Bettmar village church
| Village church in Vechelde-Bettmar |
|
|---|---|
 The village church in Bettmar in 2009 |
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| Construction year: | unknown |
| Style elements : | Gothic |
| Client: | Evangelical Lutheran parish in Bettmar |
| Location: | 52 ° 15 ′ 31 ″ N , 10 ° 19 ′ 46 ″ E |
| Address: | Kreuzstrasse, OT. Bettmar Vechelde Lower Saxony , Germany |
| Purpose: | Evangelical Lutheran parish church |
| Local community: | Evangelical Lutheran parish of Bettmar |
| Parish: | Kreuzstrasse 2, OT. Bettmar, 38159 Vechelde |
| Regional Church : | Evangelical Lutheran regional church in Braunschweig ( Propstei Vechelde ) |
| Website: | www.kirche-bettmar-siersse.de |
The Bettmar village church is an Evangelical Lutheran church in Bettmar, Lower Saxony . It offers two main features in its appearance: the mighty Gothic tower with the octagonal top and the uniform-looking nave with a retracted choir. The church, made of rubble stones, dates from the 13th century.
location
The village church in Bettmar, Lower Saxony, in the Vechelde community network, is located on the edge of the old village, which was founded earlier than that of the church. It stands near the confluence of Sierßer Strasse and Breite Strasse .
Building description and history
Church building
The founding date of the Church is unknown. In 1301, however, a pastor is mentioned in Bettmar, so that the church should have already existed that year. The oldest parts of today's building date from this time and received its current form in 1766.
The tower in the west is 8.63 meters wide and 6 meters deep. The bell chamber is provided to the west with two paired round-arched sound holes with separation posts. Two sound holes open to the east and only one wide, ogival sound hole with an interior niche to the north and south. The stonemason's marks on the eastern soundhole are likely from the 13th / 14th centuries. Century.
The uniformly designed nave has been subjected to numerous changes to this day. The church was thoroughly renovated in 1679. The inscription renovatum 1679 can be found above the pointed arch in a side frame for a crucifixion relief on the east wall that is no longer preserved. As early as 1577, the church leaders complained about the poor structural condition of the church.
The church underwent extensive restoration and redesign in 1766. At that time, the choir was torn down and the pulpit in the middle of the nave was relocated to a newly built altar pulpit wall, for which, however, the confessional on the south side and the organ on the north side give way had to. The organ found its new place on the west gallery with two side galleries (" Prichen ").
Since then, the altar pulpit wall has been adorned by two Corinthian columns with a broken and curved gable ledge above. All windows were given an arched top as a top end.
An inscription stone with a rococo border on the south wall of the church commemorates the redesign of the church: “ Jerem. XXXI V. 23: benedicat tibi dominus, habitaculum iustitiae mons sanctitatis. Exstructum anno MDCCXVI cura past. GH Weigeli ”(Jeremiah 31:23: The Lord bless you, you dwelling place of righteousness, you holy mountain ).
In 1903, the Bettmar church was painted according to the suggestions of the ducal court decoration painter Adolf Quensen and richly decorated with motifs based on the style feeling of that time, but these disappeared again after a few years.
The top of the church tower was given a gold-plated pommel in 1824, and in 1932 the slate was removed from the tower and replaced with sheet copper. In the storm of November 13, 1972, a large sheet of copper tore from its anchoring, causing the entire tower roof to warp and a complete new covering was necessary.
In 1971 the interior of the church was given a new look by laying the floor and removing the old pews - with chairs as replacement. After extensive construction work, the church finally found a new color scheme in 1985 based on investigations that followed on from that of 1766, but also revealed remnants of the painting from 1903 - in a kind of synthesis of elements of the building history.
organ
In 1734 the church received an organ - a small positive from the St. Petri Church in Braunschweig , but as a private property of the teacher and organist August Ludwig Bohnhorst. Only after his death in 1749 did the parish pay the costs to his widow. After 120 years the organ was in a desolate condition. It was not until 1865, however, that the Braunschweig organ builder Titus Albert Lindrum built a new building - two-manual with a pedal and 16 stops.
Repairs were carried out several times on the organ in the following years, although the sound quality was irreparably damaged. So a new organ became necessary, the work of which - with two manuals with a pedal and eleven stops - was built into the old prospectus created by Lindrum by the organ building workshop Schmidt & Thiemann ( Hanover ).
