Evangelical Reformed Church (Ober-Hörgern)

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Church from the southeast

The Evangelical Reformed Church in Ober-Hörgern , a district of Munzenberg in the Wetterau district ( Hessen ), was built in 1729 in place of a previous medieval building. The essentially Gothic flank tower on the north side was retained, which was given a new helmet structure in 1777/1778. The hall church is a defining feature of the locality and a Hessian cultural monument .

history

Coat of arms field with inscription above the west portal

One church is attested for the year 1271. From an ecclesiastical point of view, Ober-Hörgern was a branch of Gambach and, in the Gambach district, was assigned to the Archdeaconate of St. Maria ad Gradus in the Archdiocese of Mainz . With the introduction of the Reformation under Count Ernst zu Solms-Lich, the parish changed to the Protestant creed around 1556. A pleban has been recorded for the year 1566 . In the course of the "Second Reformation" under Count Konrad von Solms-Braunfels, a change to the Reformed Confession, which was introduced in Ober-Hörgern in 1606, was decided on September 7, 1582 at the Hungen Synod . The parish remained a branch of Gambach after the Reformation, but became a branch of Eberstadt from 1612 to 1620 , as Count Hermann Adolf von Solms-Hohensolms-Lich entrusted the schoolmaster of Eberstadt with the service of the Word of God. For a further period from 1624 to 1648, Öber-Hörgern was once again detached from Gambach and added to Eberstadt in order not to become Lutheran like Gambach when it was in 1624 by Philip III. was taken by Hessen-Butzbach in possession. During this time the teacher from Eberstadt acted as pastor for Ober-Hörgern. After the Thirty Years War the community was reunited with Gambach. From 1691 to 1718 and from 1758 to 1783 Ober-Hörgern held a "chaplaincy" as a clerical position, a second pastoral position ("Diakonat Ober-Hörgern"). The second pastor lived in Ober-Hörgern. From 1718 to 1758 and from 1783 to 1804 this position was provided by the pastor from Eberstadt. The chaplaincy was connected to the parish house of Hausen until 1824 and then abolished.

At the beginning of the 18th century the church was "too small and very dilapidated". In 1727 lumber was bought in Oberwetz and Niederkleen, which was processed by the carpenter Johann Rupert Mulch. Other wood comes from the Solms-Braunfelser Land and the surrounding communities, fir wood from Frankfurt am Main. The villagers broke stones in the Eberstadt field. Sandstone slabs were delivered from Bobenhausen. The sandstone for the portal framing comes from Aulendiebach . The missing nave was demolished in 1729 and replaced by a new building. The foundation stone was laid on April 22, 1729, the inauguration on October 11 of the same year. The architect was the builder Rockstroh from Lich. Johannes Spieß junior was the master builder for 1729. The total cost was 2,669 guilders , 16 albus and 2 pfennigs. The medieval tower shaft was retained in the lower area, the tower clock was renewed in 1772. The upper masonry was re-laid under rock straw in 1777 and received a new hood in 1778. A coppersmith from Friedberg made the tower button, weather vane and star, which were gilded by the Licher painter Daniel Hisgen .

The windows were given new panes in 1834, made by the glass master Keck from Lich. A renovation took place in 1841 by painter Hisgen from Lich. In 1861, the Licher painter Georg Hisgen, grandson of Daniel Hisgen, re-gilded the button, flag and star for 50 guilders. In the course of this, the roof, which had suffered damage when the crown was removed, was repaired for 82 guilders. During the vacancy period 1890-1892, the Gambach community applied for Ober-Hörgern Eberstadt to be slammed, but this failed because of the resistance in Eberstadt. The tower was renovated in 1905. An interior renovation of the church followed in 1922 by church painter Velte. In 1930 the tower got a new clock and the church got a new oven, which was replaced by a hot air oven in 1939. Interior renovations followed in 1952 and 1967/1968, exterior renovations in 1957 and from 1983 to 1985.

In 2015 the parish had 226 members and is parishially connected to Gambach. In the Gambach parish, the parish belongs to the Wetterau deanery in the Oberhessen provost in the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau .

architecture

Entrance hall (1746) in front of the west portal
Helmet construction from 1778

The roughly east- facing hall building on a rectangular floor plan is erected lengthways in the middle of the old cemetery on the eastern edge of the village. The church and tower shaft are plastered and have corner blocks, which means that the two structures appear as an architectural unit.

