Evangelical Kreuzkirche (Bockum-Hövel)
The Kreuzkirche in the Hammer district of Bockum-Hövel is a Protestant parish church and forms the parish I of the parish of Bockum-Hövel. It was created as a reaction to the strong growth in the number of Protestant Christians in the villages of Bockum, Hövel and the colliery colony of the Radbod colliery . The church building from 1912 has been on the list of architectural monuments of the city of Hamm since 1985 . The monument property extends to the architecture and the current building stock of the church. The church is described as follows:Cross-shaped plastered building on rubble stone base with simple decorative shapes under the influence of Art Nouveau. In the upper part of the west facade there is a fan window, in the facade of the transept there are staggered arched windows. Rectangular choir. Next to the south-west gable there is a four-storey tower with a high helmet, inside a cross-shaped room with short arms, chamfered corners and surrounding galleries. In the west there are massive columns with chalice block capitals .
History of the Church and its Parish
Prehistory of the Protestant Church in Bockum-Hövel
Local home nurse Arthur Schauerte reports in his home letters published during the war that during the Reformation , namely in 1534, the owner of the Ermelinghof , Gert von Galen , together with his wife Mechthild von Korf, converted to the teaching of Martin Luther . His brother, who was the cathedral and church lord, had persuaded him to do so. This in turn was under the influence of the then bishop of Münster, Franz von Waldeck (1532–1552), who had thrown the Anabaptists down and was considered a proponent of the Reformation. Around 1550 Gert's son Dietrich von Galen also joined the Lutheran faith. The St. Pankratius Church in Hövel , which had been Catholic until then , became Lutheran for almost 80 years - until 1617.
The Lutheran pastors who were active there at that time are still known by name today.
In 1563 a preacher named Johann or Theodor from the Brechte family was called to Hövel. He was married to a N. von Plönnies from Münster . In 1564 he was transferred to Hamm.
This is followed, together with his wife, by a former Dominican preacher from Göttingen , who, depending on the sources, is called Johannes Hard , Johannes Hardt or Johann Hardius . Hard had been sent from his monastery in Dortmund to Göttingen, where he married a woman named Margarete Wollers. He made serious changes in the liturgical process by changing the missal, having the songs sung in German, etc. Soon he gained a reputation as a good singer and preacher, so that the citizens of neighboring Hamm in the county of Mark came to Hövel on Sundays and public holidays to hear him. To prevent this, the city leaders of Hamm had the north gate closed on these days. The mayor of Hamm, however, was very fond of him and brought him to Hamm as a preacher. There he lived with his wife in the St.-Annen-Hof next to the Franciscan monastery in Hamm . The couple had some children there. Hard was later deposed by the council in Hamm due to intrigues and died a little later in Bremen .
Between 1575 and evidently 1586 Biter von Galen was a Protestant pastor in Hövel at Ermelinghof. He was a nephew of Galen's Gert and son of Galen's Jobst. In the files of the Ermelinghof house, which are kept in the State Archives in Münster, there is a certificate with a wax seal, which confirms the appointment of the pastor. Thereafter, the abbess of Kentrop Monastery , a Margarete von Galen, who is referred to as the pastor's right wing wife in Hövel, had to give her consent to the Hövel pastor's appointment. This was then installed by the archdeacon Durus Schmising on November 9, 1575.
In 1591 Georg von Galen , son of the Hammer citizen Philipp von Galen , who was his curator in the year mentioned, is pastor in Hövel. For the year 1616 a Henrik or Henrich Brink is named as pastor in Hövel .
In 1618 the Thirty Years War began . The Counter Reformation spread across the region. That year, Theodor Warensbergh, the last Lutheran pastor, died in Hövel. The pastor's post was then probably vacant for several years. Finally, Münster installed the Catholic pastor Theodor Baggel . He found the pastorate as an old, dilapidated, empty house that had been devastated by the soldiers. He lamented the lack of monstrance and candlesticks, flags and stoupings. Under Bishop Ferdinand of Bavaria (1612 to 1650), the evangelical influences were pushed back more and more. The Münsterland became Catholic again.
