Baptist Church Wilhelmshaven

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Kreuzkirche of the Evangelical Free Church Community (Baptists) Wilhelmshaven

The Baptist Church Wilhelmshaven , also known as the Kreuzkirche , is the church of the Wilhelmshaven Evangelical Free Church Community ( Baptists ). It is located at Schulstrasse 13 and was inaugurated on May 22, 1955. In its design it is the work of the free church architect Siegfried Brauer , who had a special meaning for the Baptist church building of the 1950s and 1960s. So-called brewer's chapels with their typical stylistic elements can be found in many places in West Germany. Often they were replacements for church buildings destroyed in World War II. The first Baptist church in Wilhelmshaven, which stood at Ostfriesenstrasse 70, was also bombed on October 15, 1944.

Building description

The cruciform church has a hexagonal floor plan. A flight of stairs originally led to the church hall, which is located on the upper floor, but was integrated into a porch as part of an extension. A number of narrow windows let in light on the lower and upper floors, which are let into the side walls and each extend from the floor to the ceiling. On the front wall of the hall is the baptistery , in front of it the Lord's Supper and on the right side the pulpit . The table and pulpit are made of light wood. The hall entrance is built over with a generous gallery on which there is an Alfred-Führer organ . Church pews, which are set up to the right and left of a central aisle and - due to the hexagonal floor plan - are of different lengths, serve as seating.

In the basement there are various group rooms that can be combined into one large room using a special sliding door system. A kitchen and sanitary facilities have also found their place under the church hall. The former castellan's apartment there is now also available for group work. The pastorate with parish office is located on a plot of land adjacent to the church area.

1977 arson attack

On September 12, 1977, two members of the Communist League of West Germany carried out an arson attack on the Kreuzkirche , which made headlines nationwide. During this attack, a fire was lit in the church hall, which destroyed parts of the interior but then went out by itself. The church walls had been smeared with slogans of the Red Army faction . The sacrament utensils and some of the transmission technology had also been stolen. Only a few days later, the perpetrators were found by the police.

In the course of the renovation measures made necessary by the arson attack, a porch was added to the cruciform church. There is a foyer and the staircase to the church hall.

Meeting places before 1955

The Wilhelmshaven Baptists met in the 1970s for their church services, initially in private apartments. Most of these apartments were located around the shipyard on Gökerstrasse and Ostfriesenstrasse. Corresponding rooms were rented for larger events. In 1875, a barn converted into a hall on Marktstrasse served as a meeting room. It was lying in the back yard of the Elsässer Hof restaurant . Two years later, the community, which had grown to 50 members, met in a larger private house in Neu-Heppens. Another move took place in 1882. This time it was the Sahnwald house at Ostfriesenstrasse 30 that became the home of the Baptists.

In 1886 the Baptist congregation in Jadestadt, which had previously been a branch of the Varel congregation, became independent and decided to build its own church at Ostfriesenstraße 70 (today: Bremer Straße 24). With financial support from other congregations, including American ones, a separate church building with around 200 seats was handed over to its intended use on November 17, 1889. It was the first civil church building in Wilhelmshaven and was built in the neo-Gothic style in keeping with the spirit of the times . Common rooms and the pastor's apartment were housed in a special extension. Above the main entrance was the inscription: Chapel of the Baptists = Congregation (from 1938: Baptist Church. Built in 1888 ). The Wilhelmshavener Zeitung of November 22, 1889 commented on the new building, among other things with the words "The house of God was recognized as a beautiful building, adapted to the local and time conditions in all parts."

After the church was completely destroyed in a bomb attack on the city of Wilhelmshaven in 1944, the Baptists first held their worship meetings in the Helene Lange School on Virchowstraße. On November 18, the community was able to build a barrack as an emergency church on the rear property of the destroyed church. It served as a meeting room until the Kreuzkirche was rebuilt in 1955.