The church is covered by a steep, slate hipped roof with richly profiled eaves, the corners of which are decorated with two small spikes with spheres. It is on the west by a rectangular main entrance with double doors in profiled jambs inferred from red sandstone. The baroque door leaves have been preserved. The wooden, baroque porch from 1746 with a slated hipped roof rests on four ornate wooden posts that stand on cuboid stone bases. In 1924, the small vestibule served as a model for the wooden porch of the west portal of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Nonnenroth . Above the portal, made of sandstone in bright pastel colors, there is a coat of arms of the Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Solms-Lich and Wilhelmina Magdalena, who had the right to collage . The coat of arms was edited by Philipp Mörs from Büdingen. The double coat of arms under a common crown is flanked by acanthus tendrils with volutes . The full names and the year of construction in 1729 can be read below on a plaque: “FRIEDRICH WILHELM GRAF ZU SOLMS HOHENSOLMS LICH / AND TECKLENBURG HERR ZU MÜNZENBERG WILDENFELS AND / SONNEWALD etc. etc. AND WILHELMINA MAGDALENA GRÆFIN ZU SOLMS LICHBOHENSOLECK MÜNZENBERG WILDENFELS AND SONEWALT etc. / BORN GRFIN ZU YSENBURG AND BÜDINGEN ANNO MDCCXXIX. "

On the west side, two oval windows are let under the eaves . The east side has two small rectangular windows with a straight lintel, above which two oval windows are installed, while the south side is illuminated by four arched windows. The north side has only two arched windows in the west of the same size as on the south side, as the tower is adjacent to the nave on the north east side. The rectangular north portal with sandstone walls serves as a side entrance. A wooden vestibule, like the one in the west, dates from 1729. It is continued to the east and there covers the stone staircase to the tower. The six posts with headbands support a flat, sloped hipped roof.

The undivided, Gothic tower shaft on a square floor plan is made of solid stone masonry . It has a small pointed arch window with a bevel on the east and north side of the ground floor , otherwise only slotted or small rectangular windows with a bevel. The tower hall now serves as a sacristy and is accessible from the nave through a pointed arched portal with a bevel. A concave, curved monopitch roof leads over to the two-tiered, slated helmet structure from 1778, which is still influenced by the Baroque. The middle roof is strongly bulged, the upper, curved hood is interrupted by a cornice. The two floors are formed from squares with truncated corners. On the first floor there are round-arched sound holes for the bells, on the upper floor the dials for the tower clock. The helmet has an unusual crowning finish: the tower knob has the shape of a chalice with gilded fruits protruding from it, the weather vane bears the year 1778 and the star has seven pointed points.

Furnishing

Interior facing east
Pulpit from 1729

The interior is closed off by a flat ceiling, which is decorated with a stucco mirror and medallions . Most of the inventory dates from the time the church was built. The three-sided, circumferential, wooden gallery with coffered parapets, which was originally painted with floral ornaments, rests on bulbous, red-marbled round columns. The high octagonal bases and octagonal capitals , each with two short headbands, are painted gray. Only the south side, on which the pulpit is placed, remains free. The floor is covered with red sandstone slabs, the church stalls stand on wooden floorboards. The cheeks of the baroque chairs are curved upwards several times and have T-shaped panels on the sides. Including the gallery, the church has around 200 seats.

The wooden pulpit dates from 1733 and forms the jewel in the simple and picture-less church. The linden wood used comes from Niederkleen and Nieder-Weisel, the oak and pear wood from the carpenter Johann Adam Jäger from Münzenberg. The pulpit consists of the staircase with a balustrade , the octagonal pulpit and the richly profiled, octagonal sound cover decorated with carved tendrils. The panels in the pulpit fields between twisted corner pillars were only painted in 1738 by Johann Melchior Holtzknecht from Homburg vor der Höhe with the colorful, figurative representations of the four evangelists and their evangelist symbols. The free-standing columns stand on small consoles covered with gilded acanthus leaves and have artistically carved, gilded, Corinthian capitals.

According to the Reformed tradition, the church does not have an altar, but a sacrament table on which the Bible lies. The wooden table from the late Gothic period stands on turned feet.

organ

Bernhard organ from 1839
Organ console

An organ was already installed in the previous church, as evidenced by church bills up to 1695. A new organ with eight registers without a pedal was apparently purchased for the new building , as in 1729 the organ builder Konrad Grieb was paid 135 fl as an installment for a new organ and 3 fl for demolition and re-installation of an interim instrument. Johann Georg Bürgy was paid for a repair in 1828.