With Alexander von Galen and his relatives, the von Galen zu Ermelinghof family returned to the Catholic faith in 1652. This was initiated by a relative of Alexander, the Münster prince-bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen (at the Bisping house ).
As a result, only very few Christians of the Evangelical Lutheran creed lived in the Lüdinghausen district , to which Bockum-Hövel belonged , until the 19th century . At the beginning of the 19th century, the Evangelical Church in Prussia only had 460 members locally. Because of the difficult traffic connection to the district capital, to which the evangelical believers also belonged in the church, pastoral care was provided by the evangelical parish of Ahlen, which was founded in 1860 . Since 1824, however, there was also a parish of Hamm, which was combined to form a united congregation, which held its services in school rooms, restaurants and sometimes in private rooms and over the course of time it became more and more important.
Only when the shaft was sunk in Radbod did people of different creeds come from all provinces in Germany and from abroad ( Poland , Hungary and Italy ). Bockum-Hövel itself was also shaped by this development. In April 1908 the two localities were merged as the Bockum-Hövel Office. On April 1, 1939, they were united to form the municipal Bockum-Hövel, which was free of office; In 1956 they received city rights.
The evangelical parish in Radbod is established
Around 1900 there were around 460 Protestant people in Bockum-Hövel who received pastoral care from Ahlen and Hamm. In June 1908 the still dependent congregation had 800 members. In November of the same year it was already more than 2000.
After shaft 1 was sunk by the Trier mining company in Hövel, extensive workers' settlements were built; In some cases property could also be acquired there. In 1907, the mine administration decided to have a building erected on its site (today's Friedrich-Ebert-Straße No. 1), which it made available as an emergency church free of charge. With great support from the Radbod colliery , the first evangelical emergency church on today's Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse was inaugurated on November 22, 1907 (alternative information: December 22, 1907). Thereupon the parish of Hamm commissioned the assistant preacher Pastor Karl Niemann to look after the Protestant mine members. He held the service every other Sunday in the emergency church. On December 1, 1907, a “prayer room” was inaugurated in a residential building provided by the mine management.
After the serious mining accident at the Radbod colliery on November 12, 1908, in which 348 (other information: 350) miners fell victim, the colliery administration provided Pastor Niemann with an apartment in a Steigerhaus of the existing colliery colony (Hammer Straße 129, later Rautenstrauchstrasse 8), where he stayed until 1910. As a result, regular parish life with Sunday services, regular church lessons and pastoral care could be taken up.
Even though its own church registers were kept from 1907 onwards, the congregation was not yet independent. Only gradually were the necessary documents kept. The community's death register begins in August 1907, the marriage and baptismal register in 1908, and the confirmation register in 1909; the first confirmation could be celebrated on March 28, 1909. According to Pastor Wiehe, a “special representation of six men under the chairmanship of the auxiliary chaplain” was appointed to represent the congregation and to discuss important issues. In particular, these were brand inspector Jung, Fahrsteiger Stenzel, Fahrhauer Görke, master carpenter Brockmann, miner Malessa and miner Lohsträter. During this time, a women's association and a church choir (male choir) were founded.
Between 1908 and 1910, Bergmann Schroth was the community's first sexton; his son Hermann also had an accident at the colliery in 1908. In the autumn of 1909 the decision was made to found their own parish.
In September 1910 Pastor Niemann moved to Girkhausen ( Wittgenstein district ), where he took over a pastor's position . On October 8, 1910, Pastor Wilhelm Wiehe (1911–1927) was his successor. He lived in a Steiger apartment at Hagenstrasse 2. At first he served as assistant preacher for the Hamm community. Soon, however, it became the driving force behind the establishment of a community of their own. On July 1, 1911, the Radbod parish was founded. Their sphere of activity was the Bockum-Hövel office. It was officially recognized on July 11, 1911 and comprised about 3,000 people. On July 26th, thirty-two representatives were elected, the first eight of whom were appointed members of the presbytery . After the establishment of the Protestant parish in Radbod, Wilhelm Wiehe was unanimously elected pastor on September 6, 1911, and was appointed to his office on December 3. In 1911/12, the two Protestant schools in Hövel and Bockum were also built after a barrack had previously been used as a temporary school building.
