Gwardeiskoje village church

Village church Gwardeiskoje / ; Mühlhausen, Preußisch Eylau district
	The village church in Gwardeiskoje in 2011
Construction year:	Beginning of the 14th century
Style elements :	Feldsteinkirche , ; Saalbau (single nave), Renaissance style gable
Location:	54 ° 29 '8.3 " N , 20 ° 38' 21.1" E Coordinates: 54 ° 29 '8.3 " N , 20 ° 38' 21.1" E
Location:	Gwardeiskoje ; Kaliningrad , Russia
Purpose:	Evangelical Lutheran branch church
Local community:	Ev.-luth. Parish in Gwardeiskoje
Parish:	Church of the Resurrection in Kaliningrad
Regional Church :	Evangelical Lutheran Church European Russia ; Provost Kaliningrad

The village church in Gwardeiskoje ( Russian Гвардейское, German Mühlhausen , Kreis Preußisch Eylau / East Prussia ) is a single-nave hall building from the first half of the 14th century and a typical church building from the time of the order . Before 1945, it was considered the most beautiful country church in East Prussia . It survived the war almost undamaged and has been extensively restored as a monument since 1993.

Geographical location

Gwardeiskoje belongs to the Russian Oblast Kaliningrad ( Koenigsberg area (Prussia) ) and is located in the Bagrationovsk district ( Prussian Eylau district ). The church is located east of the Russian trunk road A195 (former German Reichsstrasse 128 ), which runs through the village and which today runs from Kaliningrad ( Königsberg (Prussia) ) to Bagrationowsk ( Prussian Eylau ) and continues as state road 51 to Poland .

Building history and description

The church from the south

The time before 1945

The beginnings of church building in the former Mühlhausen go back to the first half of the 14th century. The building consists of a three-axis nave with a retracted, two-axis rectangular closed choir , which probably dates from the second half of the 14th century, as well as a sacristy and a vestibule on the north side, all made of uncut field stones . In 1492 had Daniel von Kunheim as the owner of Mulhouse during a visit to Rome with the Pope permission for the sale of indulgences sought, to be able to finance the restoration of the dilapidated church.

Around 1500 the three-storey square west tower was built from exposed brickwork . The gable roofs are covered with beaver tails , and the nave and choir are supported by buttresses that are attached diagonally to the respective outer corners. The fine structure of the tower and the brick part of the east gable is typical of church buildings in the time of the order. The panels of the choir gable are bordered by flush pillars. The tower - parallel to the nave - also has a gable roof with stepped gables , each with five pointed arches, corner pillars and wind holes. In 1623 the sacristy was renewed and the entrance hall was added at the same time. Both received gables in the Renaissance style . In addition, the side windows of the entire nave were enlarged in the 17th century. The window openings in the east gable were not made until 1906. Inside the church, the nave and the choir are closed by wooden barrel ceilings hanging from the roof. The two parts of the hall are connected by a triumphal arch and a triumphal beam with the inscription "A strong castle is our God, a good defense and weapons". The vestibule also has a wooden barrel vault, while the sacristy ends with a stone vault. The nave measures around 16 × 11 meters, the tower measures around 9.50 meters square. The ridge of the nave has a height of 14 meters, which is dominated by the strikingly high tower with its 27 meters.

Furnishing

The entire furnishings of the Mühlhausen church impressed with the uniformity that was created between 1693 and 1698 as a result of the joint work of the sculptor Isaak Riga and the painter Gottfried Hinz, both from Königsberg . On the walls in the east, south and west remains of medieval wall paintings have been preserved to this day, including a large picture of the “ Last Judgment ” that fills an entire arched area in the west wall . It was uncovered and restored in 1907 after it had been whitewashed and covered by the organ case .

The painting of the wooden barrel ceilings by Gottfried Hinz was striking. It depicted scenes from the Bible , dominated by the Revelation of John , and worked as a continuous whole from the altar to the organ. Today only remnants of the painting can be seen, because the entire wooden furnishings disappeared without a trace in 1945.

