Old Lutheran Church on Kolk
The Old Lutheran Church on the Kolk (mostly only Church on the Kolk ) is the second oldest church in the Elberfeld district of Wuppertal after the Old Reformed Church and one of five places of worship of the Evangelical Parish Elberfeld-Nord.
history
In Elberfeld , which was originally strongly influenced by Calvinism in the 17th century, there were only a few Lutherans after the Reformation , who mostly had to practice their religion in private and were looked after by the surrounding Lutheran parishes of Schwelm and Lüttringhausen . In 1694 they elected their own pastor, Heinrich Trippler, and the right to practice their religion privately was confirmed a short time later by the elector.
As early as 1687 (in the year of the Elberfeld fire ), the Lutherans were able to acquire a piece of land on today's Schönen Gasse , which at that time was on the edge of the Elberfeld center, not far from the Reformed Church. In 1699 a parish hall with four apartments and a small church service hall was built on this property. Even then, there was a unanimous bell in a small roof turret. In 1724 the church hall was enlarged and provided with a surrounding gallery. In 1726 the community received the right to publicly practice religion and in 1747 the sovereign Elector Karl Theodor allowed the building of a church with a tower and bells, for which the property was expanded in 1748. Originally, the building of the church at the old Lutheran cemetery at Hofkamp was planned, so that the parish hall could have continued to be available, but with a majority of votes in the parish council, it was decided to build it on Schönen Gasse and demolish the old parish hall. The foundation stone was laid on May 20, 1748 and the baroque church with 1294 seats was inaugurated on July 5, 1752 . At the same time as the church, the new rectory at the west end of the church building was inaugurated, which was structurally attached to the church. At the same time, Jacob Engelbert Teschemacher installed the first organ , it had 37 stops on two manuals with pedal.
In terms of its design, the church followed the type of the Bergische Sermon Church with the model of the Old Reformed Church, especially in the interior. The principal pieces were on the west side, with galleries running around on all three other sides. The square tower was initially crowned with a simple pyramid roof, which was only replaced in 1774 by an onion- shaped dome that was considered to be "Bergisch" . The first hood was significantly narrower than the current one and was based heavily on the hood of the Old Reformed Church, although the hood of the church at Kolk was deliberately designed two meters higher than the hood of the neighboring church. In 1805 the church was renovated for the first time; Another radical renovation in 1912 reduced the number of seats to just under 1000, and the tower hood was clad with copper.
During the Second World War, the church was badly hit by fire bombs on June 25, 1943 and burned down to the ground due to the wooden interior. The provisionally restored church was consecrated on October 14, 1951, and the emergency roof of the tower was replaced in 1956 by a slate-covered onion dome. In 1954 a new organ by Emil Hammer followed. The number of seats has been reduced to 430.
In 1972 the old organ was replaced by a new instrument from the Johannes Klais workshop ; the old organ was sold to the Catholic parish Herz Jesu . The church was badly damaged as a result of an explosion at a neighboring jeweler in downtown Elberfeld on August 22, 1973. The masonry was severely impaired in its substance and the church windows were all lost, and the parish hall at the west end of the church had to be completely rebuilt.
Shortly before the end of the restoration work on the substance of the church, the church was seriously arson on the night of March 14, 1974 . Due to the intense heat development, the new organ presented itself as a collection of fused tin pipes and had to be scrapped, the perpetrators were never caught. The church was repaired again by Christmas 1975. Since then, the interior with only 250 seats has been completely plain, with dark wooden stalls and a simple organ gallery above the entrance.
The church has been a listed building since June 15, 1984. Until 2005 the church was the center of the Evangelical Lutheran parish on the Kolk, which included the center of Elberfeld. After the union with the Evangelical Parish Elberfeld-Nord, the church, together with the Resurrection Church on Katernberg, the Eckbusch parish center, the Katernberger clubhouse and the cemetery church, is the preaching site of the largest parish in the city, but is located in the parish with the fewest members.