The first director of the mine, Heinrich Janssen, who came from Friesland, had named his mine after the Friesian king Radbod . With this she reminds of a militant Germanic opponent of the Christian faith, because the Frisian king Radbod had bitterly opposed the Frankish-Christian missionary efforts until his death.
The construction of the Kreuzkirche
As early as 1908 it became apparent that the emergency church, which only accommodated 80 to 100 people, would not be able to offer enough space to the steadily growing community in the long term. Therefore, on June 17, 1908, the "Evangelical Church Building Association" was founded. Bergassessor Walter André became chairman. He set himself the goal of building a church and a rectory in the near future. The mining company became active again and gave the association a piece of land as a building site for the new church. It was in Hülsen , a piece of forest known today as the Zechenbusch. The Radbod colliery supported the construction of the church with an additional 20,000 marks (ℳ) of start-up capital. Donations increased the fortune within four years to 60,000 Jahren, which was enough at the time to start building the church.
The construction site was within the colliery colony. So it is not surprising that the architect, building officer Karl Siebold from Bethel near Bielefeld , who had been building the extensive miners' settlement in Radbod since 1906, was also commissioned to plan the church. According to the judgment of his biographer, Karl Siebold was the busiest architect in the Protestant church in Westphalia from the 1980s until after 1900 . He built a total of 36 churches and eight chapels and extended or rebuilt a further 53 churches. He also left plans for 37 more churches that were never realized. In his later works, Siebold, who was influenced by the historicism of the late 19th century, found a historicizing Art Nouveau .
Siebold followed patterns that he had often used. He wanted to adapt the new church building to the colony houses in order to represent the integration of the church into the houses of people of different origins. Siebold thus built another variant of his concept of the cross-shaped central churches. This was also his last church building. Even around 1930, when Siebold was already retired in Bethel , he held this church in high esteem, as an example of a simple and functional cruciform church.
The foundation stone was laid on February 18, 1912 . The legendary Radbod Bible is enclosed in the foundation stone . It is said to be a Bible that was found in a checkbox after the mine accident (1908) . The owner was spared, but never got in touch. When the church was being built, the book was requested from the mine administration.
On November 17, 1912, the new church was inaugurated by D. Wilhelm Zoellner , general superintendent of the old Prussian church province of Westphalia . The church was built in the Romanesque style. Their shapes were simple and simple. The altar was adorned with an original painting by the church painter August Mause showing the Emmaus disciples. The pulpit and baptismal font were the work of master carpenter Karl Stratmann and his son Wilhelm from neighboring Herringen . The church offered space for 900 people on a total area of 550 square meters, including the galleries even 750 square meters.
From 1908, there was a children's church service in the community, initially without, over time with a group system. At the beginning of 1912, the work with young girls began in the form of a virgin association and choir. Also in 1912 there was a workers' association with 80 members. On February 1, 1913, the Evangelical Trumpet Choir was founded, to which Pastor Wiehe belonged. In 1915 a Blue Cross Association and an East Prussian Choral Association followed. All of these groups used the Church's confirmation room for their activities. On June 1, 1918, a kindergarten was opened with more than 100 children from the start. This kindergarten was housed in the former emergency church, which has served the Baptists as a place of worship from 1912 until today .
The First World War, the Weimar Republic and the parish hall
The First World War began on August 1, 1914 . Over 700 parishioners were drafted. Shortly before the end of the war, two bronze bells had to be handed in.
It was not until 1915 that the pastor and his family were able to move into the residential building (rectory) right next to the church. The pastor had previously lived in a colliery apartment.
In 1918 the community had 6,000 members. From the end of the war many people left the church. The following years meant an uphill battle for the community as secular schools were founded and competed with denominational schools. Palm Sunday 1921 was particularly remembered; The Hamm Freethinkers' Association organized a so-called youth consecration in an economic hall as a substitute for confirmation.