This also applies to the gallery on the north wall of the nave, which continued on the west side as an organ gallery.

The altar on the Gothic table had splendid barriers. Margarete von Kunheim , Martin Luther's daughter , was buried in a crypt in front of the altar in 1570 . In 1555 she had Georg Wilhelm von Kunheim the Elder, who was studying in Wittenberg . J. married and lived in Mühlhausen until her death. The husband and his second wife Dorothea von Oelsnitz and six of their nine children later found their final resting place here. The parable of the ten virgins was depicted on the pulpit , which was carried by angels .

In the baptismal chamber there were carved tendrils as well as depictions of the baptism painted on canvas wall coverings , the confessional was extensively restored in 1907.

The equipment used to include life-size portraits of Martin Luther and his daughter Margarethe, the former perhaps and the latter determined by Lucas Cranach the Elder. J. Both pictures disappeared in 1945, as did most of the movable furnishings such as pictures, mourning flags, epitaphs and coats of arms of the patronage families .

Bells

The same thing happened to the three bells . In 1894 they were partly recombined with the tones e, g sharp and b. For the 400th birthday of Luther's daughter Margarethe von Kuenheim, a new “Margarethe Luther Bell” was put into service on August 5, 1935.

1945-1993

Despite a shell impact in January, the Mühlhausen church survived the war year 1945 with only slight damage to the western tower gable.

In the following years, the local sovkhozes used the building as a multi-purpose hall and warehouse. In this way, the building was preserved, but structurally changed and neglected. A mill was set up in the sacristy for making compound feed. The pews were used as heating material, and all valuable equipment was taken away to an unknown destination. A gate for trucks was broken through the wall on the south side, and over the years the floor of the church was filled with asphalt in several layers up to half a meter. The building fabric fell into disrepair.

The time from 1993

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990/1991, the fortunes of the Gwardeiskoj Church also changed. In 1993, the oblast administration transferred the listed church of the newly founded Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia (ELKRAS) to use, which constituted a parish in Kaliningrad (later the provost of Kaliningrad ). This enabled the restoration to begin at short notice. The initiative for this was taken by the Preußisch Eylau district community in 1993/1994 and received financial support from the Bonn Ministry of the Interior and other government and church bodies as well as many individual donors.

The most urgently needed repair was the tower roof. The Kaliningrad architect's office "Altstadt" with Igor Shepelov repaired the roof structure and renewed the roofing. The broken gable pillars on the tower roof were also restored, and damaged masonry received repairs. Since 1994 the Förderkreis Kirche Mühlhausen Kreis Preußisch Eylau eV has been supporting the restoration measures in agreement with the provost of Kaliningrad, which acts as the client.

Soon it became an urgent task to renovate all roofs in order to protect the building from rainwater and to save the wooden barrel ceilings of the nave and choir with the paintings. The latter were the only remaining remnants of the historic interior. The construction work was entrusted to the company "Kafedralny Sobor" ("The Cathedral") in Kaliningrad, which became known through its director Igor Alexejewitsch Odintsow - the cathedral builder of Kaliningrad .

In 1997 the exterior of the church was restored after extensive work. The first service took place in 1999.

Under the direction of the architect Juri Sabuga, Kaliningrad, three recovered broken grave slabs were put together and placed on the walls.

In 2003 the Kaliningrad Provosty ordered 14 pews so that the cinema seats that had been in use up to that point could be removed. After that, extensive restoration work began inside, which was carried out under the direction of Juri Sabuga. In 2007, the wall painting of the Last Judgment in the west arch of the church was restored by specialists from St. Petersburg . The internal, but then again necessary external repair measures will take years to complete. But the church is already showing its former glory.