As part of preparatory measures for the renovation of the tower dome, massive damage to the masonry of the church tower was discovered in mid-2016. Although there was no danger for passers-by, the tower of the church has been completely scaffolded since then. The masonry of the tower was only slightly repaired after the war and was not examined for major damage after the destruction in 1973 and 1974. In the meantime, 20 percent of the wall and 90 percent of the corner stones would have to be replaced in order to preserve the church tower. The estimated sum of around 1.5 million euros cannot be raised by either the community or the Wuppertal parish, and little financial support can be expected from the regional church either. Should monument protection foundations and donations from the population not be able to raise the sum, the demolition of the listed tower by the municipality of Elberfeld-Nord could not be ruled out. In the preparation of a financing plan in February 2018, the municipality named a possible completion of the repair work by spring 2019. In 2018, the federal government promised an amount of 500,000 euros for the renovation, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia 100,000 euros. There are also donations of around 30,000 euros. However, the provision of the funds dragged on because the district government again requested an application with an updated cost estimate. The parish alone has to raise around 870,000 euros. Currently (as of September 2019), the repair work is to start in spring 2020.
Building
The simple baroque hall church made of sandstone masonry follows the model of the Old Reformed Church just a few hundred meters away : the interior was originally built with surrounding wooden galleries, the pulpit, following the type of the sermon church , was located in the middle above the altar.
The church area faces west, with a square tower in front of the east facade, which is crowned by a baroque onion dome (1774) with a lantern. Five arched windows each illuminate the room on the long sides, two on the east facade; the building is connected on the altar side with an adjoining residential and commercial building and therefore has no windows here. The church was destroyed and rebuilt several times, for example after the Second World War (destroyed by a bombing on June 25, 1943), most recently after a devastating fire in 1974. After the war, the original interior was not restored, it was decided in favor of one high open space with a simple apse without galleries (except for a small organ gallery above the entrance portal).
Bells
Today's bronze bells of the church were cast by the Rincker bell and art foundry and survived the explosion and major fire without major damage. Due to the church tower, which is in urgent need of renovation, the bells may no longer be rung since the fatal damage to the masonry was discovered; only the hour bell continues to sound.
| Surname | Chime | Weight (kg) | Casting year | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dominatrix or father bell | h ° | 2650 | 1963 | God your way is sacred |
| Christ bell | d¹ | 1659 | 1955 | Jesus Christ yesterday and today and the same and also forever |
| Wedding bell | e¹ | 1250 | 1968 | Sing the lord a new song |
| Prayer bell | fis¹ | 750 | 1955 | O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord |
| Baptismal bell | a¹ | 500 | 1968 | Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved |
| Benjamin | h¹ | 350 | 1984 | I want to praise the Lord always |
Organs
In the course of its history there were several organs, some of them important and worth mentioning, in the church on the Kolk:
Teschemacher organ around 1752
The first organ was made for the church by Elberfeld organ builder Jakob Engelbert Teschemacher in 1760 and, along with the organ of the Old Church in Wupperfeld, was one of the largest Teschemacher organs and one of the largest in the Rhenish region. The Vox angelica 2 ' register placed behind a statue was noteworthy , whereby the tones of the pipes were emitted through the open mouth of the statue. According to tradition, the mouth could even be moved.
In an expert report by Christian Roetzel from 1823, the condition of the organ is handed down in addition to the dispatcher. In addition to refurbishing the console, he recommended adding a few pedal stops , but assessed the general image of the organ as extremely positive. Around 1840 Ibach considered building the organ again. It is not known which of the two surviving designs was carried out.
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- Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
Walcker organ from 1894
In 1894 the organ of the church was rearranged by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker according to the taste of the time, whereby the old prospectus was retained. The action was pneumatically rebuilt and the new organ was inaugurated at Pentecost.