Since the inauguration of the church, an organ borrowed from the organ builder Klassmeier in Kirchheide served as an organ assistant . In 1921 a new organ with two manuals took its place, which was supplied by the Klassmeier company. In addition, three new cast steel bells were consecrated in 1921. The church had 6029 members that year.
On May 9, 1922, the parish in Herbern became part of the parish of Lüdinghausen.
A new assistant preacher was appointed on July 1, 1923: Pastor Karl Bastert. He was followed on June 1, 1924 by Karl Pawlowski. Pastor Pawlowski was ordained on July 27, 1924 by Superintendent Zimmermann in the Radbodkirche.
Over time the secular schools lost students. The parish grew again. This made the construction of a community hall necessary, which could still be occupied in 1925. The design for the building came from the architect Kleinholz from Hövel. The foundation stone was laid on September 27, 1925. It is a two-story building next to the rectory. This contained a large hall with a stage. Above it was a picture by the local painter Götze with the title The Wartburg . The building also contained a small hall that was made available to the kindergarten and the clubs, the Philipp Melanchthon library, the caretaker's apartment, common rooms for young men and girls, for the former sewing and handicraft school, the nurses' station, two rooms of the Kreiskasse Lüdinghausen and a bowling alley. The parish had good additional income by renting the two rooms of the house to the Lüdinghausen district treasury. The large theater hall was particularly popular. Various good theater performances were held there every year. The premises were also used by church associations and other institutions. Since 1931 the parish hall was called Gustav-Adolf-Haus . The Gustav-Adolf-Verein had financially supported the community in the construction of the community center. The church choir has also let its profits flow to the Gustav-Adolf-Haus by singing in the provinces.
On December 1, 1926, a sewing and handicraft school began its work. The musical life of the church was shaped by the church choir and the women's choir that emerged from Frauenhilfe. In 1927 an Easter service was held for the first time in the Bockum cemetery. At the end of January 1927, Pastor Wiehe took over a pastor's office in Ladbergen and therefore left Bockum. He is followed by Pastor Hermann Nelle , who previously worked as an assistant preacher at the Kreuzkirche. He was ordained on January 23, 1927 in Radbod by the superintendent Zimmermann.
The Protestant believers in the Herbern district (including Forsthövel in the Lüdinghausen district ) were incorporated into the Protestant parish of Radbod by decree of the Old Prussian Evangelical Church Council of October 27, 1923. Until then, they were assigned to the Protestant parish of Lüdinghausen, Synod Münster. By the same decree, the Protestant believers in the rural community of Walstedde (including Ameke and Herrenstein ), also in the Lüdinghausen district, were transferred from the Protestant parish of Ahlen , in the Beckum district , to the Protestant parish of Radbod. The total area of the parish of Radbod thus amounted to 103 square kilometers.
The church resignations continued, but the number of Protestant students increased. A field service on the occasion of competitions of the German Gymnastics Association is mentioned in a synodal report for 1930. During these years, a community of players also emerged. a. performed by Götz von Berlichingen .
At the end of November 1930 Pastor Nelle left Radbod to take up a pastor's position in Ahrensbök ( Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Province of Lübeck in the Free State of Oldenburg ). On January 11, 1931, Superintendent Torhorst introduced the new pastor Erwin Lorentz from Zehden (Oder) into his office. At the same time, the complete completion of the Gustav Adolf House was celebrated. By 1930 there were six assistant preachers in the congregation. On April 1, 1931, a second pastor's position was filled by Pastor Hugo Echternkamp , who had previously also been assistant preacher in the community. Pastor Echternkamp was responsible for looking after the Protestant Christians in Bockum and Herbern and Pastor Lorentz for those in Hövel and Walstedde. In these years the church resignations began to decrease.
On Sunday Laetare (March 15, 1931) a new hymn book was introduced in a festive service.
In the summer of 1932, a sports field for the Protestant parish was inaugurated on a property belonging to the mine on Bülowstrasse. This was provided by the voluntary labor service. A few years later it had to be lifted again due to the changed circumstances.
