Church of the Resurrection (Heckinghausen)
The Church of the Resurrection (also Norrenberg Chapel ) is a Protestant church building in the Heckinghausen district of Wuppertal . It is an isolated place of worship and the preferred wedding venue of the United Evangelical Church Community of Heckinghausen and also the cemetery chapel of the Evangelical Cemetery at Am Norrenberg.
history
The history of the church is closely linked to the history of the Norrenberg cemetery, which was opened in 1892 to relieve the old Wupperfeld cemetery on Heckinghauser Strasse (mostly called Brändströmstrasse cemetery) and, with an area of 92,300 square meters, it is the largest cemetery in Barmen and after the cemeteries on the Elberfelder Hochstrasse is the fourth largest cemetery in the city.
Originally designed purely as a cemetery chapel, it was built between 1929 and 1930. Shortly before construction starts, the former Lutheran greater community Wupperfeld, which at that time in addition expressed Gemarke and Wichlinghausen was the only parish Ostbarmens and next Wupperfeld today's districts Heckinghausen, Heidt and Schwarzenbach included, the desire is greater for a place of worship on the southeastern edge of Barmen, so the cemetery chapel conscious and was designed more splendidly. When it was raised to a place of worship, the cemetery chapel was named the Church of the Resurrection and from then on was no longer a chapel, but a full-fledged church.
The Church of the Resurrection survived the Second World War completely unscathed and after the end of the war it was visited by Christians in West Langerfeld in particular due to the destruction of the Langerfeld Kreuzkirche, whereas the Heckinghauser Christians mainly attended the service in the Luther Church on Heidt, which was also largely intact due to the destruction of the Johanniskirche . In 1952 the Church of the Resurrection was completely renovated for the first time, whereby, unlike most other churches in Wuppertal, the original appearance was completely retained.
In 1966, the districts of the large community of Wupperfeld were divided into four independent Lutheran parishes, subject to a joint community association: District West became the Friedenskirchengemeinde (as early as 1983 the Reformed parish Gemarke, since then united), middle to the parish Alt-Wupperfeld with the old church , south with the Luther Church and the Stephanus Chapel to the community of Heidt and the East District with the Resurrection Church and the Paul Gerhardt House to the Evangelical community of Heckinghausen. A union with the two Reformed parishes Oberbarmen ( Immanuelskirche ) and Heckinghausen was considered, but this failed during the planning phase. Since then, the Church of the Resurrection has been the place of preaching in the third and easternmost district of the new community, but became the cemetery association with the division of Alt-Wupperfeld and the establishment of the new community association, in which the Barmer cemeteries Heckinghauser Strasse, Norrenberg, Hugostrasse, Friedhofstrasse, Bartholomäusstrasse and Schellenbeck were organized assigned. As a place of preaching, however, it remained with the Heckinghauser pastors. From now on, church services were celebrated alternately between the Paul-Gerhardt-Haus and the Church of the Resurrection.
In 1971 the church was the scene of an episode of the radio series Church Organs in our home country of West German Radio , for which an organ concert was given on the Strutz organ, which was only one and a half years old at the time. In 1976 the Klippe parish hall of the third Heckinghauser district was closed, and since then the weekly church services have now taken place in the Church of the Resurrection. In 1984 the Lutheran congregation in Heckinghausen was merged with the Reformed congregation, and the range of services in the Resurrection Church was shortened for the first time in favor of the Reformed church hall in Ackerstraße . The last construction work on the building took place in 2004, with the main entrance being converted to make it accessible for the disabled.
Regular services have not taken place since the turn of the millennium, and since then the use of the Church of the Resurrection has focused again on funerals . It remained a sermon site as a replacement for the Ackerstraße church hall, which was often unusable at the time, for which purpose the Church of the Resurrection was regularly moved to the Church of the Resurrection during its recently more frequent maintenance work. With the closure of the church hall Ackerstraße, which was finally declared ailing, and the concentration of the service work on the Paul-Gerhardt-Haus, an increased use of the Resurrection Church as a preaching site can be expected again , especially on public holidays . The Church of the Resurrection is still popular because of its location at the cemetery, which is often referred to as one of the “most beautiful cemeteries in Barmen”, as a venue for weddings and thanks to its particularly melodious organ and the large number of seats for concerts.
Building description
The small hall church uses different architectural styles in its formal language, especially in the external design. While the tower in the entrance portal and the bell cage with its narrow raised pointed arches make clear references to the neo-Gothic style , which was already considered "out of fashion" at the time of construction , the simple, geometric design of the nave already bears clear signs, especially on the lower and side portals Traits of burgeoning neoclassicism . The building is made entirely of unplastered sandstone , only the substructure of the church, which was built on a steep slope in an east-west direction, was made of prefabricated concrete and in some places partially clad with sandstone. The north-facing nave is a total of twenty meters long, fifteen meters wide and is closed on the north side by a low sacristy annex. The nave and sacristy are crowned by a low gable roof , which also crowns the side entrances.
The approximately ten meter high tower is located on the south side of the church above the entrance area and is slightly in front of the church. Above the main portal crowned by a pointed arch there is a small round balcony in the stairway to the gallery and the belfry . The church tower, which is now largely overgrown with climbing plants, has a rectangular floor plan ; there are three sound hatches on the wider south and north sides and two on the west and east sides.
inner space
The interior, which has remained unchanged since it was built, is in its neo-Gothic design and represents a strong contrast to the external appearance of the church. A pointed barrel vault supports the ceiling of the pillarless hall, which leads to one of several behind a small entrance area under the tower with a staircase to the gallery The altar area formed by pointed arches tapers under two choir arches . The altar is illuminated by a later attached wheel chandelier , the nave by simple, warmly glowing hanging lamps. Due to the small, achromatic windows, the lighting and the light color scheme of the interior (white base areas with dark gold details), the impression of a particularly warm and comfortable church room is created, which is reinforced by the alternating beige-dark yellow tiles and the original dark oak pews. The church room offers space for a total of 350 people.
organ
In 1968 the organ of the Barmen organ builder Harald Strutz , which is comparatively large for cemetery chapels, was installed on the gallery on the south side of the church . It replaced an organ made for the chapel in 1930 with two manuals and 19 stops by Paul Faust , which was later dismantled and sold. Like its predecessor, the new Strutz organ has 19 stops on two manuals with a pedal . All actions are mechanical. In addition, the organ, along with the Luther Church organ, is one of Joachim Dorfmüller's preferred places of work , who was also involved in the conception of the same.
View from the west
Main portal with a pointed arch
The overgrown tower; clearly visible the balcony
literature
- Association of Evangelical Churches in the district of Wupperfeld, Fritz Mehnert (Ed.): Oberbarmer Gemeindegeschichte , Wuppertal 2002
- Sigrid Lekebusch, Florian Speer (eds.): Churches and places of worship in Barmen , Wuppertal 2008, ISBN 978-3-87707-721-4
Web links
- Norrenberg cemetery on the website of the Evangelical Cemetery Association Wuppertal
- United Evangelical Church Congregation Heckinghausen
Individual evidence
- ^ Community history online until 2001 , ver. Ev. Heckinghausen parish
- ↑ Norrenberg: Friedhofskapelle ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Evangelischer Friedhofsverband Wuppertal, accessed on July 11, 2017
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 3.8 " N , 7 ° 13 ′ 44.8" E