Bunker Church Saint Sacrament (Düsseldorf)

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overall view
Bunker Church at night
entrance
Spire

The bunker church St. Sacrament in the Düsseldorf district of Heerdt (Heerdter Landstrasse 270 / corner Kevelaerer Strasse) is a former bunker from the Second World War . The listed building is therefore a unique place of worship in the world and has been appropriately referred to as the “most stable church in the world”. Today it is a church, memorial and place of art in one.

history

When the church property was acquired by the St. Sacrament parish in 1928, no church could initially be built due to lack of money. Between 1940 and 1942 the property was expropriated by the National Socialists in order to build an air raid shelter . For camouflage reasons, it was given the shape of a church ( church bunker ). The architect was Philipp Wilhelm Stang . The community had to make do with an adjacent emergency barrack as a place of worship. This fell victim to a bomb attack; the bunker, on the other hand, survived numerous hits completely unscathed.

After the war, on June 17, 1947, Carl Klinkhammer came to St. Sacrament as a pastor and initiated the conversion of the bunker into a church and living quarters. The renovation was carried out according to plans by the architect Stang from 1947 to 1949. Thanks to his reputation and his fame as a “ Ruhr chaplain”, Pastor Klinkhammer managed to collect a considerable amount of money for his project through lectures and sermons. Cardinal Frings was finally able to dedicate the church on October 30, 1949 during a festive mass. Pastor Klinkhammer lived in the bunker until his death in 1997.

At the beginning of the 1990s the church urgently needed to be renovated; since November 30, 1997, it has been used again with a new look. It was also rediscovered as an exhibition and art location in 2002 as part of EUROGA 2002 .

The modification

For the conversion to a church, the two-meter-thick false ceilings on two floors had to be blasted out. Several windows for the church and living rooms were blown into the 1.10 m thick side walls of the original four-story building. The rubble was carried outside by numerous volunteers. The basement and tower, however, have been left in their original state. In the end, the nave had a length of 35 m and a height of 9 m. In the summer of 1952, the tower was fitted with a bell tower to match the “bunker look”.

Coptic community

Church interior, iconostasis , 2017

In December 2015, the Archbishop of Cologne, Woelki, handed over the bunker church to the Coptic community of Düsseldorf. In preparation for the consecration as a Coptic Orthodox Church by Pope Tawadros II , an iconostasis was created. A joint use of the church by the small local Catholic community and close cooperation in the field of ecumenism are planned.

An integration center is to be built next to the bunker church. The Coptic community wants to build this integration center and make it available to the people at the Handweiser as a meeting point. It is planned to name the new day care center to be built next to the bunker church in memory of the first pastor and initiator, Monsignor Carl Klinkhammer.

On March 15, 2018, the Catholic parish of St. Antonius and Benediktus said goodbye to the bunker church of St. Sacrament as a place for regular Catholic Eucharistic celebrations . From this date on, the bunker church will only be used by the Coptic community. Pope Tawadros II consecrated the bunker church on May 12, 2019 as a Coptic Orthodox Church. The Catholic side is planning to hold a Eucharistic celebration once a year in the bunker church.

organ

The organ was built in 1972 by the organ builder Harald Strutz (Wuppertal-Barmen) for the Evangelical Church in Hösel and acquired in 2002 for the Church of St. Sacrament. The instrument has 13 stops on two manuals and a pedal . The playing and register actions are mechanical.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Reed flute 8th'
2. Principal 4 ′
3. Forest flute 2 ′
4th Sesquialter II
5. Mixture IV-V
II Swell C – g 3
6th Dumped 8th'
7th Gemshorn 4 ′
8th. Principal 2 ′
9. Larigot II
10. Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
11. Sub bass 16 ′
12. Open bass 8th'
13. Pipe whistle 4 ′

Art and exhibition space

In November 2003 Ulla Sommers founded the art association “Kunstort Bunkerkirche am Handweiser e. V. “, which used the rooms of the bunker church for exhibitions and concerts. At the end of 2006, however, the association's board of directors resigned due to contractual differences with the parish, and the association dissolved.

Publications

  • Ulla Sommers (Ed.): Bunker Church Kunstort. Grupello-Verlag, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-89978-039-6 .
  • Ulla Sommers (ed.): God in the bunker. Documentation about the conversion of the high-level air raid shelter into a bunker church with Hans von Amelen (DVD and VHS)

Other bunker churches

  • Waldkraiburg bunker church . Former church (until 1964) in an ammunition bunker from World War II, now serves as a community hall.
  • "Bunker Church" Stuttgart . Construction of an air raid shelter completely under a church - destroyed in 1944, reconstruction in 1950.

Web links

Commons : St. Sakrament (Düsseldorf-Heerdt)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sybille Steinbacher : How sex came to Germany - The struggle for morality and decency in the early Federal Republic. Siedler, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-88680-977-6 , p. 113 (also habilitation thesis at the University of Vienna, 2010/2011)
  2. ↑ Cardinal Woelki hands over the bunker church to the Copts. In: Rheinische Post. December 7, 2015, accessed January 16, 2016 .
  3. ^ Catholic News Agency, October 20, 2017.
  4. ^ Stefan Klinkhammer: World Day of Peace: Bunker Church in Düsseldorf. In: Heaven & Earth. Program of the Evangelical Churches for private radio in North Rhine-Westphalia, January 1, 2016, accessed on January 16, 2016 .
  5. ↑ More information about the organ
  6. ↑ Ulla Sommers: Kunstort Bunkerkirche. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on January 16, 2016 (founding and dissolution of the art association). 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ulla-sommers.de
  7. ^ Waldkraiburg: New facility for the bunker church. Oberbayerisches Volksblatt, October 18, 2010
  8. ^ History of the community - Our bunker church. Evangelical Lutheran Church Community of Waldkraiburg
  9. ^ Stuttgart: Bunker Church, Martinskirche. Protective structures-Stuttgart e. V.

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 45.8 "  N , 6 ° 42 ′ 0.4"  E