During this time the community took measures to counter communism and free- thinking. This included evangelism, lectures against Bolshevism , founding of the fighting union for men and the youth group of boys and girls under 14 years of age. In addition, 500 quintals of donated potatoes were distributed twice to those in need. During the holidays, there was a children's area dispatch.
The Third Empire
In 1933, in the course of the national revolution, both church schools were closed or converted into a single school. In the same year new church elections were ordered. Only one list was submitted, that of the so-called German Christians . The two pastors did not join this movement, although the entire presbytery and the church council were filled with German Christians. The leadership of the local group of German Christians in the presbytery committed itself to the principle of political leadership and had the resolutions adopted before the presbyter's meetings. This approach, which was unacceptable to the Church, led to clashes and then in 1934 to a complete break with the pastors, who in future no longer convened presbyters' meetings. In response to this, the German Christians drafted resolutions in their own meetings. However, these were designated as illegal by the consistory .
In October 1934, a local group of the Confessing Church was constituted from circles faithful to the Bible , which was led by a fraternal council and which soon had 1,400 members and represented an overwhelming majority compared to the small group of German Christians. As the German Christians denied the Confessing Congregation access to the Gustav-Adolf-Haus, the group was founded in the church. Until she had access to the Gustav-Adolf-Haus again, the local group met in the hall of the Schick community inn.
On November 1, 1935, the state finance department at the consistory appointed Walter Faber, a commercial clerk of the colliery, as the financial representative of the evangelical parish of Radbod. Faber, at the same time Rendant of the church treasury, carried out the financial, asset and administrative affairs of the community in cooperation with the respective chairman of the presbytery. Presbyter meetings no longer took place. At the same time, the German Christians used the church for their own worship services, which were mainly only attended by their women's service or their men's work and were only held irregularly. The Confessing Congregation and the numerous unorganized, on the other hand, kept to the pastors' services. At least this made it possible for the two church groups to live together in peace.
The apparent split actually turned out to be beneficial for the parish. As early as 1933/34, numerous members who had previously left the congregation could be resumed in a solemn service. After the departure of the German Christians, the community character of the congregation was increasingly transferred into church structures. Women's aid, men's service and youth community were transferred to members of the entire community. Sport was now an exclusive concern of the state; the church devoted the freed up resources to other activities such as camps for women’s welfare, men’s service or youth clubs.
The colliery provided a room in the Wittekindsblock for holding Bible lessons.
In 1937 a new school fight flared up again. The state leadership wanted to convert the two Protestant schools into "community" or "German schools". The struggle ended with the restoration of the status quo. The schools in Radbod remained denominational, Protestant schools. In 1940 Pastor Echternkamp taught religion to 140 children in what was then the Litzmann School (later the Freiligrath School) until he was drafted in 1940.
In 1938 the Brother Council was dissolved. Until November 13, 1938, the church painter Hilde Viering (1898–1981) from Düsseldorf repainted the interior of the church. The old saying John 3, verse 16, which previously filled the side galleries, was moved to the choir arch. The altarpiece was replaced by a simple wooden cross and wrought iron candlesticks were placed on the altar and on the side walls of the sanctuary. Symbols of the four evangelists were added to the dome. The sacristy and bicycle storage room were swapped. The Radbod municipality now consisted of 98 percent miners, a total of 6,500 people.
The christening bell rang for the first time in early 1939. In September of the same year, the Third Reich began World War II ; the community hall was confiscated to store 250 tons of grain to secure the bread grain. On April 1, 1939, the villages of Bockum and Hövel merged to form the unofficial community of Bockum-Hövel, and in 1940 the individual church communities of Bockum and Hövel were merged into a single community. This was called the Evangelical Church Community Bockum-Hövel . In 1941, foreign workers finally lived in the hall. They were replaced by a larger sewing company. The cellars of the community hall served as an air raid shelter; the bronze bell and all copper-containing metal fell victim to the metal collection.
