Evangelical Church (Krautheim)

The church in Krautheim

The Protestant church in Krautheim is located in the middle of the small district of the Lower Franconian community Volkach .

history

The St. Michael branch

An early parish in Krautheim has been handed down to us as early as the Frankish times, in the 7th and 8th centuries. At that time the parish of Vogelsburg was probably responsible for the community. The first news about a church, it was a small, Romanesque chapel, comes from the year 1150. In the meantime, the Volkacher Kirchberg had become a parish with the previous building of the church Maria im Weingarten .

Probably in the 14th century the village received a new, larger church. This is evidenced by the tower substructure of the current building, which dates from this time. However, a church was not secured until 1429. It was still a branch of the Volkach mother parish and was subordinated to the patronage of St. Michael . In the course of the 15th century, Krautheim became more and more alienated from the distant church on the Kirchberg. The religious tensions that had also reached Franconia as a result of the Reformation also contributed to this. Krautheim was in a denominationally divided area. In Zeilitzheim, the noblewoman Argula von Grumbach taught the new creed, the nearby Volkach stood behind the Bishop of Würzburg. The village lords, the Zollner von der Hallburg , were rather indifferent to the disputes, so that soon the entire population was Lutheran.

Religious Conflicts

In 1583 the ecclesiastical right of patronage fell to the Evangelical Counts of Castell . With the arrival of the first Krautheim pastor Paulus Bantz, who was married, the village was finally Protestant. In 1594 the first structural changes were made to the church. In the period that followed, disputes between the village and the nearby episcopal city of Gerolzhofen increased. They peaked during the Thirty Years' War . Troops of Prince-Bishop Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg sacked the village on July 17, 1629 and led some residents to Gerolzhofen for forced recatholization. However, these measures failed and Krautheim remained Lutheran. In October 1632 the pastor of the place went to meet the Swedish troops as far as Schweinfurt .

After the war, sectarian conflicts continued to smolder. During a pilgrimage in 1660, when the citizens of Gerolzhofen stopped in the village on their way back from Volkach, the residents refused the pilgrims to hold a service in the church. It was not until 1662 that the Counts of Castell and the residents of the nearby town agreed on a compromise. Once a year the people of Krautheim had to open the gates of their church to the Catholics.

Evangelical Parish Krautheim

In 1688 and 1698 the church was repaired and the building was rebuilt. Until 1709, the community was also looked after from Eichfeld , as too few residents lived in the village. Under Pastor Johann Kaspar Beyer, the ban on Catholic services in the church prevailed again, this time it was accepted by the count's consistory in Rüdenhausen .

In 1723 the local cemetery was expanded, a few years earlier the church tower had been raised. In the course of mediatization , the Grafschaft Castell was dissolved and Krautheim a part of Bavaria in 1806 . The parish remained with the former lords as part of the Castell dean's office . In the years 1827/1829 further repairs to the church building followed, in particular the equipment was renewed.

After the parish had grown rapidly in the post-war period , at times the community of the town of Volkach was also looked after from Krautheim, the decision was made in 1970 to rebuild the nave. Today Zeilitzheim and Krautheim form a joint Protestant parish. The parish in Frankenwinheim belongs to the Krautheim church . The Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation runs the church under the number D-6-75-174-274. All archaeological monuments on the site are registered under the number D-6-6127-0257.

Architecture and equipment

A predecessor church at the place of today's one can be assumed, the choir tower from the 14th century proves this. In 1594 changes were made to the church building for the first time. Around the year 1600 the characteristic pointed helmet was added to the tower, which was shaped by the Catholic churches of the Würzburg diocese at the time of Bishop Julius Echter. Remains of the church fortifications and remains of the Gaden are still recognizable. The demolition of the nave began in 1970 and was consecrated in 1973.

A baptismal font is attested from 1610. The pulpit was finally installed in 1791.

