Evangelical Church Schmalleningken
| Evangelical Church Schmalleningken --- Evangelical Lutheran Church Smalininkai (Smalininkų evangelikų liuteronų bažnyčia) |
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|---|---|
| Construction year: | 1877-1878 |
| Inauguration: | November 13, 1878 |
| Builder : | District builder tug |
| Style elements : | Brick construction , neo-Gothic |
| Client: | Evangelical Parish Schmalleningken ( Church Province of East Prussia , Church of the Old Prussian Union ) |
| Tower height: |
about 32 meters |
| Location: | 55 ° 4 '30 " N , 22 ° 34' 40" E |
| Location: |
Smalininkai Tauragė , Lithuania |
| Purpose: | Evangelical Lutheran Parish Church |
| Regional Church : | until 1945: Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , now: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania |
The Evangelical Church in Schmalleningken (today "Evangelical Lutheran Church in Smalininkai" ) is a building from 1877 and 1878 that was destroyed in World War II and has now been replaced in a parish hall built in 1912.
Geographical location
The town, known today as Smalininkai , belongs to the Lithuanian district of Tauragė (Tauroggen) and was part of the Prussian district of Ragnit until 1922 , after which it belonged to the district of Pogegen in Memelland . It lies on the north bank of the Memel (Lithuanian: Nemunas). The national road KK 141 of Kaunas to Klaipėda (Memel) passes through the northern town area. There is no train connection.
The former church stood on a raised place on the main street.
Church building
The old parish church
The building of the former parish church in Schmalleningken was a church collection as well as a "gift of grace" of Emperor Wilhelm I. possible. The foundation stone was laid on July 13, 1877, the certificate of which was later found in the ruins of the destroyed church. It says:
The community Schmalleningken, which was founded in 1845 from 8 villages branched off from the community Wischwill, has not yet had a real church ... so that the building of a church had to be considered early on. Plans and attacks were made, but the execution had to be omitted because the community was far too poor to raise the building costs. Help came at last. A general church collection was granted and held; in this way around 2,700 marks were raised. Sr. Majesty, the Kaier and King Wilhelm I, the lofty patron of our Protestant church, deigned to approve a gift of grace of 30,000 marks, the community said it was willing to pay the rest of the construction costs ...
Today, July 13th, 1877, the foundation stone of the church is solemnly laid with God's help. In the course of this year, the building under roof and will be completed in 1878 ...
But the Lord, in whose blessing everything is important, also bless this building, which we are starting in his honor ... he strongly encourages the work of our hands so that we can soon move into his sanctuary to thank him and praise him. But to him, the Eternal King, the Immortal and Invisible and Wise, be honor and praise from now on and forever. Amen!
The result was an exposed brick building with a closed altar niche and a "100 foot" high tower . Above the entrance portal, a figure of Christ giving blessings was visible from afar in a niche .
The interior of the church was furnished in a neo-Gothic style with an altar , pulpit , baptismal font and organ .
The church was destroyed in the Second World War, the remains removed. The foundation stone certificate from 1877 was found intact in the ruins.
The current church
At the beginning of the 20th century, free-church and community-based groups in Schmalleningken grew stronger and influenced church life in the village through their intrusive work. They included the Pietist pilgrim mission St. Chrischona (which had its own building near the train station), the Paul Whitsun movement and evangelical communities in the German and Lithuanian languages. In order to better counteract these trends, the Protestant parish built a special parish hall, which was completed in 1912. During the Soviet Union it was used as a cinema, which is why the windows were walled up.
This building now serves as an Evangelical Lutheran church. It is a plastered hall building , the front of which faces the street. There is a cross above the roof of the entrance door. Four arched windows give the church interior light. The wooden altar table with a cross and candlesticks stands in front of an illuminated niche with a high cross, next to it the pulpit and a wooden communion bench in front of the altar area .
The organ is a work of the Rudolf von Beckerath Orgelbau company in Hamburg . Originally she was in a hospital chapel and was brought to Lithuania in 2009 by the aid campaign “ Children in Need ” from Lemgo (Germany). It is a one-manual instrument with three registers in the grinding drawer system . A pedal attachment is not intended.
Parish
Schmalleningken was one in 1845 Kirchdorf , whose parish is eight more villages - north and south of the Memel area - from the district the church wiping Will (now Lithuanian: Viesvile) separated. The service was first celebrated in a rented, later bought private house, which became the rectory after the church was built.
The parish Schmalleningken belonged to the parish of Ragnit (today Russian: Neman), from 1920 to the parish of Pogegen (Lithuanian: Pagėgiai) in Memelland (with its own consistory) in the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union .
The parish was without church patronage , there was a parish election. In 1925 there were 2,200 parishioners. Since the founding of the parish there was a separate pastoral position, which was occupied continuously for the hundred years up to 1945.
Today the number of Protestant church members in the environment of the predominantly Catholic population has decreased. Since the 1990s, the former parish hall has been the church of the Smalininkai Lutheran Congregation, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania .
Parish locations (until 1945)
Before 1945, the Schmalleningken parish included the parish Schmalleningken (Smalininkai) as well as nine villages and small towns. The places north of the Memel belong to Lithuania today, while the southern ones belong to Russia:
| Surname | Change name from 1938 to 1946 |
Current name (country) |
|---|---|---|
| Antschwenten | Antšvenčiai (LT) | |
| Augstogallen | Smalininkai (LT) | |
| Dirwehlen | Wehlen | Pogranichny (RUS) |
| Endruszen | Endriušiai (LT) | |
| Grünhof, forest | Žaldvaris (LT) | |
| Cash in | Kazikėnai (LT) | |
| Schillehnen | Forest heather | Pogranichny (RUS) |
| Wittkehmen | Vidkiemis (LT) | |
| Wolfswinkel, Forst | (RUS) |
Pastor (1845–1945)
In the hundred years of its existence, nine evangelical clergy officiated in the parish of Schmalleningken:
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The last reigning pastor, Wilhelm Grodde, was pastor at the Schmalleningken Church during both World Wars. He had to flee from the advancing Russians in World War I , half of the community members had been kidnapped by the Russians as far as the Volga and only came back after the peace treaty. Only then - in 1917 - could he be introduced to his office. In October 1944, Grodde joined the refugee trek, which, however, was overrun by the front. He returned to Schmalleningken for the second time as a refugee, but was banned from exercising his office in any way. He earned his living as an organist and cantor in a Catholic church in the neighborhood, but illegally looked after the Protestant church members. In 1957 he was finally allowed to leave the Federal Republic of Germany .
Church records
The church registers of the Schmalleningken church are considered lost.
References
- ↑ Smalinikkai - Schmalleningken
- ↑ a b The Church in Schmalleningken ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Walther Hubatsch , History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume 2: Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen 1968, p. 108, Fig. 476
- ↑ Historical photo of the church
- ↑ a b Schmalleningken, Pogegen district
- ^ Heinrich A. Kurschat, Das Buch vom Memelland , 1990², p. 472
- ↑ The entrance to the current church in Smalininkai in 2005
- ↑ View of the altar
- ↑ Jörg Naß, Organ inventory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Walther Hubatsch, History of the Evangelical Church of East Prussia , Volume 3: Documents , Göttingen 1968, p. 513
- ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor's Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg 1968, p. 135