On October 31, 1941, the Westphalian high president banned the Reformation school service. The children had to be sent home. The Philipp-Melanchthon-Bücherei was obliged to hand over books that were not acceptable to the Third Reich. Finally it was closed completely. The work of the church was limited to the church area. Many clubs had to stop their activities.
A number of male parishioners, including Pastor Echternkamp, were called up for military service; Echternkamp in July 1940. Religious instruction could no longer be given in schools because there were no more teachers.
The war claimed its first victims by dropping bombs on civilians. Pastor Echternkamp has been listed as missing since the attack on Belmonte Castello (Italy) in January 1944. He later announced himself from American captivity in the state of Tennessee.
The bombing raids on September 26, 1944 and October 25, 1944 were particularly devastating for the community, as 90 percent of the parish hall was destroyed (16 women were killed, including a parish nurse), and the church was also badly damaged. Numerous people died, including the sexton. The Catholic Pankratius Church in Hövel had already been completely destroyed beforehand . An air attack on October 2nd claimed numerous victims in the Wittekindsblock.
At the end of the war, 214 parishioners died.
post war period
At the end of the war, Bockum-Hövel received an American occupation, later a Belgian one.
Only a short time after the end of the war, the church authorities of the ecclesiastical province, now independent as the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, dissolved the office of financial representative. Walter Faber remained the church treasurer until his death in 1948. His successor was Hermann Holtmann ; today Albert Eil jun. this office.
As early as Pentecost 1945, the congregation was able to move back into the confirmation hall as a makeshift room that had been extended to below the organ gallery. On May 7, 1945, the kindergarten was opened temporarily in the Philipp Melanchthon library under the direction of Miss Margot Läge with 40 children. Incidentally, the restoration of the church took far more time. Material and craftsmen were hard to come by; Finally, contractor Wesselmann senior stepped in. To restore the vault, the masons were fed for weeks with food that had been donated by people from the Münsterland and the Evangelical Aid Organization. It had to be done without exactly matching the interior painting by Josef Hölscher from earlier times.
Also in 1945 the formation of a "provisional church committee" was ordered. After this transition, a presbytery was elected in 1948, which was soon supported by a parish council consisting of all members of the parish. Kirchmeister became trombone choir conductor Arthur Schmidt. In 1946 Pastor Echternkamp returned from captivity. In the same year, the Philipp Melanchthon library, which was initially little used, was reopened. On August 4, 1946, the first Protestant service for the refugees took place in Walstedde.
A vote on the type of school showed that 80.70% preferred a denominational school and only 19.30% a community school. The vote was repeated and this time it resulted in a ratio of 77.80% to 22.2%. Nevertheless, with the Freiligrath School and the Albert Schweitzer School, two community schools with a large majority of Protestant children were established in 1946.
Due to the currency reform that became necessary after the war, the church also lost all of its assets in 1948. On the day of the Reformation in 1948 (October 31), Pastor Echternkamp solemnly rededicated the church. In the same year the little house behind the church was rebuilt. The young girls' union had collected 2,500 DM for this. The Sunday paper, Our Church, has also been published since 1948 . It is a newsletter for the parishes of the Synod , which follows on from its predecessor, Peace and Joy .
A summer festival has been celebrated regularly since 1949.
From 1950 the congregation was assigned teaching vicars. The first of them was called Heinz Elsermann . The teaching vicars were housed in the rectory. From 1953 there were also assistant preachers again, for whom a special pastoral care district was established. The first of them was Friedrich Kochs . In the same year the church tower was re-covered. The war damage was thus repaired. Also in 1950 the Kreuzkirche was assigned the very badly damaged parish of Berlin-Köpenick as a sponsor district. The Protestant congregation had 9,030 members that year, that is 41.6% of the total population. The parish responded to the sharp rise in administrative expenses on April 1, 1950 by setting up a parish office in the area of the Philipp Melanchthon library, which Mr. August Bobe was entrusted with. He also took over the sexton service as the successor to Elfriede Varenhold , whose family had held this position for almost 40 years. Today the office is in the hands of Irmgard Diedrich and her husband, for whom a sexton apartment was created in the Gustav-Adolf-Haus.
