Brother Klaus (Bäretswil)
The Brother Klaus Church is the Roman Catholic Church of Bäretswil in the Zurich Oberland .
history
History and naming
The Christian faith first came to the region of today's Zurich Oberland through the Romans . The foundations of the region's first Christian church can still be seen in the Irgenhausen Roman fort on the Pfäffikersee . After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Christian faith came a second time by the monks Gallus and Columban in the Eastern Switzerland . From the hermitage of St. Gallus, the monastery of St. Gallen emerged from the year 719 , which according to a document from 741 in Bäretswil was richly wealthy. The fact that Bäretswil belongs to the St. Gallen Monastery suggests that the first church was built in Bäretswil at an early age. A medieval church in Bäretswil was first mentioned in a document around 1275. It was consecrated to St. Dionys. Archaeologically verifiable is a Romanesque church building, which was replaced by a new church building around 1502, which was consecrated to St. Michael and was used for Reformed church services after the Reformation in 1525. The successor building, today's Reformed Church in Bäretswil, dates from 1827.
Catholic worship has been banned in the canton of Zurich since the Reformation in Zurich. It was not until the Edict of Tolerance from 1807 that the immigrant Catholics were allowed to celebrate Catholic services again; for the time being, however, only in the city of Zurich . When the modern Confederation was founded in 1848, freedom of religion and freedom of residence was enshrined in the constitution, so that Catholic communities could be established throughout the Canton of Zurich. In June 1866 , the first Holy Mass since the Reformation was celebrated in the Zurich Oberland at the Pilgersteg inn , which was between Dürnten and Rüti ZH . The Capuchin Fathers of the Rapperswil Monastery had committed themselves to the diocese of Chur to take over pastoral care in the Tösstal and the Zurich Oberland. The Catholics who immigrated at the time were mostly poor and lived scattered in the remote and impassable mountain region in the south-east of the canton, which made it difficult to build up Catholic communities. In 1874 the St. Margarethenkirche in Wald was consecrated and from 1882 onwards it was run by world priests. A mission station was established in Bauma in 1894, founded by Wald. The number of the Catholic population was subject to fluctuations at this time, as the need for workers in the construction of the Uerikon-Bauma-Bahn as well as in temporary public construction projects, but also the employment situation in the textile industry, attracted Catholic guest workers from Italy and Tyrol left. The Catholic places of worship changed from Bauma via Juckern and Wila back to Bauma. There, on the Federal Prayer Day in 1903, the St. Anton Church, built on the filled former Töss bed , was inaugurated. In 1909, the Bauma mission area included the political communities Bauma, Bäretswil, Sternenberg ZH , Hittnau , Wila , Fischenthal (to Oberhof), Hermatswil from the community Pfäffikon ZH , Schalchen and Breite from the community Wildberg ZH as well as Ober- and Unterschreizen, Spitzwies , Sitzberg and Hofstetten from the municipality of Turbenthal.
