Evangelical Church Isselhorst

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Evangelical Church Isselhorst

The Evangelical Church of Isselhorst

Basic data
Denomination evangelical
place Gutersloh , Germany
Regional church Evangelical Church of Westphalia
Building history
architect Heinrich Hutze
Building description
inauguration June 1, 1881
Architectural style Neo-Gothic
Construction type Hall church
Function and title

Parish church

Coordinates 51 ° 56 '46 "  N , 8 ° 24' 45.9"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 56 '46 "  N , 8 ° 24' 45.9"  E
Evangelical Church of Westphalia Template: Infobox church building / maintenance / dedication or patronage missing
The stylized church building in the coat of arms of Isselhorst shows the place as the center of the parish of Isselhorst.

The Evangelical Church of Isselhorst is a neo-Gothic , cross-shaped hall church in the Gütersloh district of Isselhorst . It was built from 1879 to 1881 by the Wiedenbrück master mason Georg Eustermann based on a design by the architect Heinrich Hutze from Barkhausen , while retaining the Gothic church tower, the churches of similar size in Hartum , Kleinenbremen , Lerbeck , Holzwickede and Barkhausen as well as the Bismarck tower on the Jakobsberg in Porta Westfalica designed.

The church building with its three choirs , wooden galleries and slender round pillars is considered an early example of a type that became widespread in East Westphalia from the 1890s . The church and its furnishings have been a listed building since 1984 ; on the list of architectural monuments in Gütersloh it bears the monument number A 068. The building is a stylized part of the coat of arms of Isselhorst.

The predecessor

The first documented mention of a church in Isselhorst comes from the Münster bishop, who confirms in an undated document that his predecessor donated the church in Isselhorst, consecrated to St. Margaret , to the Marienfeld monastery . Since the monastery was founded in 1185, historians assume that the year 1150 was built for the predecessor of today's church. The Romanesque building was given Gothic style elements in some areas in the 13th century . After the Reformation, the parish of Isselhorst became Protestant around 1570 and joined the Ravensberg communities under the superintendent of Ravensberg , based in Bielefeld. Nevertheless, the Abbot von Marienfeld remained the patron , who determined the appointment of the pastor and charged a fee for it.

Demolition and new construction

The church was built not far from the river bed of the Lutter , so that the subsoil was relatively damp and swampy. Over the centuries the foundation walls sank so much that the building became dilapidated and had to be demolished in 1879. For the relatively poor parish this was a disaster because a new church could not be financed from its own resources. It was necessary to raise a sum of 50,280  marks , in today's value around 2 million euros, and that alone for the building and the church stalls , without the interior furnishings.

This was ultimately achieved through donations: The proceeds from a Sunday collect in the Westphalian church services went into the construction of the Isselhorster Church. In addition, some community members went through Westphalia collecting donations. The donation books, in which it was noted who gave how much and when, have been preserved to this day. Some wealthy Isselhorst such as the schnapps manufacturer Elmendorf donated large sums. In addition, the congregation sold the pews to the congregation members, who were allowed to put a metal tag with their family name in their place. This practice was criticized at the time (particularly fiercely by the local Social Democrats - workers from Güterslohs and Bielefeld's textile companies lived in Isselhorst), but viewed by the community as a necessary step towards financing. Today the signs are all attached to a bench that is kept in the sacristy .

The new church was on June 1, 1881 consecrated .

The tower

The church tower in 1906. The clock dome on the spire that can be seen today is not yet there.
The Kleuker organ

When the previous church was demolished, the 45.43 m high west tower was preserved. Dendrochronological studies date the wood from which it was built to 1545. Its construction is considered remarkable: the spire is supported on the inside by a wooden wreath that rises up like a Christmas tree. There is not a single nail in the almost 500-year-old wood, the wooden beams are nested and mortised . The walls are about 1.5 m thick in the lower area and run up to the middle, where the wooden construction begins, to 1 m wide. The clock and the clock dome date from 1909, an older dial is exhibited in the Isselhorst Local History Museum.