In 1839, Johann Hartmann Bernhard built today's organ on the east gallery, but died during the work. His journeyman Christoph Opitz from Debra in Thuringia completed the instrument together with the journeyman Johann Georg Markert from Ostheim vor der Rhön . For Markert, the organ in Ober-Hörgern was also the journeyman's piece . At the suggestion of the Darmstadt court organist Christian Heinrich Rinck , who had participated in the planning, two empty loops were prepared for later expansion. The old organ was auctioned. Overall, the cost of building the new organ amounted to 968 florins. Due to the size of the instrument, the gallery had to be expanded. Adam Karl Bernhard received the last installment of 50 fl for his deceased father. He repaired the work in 1881/1882. The Licher company Förster & Nicolaus Orgelbau renovated the previously unchanged organ in 1957 and restored it in 1971. In that year, Förster & Nicolaus added two registers to the two free loops thanks to a donation from senior teacher Lotz from Gießen in the amount of 45,000 DM , a trumpet 8 'in the manual and a choral bass 4' in the pedal. In addition, the company renewed in the prospectus , the principal , which was delivered in 1917 to defense purposes. The organ is one of Bernhard's best preserved instruments. Since 1971 the work has had 13 registers distributed on a manual and pedal.

The five-axis prospectus is structured by pilasters . Characteristic for Bernhard is the alternation of one- and two-story flat fields in a rectangular prospectus. The two middle fields are adorned with gilded, ray-shaped ornaments in the Biedermeier style. The upper part of the housing is closed at the top and bottom by profiled cornices. The cassette lower housing has the same width and is integrated into the gallery parapet. On the middle panel the Bible verse is painted in golden letters: “SEE I WILL COME SOON” ( Rev 22,7  LUT ). As with other Bernhard organ works, the craftsmanship of the console with various woods and painted tendril ornaments is of high quality.

I Manual C – f 3
Bourdon 8th'
Transverse flute 8th'
Viola di gamba 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Dumped 4 ′
Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
octave 2 ′
Forest flute 2 ′
mixture IV
Trumpet 8th'
Pedal C – c 1
Sub-bass 16 ′
Principal bass 8th'
Chorale bass 4 ′

Peal

The church tower houses a triple bell that dates back to before the new church was built. The oldest bell from 1492 dates from the pre-Reformation period and is dedicated to St. Michael . The bell from 1617 was originally cast for the church in Nieder-Weisel . It is unclear how it got to Ober-Hörgern. It is already listed in an inventory in 1884. A bell from the Evangelical City Church of Herborn shattered in 1617 and was re-cast in Ober-Hörgern that same year, perhaps together with the bell for Nieder-Weisel. The bell, cast by Johann Jakob Rincker in Asslar in 1683, is the first bell that can be documented with this family name. The crossbar of the belfry bears the incomplete inscription: “IN YOUR CHRIST IN 1778 ON THE I TEN JULIUS WE BOTH CARPENTER IOHANN ERNST GLÖCKNER VND IOHANN GOTTFRID GLÖCKNER…”. Of the three bells that were not confiscated during the First World War due to their importance, the two larger ones had to be delivered in 1942. However, they escaped being melted down and returned to Ober-Hörgern in 1947. The chime sounds in A major triad.

No.
  		Casting year
  		Foundry, casting location
  		Diameter
(mm) 		Chime
  		inscription
  		image
 
1 1683 Antonius Fei and Johann Jakob Rincker , Asslar 930 a 1 " SOLI DEO GLORIA · IOHAN GOERG KLONCK PTP · HANS HEINEFELD SCHVLDEIS · ANTONIVS FEI VND IOHAN IAKOB RINCKER BY ASLAR GOS MICH · Z · O · HOERGERN · ANNO 1683
C R MILLER BM "
[picture of David with the harp]		 Evangelical Church Ober-Hörgern Bells 12.JPG
2 1492 not designated 790 c sharp 2 " Ihesos maria iohannes m cccc lxxxxii ior im " [= Jesus Maria Johannes in 1492 ]
[reliefs with a crucifixion scene (around 0.18 × 0.16 meters) and Michael slaying a dragon (around 0.05 × 0.03 meters)]		 Evangelical Church Ober-Hörgern Bells 11.JPG
3 1617 Johannes Breutelt, Mainz 630 e 2 “ SOLI DEO GLORIA M IOHANNES BREVTELT WON MENTZ GOS ME / ANNO 1617 CORAT MAVS SCHVLTEIS FROM NITER WEISEL. " Evangelical Church Ober-Hörgern Bells 03.JPG