History of origin and naming
In 1868 the Schön family moved from Schänis to Bäretswil as the first Catholic family since the Reformation. Few Catholic Christians lived in Bäretswil until well into the 20th century. And these were in the church in Bauma well into the 20th century. In 1930 there were 257, in 1941 there were 259 Catholics in Bäretswil. When 210 French soldiers were interned during the Second World War in August 1940 , the number of Catholics in Bäretswil doubled. Since the interned soldiers were not allowed to leave the congregation to go to church on weekends, French military chaplains celebrated services in Bäretswil, in which local Catholics increasingly also took part. These Mass celebrations took place first on the Schulhausplatz in the village , later in a wooden shed, and finally in a dilapidated carpenter's workshop. After the internees had left in January 1941, Pastor Josef Helbling of the Bauma mother parish decided to keep the Sunday mass in the carpenter's workshop and to build a church in Bäretswil. Pastor Carl Engesser from Zweibrücken , who had made his services available to the diocese of Chur in protest against National Socialism , was to be the pastor of the future “mission station” . In April 1941 he moved into a dilapidated house on Adetswilerstrasse ; In the autumn of 1942, after tough negotiations between the church commission and the domestic mission for the attention of the episcopal ordinariate in Chur, the purchase of the land was concluded and a plan for a mountain church was available from the architect Adolf Gaudy , Rorschach. Because of the economic crisis caused by the war, especially the local textile industry and the poverty in the mountain area, only the hall of the mountain church could be realized for the time being: with loans - also the pastors - with the church victims as well as with begging letter campaigns and trips. They wanted to complete the building when the circumstances improved. After the building land was donated by the Diocesan Kultusverein Chur to the Roman Catholic Kultusverein Bäretswil , which was founded on a cooperative basis , the local builder Albino Boito began construction work in November 1942. Despite a delay due to lack of cement, the inauguration of the emergency church took place in July 1943. The chapel was dedicated to Brother Klaus . At the same time, the Bäretswil mission station, previously a branch of the Bauma parish, was appointed parish vicariate. Since Brother Klaus is considered the peacemaker of the Old Confederation, the appropriation of a church to this Swiss saint during the economic crisis and the Second World War is an expression of the people's desire for peace and security. Niklaus von Flüe was only canonized in 1947, so that until then no church could be consecrated to him under official Catholic law. The first parish church in the world to be consecrated to Brother Klaus, who was not canonized at the time, with the express permission of the Pope, was the Brother Klaus church in Zurich Unterstrass. In 1951 the parsonage was renovated and expanded, with donations, labor and free work by the Bäretswil Catholics as well as with the own resources of the pastor and professor Emil Spiess from his teacher's wages. In 1952 a serious mishap made it impossible to expand the chapel, which had already been decided according to new plans. The ground had collapsed due to water pressure; the damage devoured all means and savings.
In 1957 the Römisch Katholische Kirchenstiftung Bäretswil was founded under Pastor Josef Schreiber as the successor to the Roman Catholic Religious Association - with the aim of continuing the current business of the parish vicariate. With the recognition of the Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich in 1963, the financial situation also improved. In 1964 the Bauma parish and the Bäretswil church foundation acquired a plot of land adjacent to the rectory and chapel, and in 1969 the vicariate was appointed as an independent parish rectorate in Bäretswil. In the meantime, the farming and textile workers' village Bäretswil had developed into a commuter village with a steadily growing population. In the mid-1970s, Pastor Hans Hitz took on the growing desire for a larger and more dignified church. Nevertheless, the project - the Bauma parish was in financial equalization - could not be implemented. In 1986, Bäretswil pastor Andreas Gamma, architect Karl Wenk, Wetzikon and parish president Franz Koster submitted a free preliminary project for a church called Brother Klaus to the parish assembly in Bauma. The Central Commission in Zurich endorsed a project including a parish center on the centrally located building plot, but it could not be implemented until 1989 at the earliest. 25 architects took part in a project competition advertised in October 1987, some of them invited by the Central Commission, others based in the Hinwil and Pfäffikon districts. The modified Wegweiser project by architects Robert Tanner and Felix Loetscher , Winterthur, was carried out under the supervision of architect Karl Wenk, Wetzikon. At the beginning of January 1989 the construction team was created; however, a traffic-related correction of the limit distance delayed the start of construction. After the groundbreaking ceremony in August, the foundations were completed before the onset of winter. 1990 brought the bell casting, the laying of the foundation stone, the consecration of the bell, the topping-out and the bell lift. After the transfer of the monstrance and relic from the Brother Klaus chapel, Bishop Johannes Vonderach inaugurated the Brother Klaus church on the 2nd Sunday of Advent, December 9, 1990. In 1994 parish rector Augustyn Wolak consecrated the newly built organ. In the sixtieth year of its existence, in autumn 2002, the chapel was demolished - where it all began. The wetness had completely destroyed the masonry uphill.
