refrath on Friday, April 13, 1945. A German delegation had previously offered an American officer at the Auerhäuschen in Lustheide to surrender Bensberg , but was referred to another command post in Gladbach. Around the afternoon of April 13th, several Allied troops reached Brandroster , from where they moved on to Alt-Refrath, where they wanted to spend the night. The soldiers ordered numerous residents in the vicinity of the church to vacate their homes and go to the church. Passers-by who happened to be in the vicinity of the church received the same instruction. Among them were employees of the Zanders company .

The next morning the men in the church had to stand next to the church door and count. An American interpreter stated that a man had been found who had fired shots. Without his capture, all the residents of the village and ten other people would have been killed. The alleged rifleman was Johann Will (* 1911), whose family had recently moved into the house at Stachelgut No. 36 and who had never served as a soldier during the war but worked as a welder in a company in Cologne . Even if he had taken part in the Volkssturm exercises , he most likely did not have a rifle due to the well-known gun ban. However, it can be assumed that the previous owner's weapon was in the house.

In their search for a shooter, the American soldiers had presumably oriented themselves to the supposed direction of fire and therefore first searched Stachelsgut No. 38, where they found two elderly women without further findings. Then they arrested Johann Will and led him to the wall of the churchyard, where he had to stand face to face. They tied a white piece of paper on his back and shot him.

Today the Willweg , located near the church, commemorates Johann Will, who was probably executed due to a shot by an intoxicated American soldier that resulted in a documented hand injury of another allied.

Monument protection

Popularly one speaks of the "Refrath Baptistery" . It is entered under no. 32 in the list of architectural monuments in Bergisch Gladbach .

Furnishing

  • In the border frame in front of a patterned background, in the choir area, there are paired figures of seven apostles and the church patron John the Baptist . Depicted are Peter and Paul , the apostles John and John the Baptist, Thomas and Philip, James the Elder and Matthias.
  • A crucifix on a plug-in cross marked 1577 , which originally served as a grave cross
  • Next to the north portal there is a memorial stone with an anchor cross ; by comparing it with other memorial stones, it can be dated to the 9th century. Here it is in reuse.
  • Two wooden figures of saints, a Saint Nicholas and a Saint John Evangelist.
  • 18th century crucifix

literature

  • Ludwig Rehse, History of the Protestant Congregation Bergisch Gladbach , Bergisch Gladbachm 1900, p. 19
  • Paul Clemen , Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Mülheim am Rhein , Düsseldorf 1901, p. 133f.
  • Johann Bendel : Homeland book of the district of Mülheim am Rhein. History and description. Sagas and stories. 2nd and 32nd editions. o. publisher. Cologne-Mülheim 1925. pp. 166-168.
  • Gerd Müller, Refrath, history of the districts of Bensberg-Refrath and -Frankenforst , published by Peter Bürling in collaboration with the city of Bensberg, 1974
  • 1884 Pfarr-Cäcilien-Chor Refrath 1984. Commemorative publication for the centenary
  • Refrath yesterday and today , vol. 1, ed. Bürger- und Heimatverein Refrath eV, editor Hans Peter Müller, undated (2006)
  • Georg Dehio , edited by Claudia Euskirchen, Olaf Gisbertz, Ulrich Schäfer: Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler. North Rhine-Westphalia I Rhineland . Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2005 ISBN 3-422-03093-X
  • Michael Werling : The historic gravestones at the baptistery in Bergisch Gladbach-Refrath. Documentation in text, images and drawings , series of publications by the Bergisches Geschichtsverein department Rhein-Berg eV, Volume 38, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-932326-38-5 .
  • Ed. Citizens and Local History Association Refrath, Old Church St.Johann Baptist in Refrath, Hürth 2008

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Claudia Euskirchen, Olaf Gisbertz, Ulrich Schäfer (arr.): Handbook of German art monuments , North Rhine-Westphalia, Volume I: Rhineland. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-422-03093-X . Page 1060
  2. ↑ Wolfram Bell: The night of horrors in the Refrath Church in 1945 . A drama at the end of the war - contemporary witnesses report - errors cleared. In: Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis in Bergisch Gladbach (Hrsg.): Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1993 . 1st edition. No. 63 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1992, ISBN 3-87314-272-4 , p. 219-221 .
  3. ↑ Wolfram Bell: The night of horrors in the Refrath Church in 1945 . A drama at the end of the war - contemporary witnesses report - errors cleared. In: Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis in Bergisch Gladbach (Hrsg.): Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1993 . 1st edition. No. 63 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1992, ISBN 3-87314-272-4 , p. 221-222 .
  4. ↑ Wolfram Bell: The night of horrors in the Refrath Church in 1945 . A drama at the end of the war - contemporary witnesses report - errors cleared. In: Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis in Bergisch Gladbach (Hrsg.): Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1993 . 1st edition. No. 63 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1992, ISBN 3-87314-272-4 , p. 221-222 .
  5. ↑ Wolfram Bell: The night of horrors in the Refrath Church in 1945 . A drama at the end of the war - contemporary witnesses report - errors cleared. In: Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis in Bergisch Gladbach (Hrsg.): Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1993 . 1st edition. No. 63 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1992, ISBN 3-87314-272-4 , p. 222 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 57 ′ 55 ″  N , 7 ° 7 ′ 4 ″  E