Christ Church (Watzenborn-Steinberg)

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Church from the north
Church from the southwest

The Christ Church in Watzenborn-Steinberg , a district of Pohlheim in the district of Gießen ( Hessen ), was built between 1953 and 1955 as a successor to the old church . It is a Hessian cultural monument .

history

The history of the church in Watzenborn-Steinberg can be traced back to the Romanesque period, when a first stone church was built a little further north. Until about 1532 Watzenborn was a branch of Schiffenberg Monastery , then of Hausen (Pohlheim) and from 1561 again of Schiffenberg. In the course of the Reformation , the parish changed to the evangelical confession in 1561. In this context, Watzenborn was parished with Steinberg and Garbenteich to Steinbach . After the curate chapel had only served the pastoral care of the Schiffenberg monks in the pre-Reformation period, church services were allowed under pressure from the community from 1584. Watzenborn was raised to an independent parish in 1607 and received Steinberg and Garbenteich as branches. From 1607 to 1624, Nikolaus Clemens von Kassel was the first Protestant pastor to work here.

At the end of the 19th century the church had become too small. Plans for expansion or demolition emerged from 1922 onwards, which were not implemented due to inflation, the Third Reich and the Second World War, but were made loud again after the war. On August 26, 1952, around 700 people accepted an invitation from the church council and the parish council to a citizens' meeting. Pastor Wilhelm Gontrum justified the new church building with the fact that the old church was too small and no longer able to cope with the requirements. His proposals were accepted unanimously, the new building was decided and a finance and construction committee was set up. As a result, the parish built the Christ Church on the cemetery grounds from 1953 to 1955, partly through donations and extensive personal contributions. At times, more than 100 men and women volunteered on the construction site. Under the overall direction of Karl Gruber , the church builder of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau , the building was built according to plans by the Butzbach architect H. de Vries, who precisely implemented the "Principles for the design of the worship space in Protestant churches" from 1951. The earthworks began in 1953 and the foundation stone was laid on May 9, 1954. The topping-out ceremony was on December 4, 1954, and the inauguration took place on July 24, 1955. The cost of the shell construction amounted to 200,000 DM, which could be paid immediately with the donations. The old church was sold to the Catholic community at the end of 1955 for DM 30,000, which had grown considerably due to the influx of people who had been displaced from their homeland.

In 1980 the church was renovated, a hot air heater installed, the altar fresco restored, a children's room set up in the tower, the interior painted and the main portal renovated. The wooden barrel of the nave was attacked by the house buck in 2003 and was completely replaced by light-colored acoustic panels. In 2005 the outside staircase was repaired.

architecture

Interior facing east

The east- facing , single-nave aisle church is built on the western edge of the village on the edge of a cemetery. A slender church tower adjoins the wide nave on the east side. A sacristy is built on the south side of the tower . The building made of natural stone has lung stone blocks on the edges .

The ship has a high gable roof. It is illuminated on the north side through six narrow arched windows. On the south side there are round windows in the lower level and triple slit windows in the upper level. The main entrance on the western side of the gable has a canopy and is accessible via a staircase. The rectangular portal is flanked on both sides by three small rectangular windows. Above that, there are two tall, narrow, flat arched windows and five small rectangular windows in the gable triangle. The top of the gable is crowned by a stone cross. The ship is not symmetrical, but rather pulled forward a little on the south side.

The undivided, rectangular tower functions on the lower floor as a chancel, which is drawn in opposite the nave and is illuminated on the north side through a flat arched window and a round window above. The bell chamber has three narrow, round arched acoustic arcades on the north and south sides, and five acoustic arcades on the east and west sides. The gabled roof of the tower is crowned by two bowls with stylized flames of fire and in the middle by a gilded cross, the height of which is 35.5 meters. According to Rev 5,8  LUT, the smoke offering bowls symbolize the prayers of the saints, according to Jn 3,8  LUT the flames refer to the blowing of the Holy Spirit and the Pentecost event.

Furnishing

Crucifix from 1847
Altar area

The interior is closed off by a shallow barrel made of acoustic panels. A gallery is built into the south wall, the west gallery serves as the installation site for the organ.

On the east side, a large round-arched triumphal arch gives access to the altar area on the lower tower floor. The altar area is three steps higher than the nave. The simple, white altar room is covered by a marble slab on which there are six candlesticks and the altar Bible. The eastern altar wall is entirely painted with the monumental fresco, a figurative Golgotha scene, by the artist Fritz Bartsch-Hofer, which takes up 56 m 2 . The groups of people with their different reactions represent different typical reactions to the event of the cross. The crucifix of the three-nail type , the body of which is strongly curved, was adopted from the old church . It was donated to the old church in 1847 by the town of Staufenberg , where Pastor Welcker previously worked as a pastor.