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- Coupling: II / I, III / II, III / I, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Playing aids: three fixed combinations (piano, forte, tutti)
Hammer organ from 1962
Since the Walcker organ was completely destroyed in the night of the bombing, the community gave the order in 1950 to build a new organ appropriate to the church, which was built by Emil Hammer from Hanover . In the first construction phase in 1954, only ten registers were ready to play, the electropneumatic instrument was completed eight years later with the following disposition:
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- Coupling: II / I, III / II, III / I, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Playing aids: Two free combinations, tutti, individual storage
First Klais organ from 1972
Since the sound condition of the Hammer organ was no longer satisfactory over time and the organ was in urgent need of renovation due to the electropneumatic action, it was sold cheaply to the neighboring Catholic parish Herz Jesu, which had the organ renovated and is still in use today. Johannes Klais (Bonn) was entrusted with the design of a new organ .
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- Coupling: I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Playing aids: Four typesetting combinations
In the 1973 explosion, the organ was only slightly damaged and quickly repaired. After the fire in 1974, however, all that remained of the organ was ashes and a few melted tin pipes. One turned to a loan instrument from the Klais house, which was temporarily set up in the parish hall and is now also in the church:
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- Pairing: Attached Pedal
Second Klais organ from 1977
Today's organ was rebuilt in 1977 by Johannes Klais. The arrangement of the organ corresponds completely to the arrangement of the first Klais organ from 1972. Only the shape of the prospectus has been changed and replaced by two free-standing pedal towers with an interposed main and breastworks. The instrument was inaugurated on August 4, 1977.
Thorsten Pech has been the organist since 1997 and has been a full-time cantor since 2016.
literature
- Old Lutheran Church at Kolk Wuppertal-Elberfeld , Lindenberg: Kunstverlag Josef Fink 2002, ISBN 3-89870-048-8 .
- Hermann-Peter Eberlein: Thousand Years of Church in Elberfeld . In: Geschichte im Wuppertal 19 (2010), pp. 16–30.
- Erhard Evers: Origin and Fate of the Old Lutheran Church on the Kolk , Wuppertal 1993.
- Erhard Evers: A walk through the church at the Kolk . 3 booklets: style and furnishings of the church ; Description of the church windows by Eugen Keller ; The wood sculptures Karl Hemmeters , Wuppertal o. J.
- Klaus Goebel , Andreas Knorr (ed.): Churches and worship places in Elberfeld , Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-930250-35-7 .
- Hermann Klugkist Hesse / Ernst Hense: The Reformed and Lutheran Congregation Elberfeld , ed. by Daniela-Nadine Reiher and Hermann-Peter Eberlein, Kamen 2014. ISBN 978-3-89991-155-8 .
- Klaus Pfeffer: The church buildings in Wuppertal-Elberfeld , Neuss 1980 (Rheinische Kunststätten 229), pp. 19-21.
- Carl Pöls: The Lutheran Congregation in Elberfeld. A contribution to the history of the city of Elberfeld, Elberfeld 1868.
- Lothar Przybylski: The church on the Kolk. The history of the Evangelical Lutheran community in Elberfeld , Wuppertal 1977, ISBN 3-417-00626-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Great worries about Kolk Tower . In: Wuppertaler Rundschau from November 4, 2017.
- ↑ Church renovation costs 1.5 million. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung of October 9, 2017.
- ↑ Katharina Rüth: The tower of the church on the Kolk receives an ocher-colored dress. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung of February 13, 2018.
- ↑ Tanja Heil: "That is an enormous burden for our community." In: Westdeutsche Zeitung of September 6, 2019.
- ↑ Joachim Dorfmüller . 300 years of organ building in Wuppertal. P. 105ff.
Web links
- Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- Evangelical parish Elberfeld-Nord
- Entry on the community in GenWiki
- Report on the 1974 fire on wolfgang-mondorf.de ( Memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 '27.2 " N , 7 ° 8' 54.5" E