Interior view of the first church, as it was between 1943 and 1974
Design 1975 until demolition in 2002
The parish rectorate of Brother Klaus, Bäretswil belongs to the parish of Bauma together with the parish of St. Antonius, Bauma, to which the parish of Sternenberg also belongs, and with the parish of St. Gallus, Fischenthal. The parish thus comprises four political parishes in two districts. The Bauma parish with its 2,396 members (as of 2017) is one of the smaller, but larger in terms of area in the canton of Zurich.
Building description
Church tower and exterior
The Brother Klaus church is located in Bäretswil on the corner of Adeteswilerstrasse and Engelsteinstrasse on slightly elevated terrain. The Lägern limestone in front of the church is supposed to remind of the wild Melchaaschlucht, in which the hermitage of the church patron was in the Ranftschlucht . Easily visible from Engelsteinstrasse , the church has a pent roof , the walls of the church are made of exposed brick. The church tower houses a four-part bell, which was cast on March 16, 1990 in the Bachert bell foundry in Heilbronn. The tone combination of the four bells is called the "ideal quartet".
| number | Weight | volume | dedication | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1230 kg | e 1 | Holy Spirit | "Come, Holy Spirit, fill everything with your grace." |
| 2 | 750 kg | g 1 | Christ | "Jesus Christ, stay with us." |
| 3 | 520 kg | a 1 | Maria | "My soul praises the Lord." |
| 4th | 370 kg | c 2 | Brother Klaus | "Peace is always in God." |
The bell of the first church, cast in 1943, has been ringing in Ackerchappeli Maria Hilf, Vorder Lehn , Canton Appenzell Innerrhoden since 2006 .
Interior and artistic equipment
The interior of the Brother Klaus Church contrasts with the rough limestone blocks that were placed in the vicinity of the church. The church interior, on the other hand, is designed as a warm church interior with the wooden pillars and the pine wood ceiling. Altar , ambo , tabernacle , baptismal font and holy water basin are made of Glarus marble and were carved from a single block of stone. The company Knobel Naturstein Schwanden GL created the stone carvings based on designs by the architects Tanner and Lötscher. The cross with the late baroque body, the statue of Mary and the Brother Klaus sculpture underline the sacred dimension of the church space. The Stations of the Cross are images of the Stations of the Cross on the Calvary of the pilgrimage site of Lourdes . The five-part glass window was created by Johann Jakob Zemp and focuses on Brother Klaus' meditation wheel: "God is center, at all times, at all times, on all paths, in the ups and downs of every human life."
organ
On 18 December 1994, built by the organ builder Graf from Sursee was organ inaugurated. The instrument has 1046 pipes on 15 registers. Advice was given by Siegfried Hildenbrand, Bottighofen.
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
literature
- Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
- Liselotte Forster: 70 years Catholic Bäretswil 1940–2010. Becoming and growing a diaspora parish in the Zurich Oberland. Bäretswil 2010.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Liselotte Forster: 70 years as a Catholic in Bäretswil 1940–2010. Becoming and growing a diaspora parish in the Zurich Oberland. P. 12.
- ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. P. 190.
- ↑ Liselotte Forster: 70 years as a Catholic in Bäretswil 1940–2010. Becoming and growing a diaspora parish in the Zurich Oberland. Pp. 12-14.
- ^ Archives of the Parish Rectorate in Bäretswil.
- ↑ Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich (Ed.): Annual Report 2017. P. 82.
- ↑ Liselotte Forster: 70 years as a Catholic in Bäretswil 1940–2010. Becoming and growing a diaspora parish in the Zurich Oberland. P. 125.
- ↑ Liselotte Forster: 70 years as a Catholic in Bäretswil 1940–2010. Becoming and growing a diaspora parish in the Zurich Oberland. Pp. 80–83 and 123.
- ↑ Liselotte Forster: 70 years as a Catholic in Bäretswil 1940–2010. Becoming and growing a diaspora parish in the Zurich Oberland. P. 118.
Coordinates: 47 ° 20 '18.5 " N , 8 ° 50' 59.4" E ; CH1903: 706 649 / 244028