Evangelical Church Wischwill

Evangelical Church Wischwill Viešvilės evangelikų liuteronų bažnyčia
Construction year:	1734 to 1737, tower: 1895
Style elements :	Solid construction , with half-timbered gable
Client:	Evangelical Church Community Wischwill ( Church Province East Prussia , Church of the Old Prussian Union )
Location:	55 ° 4 '1.3 "  N , 22 ° 23' 36.9"  E Coordinates: 55 ° 4 '1.3 "  N , 22 ° 23' 36.9"  E
Location:	Viešvilė Tauragė , Lithuania
Purpose:	Evangelical Lutheran Parish Church
Local community:	The community is extinct. Except for a memorial cross, there is no trace of the church left

The Evangelical Church wiping Will ( lithuanian Viešvilės evangelikų liuteronų bažnyčia ) was in the first half of the 18th century built the building and until 1945 a Protestant church for the residents in the parish of the then East Prussian village and today Viesvile mentioned town in Lithuania .

Geographical location

Viešvilė is located on the Memel (Lithuanian: Nemanas), which forms the border between Lithuania and the Russian exclave Kaliningrad Oblast . The main road KK 141 , which connects Kaunas with Klaipėda (Memel) , runs through the village . A rail connection has not existed since 1944.

The former location of the church is on the main road not far from the confluence of a side road running from the Memel in the direction of Nemanskoje ( Trappönen , 1938 to 1946 bustards , today located on the Russian side). The square is marked by a memorial cross .

Church building

Duke Albrecht himself, as Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, is said to have chosen the place where a Protestant church was built in Wischwill in 1517 . In the years 1734 to 1737, a successor building was built, which was a rectangular solid building with a half-timbered gable . After a fire, probably caused by lightning, which destroyed the tower, the church was rebuilt in 1811. It was not until 1895 that a clock and three bells were added to the tower .

The interior of the church, with galleries on the side walls , was kept very simple. The pulpit altar was of no artistic value. The organ was built in 1822. In 1912 the church had undergone an extensive renovation.

The church, which was the oldest church in the Pogegen district , suffered injuries from the Second World War . During the Soviet era, however, it was lost along with other cultural institutions (including cemeteries) by being demolished. The town's small Catholic church, which was preserved and rebuilt, had better luck .

Parish

1517 is considered to be the founding year of the Protestant parish Wischwill. Jokingly, it was called the “parish princedom” because of its huge size. Only later was the parish reduced by partitions of independent parishes. In 1925 the parish had 3,000 parishioners who lived in 16 other places and places of residence in addition to the parish village. The church was patronized .

Until 1609 the church Wischwill belonged to the Insterburg inspection (today Russian: Tschernjachowsk). Then it was part of the Ragnit (Neman) parish until the 1920s , later in the Pogegen parish (now Lithuanian: Pagėgiai) in the Memelland Synodal Association, and from 1939 to 1945 it was part of the Ragnit diocese in the Tilsit-Ragnit parish within the ecclesiastical province East Prussia belongs to the Church of the Old Prussian Union .

Parish places

In addition to the parish village of Wischwill, 16 other larger and smaller towns and villages belonged to the parish until 1945 :

German name	Lithuanian name		German name	Lithuanian name
Scrape off	Apšriūtai		* Pagulbinnen	Pagulbiniai
Antgulbinnen	Antgulbiniai		Schönbruch	Balinė
Dab	Antupiai		Smalodars	Smalodaržis
Wood grouse	Tetervinė		Szardehlen	Žardeliai
* Baltuponen	Baltupėnai		* Uszballen (Ußballen)	Užbaliai
* Kallwehlen	Kalveliai		Usztilten (Uschtilten)	Užtilčiai
Body cunts	Leipgiriai		Wolfsgrund	Vilkdaubis
Neuhof-Kassigkehmen			Wolf fun	Vilktakis

Pastor

Protestant clergy at the Wischwill Church:

• Nicolaus of Chelnia, from 1553
• Johann Gettkandt, 1592–1601
• Tacharias Blothno, 1601-1602
• Jacob Herbst, from 1603
• Burchard Löbel, 1617-1621
• Johann Wittich
• Johann Schützowius, 1643
• Heinrich Eysenblätter, 1657–1688
• Heinrich Mey, 1678-1710
• Gottfried Daniel Meder, 1710–1734
• Theodor Gottfried Gerich, 1735–1749
• Johann Friedrich Wengorovius, 1749–1759
• Georg Christoph Radtke, 1759–1770
• Gottfried Tiedke, 1770–1778
• Johann Boguslav Ernst, 1778–1815
• Johann Friedrich Ernst, 1808–1817
• Carl Wilhelm Gottfried Schreiner, 1817–1844
• Wilhelm Ewald Radtke, 1845–1851
• Johann Gottfried Hammer, 1851–1875
• Eduard Hermann Hammer, 1869–1906
• Georg Louis B. Wittke, 1891-1893
• Moritz AG Scheduikat, 1893–1894
• Hermann KG Schnöberg, 1894–1900
• Max Glang, 1907-1922
• Johannes Magnus, 1923-1932
• Paul Jellinghaus, 1933–1935
• Erich Moser, 1935–1945

Church records

Numerous church registers of the Protestant parish Wischwill have been preserved and are kept in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin-Kreuzberg :

• Baptisms: 1766-1800 and 1830-1911
• Weddings: 1766 to 1874
• Burials: 1767 to 1871 and 1883 to 1916

In addition, there are name registers for the church books that do not exist.

References

1. ↑ memorial cross for the former church wiping Will
2. ↑ Viešvilė - Wischwill at ostpreussen.net
3. ↑ Historical picture of the Protestant church Wischwill
4. ↑ Walther Hubatsch , History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume 2: Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen, 1968, p. 109
5. ↑ ^{a b} Walther Hubatsch, History of the Evangelical Church of East Prussia , Volume 3: Documents , Göttingen, 1968, p. 513
6. ↑ Wischwill at GenWiki
7. ↑ The * indicates a school location
8. ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor's Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg, 1968, pp. 151–152
9. ↑ Johannes Hammer († 1889) was a member of the Corps Littuania .
10. ↑ Christa Stache, Directory of the Church Books in the Evangelical Central Archives in Berlin , Part I: The Eastern Church Provinces of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , Berlin, 1992³, p. 118