Evangelical Church (Wollenberg)
The Evangelical Church in Wollenberg , a district of Bad Rappenau in the Heilbronn district in northern Baden-Württemberg , was built in the 18th century.
history
Chapel from 1597
There was no church in Wollenberg until the late 16th century. The few believers in the small village visited the church in nearby Hüffenhardt , where the Reformation was carried out by the Lords of Gemmingen in the middle of the 16th century . After Wollenberg came to the Lords of Landschad von Steinach in 1592 , Friedrich Landschad had a chapel built in Wollenberg in 1597, for whose care his widow Maria turned to the Lords of Gemmingen-Guttenberg in 1600, whose Hüffenhardt clergyman also looked after the chapel in the future. In 1620 a contract was signed between the Landschad and the Lords of Gemmingen on church conditions, which continued to provide for the fortnightly care of the Wollenberg Chapel by the respective pastor of Hüffenhardt. The local rulership of Wollenberg , which changed rapidly at times, tried again and again to win a pastor for Wollenberg, but the position in the small community was so poorly paid that most of the pastors only stayed for a short time. From 1622 to 1631, Johann Philipp Brodhagen had his own clergyman in Wollenberg for a long time, and in 1675/76 a pastor from Bargen performed the services for a long time, otherwise they came back to the Hüffenhardt pastor in accordance with the contract of 1620. Under the local rule of Messrs. Schertel von Burtenbach , a scandal broke out after 1702, when the Wollenberg local lord ordered a weekly service, but Pastor Pringsauff opposed himself in 1708 and did not recognize Wilhelm Friedrich Schertel von Burtenbach as his church lord, whereupon he dismissed him. Then the place was temporarily looked after by a pastor Seiler from Siegelsbach , before a new clergyman was found in Johann Christoph Kuch from Schweinfurt. In 1716 Wollenberg finally came into the possession of the lords of Gemmingen-Guttenberg, whereupon the Wollenberg community became a regular branch community of Hüffenhardt. In 1728 a second bell was purchased for the bell tower of the Wollenberg Chapel, but the building was already in a desolate condition.
New church from 1767/68
In 1746 Maria Sophia von Gemmingen-Guttenberg donated 1000 guilders for a new church in Wollenberg. Local lord Philipp von Gemmingen (1702–1785) and his brother Reinhard (1698–1773) also expressed their support for a new building. It was agreed to build the new building in the center of the village and to convert the old chapel into a school, while the old school in the village was to be sold as a residential building. To procure the building site for the new church next to the Löwen inn , some extensive property transactions were necessary, which were carried out in 1763. It was also agreed to forego compulsory labor in the construction of the church, the subjects were rather rewarded for their help in the construction of the church.
The foundation stone for the church was laid on August 20, 1767. The building is considered to be the last work of the Grombach master builder Johann Peter Moll , who died in December 1767. Franz-Joseph Remlinger , also from Grombach, continued his duties . On October 28, 1768, the first service was celebrated in the new church. A large part of the construction cost of 3916 guilders could be financed from the foundation of 1746, which had grown due to interest. The organ and bells came from the old church; the baptismal font was donated by Reinhard's widow, Maria Magdalena von Gemmingen, born in 1780. from Bärenfels. A gallery was built in 1833. In 1845 the community purchased a used organ from Schönbrunn, which replaced the old instrument. In the First and Second World War, two church bells each had to be delivered.
The parish hall next to the church was built in 1990 in place of an old barn.
Bells
The oldest documented bell in Wollenberg was cast by Abraham Dörr in Heidelberg in 1685. It had the strike note a '', a diameter of 48 cm and a weight of 72 kg. Their inscription read A. 1685 ABRAHAM DOERR IN HEYDELBERG GOSS MICH. When the new church was built, for which the previous bells were used, a bell was added in 1768, which was cast by Samuel Mezger in Heilbronn. It has the strike note d '', a diameter of 70.5 cm and a weight of 200 kg. Its inscription reads SOLI DEO GLORIA ME FECIT SAMUEL MEZGER HEILBRONNENSIS WOLENBERG , it is adorned with decorative friezes and an angel's head as well as the coat of arms of the Barons of Gemmingen and a bell-founder symbol . Another old bell was cast at the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe in 1910 .
During the First World War , the historic bell from 1685 and the cast from 1910 had to be delivered. As a replacement, two bronze bells came from Bachert in Karlsruhe in 1921. The larger one had the strike tone f '' and a weight of 97 kg, the smaller one had the strike tone as '' and a weight of 54 kg. These two bells had to be delivered in 1942 during World War II , so that initially only the bell from 1768 remained in the church.
Today's three-part chime was created in 1952 when two bronze bells were re-cast by Bachert in Bad Friedrichshall- Kochendorf. The larger one has the strike note e '', a diameter of 62 cm and a weight of 130 kg. Its inscription reads PEACE ON EARTH EVANGELIC CHURCH COMMUNITY WOLLENBERG 1952. The smaller one has the strike tone g ", a diameter of 52 cm and a weight of 74 kg. Their inscription reads A WELL-PLEASED TO THE PEOPLE. EVANGELIC CHURCH COMMUNITY WOLLENBERG 1952. The church bell has been operated electrically since 1974.
literature
- Rudolf Petzold: The Church . In: 1200 Years of Wollenberg. A home book . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 1992
- Norbert Jung: Immaculata - A contribution to the history of bells in Bad Rappenau , in connection with the Bad Rappenau town archive, ed. by Norbert Jung, Heilbronn 2010, pp. 72–76.
Coordinates: 49 ° 17 '27.8 " N , 9 ° 2' 8.1" E