Evangelical Church Rodheim

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Southwest view of the church

The Evangelical Church Rodheim is the former Lutheran church of Rodheim , today a district of Rosbach vor der Höhe in the Wetterau district in Hesse .

building

The church replaced a previous building from 1676, a small half-timbered building. After many years of preliminary considerations and preparatory work, it was built in the years 1732–1735 for the Lutheran minority in the predominantly Reformed town, which belonged to the predominantly Reformed county of Hanau-Münzenberg . The foundation stone for today's church was laid on April 27, 1732. The construction project was overshadowed by financial difficulties. The church was already completed in 1735, services were even taking place in it, but - for lack of money - it could not be officially inaugurated until November 2, 1738. After the completion of today's church, the previous building was demolished.

The architect was the Count's builder Christian Ludwig Hermann . The model was the Reinhard Church in neighboring Bad Nauheim , built by the same architect . It is a transverse church , i.e. a transverse longitudinal building with beveled corners. The tower is set in the middle of the street front. The forms, although baroque , were rather simple and based on French models. Originally the church had one entrance from each side. There is a smooth sandstone field above the main entrance. It should have had the sovereign coat of arms. The last Count of Hanau, Johann Reinhard III. , but died in 1736, the county of Hanau-Münzenberg fell to the (reformed) Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel . A coat of arms was no longer attached.

In the night of September 13-14, 1901, the building burned down completely. During the reconstruction in 1902/03, the historical outer walls could be used again. The external appearance was largely retained, but the interior was redesigned in lavish forms of Wilhelmine neo-baroque . The room layout and the arrangement of the furnishings were retained.

Church history

Lutherans only officially appeared again in the County of Hanau-Munzenberg since the Lutheran House of Hanau-Lichtenberg came to power in the Reformed County in 1642. There were two independent Protestant churches within the county.

After the Hanauer Union had united the two denominational evangelical congregations in Rodheim in 1818 , the smaller Lutheran church was used as a winter church because it was easier to heat, the larger - formerly Reformed church - as a summer church. After the former Reformed Church in Rodheim was demolished in 1956, today's Evangelical Church in Rodheim is the only Protestant church on site.

literature

  • F. Dahmen: The Lutheran congregation in Rodheim and its church buildings. Rodheim vor der Höhe 1982.
  • Georg Dehio, Handbook of German Art Monuments - Hesse II. Administrative Region Darmstadt. (Ed .: Folkhard Cremer and Tobias Michael Wolf), 3rd edition, Munich 2008, pp. 687f.
  • Caroline Grottker: Lutheran churches in the county of Hanau-Münzenberg under Count Johann Reinhard III. (1712–1736) [unpublished master's thesis in the Department of Philology and Art Studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main]. Frankfurt 1984, pp. 77-83.
  • Festschrift. 75 years of the Evangelical Church in Rodheim vor der Höhe 1903–1978 . Rodheim 1978.
  • L. Kraft: Wetterau village churches. Contributions to the history of church building in the Friedberg district . Dissertation Darmstadt 1919.
  • Inge Wolf: Christian Ludwig Hermann. Construction director at Hanauer Hof . In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 30 (1988), pp. 445ff (490-494).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kathrin Ellwardt: Church building between evangelical ideals and absolutist rule. The cross churches in the Hessian area from the Reformation century to the Seven Years War . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-937251-34-0

Coordinates: 50 ° 15 ′ 56.1 ″  N , 8 ° 42 ′ 13.6 ″  E