As early as 1950, a community building association had been set up under the chairmanship of Bergassessor Schulte-Borberg. From 1951 the restoration of the community center began. The building contractor was Rudolf Wenthaus , the architect, as in 1925, Hermann Kleinholz . First, in 1951, a refreshment room, a kindergarten and, above it, a sewing school room were built, which the church choir shared for practice. The restoration of the large hall, begun in 1954 by the building contractor Fritz Wesselmann , dragged on until 1958; there was a lack of funds for further construction. A new club room for the YMCA was created under the stage . The stage itself could also be used as a meeting room. The young girls were accommodated above the stage. The painting work in the hall was done by Josef Hölscher . After the dissolution of the community house building association in 1958, a church building association was founded in loose form, which had around 120 voluntary collectors collect monthly contributions in order to found a new community center with a kindergarten and rectory in the north of the city.
On December 21, 1952, the Church of the Resurrection in Herbern was consecrated. At the end of 1952, the community inaugurated a new "central cemetery" with a chapel on Bockumer Strasse. A memorial service will now also take place on the Sunday of the Dead . The celebrations at the miner's memorial , however, have ceased.
In 1953 the destroyed wall on the street could be rebuilt.
On October 1, 1954, a third pastor's office was set up in Herbern. It was under the Kreuzkirche. The first pastor there was Dr. Otto Klein (until 1961).
In 1956 the Protestant community had 9,827 members. Since 1923, the parish of Bockum-Hövel has also included the Protestant believers in the parishes of Walstedde and Herbern. Due to the immigration of displaced persons, their number in Walstedde grew to 291 and in Herbern to 499 by the end of 1955. In 1952, Herbern got its own church, the Church of the Resurrection , which was consecrated on December 21st.
Also in 1956, the parish acquired a 10,000 m 2 plot of land on Uphofstrasse from the Hagenholt heirs for the construction of a community center. The property was initially leased to the Hauderer Gerhard Döbbe .
City of Bockum-Hövel
On May 15, 1956, Bockum-Hövel received city rights.
In 1957 an agreement was made with the Catholic clergy that a Sunday prayer would alternate every week in the Bockum-Höveler newspaper.
Since 1958 - the congregation had 10,100 members - a monthly congregation letter has been published, which is intended for every Protestant household. He teaches about issues in the community. In the same year the Gustav-Adolf-Haus was restored.
1959, on July 1st, Pastor Bufe (Walstedde) retired, and on October 1st, Pastor Lorentz too, who moved to Marburg . Superintendent Dr. Viering introduced his successor Pastor Karl Uffmann into his office on December 13, 1959 . He remained pastor of the 1st district until 1967.
In 1960 the Evangelical Church had 10,489 members. The number of parishioners had risen sharply, in particular due to the influx of many families from East and Central Germany. Many of the refugees were also accommodated in Herbern and Walstedde. Pastor Bufe was one of the expellees in Walstedde, who took over the pastoral service there for several years. At the end of 1960 the parishes in Bockum-Hövel were redistributed. Pastor Stöcker, who had been active in the congregation since 1959, took over the fourth pastoral position. He was ordained on April 3, 1960, and ordained as pastor on October 8, 1961. He held this position until 1991.
At the end of 1961, Pastor Dr. Small in retirement. Pastor Klie from Nordkirchen temporarily looked after the parishioners in Herbern until Pastor Böning came in 1964 and took over the duties in Herbern and Walstedde.
On May 19, 1962, the foundation stone was laid for the new community center at Uphof (today's Church of the Resurrection). It was inaugurated on October 6, 1963. Pastor Stöcker was responsible for the new community center. On August 1, 1973, the new kindergarten was inaugurated to complete the community center. According to the charter, the community had 10,800 members.
In 1964, Pastor Dietrich Böning became the owner of the third pastor's post until 1988. In 1965 the community had 11,350 members. In 1966 the Kreuzkirche was renovated and redesigned. War-related destruction, reconstruction and restoration reduced the space in the church, which once held 900 people, to 500. The chancel was drawn into the nave. As a result, several rows of banks were eliminated. In addition, space was created for the choirs in the choir loft. In 1967 the organ was moved to another location and the Klaßmeier organ from 1921 was replaced by a Steinmann organ. Some benches also had to give way to this renovation.
