Christ Church (Schwelm)

Christ Church as seen from Schwelmer Altmarkt

The Christ Church is a Protestant church in the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Schwelm . The 52 m long and 26 m wide building with its two 56 m high towers is a listed building. With around 1200 seats, the Christ Church is the second largest church in Westphalia. The bells are named Paul , Maria , Martin and Johannes . In the anteroom of the church, under the heading Soli deo gloria (Glory to God alone), the most important dates of the history of the Schwelm churches are presented on an information board.

history

The foundation stone of the Christ Church was laid in 1842 by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. On the site of a Lutheran church that had burned down six years earlier. Construction had to be interrupted in 1846 when cracks appeared in the masonry on the west side between the towers. Three years later the church was consecrated with 2500 seats, although the chancel was not yet finished and the organ was missing. This was installed by the Ibach company in 1852.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the altar and choir, the pulpit and the organ were redesigned; later the front sides under the galleries were artistically designed in memory of those who died in the First World War.

Also at the beginning of the 20th century the Association for the Uncovering of the Christ Church was founded , which demanded the demolition of the buildings around the Christ Church. Together with the Protestant community, he bought the house on the corner of Altmarkt and Kirchstrasse in 1911, had it torn down and the vaulted cellar tipped over. However, the association did not carry out any further clearance work, but dissolved a few years later. On the site of the demolished corner house, a new building was erected on behalf of the parish in 1928 and used as a parish office.

For a long time the church was generally called the big church - in contrast to the second Evangelical church in Schwelm, the small church. The Christ Church only officially got its name in 1930.

The outside of the church building has been a listed building since 1992 (view from the southeast)

In a bombing raid on March 3, 1945, the Christ Church was destroyed except for the surrounding walls and the tower shafts; the bells had been melted down during the war. On December 14th or 3rd Advent in 1947 the new bells were inaugurated in the previously restored towers. From September 21, 1952, a regular church service took place again in the Christ Church, which until then had been held in the children's home on Lessingstrasse and in the clubhouse on Südstrasse. In the mid-1960s, a citizens' initiative started a collection campaign for the church spiers, which were also destroyed at the end of the war. The re-helmets took place on May 13 and 14, 1968. This is one of the most important events in the recent history of the town of Schwelm; the students had no school that day. The Christ Church was now completely rebuilt and on this occasion commemorative coins were minted from the remains of the old copper roofing, the proceeds of which were donated to the needy in Vietnam .

In 2006 the problems with the location of the Christ Church were revealed again, which had already come to light during the construction: During maintenance work it was found that the bearing of the Paul bell is no longer intact and the bell cage construction has deformed over time. Due to the heavily calcareous soil on which the Christ Church was built, the north tower is also tilted and moves a further 4 mm away from the perpendicular every year.

organ

The organ of the Christ Church was built in 1992 by the organ builder Reinhart Tzschöckel in Althütte -Fautspach. The instrument has 62 registers on four manuals and a pedal . The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions and couplings are electric.

Bells

The two towers house a total of five steel bells from the Bochum Association from 1947:

• I. Paulus, tone g sharp °, weight 4,850 kg (north tower)
• II. Maria, clay h °, weight 2,860 kg (south tower)
• III. Martin, tone c sharp ', weight 2,050 kg (south tower)
• IV.John, tone e ', weight 1,195 kg (north tower)
• V. Our Father Bell, tone e ", weight 707 kg (south tower)

The Our Father's bell sounds exclusively as a soloist to the Our Father's in the service, the main ringing consists of bells I-IV.

See also

• List of sacred buildings in the Ennepe-Ruhr district

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Ernst Martin Greiling: Christ Church - history and dates. (No longer available online.) October 2007, archived from the original on June 25, 2014 ; accessed on May 26, 2019 (English). 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ernst Martin Greiling: On the history of the Christ Church in Schwelm. In: Martfeld-Kurier, No. 26, 2000.
3. ^ Gerhard Kleinhempel: Schwelm in old views. Vol. 1, 5th edition. Zaltbommel: European Library, undated
4. ↑ Hans Schmitt: The Leaning Tower at Schwelm - or: Why don't all the bells ring anymore. In: HiER. Community letter of the Protestant parish Schwelm, No. 3, 2006.
5. ↑ Information about the organ of the Christ Church
6. ↑ Schwelm (Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis) ev. Christ Church - full bell

Web links

Commons : Christ Church  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Evangelical Church Congregation
• Description of this sight on the route of industrial culturehttp: //vorlage.rik.test/~26~12658

Coordinates: 51 ° 17 ′ 1.2 "  N , 7 ° 17 ′ 35.3"  E