Diakoniekirche (Wuppertal)
The Diakoniekirche (until 2006 Kreuzkirche , before 1930 II. Lutheran Church , popularly also called Hippenkirche ) in Friedrichstrasse is the oldest church building in the northern part of Elberfeld in Wuppertal .
history
The enlarged Lutheran congregation in Elberfeld decided to build a second church in 1847. A small elevation north of the closed development in Elberfeld was chosen as the building site. The popular name Hippenkirche is said to come from this location ( Hippe - "elevation") or from the goats grazing around the church, also Hippe in dialect . Some parishioners made a substantial contribution to the construction costs of 24,000 thalers through donations , provided, however, “that the church to be built on the property always remains the property of the Evangelical Lutheran parish and another parish that is not based on the Augsburg denomination and of the other confessions of the Lutheran Church, it can never become the owner of the church ”. Who made the actual design for the church is uncertain. The Schinkel student Friedrich August Stüler had an influence on the plans, at least in an advisory capacity , and the construction work was led by a city master builder Heuse. The church was consecrated on May 15, 1850 and originally had seating for 1032 people.
In 1927 the interior of the Kreuzkirche was radically redesigned by Arno Eugen Fritsche . The splendid Gothic interior was replaced by a neo-baroque pulpit wall without a sound cover , and the chairs were placed in the direction of the pulpit. The church and large parts of the Elberfeld northern part of the city survived the Second World War largely unscathed, only the windows were lost. After 1945 the interior was redesigned again, with the pulpit positioned to the side of the choir and the stalls rearranged in a straight direction with a new central aisle; the number of seats was now 800. For the time being, the church was redesigned for the last time in 1955, whereby the neo-baroque interior was removed in favor of a simple, light wooden interior with a simple pulpit and altar.
Bells
The church once had a chime cast in 1859. This had to be delivered in 1943 for armament purposes. They were lifted through the sound windows using a rope construction , as it was no longer possible to transport the bells through the stairwell. The reason for this was the newly built organ . The largest bell among them would have to be smashed on site in the tower due to its size. While rappelling the second largest bell, a worker was killed by his carelessness fatal . In the tower of the Evangelical Kreuzkirche hangs a bell consisting of three bells. All three bells were cast in 1952 by the Rincker bell and art foundry . They were tuned to the notes e 'g' and a '. The motif that the bells form is the " Te Deum " motif.
Building description
The building is kept in a simple, neo-Gothic style, but the room type, like that of many Protestant Wuppertal church buildings (e.g. the old church of the community), follows the type of Bergischer sermon churches with a single-nave church hall , recessed galleries and a tower in front of the facade in the middle (47.80 m). The facade faces the inner city, the altar and choir face north. The church area is illuminated by five high lancet windows on each of the two long sides, which are divided into two parts by the galleries inside. The church tower has four floors. Above the Gothic main portal there is a tracery window that illuminates the staircase to the gallery in the tower. Above is a clock floor, which, like the bell floor above, is separated off by a coffin cornice. A narrow, octagonal tower spire rises above the four steep gables and, like the gable still today, was crowned by a finial . On the facade on the sides of the tower, end walls are raised up to the level of the second tower floor, which almost completely cover the saddle roof of the church area. In them there are two side portals and two smaller ogival glare fields on the upper floor. These end faces are closed off by a cast iron balustrade, at both ends there are two small spiers, which are miniatures of the actual spire. The light sandstone used exclusively and the copper-plated roof elements emphasize the simplicity of the building, which is closed on the north side with a choir in the shape of a half octagon. The development of the northern part of the Elberfeld, which took place only later, runs towards the church with four straight streets in spite of the hilly profile, which is surrounded by a narrow square, which makes the church visible from a distance.
The five-axis interior was lined on three sides by galleries that rested on slender, cast-iron columns, the organ was on the west wall. The semi-octagonal choir was separated from the rest of the church by a wooden pulpit wall, above which the pulpit was enthroned in the middle (at the height of the gallery). The sacristy was located behind the pulpit wall. A renovation by the church builder Arno Eugen Fritsche in 1930 made the galleries smaller and arranged the benches in a semi-square shape around the altar; the pulpit wall was replaced by a lower, simpler installation. After the Second World War, which spared the church, a new redesign (Adolf Schulz, 1955) completely exposed the choir, making the three long choir windows fully visible for the first time, and a low pulpit was placed next to the altar.
organ
Since 1852 one was in the church Ibach - organ , which in 1931 by a pneumatic instrument made by Paul Faust was replaced. Since the pneumatics proved to be extremely prone to failure over the years, the decision was made to build a new building after the renovation in 1955. The instrument was made in 1967 by Rudolf von Beckerath Orgelbau and was inaugurated on November 6, 1968.
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- Coupling : III / II; II / I; III / I; I / P; II / P
- Playing aids: four general setting combinations, two pedal setting combinations
Since 1994 there was also a positive made in 1970 by Harald Strutz in the church , which was taken over from the Martin Luther King house in 1994 .
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When the church was converted into a Diakoniekirche, both instruments were sold.
Diakoniekirche
After the unification of the Evangelical Parish Elberfeld-Nord with the Evangelical Lutheran Parish on Kolk in 2005, the Kreuzkirche became superfluous as a place of worship due to its location between the cemetery church and the church on Kolk. In 2006 the church and the adjacent rectory were handed over to the Wuppertal Diakonie community , which continues to use the building after extensive renovations. The renovation work included flexible seating in the church hall, the installation of a mezzanine floor with community rooms and the installation of a kitchen. Today, the Diakonie uses the church under the name DiakonieKirche as an open meeting point for residents of the northern part of Elberfeld with extensive offers in the area of togetherness and leisure.
Due to the high maintenance costs, the Diakonie has been aiming to sell the church since 2017. Extensive protests by local residents mean that the sales plans are currently on hold. After the Wuppertal congregation had expressed interest in the Kimbanguist Church , it was questioned, among other things, whether it could permanently finance the church. At the end of 2017, with a high level of citizen participation, new ideas will be sought on how the church can remain an open meeting place.
literature
- Klaus Pfeffer: The church buildings in Wuppertal-Elberfeld , Cologne 1980, ISBN 3-88094-301-X
- Klaus Goebel , Andreas Knorr (ed.): Churches and worship places in Elberfeld , Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-930250-35-7
Web links
- Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- Internet presence of the Diakoniekirche
Individual evidence
- ^ Diakoniekirche: Many ideas, no money Westdeutsche Zeitung of November 21, 2017
- ↑ The sale is currently on hold Wuppertaler Rundschau from May 29, 2017
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 46 " N , 7 ° 8 ′ 45.3" E