literature

  • Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 29.2 ). tape 3 : Former province of Upper Hesse. Part 2: M-Z . Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1331-5 , p. 711-713 .
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . Hesse II. Darmstadt administrative district. Edited by Folkhard Cremer, Tobias Michael Wolf and others. 3. Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3 , p. 632.
  • Wilhelm Diehl : Construction book for the Protestant parishes of the sovereign lands and the acquired areas of Darmstadt. (= Hassia sacra; 8). Self-published, Darmstadt 1935, pp. 231–232.
  • Wilhelm Diehl : Pastor and schoolmaster book for the Hesse-Darmstadt sovereign lands. (Hassia sacra; 4). Self-published, Darmstadt 1930, pp. 197-199.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.); Heinz Wionski (edit.): Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wetteraukreis II. Teilbd. 1. Bad Nauheim to Florstadt (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-528-06227-4 , pp. 804-805.
  • Karl Müller: History of the Evangelical Reformed community of Ober-Hörgern in the context of general local history. In: Festschrift 75 years of the choral society Germania Ober-Hörgern. Ober-Hörgern 1985, pp. 101-143.
  • Gail Schunk-Larrabee: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The church in Ober-Hörgern was consecrated 275 years ago. In: Butzbacher Geschichtsblätter. No. 190, September 23, 2004, pp. 165-168; No. 191, October 7, 2004, pp. 170-171.
  • Ulrich Schütte (Ed.): Churches and synagogues in the villages of the Wetterau. (= Wetterau history sheets 53 ). Verlag der Bindernagelschen Buchhandlung, Friedberg (Hessen) 2004, ISBN 3-87076-098-2 , pp. 472–473.
  • Heinrich Walbe : The art monuments of the Gießen district. Vol. 3. Southern part without Arnsburg. Hessisches Denkmalarchiv, Darmstadt 1933, pp. 346–348.

Web links

Commons : Evangelische Kirche Ober-Hörgern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Ev. Church In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
  2. ↑ a b c Internet presence in the Evangelical Dean's Office Wetterau , accessed on March 26, 2018.
  3. ↑ Ober-Hörgern. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on February 15, 2015 .
  4. ^ Müller: History of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation Ober-Hörgern. 1985, p. 105.
  5. ^ Diehl: Pastor and schoolmaster book for the Hesse-Darmstadt sovereign lands. 1930, pp. 158, 197.
  6. ^ Müller: History of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation Ober-Hörgern. 1985, pp. 110-111.
  7. ^ Diehl: Pastor and schoolmaster book for the Hesse-Darmstadt sovereign lands. 1930, p. 198.
  8. ↑ Schunk-Larrabee: “The stone that the builders rejected.” 2004, pp. 170–171.
  9. ↑ a b Schütte (Ed.): Churches and synagogues in the villages of the Wetterau. 2004, p. 473.
  10. ↑ Schunk-Larrabee: "The stone that the builders rejected." 2004, p. 165.
  11. ^ Müller: History of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation Ober-Hörgern. 1985, p. 116.
  12. ^ Müller: History of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation Ober-Hörgern. 1985, pp. 119-120.
  13. ↑ muenzenberg.de: Evangelical Reformed Parish Church in Ober-Hörgern , accessed on February 15, 2015.
  14. ↑ a b Dehio: Handbook of the German Art Monuments. 2008, p. 632.
  15. ↑ Backes (Red.): Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler. Hesse. 1982, p. 668.
  16. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 329.
  17. ^ Diehl: Construction book for the Protestant parishes. 1935, p. 231.
  18. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 346.
  19. ↑ a b Müller: History of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation Ober-Hörgern. 1985, p. 117.
  20. ↑ a b Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 347.
  21. ↑ Schunk-Larrabee: "The stone that the builders rejected." 2004, p. 171.
  22. ^ Müller: History of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation Ober-Hörgern. 1985, p. 118.
  23. ^ Bösken, Fischer: Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine . 1988, p. 711.
  24. ^ Bösken, Fischer: Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine . 1988, p. 712.
  25. ^ Bösken, Fischer: Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. 1988, p. 713.
  26. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 348.
  27. ^ Johann Hermann Steubing: Materials on the statistics and history of the Orange Nassauische Lande. I. Volume. Topography of Herborn. Neue akademische Buchhandlung, Marburg 1792, pp. 34–35 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  28. ↑ Bernhard H. Bonkhoff: Pfälzisches bells book. Institute for Palatinate History and Folklore, Kaiserslautern 2008, ISBN 978-3-927754-63-8 , p. 208 ( Google preview ).

Coordinates: 50 ° 27 ′ 49.25 "  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 4.13"  E