Church of the Redeemer (Görlitz)

Church of the Redeemer
Construction time:	1836-1839
Inauguration:	November 3, 1839
Architect :	Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Style elements :	classicism
Tower height:	39.5 m
Location:	51 ° 7 '2.5 "  N , 14 ° 56' 1.7"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 7 '2.5 "  N , 14 ° 56' 1.7"  E
Address:	Weinhübler Strasse 18 Goerlitz Saxony , Germany
Purpose:	evangelical church
Local community:	Evangelical Reconciliation Parish in Görlitz
Regional Church :	Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia

The Erlöserkirche is a Protestant church in the Görlitz district of Kunnerwitz . The church was built in the late 1830s and is located along with the adjacent cemetery at the western end of the village.

history

Kunnerwitz was parish after Jauernick at the beginning of the 16th century . One of the most important pastors was Johann Zacharias between 1516 and 1539 - during the Reformation . On April 27, 1525, several priests from the archpriesthoods in Görlitz, Seidenberg and Reichenbach met to hold a convent . The priests, including Johann Zacharias, joined the Reformation after the convention. Most of the parishioners who came from the surrounding villages of Jauernick, Niecha (today: Buschbach ), Ober-Pfaffendorf , Kunnerwitz, Klein- and Großbiesnitz , Schlauroth and Rauschwalde also followed the Jauernick pastor .

Zacharias later moved to Dresden . His successor, however, was a Roman Catholic denomination. Numerous parishioners moved to the Protestant parishes in the area. Most of the Kunnerwitz people attended the service in eastern Leschwitz (today: Weinhübel). During the Saxon era, the requests of the Kunnerwitzers for their own Protestant church at the royal court went unanswered. After the Congress of Vienna and the move from eastern Upper Lusatia to Prussia , the evangelical community again applied to the royal Prussian government office in the Liegnitz administrative district .

After difficult negotiations with neighboring parishes about the end of church patronage and property issues, a contract was signed on June 30, 1834, which awarded the future Evangelical parish of Jauernick-Kunnerwitz, among other things, 20,000 thalers for the construction of a church. On July 2, 1836 and September 2, 1837, the community acquired the land for the church building for 975 thalers.

The preliminary design for the church and the parish and choir building in front of it came from the Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel . Between 1836 and 1839 the church, the parish and the school were built under the direction of Prussian government building officials. The inauguration of the church took place on November 3, 1839. The organ alone cost 1518 thalers. The three bells with a F sharp major triad cost 1150 thalers.

As early as 1847 the exterior plaster of the church had to be renewed. Soon thereafter, a semicircular window was installed on the west gable above the altar. In 1859 the top of the tower was covered with tinplate and given a coat of paint that resembled a copper patina .

The bells were removed during the First World War . They were probably melted down and sent to the arms industry. The 5.70 meter high pulpit was also lowered by one meter. After the war, three new steel bells were wound in 1921. For the 100th birthday in 1939, the interior was repainted and carving work was carried out on the pulpit.

At the request of the parish council on the occasion of the 125th anniversary celebration (1964) the building was named Erlöserkirche . The church was in a poor structural condition. The roof was leaky, the organ was almost unusable and the beam heads were infected with sponge. Furthermore, all the beams supporting the spire were rotten and the exterior plaster was crumbling.

During a conversation about the renovation of the church in 1974, the idea was first expressed to divide the church at the level of the first gallery and thus create a raised, reduced nave. The implementation of the idea soon began. In 1977 the horizontal division of the interior was already clearly visible. Infrared heating was installed in the new floor in the central nave . The rededication of the new church space took place on November 1st, 1981.

Building

The architectural style is based on the Roman basilica with round arches and a flat wooden ceiling. A special feature is that the 39.5 meter high church tower is not on the west side as usual, but on the east side. The clients justified this with the openness of the church to the location. However, the altar is located on the west side below the semicircular window in the west facade. There are entrances to the interior of the church on both sides of the tower. A staircase leads up to the nave, consecrated in 1981.

Web links

• Church of the Redeemer Kunnerwitz on kkvsol.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kunnerwitz in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Uwe Mader: Festschrift . 1989 ( PDF [accessed July 18, 2012]). PDF ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2012 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.