Evangelical church on the market in Goch
The Evangelical Church on Markt zu Goch has been the church of the Evangelical community in Goch on the Lower Rhine since the early 18th century .
History of the Protestant Congregation
The year 1570 is considered to be the founding year of the Reformed community in Goch. Already before (from 1543) Calvinists fled from the Netherlands, the Geusen , to the Duchy of Kleve . Various decrees (1565 and 1567) by the Duke of Kleve could not affect this movement. In Goch they met a Protestant minority of Lutherans. The Protestants worked as an underground congregation (“Church under the Cross”), because after pressure from Emperor Maximilian II after 1567, the Counter-Reformation had to be enforced in the Duchy of Kleve as well. Therefore, people met secretly in apartment buildings. The first protocols of the community leadership that are still preserved today date from 1570. The Dutch refugee community had already established an order here. Thus the service of deacons, the tasks of the consistory and the duties of the parishioners were regulated. A copy of these Dutch-language “ordinances” can be found in the archives of the Protestant community. In 1577 the local Lutheran congregation and the Dutch refugee congregation merged.
In 1585 the presbytery gave itself the first rules of conduct and rules of conduct, "De Wetten". There is still a copy in the Protestant community archive.
The community situation improved when the northern part of the Duchy of Kleve fell to the reformed Brandenburg. As a result, most of the mayors and city councilors appointed by the new government belonged to the evangelical community, although they only represented a minority of the population.
In 1613 the elector decreed that Protestant congregations were allowed to use the churches, provided they were larger than the Catholic congregations. That was not the case in Goch. Nevertheless, the Protestant city leaders tried to apply the decree, particularly with reference to the growth of the Reformed community. This initially failed. Later, the evangelical community took over the parish church of St. Maria Magdalena anyway. Both the Catholic masses and the Protestant services were held here until 1621. Then the evangelical community moved to the "Small Convent" on Mühlenstrasse (today: Mühlenstrasse 10). The evangelical community grew noticeably, so that these rooms soon became too small. An exchange of land with the city of Goch led to the acquisition of the “Gasthaus zum Heiligen Geist” in 1697, which was redesigned into today's Protestant church over the years. The house was a medieval hospice where pilgrims, the elderly, the sick and the infirm were received. Later it was an orphanage and some rooms were used as the town hall.
The building as a church
Since the beginning of May 1701, after extensive renovation work, the congregation celebrated its service there.
In 1889 the church received a neo- baroque plastering . But in 1942 - Goch celebrated its 700th anniversary - the plaster was removed again and the front was again clad in brick.
On February 7, 1945, the church was destroyed by aerial bombs , and only the outer walls remained. It was not until 1948 - three years after the end of the war - that the reconstruction of the church began (until 1951). The roof turret with the Geusen Daniel was erected in 1958 and the three bronze bells were cast in 1957. The church building got its current white color in 1972/1973. The barrel ceiling was restored in 1997.
Description of the church
The church is incorporated with its gable front in the row of houses, the two other buildings with the same roof height but different floor heights are traufständig the street. The steep church roof is preceded by a stepped baroque façade that extends to the roof ridge and ends in the middle with a flat triangular gable with a round view, made of different dark-colored field-fired bricks in a block formation , which has four symmetrically staggered lattice windows ending with round arches. The wooden entrance door is set in a frame made of hewn basalt stone. The same stone forms the window sills. The facade walls are finished with sandstone covered by sheet metal. The gable steps are each adorned with a simple volute and a short sandstone obelisk on the edge of the gable step. The windows are raised by blind arcades , which run up almost to the stepped gable or the triangular gable. Below the gable are two sandstone cuboids, gold-plated , indicating the year Anno 1700 , the year the facade was built. The square choir, which is led a little out of the row of houses, also has two lattice windows on the rear wall of the choir and two on the side walls. A piece of jewelery is the roof turret in the form of a double-step lantern with a pointed slate roof with a "golden" cross and Geusen-Daniel hovering over it , reminding of the persecuted, suffering church under the cross at the time of its foundation in the diaspora .
According to the Reformed tradition, the interior of the church is emphatically simple, only the new organ from 1977 adorns the gallery above the entrance. The pulpit and the sacrament table are highlighted . The word of God is proclaimed from the raised pulpit with a sound cover , the most important part of the service. There are no altar candles and no cross - in the old Reformed congregations there are signs of the former denominational suppression by the Catholic Church. This is still handed down. The candlestick, which dates from 1677, provided the necessary light.
The light colored design of the last supper table, pulpit, pews, gallery parapet and organ cladding was designed by Erich John, Krefeld. The church windows are also by this artist. Despite protests, he was able to prevail.
Like all Gocher buildings, the Protestant church also had several cellars. It is believed that wealthy members of the evangelical congregation were buried in the basement of the church, because the evangelical congregation did not have its own cemetery - their dead could, however, be buried in a separate part of the Catholic cemetery at St. Maria Magdalena Church. In the course of the reconstruction, the rooms were filled in with rubble and have been forgotten. It was not until some time later that a cavity was discovered while working on the ground. This basement room was emptied, and bones and bones were found. Gravestones or other references to names were not discovered. Now this basement room is used for special occasions. The “old” communion table was set up here. It cannot be ruled out that further basement rooms exist.
The organ with 19 registers and 1,448 pipes was built in 1977 by Orgelbau Jürgen Dahlbüdding KG , Schwelm. The slider chest instrument has 18 stops on two manual works and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical.
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P.
Individual evidence
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Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 35 ″ N , 6 ° 9 ′ 23 ″ E