Evangelical Island Church (Norderney)

View of the island church

Today's Evangelical Island Church on the East Frisian island of Norderney is a church building in the brick Gothic style that was inaugurated on June 11, 1879 . The building is a historical monument.

history

Island church in 1750

Island church in 1851 with attached bell tower

Aisle of the island church on Kirchstrasse with the Luther monument in 2009

At the site of today's Protestant island church (depending on the source) the first church building made of wood and bricks was built in 1517 or 1518 . This emerges from a church bill of the city of Norden , according to which the Norder church bailiff from a brick factory in Berum had 5000 bricks available, of which 500 were to be used for repairing or expanding the existing church building. It was a rectangular one-room church with an interior space of around 50 square meters. The church building together with the old churchyard, which was used as a cemetery, formed the center of the village. Church services were held in the building, but it could also be used as a shelter in the event of dangers such as storm surges or attacks by pirates . This building was extended by an annex in 1750/51 and thus offered around 200 people. Up until 1843 a bell hung in a wooden scaffolding set up next to the church. Later it was housed in the tower on the western part of the church. In 1851, the Crown Prince couple of the Hanoverian royal family donated the Marienglocke .

In 1878 it was decided to demolish the old church, which had become too small due to the large number of spa guests , and to replace it with a larger building in the same place. It was decided to build a brick building in neo-Gothic style with a polygonal choir. The roof structure is partially open and reveals the wooden structure. On three sides of the interior there are galleries , next to it a pulpit , a baptismal font and an altarpiece . The construction costs of 88,000 marks were borne by a donation from Emperor Wilhelm I. The master builder was Ernst Schumacher from Leer , according to whose plans the lighthouses on Borkum and Norderney were built. Construction of the island church began on March 22, 1878. The new church was inaugurated on June 11, 1879, the day of the golden wedding of the German imperial couple Wilhelm I and Augusta , as the new Evangelical island church on Kirchstrasse. A plaque commemorating this date is attached to the gallery on the north side. For the inauguration of the church, the Norderneyer congregation donated the Luther bell . This was melted down in the First World War . The second Luther Bell , donated in 1926, was melted down together with the Marien Bell during World War II . After the war, a bell from the Eisenberg community in East Prussia was used in 1951 . On March 10, 1953 and on the first Advent in 1975, two more bells followed.

The Luther monument has stood on Kirchstrasse since 1883 .

Modern times

Interior of the Inselkirche Norderney
as a spherical panorama view

View of the west gallery with the organ

In its current form, the nave offers space for around 600 people; it is 21.5 meters long and 13.5 meters wide and has an interior height of 12 meters. Inside the church there is a gallery, on which the organ is mounted on the east side. The height of the church tower is 25 meters and there have been three bells in it since 1975.

Damage to the masonry of the tower made external renovation necessary, which has been in progress since spring 2015. In a first section, damaged bricks are replaced, the outer walls of the tower are re-grouted and the broken suspension for the clockwork is repaired. A renovation of the roof of the nave is planned in a second construction phase. The total cost is around € 300,000.

Others

The community newspaper of the Evangelical Lutheran island church is called "ECHOLOT" and has been published since November 2012. It offers information and dates for activities in the community.

organ

On the gallery of the island church there is an organ that was built in 2008 by the organ builder Harm Kirschner.

History of the organs

A first organ was still in the previous building of today's island church. It was an organ by Arnold Rohlfs from Esens, completed in 1842 . After the old church was demolished, the organ was still used in the Moravian Chapel on Marktschulplatz in the north until the chapel was demolished in 1970. As in the old Norderneyer Inselkirche, the organ was attached to the parapet of a gallery and provided with a console at the side. The instrument had 6 registers on a manual. The pedal was attached.

For the inauguration of the new island church in 1879, a new organ from the Berlin company Dinse was inaugurated. At first it was powered by a leather bellows , later electrically. In 1908 and 1909, the company Furtwängler & Hammer from Hanover combined the two existing manual works into one main work and added a new swell mechanism for the second manual .

A report made in 1964 stated that the Dinse organ was not worth preserving due to its sound and general condition, due to the destruction by the woodworm . The Eule company from Bautzen built a new organ, which was inaugurated on December 6, 1970. The 24 registers were divided into two manuals and an independent pedal.

Over the years the owl organ became more and more of a nursing case. Bad material, construction errors and unfavorable room climatic influences made constant repairs necessary. After severe drought damage in the winter of 1995/96 and pollution from church construction work in 1999 and 2000, the organ was thoroughly cleaned. The new organist was confronted with renewed drying damage as early as 2003. With dry heating air in winter, the glue joints of the wooden parts loosened more and more after the two-component glue used by the organ builder had been pulverized and thus lost its binding force. So the windchests literally went from the glue and also the wooden pipes, which hardly made a sound.