Bells

After the elevation of the Krautheim church tower was completed in 1702, the community began to save for church bells. The first and largest reached the village in 1736. The peal was supplemented by two more bells in 1765. All were cast in Würzburg . During the Second World War, two bells had to be delivered in 1942. They were removed from the belfry, but could be returned there undamaged after the war.

diameter	Transcription
0.79 m	“When I call, come and sing to the Lord. Praise his name. And serve him in peace. In 1736 Johann Adam Roth poured me into W. Wappen Castell "
0.63 m	"Omnia ad maiorem dei gloriam. Cast in Würtzburg in 1765 "
0.50 m	“Jesus Nazarenus rex Judaeorum. Cast in Würtzburg in 1765 "

Epitaphs

In the funeral hall there are several gravestones, some of which were only discovered during the renovation in the 1970s. They were for

Ulrich Truchseß von Henneberg († March 22, 1622)
Friedrich Zollner von der Hallburg († March 28, 1618)
Alexander von Giech († January 25, 1625) and
Carl Sigismund von Heinach († July 28, 1678)

created.

The following inscription is engraved on the epitaph of Sigismund von Heinach: “Here lies a hero of nobility / who lived his noble time / led without blame and was very hostile to envy / but he becomes murderous and without any hope / through a bistole shot out of envy and enmity struck / Then like a shot and rapid thunder lightning / from his castle shifted to heaven's seat / God to whom vengeance is due / will avenge this enemy / who is supposed to carry out murder and comfort all friends. "

Ulrich Truchseß from Henneberg's epitaph
Friedrich Zollner's epitaph for children
Alexander von Giech's grave slab
The epitaph of Carl Sigismund von Heinach
A weathered epitaph in the churchyard

Pastor

Since Krautheim only received its own parish independent of Volkach in the course of the Reformation, only Protestant pastors have survived. At times, however, the parish was overseen by Eichfeld. The pastors from 1645 to 1709 and after 1776 are temporarily identical to those of St. Stephen's Church in the neighboring village.

Surname	Term of office	Remarks
Valtin	Reported on 1580/85
Paulus Bantz	1586-1601
Christoph Imhof	1601-1612
Georg Koehler	1612-1620
Nikolaus Polich	narrated in 1620
Johann Wolfgang Güth	no year passed
Johann Lorenz Göbel	1645-1689	also pastor of Eichfeld
Christoph Adam Zembsch	1689-1697	also pastor of Eichfeld
Johann Adam Lorenz Drohleberger	1697-1709	also pastor of Eichfeld
Jakob Krauss	1709-1712
Johann David Winter	1712-1721
Johann Kaspar Beyer	1722-1733
Wolfgang Christoph Drescher	1733-1739
Friedrich Erhard Gryphius	1740-1742
Johann Wilhelm Baumer	1742-1746
Johann Ludwig Schlümbach	1746-1765
Johann Kaspar Obenberger	1765-1776
Wolfgang Adam Christoph Englert	1776-1794	also pastor of Eichfeld
Karl Christian Englert the Elder J.	1794-1796
Johann Heinrich Diez	1796-1808	then pastor of Eichfeld
Christoph Friedrich Grieninger	1808-1818
Georg Michael Mümpfer	1818-1827
Gottfried Ludwig Zorn	1828-1830
Bernhard Albert Krauss	1830-1859
Johann Friedrich Schmidt	1859-1870
Georg Gottfried Schmidt	1870-1899
Georg Leonhard Herrmann	1900-1930
August Lessner	1930
Fritz Joachim Bauer	1930-1935
Wilhelm Huessner	1935-1943
Alfred Herbert Rudolf Lederer	1949-1984	at times also evangelical pastor of Volkach
Friedemann Preu	1985–

literature

Hans Bauer: District of Kitzingen. An art and culture guide . Market wide 1993.
Gerhard Egert: Krautheim in Franconia. 888-1988 . Krautheim 1988.
Georg Güntsch (Ed.): Castell-Grafschaft and Dean's Office. Portrait of a deanery district . Erlangen 1991.
Karl Treutwein : From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim. History, sights, traditions . Volkach 1987.