Parish
Parish
Bettmar once belonged to the archdeaconate Schmedenstedt in the diocese of Hildesheim . The Reformation took place in 1525 under Duke Ernst ("the Confessor") of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , which is documented by a church visit in Bettmar in 1542. The church ordinance issued by Duke Julius von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1569 was also valid in Bettmar.
The reformer Martin Chemnitz appointed general superintendents who took care of the spiritual supervision of the (special) superintendents who supervised the subordinate inspections . Bettmar came to the Barum inspection , which also included the Sierße ( Seyerß ) parish associated with Bettmar .
Until 1762, Fürstenau (formerly Haslere ) also belonged to the Bettmar parish, which also included the parish of Wahle between 1563 and 1599 and 1933 and 1938 .
The church records go back to 1663.
Today the parish of Bettmar, which has around 1200 members, and the Sierß parish belong to the Vechelde provost in the Evangelical Lutheran regional church in Braunschweig , based in Wolfenbüttel .
Pastors
The name of Pastor Arnold de Bonstede (1301) is known from the pre-Reformation period. Since the introduction of the Reformation, the following have officiated in Bettmar:
| Surname | Term of office | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Conrad Blancke | ...? ... –1570 | |
| 2. | Conrad Laffers | 1570-1599 | |
| 3. | David Böckelius | 1600-1607 | |
| 4th | Wilhelm Wackerhagen | 1607-1616 | |
| 5. | Barthold Wissel | 1616-1667 | |
| 6th | Christian Wissel | 1667-1713 | Son of 5. |
| 7th | Gerhard Andreas Heite | 1713-1732 | |
| 8th. | Johann Peter Otto | 1733-1749 | |
| 9. | Johann Christoph Selchow | 1750-1762 | |
| 10. | Georg Heinrich Weigel | 1764-1772 | |
| 11. | Brandan from Kalm | 1772-1808 | |
| 12. | Ludwig von Kalm | 1808-1858 | Son of 11. |
| 13. | Friedrich Kellner | 1859-1879 | |
| 14th | Wilhelm Vorlop | 1879-1896 | |
| 15th | Ernst Menadier | 1896-1932 | |
| 16. | Friedrich Dodt | 1933-1961 | |
| 17th | Jürgen Naumann | 1961-1968 | |
| 18th | Martin Schenk | 1968-1969 | |
| 19th | Martin Zieger | 1970-1976 | |
| 20th | Peter Brandt | 1977-1984 | |
| 21st | Jürgen Weißkichel | 1986-1990 | |
| 22nd | Johann Niemann | 1990-2015 | |
| 23. | Harald Boehm | since 2016 |
Cantors / organists
| Surname | Term of office | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | August Ludwig Bohnhorst | ...? ... –1749 |
| 2. | Johann Volkmar Wachsmuth | 1749-1794 |
| 3. | Johann Friedrich Huxhagen | 1794-1824 |
| 4th | Andreas Julius Weber | 1824-1827 |
| 5. | Johann Heinrich Dienemann | 1828-1833 |
| 6th | Heinrich Konrad Rauch | 1833-1868 |
| 7th | Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Nieper | 1868-1877 |
| 8th. | Heinrich Hartung | 1877-1899 |
| 9. | Hermann Wölke | 1899-1934 |
| 10. | Elsbeth Juergens | ...? ... –1937 |
| 11. | Käthe Meyer | 1937-1949 |
| 12. | Martha Dodt | 1949-1961 |
| 13. | Henrika Naumann | 1961-1968 |
| 14th | Hans Jürgen Weber | 1969-1972 |
| 15th | Wolfgang and Martin Regener | 1973-1978 |
| 16. | Carsten Hein | 1978-1989 |
| 17th | Jens Prüße | 1989-1998 |
literature
- Heinrich Munk, Gerold Mertens, Bodo Minderlein: Bettmar on the Long Meadow. Braunschweig 1996.
- Georg Seebaß, Friedrich-Wilhelm Freist: The pastors of the Braunschweig Evangelical Lutheran Church since the Reformation was introduced. Volume 1, Wolfenbüttel 1969.
