Autobahn Church
Motorway churches and chapels are Christian places of worship that have been expressly declared to be motorway churches or chapels (or even mostly built specifically for this purpose) in the immediate vicinity of a motorway . Motorway houses of worship are used for predominantly individual, anonymous and arbitrary contemplation and reflection for those traveling by car; Church services and direct contact persons are exceptions.
Motorway churches can be found almost exclusively along German motorways. In recent times there have been efforts in other countries to follow this example. So in the Czech example, was in 2007 Plzeň ( Pilsen ) opened a motorway church. In Austria there is the Dolina motorway church on the A 2 near Klagenfurt and the Haid motorway church at the Traun junction (Upper Austria). In the Scandinavian countries there are motorway churches that are only open in the tourist season.
Intended use
The first ascertainable basic concept of these facilities was that of the medieval way stick or the way chapel as a reminder or admonition from God . Motorway churches remind people of the "intoxication of traffic". A recent motivation for such an offer, often quoted in the media, is that of a “rest stop for the soul”. This rather flowery designation comes much closer to the empirically questionable reasons of the visitors: Because the driving situation psychologically generates a very specific stress that moves between the typical overtaking and being overtaken ("hunting and being chased") in the flow of road traffic. Even co-drivers cannot perceive driving on the motorway as relaxed, especially at high speeds. Accordingly, the travelers look for visual fixed and concentration points in the places of worship, find a protected situation and regenerate themselves mentally in their experience of contingency by assuring the closeness and the devotion of God or the Mother of God Mary . In many cases, the brief thoughts handwritten by travelers in the intercession or concern books on display are intended to protect against the dangers of the journey or to express gratitude for the previous intactness. What is noticeable is the rather large proportion who do not go to church on Sundays: In these places, the otherwise church-related requirements for times of worship, preachers, pauses and styles in favor of an individually freely determinable religiosity ( low-threshold offer ).
It is controversial whether the spatial proximity of a church to the motorway is the decisive criterion, but not the design or architectural suitability.
There are no continuous visitor counts and the available estimates differ considerably. The Autobahn Church in Adelsried and the Autobahn Church in Baden-Baden are estimated to have around 300,000 visitors each year. In the Himmelkron motorway church, between 100,000 and 120,000 signals are recorded annually by the light barrier.
Emergence
The first church of this kind was consecrated to Maria, Protection of Travelers and was built in 1958 in the Augsburg district on the A 8 near Adelsried . All of the motorway churches and chapels come from regional, mostly privately financed initiatives. There is no parent church body where these churches are assumed such as in railway missions the Conference for Church mission station . Depending on the origin of the donors, the motorway churches and chapels are Catholic or Protestant , but they are mostly based on ecumenical initiatives and have this claim. The distinction between motorway churches and motorway chapels is based on the type of building. Some of the motorway churches are only room-sized and are therefore referred to as chapels, while others correspond to church buildings.
Buildings that were erected specifically for this purpose on the site of motorway service stations and those that, as existing village or town churches in the vicinity of a motorway entrance, were only given an additional function and were mostly hardly changed, differ considerably. There are currently no standards for the design or the content offered for the Autobahn churches. Therefore, the assignment is in some cases quite doubtful if it is only a question of partially rededicated churches near the motorway.
As of July 2014, there were 41 or 42 motorway churches and chapels in Germany, depending on whether the two village churches in Grasdorf that are in the immediate vicinity and therefore jointly designated are counted as one or two churches.
Selection criteria
A motorway church must have a direct connection to a motorway service station or motorway exit , whereby in the latter case the distance should not be more than 1000 meters. Parking spaces and sanitary facilities must be available. The porter must guarantee daily minimum opening times from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and pay the associated costs for energy and cleanliness. The interior of a motorway church or chapel is as large as possible so that a bus tour group can also visit it together. In addition, the approval of the Federal Ministry of Transport and the respective regional church or diocese is required.
The motorway church in Brehna , which was designated in 2003, is a special case with regard to the distance rule : In September 2005, the associated motorway exit on the A 9 was redesigned, and a bypass went into operation at the same time. The distance from the church to the motorway is around 1,600 meters today.
See also
literature
- Harald Rein : Limits of Pastoral Care. The tension between the territorial parish and functional pastoral care using the example of the Autobahn churches in the Federal Republic of Germany. Lang, Bern / Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-261-03779-2 .
- Gereon Vogler: Reflection in motorway chapels. In: Roman Pencil (Ed.): People on the move. The offer of the church in leisure and tourism. Josef Knecht Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-7820-0575-9 . Pp. 214-220.
Web links
- autobahnkirche.info Homepage of the Conference of Motorway Church Pastors
- Autobahn churches in Germany
- 360 degree panorama of the Medenbach motorway church
- Off the gas, into the church
Individual evidence
- ^ Autobahn churches as places of reflection and rest ( Memento from May 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) EKD website
- ↑ Autobahn churches in Germany: petrol station for the soul. In: domradio.de online magazine. October 15, 2016, accessed August 31, 2017 .
- ↑ Traffic rolls on the bypass for Brehna . Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, September 9, 2005, accessed on November 6, 2013
- ↑ Autobahnkirche: Support from the very top Eisenach Online, February 13, 2009, accessed on November 6, 2013