The polygonal wooden pulpit with a sound cover on the left side of the arch rests on a bricked-up base. There is a lectern on the right side of the arch. The baptismal bowl is held by a simple wooden tripod frame. To the right of the triumphal arch, a wood-like glazed figure of Christ with a halo stands raised on a console , which raises the right hand in a blessing. The simple wooden stalls are arranged in two rows and leave a central aisle free.

organ

Organ from 1960 on the west gallery

The two-manual organ was built for DM 32,110 by the Lich company Förster & Nicolaus and inaugurated on December 4, 1960. The prospectus was designed in the style of structuralism with boxes open to the front. The pipe fields in the form of right-angled trapezoids rise outward on the top. The main work is assigned to the four flat pipe fields above the console, which in a reduced form in the Rückpositiv find their counterpart in the parapet. The side flanking fields for the pedals are filled with wooden pipes . The organ has 18 stops on mechanical slide chests . Of the total of 1218 pipes, 1010 are made of tin, 130 of wood, 66 of zinc and twelve of copper. The instrument has the following classic disposition :

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Principal 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
Gemshorn 4 ′
recorder 2 ′
Mixture IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Trumpet 8th'
II Rückpositiv C – g 3
Dumped 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Pointed flute 2 ′
octave 1'
Cymbal III – IV 1 ⁄ 2 ′
Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
Pedestal 16 ′
Octave bass 8th'
Pommer 4 ′
Rauschpfeife III 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
bassoon 16 ′

Bells

The bell tower houses five bells in the Wachet auf motif. The large “memorial bell” is dedicated to all those killed in action and missing in the war. The four large bells were cast in 1955 by Karl Czudnochowsky in Erding, the small bell from 1791 (68 cm in diameter), the inscription of which is barely legible, was taken from the old church.

No. Casting year Foundry, casting location Chime inscription
1 1955 Karl Czudnochowsky , Erding d 1 " Holiness "
2 1955 Karl Czudnochowsky, Erding f sharp 1 " Love "
3 1955 Karl Czudnochowsky, Erding a 1 " Justice "
4th 1955 Karl Czudnochowsky, Erding h 1 " Belief "
5 1791 d 2 " [Truth]
GOS ME IN GIESEN FRIEDRICH OTTO ANNO 1791 "

literature

  • Walter Damasky (arr.): The "Old Church" in Watzenborn-Steinberg. A chronicle of the work in the association for the rescue of the "old church" Watzenborn-Steinberg e. V. 2nd edition. Self-published, Pohlheim 2002.
  • Evangelical Church Community Pohlheim / Watzenborn-Steinberg (Ed.): 1955–2005. 50 years of Christ Church Watzenborn-Steinberg. Pohlheim 2005.
  • Church building board of the Evangelical Church in Watzenborn-Steinberg (ed.): Commemorative book for the inauguration of the Christ Church in Watzenborn-Steinberg / Upper Hesse on July 24, 1955. Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Gießen 1955.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Karlheinz Lang (edit.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. District of Giessen II. Buseck, Fernwald, Grünberg, Langgöns, Linden, Pohlheim, Rabenau. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2178-7 , pp. 438f.
  • Magistrate of the city of Pohlheim (ed.): Festschrift 850 years Watzenborn-Steinberg. 1141-1991. Pohlheim 1991, pp. 99-121.
  • Peter Weyrauch : The churches of the old district of Giessen. Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Gießen 1979, pp. 184f.

Web links

Commons : Christ Church (Watzenborn-Steinberg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Karlheinz Lang (arrangement): Cultural monuments in Hesse. University town of Giessen. 2010, p. 439.
  2. ^ Watzenborn-Steinberg. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on November 7, 2013 .
  3. ^ Church building board of the Evangelical Church in Watzenborn-Steinberg (ed.): Memorial book for the inauguration. 1955, p. 19f.
  4. ↑ a b Weyrauch: The churches of the old district of Gießen. 1979, p. 185.
  5. ↑ Evangelical Church Community Pohlheim / Watzenborn-Steinberg (Ed.): 1955–2005. 50 years of Christ Church Watzenborn-Steinberg. 2005, p. 55.
  6. ^ A b c State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Karlheinz Lang (arrangement): Cultural monuments in Hesse. University town of Giessen. 2010, p. 438.
  7. ↑ Magistrate of the city of Pohlheim (ed.): Festschrift 850 years Watzenborn-Steinberg. 1141-1991. Pohlheim 1991, p. 108.
  8. ↑ Evangelical Church Community Pohlheim / Watzenborn-Steinberg (Ed.): 1955–2005. 50 years of Christ Church Watzenborn-Steinberg. 2005, p. 60.
  9. ↑ Evangelical Church Community Pohlheim / Watzenborn-Steinberg (Ed.): 1955–2005. 50 years of Christ Church Watzenborn-Steinberg. 2005, p. 56.
  10. ^ Church building board of the Evangelical Church in Watzenborn-Steinberg (ed.): Memorial book for the inauguration. 1955, pp. 19f, 23.
  11. ↑ Evangelical Church Community Pohlheim / Watzenborn-Steinberg (Ed.): 1955–2005. 50 years of Christ Church Watzenborn-Steinberg. 2005, p. 113.
  12. ^ Church building board of the Evangelical Church in Watzenborn-Steinberg (ed.): Memorial book for the inauguration. 1955, p. 23f.
  13. ↑ Info on pohlheim.active-city.net ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 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. , seen Nov. 7, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pohlheim.active-city.net
  14. ↑ Damasky (edit.): The "Old Church" in Watzenborn-Steinberg. 2002, p. 59.
  15. ^ Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. Vol. 3: Former province of Upper Hesse (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history 29.2 . Part 2 (M – Z)). Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1331-5 , p. 955 .
  16. ↑ Evangelical Church Community Pohlheim / Watzenborn-Steinberg (Ed.): 1955–2005. 50 years of Christ Church Watzenborn-Steinberg. 2005, p. 61.
  17. ^ Organ in Watzenborn-Steinberg , as seen November 7, 2013.
  18. ↑ Evangelical Church Community Pohlheim / Watzenborn-Steinberg (Ed.): 1955–2005. 50 years of Christ Church Watzenborn-Steinberg. 2005, p. 64f.

Coordinates: 50 ° 32 ′ 6 ″  N , 8 ° 42 ′ 54 ″  E