Kirschner organ

Evangelical Island Church (Norderney)
General
place	Evangelical Island Church (Norderney)
Organ builder	Harm Dieder Kirschner
Construction year	2008
epoch	21st century
Organ landscape	Ostfriesland
Technical specifications
Number of registers	30th
Number of manuals	3
Wind chest	Slider chests
Tone tract	Mechanically
Register action	Mechanical / fixed combinations

After a fundraising campaign started by the organist, the construction of today's new organ was financed within a few years. The new instrument was built by the organ builder Harm Dieder Kirschner from Weener and inaugurated on May 23, 2008. The slider chest instrument has 30 registers on three manuals and pedal and has a romantic disposition . Some registers were taken over from the previous Eule organ. One of the special features is the clarinet 8 'in the back, which was built by Furtwängler based on a clarinet register from the Markoldendorfer church. The main work can be played from the 2nd manual, the back work is a swell and can be played from the 3rd manual. The 1st manual is designed as a coupling manual. Another special feature is the independent cornet mechanism, which can be coupled to the main mechanism (II) and the coupling mechanism (I). The playing and stop actions are mechanical.

II main work C – a 3 1. Principal I-II 8th' 2. Drone 16 ′ 3. Viola da gamba 8th' 4th Gedact 8th' 5. Reed flute 8th' 6th Octav 4 ′ 7th Gedact 4 ′ (E) 8th. Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 9. Octav (in advance No. 10) 2 ′ 10. Mixture IV 2 ′ 11. Trumpet 8th' Tremulant Zimbelstern Cornettwerk f 0 –a 3 12. Cornett V 8th' (E) Tremulant

III Hinterwerk C – a 3 13. Quintatön 16 ′ (E) 14th Violin principal 8th' (E) 15th Salicional 8th' 16. Darling Dumped 8th' 17th Aeolines 8th' 18th Octav 4 ′ 19th Flauto traverso 4 ′ 20th Forest flute 2 ' (E) 21st Harmonia IV 22nd Harmony trumpet 8th' (E) 23. Clarinet (resounding) 8th' Zimbelstern

Pedal C – f 1 24. Violon 16 ′ 25th Sub-bass 16 ′ 26th Principal 8th' 27. violoncello 8th' 28. Gedact 8th' 29 Octav 4 ′ (E) 30th trombone 16 ′ 31. Trumpet 8th' (E)

• Coupling : II / I, III / I, II / P, III / P, Cornettwerk / I, Cornettwerk / II
• Playing aids : 2 fixed combinations (piano - forte), tongues off
• annotation

(E) = Register from the previous organ from Eule

See also

• List of historical churches in East Frisia
• List of architectural monuments in Norderney

literature

• Church council of the ev.-luth. Parish of Norderney (ed.): Ev.-luth. Norderney island church . The chronicle of the ev.-luth. Norderney island church. ( norderney-chronik.de [PDF; 8.4 MB ]).
• Hans-Bernd Rödiger, Heinz Ramm: Frisian churches in Auricherland, Norderland, Brokmerland and in Krummhörn , Volume 2. Verlag CL Mettcker & Söhne, Jever (2nd edition) 1983, p. 95.
• Manfred Bätje: Brief history of church building on Norderney 1564-1892 . Ed .: City of Norderney. 1995 ( norderney-chronik.de [PDF; 12.3 MB ]).
• Church council of the ev.-luth. Parish Norderney (ed.): The Kirschner organ. Festschrift for the inauguration on May 23, 2008 in the ev.-luth. Norderney island church . Norderney 2008 ( norderney-chronik.de [PDF; 47.7 MB ]).
• Christoph Lücke, Stephan Bernhardt: The ev.-luth. Island church of Norderney . History - architecture - current affairs - origins. Technical University of Braunschweig, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Braunschweig 2018, ISBN 3-936148-70-8 .

Web links

Commons : Inselkirche (Norderney)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Norderney. Doris Reuter, May 8, 2010, accessed October 4, 2010 . 
• Evangelical Lutheran parish of Norderney. Evangelical Lutheran Church Congregation Norderney, accessed October 4, 2010 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Walter Zahner: St. Ludgerus and Stella Maris Norderney . 1st edition. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89870-567-7 , p. 3 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments . Bremen and Lower Saxony. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 1977, p. 692 .
3. ↑ Gottfried Kiesow : Architectural Guide Ostfriesland . Verlag Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-86795-021-3 , p. 370 .
4. ↑ Repair has started . In: Norderneyer morning . No. 292 , December 15, 2014, p. 3 ( online edition [PDF; 2.0 MB ; accessed on March 7, 2015]).
5. ↑ New community newspaper . In: NOMOONLINE Fresh from Norderney. Fischpresse GbR, Dirk Kähler and Anja Pape, November 29, 2012, accessed on April 5, 2013 . 
6. ↑ The new organ. Förderverein Kirchenmusik Norderney eV, accessed on October 4, 2010 . 
7. ↑ Eva Requardt-Schohaus: A romantic organ with many strings. In: Ostfriesischer Kurier, May 23, 2008, p. 23.

Coordinates: 53 ° 42 ′ 22.5 "  N , 7 ° 8 ′ 33.4"  E