Parish

The village church Gwardeiskoje has been a parish church since time immemorial, to which a large parish district belonged. With the arrival of the Reformation , the church became a Protestant place of worship. The numerically few Catholics were incorporated into the parish Preussisch Eylau (today Russian: Bagrationowsk). One of the first Protestant clergy was Pastor Caspar Henneberger , who became known as a cartographer and chronicler .

Until 1945 the parish Mühlhausen belonged to the parish of Preußisch Eylau in the church province of East Prussia (Konsistorium Königsberg) of the Protestant church of the Old Prussian Union . Immediately after the Reformation, Mühlhausen was included in the inspection of the Königsberg court preacher.

With the arrival of the Soviet administration and due to the flight and displacement of the local population, after 1945 church life in the village, now known as Gwardeiskoje, came to an almost complete standstill. Religious acts or major activities were prohibited. Protestant churchliness could only be lived in secret and at great risk.

This changed with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990/1991 and the early arrival of Russian-German emigrants, mostly from Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Uzbekistan and the Volga region . Soon a small evangelical congregation gathered in Gwardeiskoje, attentively following the progress of the church restoration, gaining a foothold in the village and finally holding the first service in "their" church in 1999. The Gwardeiskoje village church is now a branch church in the parish of the Church of the Resurrection in Kaliningrad within the Kaliningrad provost in the network of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia , a part of the ELCRAS church . There is a partnership relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran parish in Großpösna , Saxony .

Parish locations (until 1945)

Before 1945, the parish of Mühlhausen included:

Name (until 1946)	Russian name	Name (until 1946)	Russian name
Karlshof	Tambovskoye	Romitten	Slavyanovka
Knauten	Prudki	School boobs	Strelnja
Louisenthal		Storkeim	Gromowo
Perkuiken	Beryosovka	Fourteen hats	Tambovskoye

Pastor 1534–1945

From the Reformation to the end of the Second World War, 25 Protestant pastors worked at the Mühlhausen Church:

Nikolaus Decius , 1534/1541 (Nicolaus a Curiis)
Caspar Henneberger , 1560–1589
Johann Stobäus, 1589–1603
Nicolaus Praetorius, 1603–1606
Andreas Vogler, 1606-1616
Dionys Wolder, 1616-1621
Job Lepner, 1621-1639
Johannes Schinemann, 1639–1648
Johann Wichmann, 1646–1653
Caspar Wegner, 1653–1663
Andreas Strauss, 1663–1676
Johannes Stephani, 1676–1707
Christoph Schwartz, 1707–1711
Christoph Albrecht Marquardt, 1711–1724
Gottfried Pechüle, 1724–1731
Gottfried Sommerey, 1731-1747
Johann Jungius, 1747–1777
Johann Georg Heiligendörfer, 1771–1807
Samuel Traugott Milsch, 1807–1846
Carl Friedrich Doerell, 1847–1861
Carl Ludwig Huebner, 1861–1887
Alfred Louis Kittel, 1888–1891
Albert Wilhelm Nietzki, 1891–1909
Arthur Benno Poker, 1909–1920
Otto Nikutowski, 1920–1945

literature

Georg Dehio , revised by Ernst Gall : Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler . Teutonic Order of Prussia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich ao 1952.
Friedwald Moeller: Old Prussian Evangelical Pastors' Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945. Volume 1: The parishes and their positions (= special publications of the Association for Family Research in East and West Prussia. Vol. 11, 1, ISSN 0505-2734 ). Association for Family Research in Eastern and Western Europe eV, Hamburg 1968.

Lettau: Some news about the church in Mühlhausen; Especially the observation of the historical peculiarity that Dr. Martin Luther's daughter Margarethe, married v. Kunheim, is buried here . In: Prussian provincial sheets . Volume 5, Königsberg 1831, pp. 49-62.

Lettau: Further news from the church in Mühlhausen near Pr. Eylau and their patrons, as a continuation of the January issue v. J. contained communication on this subject . In: Prussian provincial sheets . Volume 8, Koenigsberg 1832, pp. 493-505.