History of the community

The beginnings of the Wilhelmshaven Baptist Church go back to the 1850s. The Transchel couple from Ludwigslust and their two daughters were among the first Baptists in Jade City. The Transchel family had left their home in Mecklenburg in order to evade the pressure of the regional church authorities and to live up to their beliefs. The fact that they did not emigrate to America like many other Mecklenburg Baptists was due to an appeal that they read one day. Through them, the Royal Prussian War Ministry was looking for "workers for the Prussian naval port on the Jahde". The port area under construction was ceded to Prussia on July 20, 1853 by contract from the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg . From Johann Gerhard Oncken , the founder of the German Baptists, they learned that in the area of ​​the Oldenburg Grand Duchy “the Baptist communities there enjoy more freedom than in any other part of Germany”. So they came to Heppens , today a district of Wilhelmshaven. The husband Johann Transchel, who had already worked as a Baptist missionary assistant in Mecklenburg , found employment as a bureau servant at the Prussian Port Authority and immediately after his arrival began with intensive missionary work among construction workers. In the log book of the Baptist congregation in Jever there is the following entry: “... he [Transchel] was also able to share good news from Heppens, because there are several who like to hear the word of God”. Less than six months later, the Jeveran elder Anton Friedrich Remmers inspected the Heppens missionary work and then reported on many tracts that had been distributed there by Johann Tranchel and "were mostly gratefully accepted". In the meantime, Preacher Haese from Varel also took care of the Heppenser Circle and ensured that the missionary work there was linked to the Varel Baptist congregation. In 1866 he carried out the first baptism of believers in a Heppens citizen. The circle grew, so that five years later it received the status of a station in Varel Baptist Church. In 1873 a Sunday school was founded and in 1882 the colporteur Borchert could be employed for Wilhelmshaven .

The Wilhelmshaven Baptists became independent on June 14, 1886. Only three years later, the congregation built its own church. The first pastor of the congregation was Paul Winderlich, from Beuthen ( Upper Silesia ). After the chapel was destroyed in 1944, the community built an emergency church, which was replaced by the Kreuzkirche in 1955 . From 1946 the Baptist congregation Wilhelmshaven had a station in Fedderwardergroden . The services took place there in a converted farm. 1977 this station work was given up.

literature

  • Holger Kelbert: Go all over the world ... 100 years of the Baptist Church in Wilhelmshaven. Wilhelmshaven 1986.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helga Kucki: Inauguration of the Kreuzkirche Wilhelmshaven. In: Die Gemeinde magazine , Kassel, August 7, 1955
  2. ↑ For the information see Holger Kelbert: Gehet hin in alle Welt ... 100 years Baptist Church in Wilhelmshaven , Wilhelmshaven 1986, pp. 102-105
  3. ↑ For example, terror sympathizers desecrate the Kreuzkirche in Wilhelmshaven ( Die Welt, September 15, 1977); Church desecrated with RAF slogans ( morning mail from September 15, 1977); RAF sympathizers burned the pulpit ( Oldenburger Sonntagsblatt No. 38)
  4. ^ Wilhelmshavener Zeitung of September 13, 1977
  5. ↑ Firemen of the Kreuzkirche caught: two KBW supporters were the perpetrators ( Wilhelmshavener Zeitung of September 19, 1977)
  6. ↑ Holger Kelbert: Go all over the world ... 100 years of the Baptist Church in Wilhelmshaven , Wilhelmshaven 1986, p. 101
  7. ^ Johann Gerhard Oncken in a report on religious freedom in Germany ( Missionsblatt Nr. 9, Hamburg 1855)
  8. ^ Entry from January 6, 1856 in the log book of the congregation of believingly baptized Christians, usually called Baptists
  9. ^ Entry from May 4, 1856 in the log book of the congregation of believingly baptized Christians, usually called Baptists
  10. ↑ The data and facts mentioned are taken from the timetable ; see Holger Kelbert: And go all over the world ... 100 years of the Baptist Congregation Wilhelmshaven , Wilhelmshaven 1986, p. 116

Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '42.4 "  N , 8 ° 7' 25.7"  E