Evangelical Church in Langstadt

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Evangelical Church in Langstadt

The Evangelical Church in Langstadt is a listed church building in Langstadt , a district of Babenhausen , in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district . The neo-Gothic church shapes the image of the place and is a Hessian cultural monument .

prehistory

Efforts had been made since 1856 and 1864 to build a new church in Langstadt , because the chapel from 1482 , which was later expanded with a choir , had become dilapidated and much too small. It was laid down in 1877 to begin construction of the current church, which was consecrated on September 19, 1880.

“From the old chapel, a complete late Gothic door panel was taken over into the new building , today on the door between the choir and sacristy , and the lower drapery stones from another door, today added to the outer door of the sacristy. Furthermore, the canteen of the Gothic altar was kept , which was placed on the new altar as an altar plate, but with a greatly reduced profile on three sides. In the construction contracts it is then mentioned that house stones from the old choir are to be used in the new building. "

- Sylvia Richter, Bernd Bundschuh, Hans Reiner Haberstock, Herti and Otto Egner, Karl Schmitt, Georg Dieter Haag : 125 years of the Evangelical Church in Langstadt, 2005

Planning and trades

At that time, the bourgeois community had to bear the construction costs and had to raise the funds for any new building. This was only possible if one received the permit for extraordinary logging and was allowed to collect the proceeds for the construction of a new church. When the Grand Ducal District Office in Dieburg gave its approval, the way was clear for planning the new building. In 1858 an amount of 27,000 guilders was already available, more than half of the construction costs estimated at 40,000 guilders at the time. From 1858 to 1877 the new building was postponed and thought about repairing the chapel again. In 1877 a new building plan was approved, which was to retain the chapel's Gothic choir.

On May 10, 1877, an advertisement was placed in the Frankfurter Journal in search of a suitable builder . However, none of the two applicants who responded to this ad were appointed. Instead , negotiations took place with Adalbert Schneller , a building accessist at the Erbacher Kreis building authority . On June 21, 1877 the architect contract was signed. The permits of the Dieburg district office and the ministry were granted without delay.

According to the architectural contract, the construction of the church should be completed by the end of 1879. A building made of stone and plastered was planned. Schneller decided that the older plans for a limited new building were not feasible. On July 17, 1877, he presented new plans that already included the construction program that was later implemented. In October 1877 the foundations were in progress. At this point in time, the plan was changed in the direction of building an ashlar building with clean exposed masonry made of sandstone from local quarries .

The following contracts with craftsmen were concluded in March 1878:

The foundation stone was laid on May 31, 1878 . On September 19, 1880 the inauguration of the church was carried out. At the beginning, the cost of building the church was estimated at 85,714 marks (40,000 guilders), the total costs were assumed to be 110,000 marks in 1881.

Tower clock

A church clock is already mentioned for the old chapel in an invoice from 1557/1558.

The current tower clock movement with the factory number 1113 was built by the Munich city ​​mechanic and royal Bavarian tower clock maker Johann Mannhardt . A dial is integrated into the sandstone facade in each direction. The connection from the clockwork to the four-gear mechanism at the height of the dials consists of a 16 m long rod. The acoustic signal, the clock strikes once every quarter of an hour on the middle bell, at the entire hour there is an hour strike on the big bell. The two bell hammers are raised using wire ropes. The movement has three winding rollers ( carriage , quarter-hour and hour-strike). The running time of the drive is approx. 50 hours, the two striking mechanisms have a running time of approx. 30 hours. The drive weights are simple, weighted metal cans. The movement is very reliable and accurate, the daily deviation is usually a few seconds. J. Mannhardt used the construction of the so - called free - swinging pendulum for larger clockworks . This construction produced a movement with jumping minutes and was not standard at the time. The factory was renovated in the summer ().

Bells

In the old chapel there were two bells in 1813. According to the parish chronicle, the larger bell had cracked on November 26th, 1870, so that it had to be cast over. The small bell was also cast around in order to restore harmony.

In 1879, parallel to the construction of the new church, the bell from the old tower was placed on a temporary bell carrier. On July 18, 1879, the move to the new church tower took place. One of the now three bells cracked and was replaced in 1890.

Two bronze bells were melted down for war purposes in 1917, and from 1918 the church had three cast steel bells . Due to considerable corrosion damage, the cast steel bells were replaced by bronze bells in 2005 for the 125th anniversary. The tone sequence is also a major triad, but a little deeper than the previous ones.

No. Surname Casting year Caster Ø (mm) Mass (kg) Nominal inscription
1a old bell 1 1871 Bach and Sons (Windecken) - 321 - Peace be her first peal
1b old bell 2 1871 Bach and Sons (Windecken) - 178 - Humble yourselves before the master
1d old bell 3 before 1890 - - - - Glory to God on high, peace on earth
2a Tempered steel cast 1 1918 JF Weule - 622 dis -
2 B Tempering steel casting 2 1918 JF Weule - 320 f -
2c Tempered steel casting 3 1918 JF Weule - 170 as -
3a Bronze 1 2005 Art and bell foundry Lauchhammer 711 225 g 1 -
3b Bronze 2 2005 Art and bell foundry Lauchhammer 829 347 h 1 -
3c Bronze 3 2005 Art and bell foundry Lauchhammer 1025 637 d 2 -

organ

The organ was built by organ builder Heinrich Bechstein (Groß-Umstadt) and has largely been preserved in the original. The order for a two-manual work with pedal and 17 stops was made on March 29, 1879. In terms of sound, the organ corresponds to the taste of the late 19th century (warm, fundamentally muffled). The wind supply used to be via three foot-operated bellows. One of the three bellows has been used as a magazine bellows since around 1950 and is supplied with air by an electric centrifugal fan. The other two bellows can be used to generate wind if the centrifugal fan fails.

At the beginning of the First World War , in addition to the two bronze bells, the valuable tin pipes from the prospectus were also picked up and later replaced by pipes made of inferior zinc; This has had a tonal effect in that the registers concerned now sound much softer. In 1976 the organ building workshop Förster & Nicolaus (from Lich, Upper Hesse) carried out a fundamental renovation of the organ; nothing was changed on the registers themselves. In 1990 a new wind chest was installed for the upper manual because the original mechanism of the old one was too stiff.

I Manual C–
1. Drone 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Hollow flute 8th'
4th Covered 8th'
5. Viol 8th'
6th Octave 4 ′
7th flute 4 ′
8th. Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
9. octave 2 ′
10. mixture 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
II Manual C–
11. Flauto traverse 8th'
12. Salizional 8th'
13. Dolce 8th'
14th Covered flute 4 ′
Pedal C–
15th Principal bass 16 ′
16. Sub bass 16 ′
17th Violon bass 8th'

Renovations

In 1972 the church roof was to be covered with new slate. The tower hood was also renewed and the weathercock was newly gilded.

Church as a breeding ground for the barn owl

The barn owl has been breeding in the church tower for decades .

Web links

  • Church council of the Protestant parish Langstadt (Ed.): 125 years Evangelical Church LANGSTADT Part 1 (PDF) Part 2 (PDF)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Enders: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany, cultural monuments in Hessen, Darmstadt-Dieburg district . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen. Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1988, ISBN 3-528-06235-5 .
  2. ↑ Langstadt , 3 bells, p. 16
  3. ↑ Otto Diehl: Experience report on the release of barn owls born in zoological gardens - Tyto alba . In: Staatliche Vogelschutzwarte: Festschrift der Vogelschutzwarte . Frankfurt a. Main 1987. pp. 114-125.

Coordinates: 49 ° 55 '28.8 "  N , 8 ° 57' 5.3"  E