Evangelical Church Erkrath
The Evangelical Church of Erkrath is a Reformed preaching church typical of the Prussian Rhineland from the beginning of the 19th century.
Church history
Erkrath has a Catholic tradition for historical reasons. The gentlemen of Unterbach had the right of collation and they ensured that Erkrath remained Catholic even when the Reformation took hold in the Bergisches Land (→ section at EKiR ). Only the owner of the Bavier house allowed the Protestants to hold services in their manor; later she gave the Reformed congregation, which was constituted in 1663, a piece of land in order to build a small half-timbered church there. The first service was held there on November 1, 1685. The Sprengel then handed far beyond today's municipal boundaries of Gerresheim up Hubbelrath and yet had only about 750 "souls". Since the church building was already too small for the growing congregation towards the end of the 18th century and had to be demolished due to structural defects, the current church was built between 1828 and 1831 about 200 meters west of the Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist on what was later to become Bahnstrasse built. With Royal privilege were collection trips to the coreligionists in the Netherlands performed to apply to a portion of the 4000 dollars amount forming construction costs.
Building description
The church may have been designed according to models in Mettmann (Freiheitstrasse church) and Elberfeld ( Old Reformed Church Elberfeld ), at least that's what the Erkrath pastor and superintendent Friedrich Wilhelm Bleier, who describes this church, thinks. The church is east and lies parallel to the road a little higher on the slope. It is designed as a simple hall church made of bricks with a flat ceiling and classicistic-looking double-row arched windows, which, like the corners of the wall, are highlighted with whitewashed plastered stones. The simple altar table stands in front of the end wall in the east . Behind him is the only one that adorns the church with a large cross. Above him, the dominant pulpit rises in the middle, supported on two pillars, at a height that the visitors on both sides have a good view of the preacher and the preacher. The pulpit is accessible via the sacristy behind the altar wall, which can be reached through two doors from the church, and via a staircase there. It is no longer used today; instead, preaching takes place from a lectern. On the opposite gallery there is space for the organ and the church choir. This organ with 16 sounding voices, not common in the original Reformed churches, was built in 1844 by the organ construction company Johann Friedrich Schulze in Paulinzella . The current organ, which replaces an instrument from 1929, was put into service on the first Advent in 1979. It is the last work of the Schwelm organ building. The church pews made from the valuable oak at that time came as a donation from the Royal Benrath Forest . Today the church has seating.
The tower in front with the entrance was closed with a blunt hood. When it was possible to purchase three bells due to donations to mark the 200th anniversary of the community in 1885/86, the tower roof was replaced by today's pointed hood. The two larger bells had to be delivered in World War II . They were replaced by two new bronze bells in 1954.
The building was last completely renovated inside and outside in the mid-1990s. Reformed churches traditionally had no name either. Attempts in recent times to find a name for the church have led to no result.
Pastor
Individual evidence
- ^ Report to the Mettmann Church District
- ↑ Brochure of the Evangelical Congregation Erkrath on the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Evangelical Church in 1831, published in 2006, p. 6.
- ↑ Erkrath - Transport and Beautification Association for the Mayor of Erkrath and the surrounding area - 1914. (Facsimile, Ed. Bergischer Geschichtsverein Abt. Erkrath, 1996), p. 60.
- ↑ Rheinische Post online from August 13, 2012
- ↑ from the succession of Paul Faust
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 17.5 ″ N , 6 ° 54 ′ 42.1 ″ E