Three bells from 1922 hang at the height of the sound windows (the previous bronze bells were melted down for war purposes in 1917). They are labeled “Faith”, “Love” and “Hope” , weigh 2.4 t, 2 t and 600 kg and ring in the tones h, d and e.

The tower was last renovated in 2007.

Equipment

Some objects and the floor panels in the side aisles were taken over from the previous building that had been demolished. The oldest and most valuable piece inside the church is the right wing of the so-called Isselhorster Altar, which was built around 1400 and came to Isselhorst around 1420. Its obverse shows the Entombment in an overpainting from the 17th century, while the reverse shows the flagellation of Christ. The wing can be admired in the baptistery, the left wing and the center piece are in the LWL State Museum for Art and Cultural History in Münster. Copies are in the sacristy, which cannot be seen by visitors outside of guided tours.

A special feature is the painterly design of the choir wall, which “simulates” passages that are visually covered with cloths. The painted textiles look very realistic even with a small spatial distance. The motif is intended to be a reminder of the practice in the Temple of Jerusalem of hanging the Holy of Holies with a curtain and separating it spatially. Such a representation is quite rare and very remarkable for a church building in the East Westphalian province. The paintings were later whitewashed and only reconstructed during the renovation in 1993.

In the baptistery there is also a massive baptismal font from 1970. The donated stone is only rarely used today because it is very tall and wide and therefore it is difficult to hold a child over it when baptized. The font from 1871, made to match the altar, has been "reactivated".

A wooden figure by the painter and sculptor Wilhelm Wrobel (1900–1961) has been located above the old font since 1948 , showing Jesus as a good shepherd and - symbolized by a skull and a snake at the foot of the figure - as the conqueror of death and evil. The figure was commissioned by the municipality in 1946/47 and the wood was donated by a farmer in Isselhorst.

Two baroque chandeliers that were donated in 1685/1686 catch the eye . Another particularly opulent chandelier is a replica of an 18-armed chandelier made in 1994, which previously hung on loan from the Heepen community in Isselhorst. Its 36 candles are only lit on special festive days (Easter, Pentecost, Christmas and internal church holidays).

The original organ , whose pipes were made of wood, no longer met the requirements of the community in 1971 and was replaced by an organ from the Brackwede company Detlef Kleuker . The organ with 25 registers was overhauled and re-voiced in 1996. The Isselhorster Church has very good acoustics and has been used several times for vinyl and CD recordings.

Since a renovation in 1938, the cheeks of the pews have had guild symbols for individual classes and professions.

On the central window in the choir house Christ with the flag of victory and Mary Magdalene are depicted. The windows in the nave show the four evangelists with their attributes , the windows in the transept show Elias and Moses with the tablets of the Ten Commandments .

A memorial to the victims of the First and Second World Wars has been set up in the interior of the tower since 1971. In the course of the redesign, the neo-Gothic portal was replaced by a modern-looking door with bronze panels.

The donkey with the five stones in front of the Isselhorster church
The altar

Donkey legend by Isselhorst

In front of the church there has been a memorial since 2004 that shows a donkey surrounded by five stones. According to legend, Isselhorst was founded when settlers let a donkey packed with stones run around and decided to build a church at the place where the donkey would first lie down. The fact is, however, that Isselhorst's nucleus is the neighboring Meierhof and the church was built in its vicinity 100 years after its construction as the “court church” and thus its protection. The five stones stand for the five villages in the parish: Isselhorst, Niehorst , Ebbesloh , Hollen and Holtkamp .

literature

  • Sassen, Andreas: The Isselhorster Altar has long been misunderstood , in: Der Minden-Ravensberger, 2002
  • Sassen, Andreas: The church tower at Isselhorst: defense and escape tower or just a bell tower? , in: Heimat-Jahrbuch Kreis Gütersloh, 2001
  • The Isselhorster. Local gazette for the parish Isselhorst, Heimatverein Isselhorst [Hrsg.], Edition 1/1993

Web links

Commons : Evangelische Kirche Isselhorst  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Registration of the city of Gütersloh as a monument
  2. Bishop Dr. Friedhelm Hofmann: "Art is not about understanding, but about recognition" - in it about the biblical curtain and veil motif