Also in 1966 Pastor Uffmann left the community. His successor was the first pastor of the community, Mrs. Worm, who moved into the rectory on Hammer Straße. She left the parish ministry after her marriage. Pastor Dorothea Richter succeeded her and was introduced to her office on September 15, 1968. She held her office as pastor of the 1st district until 2003.
After almost 39 years of activity, Pastor Hugo Echternkamp retired on April 30th. As the successor stepped Karlheinz Supplie on May 15, 1969, to his successor in Bockum-Hoevel. It was introduced on May 18 of the same year. He moved into the newly built parsonage next to the Kreuzkirche and remained pastor of the 2nd district until 1990.
In 1970 the "Bockumer-Süder-Apartment Church" was given up. There had been services there since 1951, especially in apartments since the 1960s. In the same year a church taxi to the Kreuzkirche was established. In 1974 the community had 11,943 members.
On October 27, 1974, a replacement building for the old kindergarten in the Gustav-Adolf-Haus was inaugurated, the kindergarten at the Church of the Resurrection built from 1973. The old kindergarten, which was rebuilt on the rubble in 1950, no longer met the requirements of the state youth welfare office. But as early as April 1, 1978 arson caused considerable damage to the building. The children therefore had to return to the Gustav Adolf House for a few months. Only after costly renovation work could the new kindergarten be resumed on September 4, 1978.
Bockum-Hövel district
In 1975 Bockum-Hövel was incorporated into the city of Hamm as part of the municipal reform .
The steadily increasing number of believers (12,050 parishioners in 1978) made it necessary to set up another pastorate, which was approved in 1981. From the previous three parishes in the Bockum-Hövel district (1st, 2nd and 4th district), a new, 5th parish has now been branched off, and the fifth parish office was established on October 1, 1981. For the 2nd parish a parish apartment with community room (Hauptstrasse 22) was rented, which Pastor Supplie moved into. On December 31, 1983, Wilhelmine Effenberger, who had worked for many years at the parish office, retired. Her successor was the administrative clerk Bettina Janicki. After a long vacancy, Michael Schmidt moved on April 1, 1985 as a pastor in the auxiliary service in the long-orphaned rectory at the Kreuz-Kirche and occupied the fifth pastor's position. He was ordained on August 25, 1985 and elected pastor in Bockum-Hövel on April 12, 1986. It was introduced on June 22, 1986.
In 1985 the church with 11,100 members showed for the first time a lower number of believers. In 1985 the Kreuzkirche was placed under monument protection. A second major renovation in 1986–1988 included the repair of the heating system installed in 1968 and a new painting of the interior. The restoration was accompanied by planning by Elisabeth Altenrichter-Dicke . On October 20, 1985, the place of worship in Walstedde was inaugurated, the so-called Paul-Gerhard-Haus .
In 1986 the renovation work on the Kreuzkirche began. The first construction phase comprised the renovation of the roof, the relocation of the heating and floor work. In the second construction phase the church was painted, the third construction phase includes artificial glazing of the windows and renewal of the lighting. On June 22, 1986, Pastor Jörg Michael Schmidt became pastor of the 5th pastoral office (until December 31, 1990).
On December 6, 1987, the Uphof youth center was inaugurated next to the Church of the Resurrection (HOT). January 4th, 1988 was the anniversary of Pastor Dietrich Böning's death, at that time 58 years old. On August 21, 1988, the kindergarten at the Katharina Luther Center was inaugurated. After almost two years of renovation, the first service took place in the Kreuzkirche on September 18, 1988. On February 5, 1989, the Katharina Luther Center was inaugurated. On January 29th of the same year Pastor Wilhelm Voss became pastor of the 3rd district (Herbern-Walstedde) and remained so until 2005. On November 1st, 1989 a second position was set up in the parish office for twelve hours a week. The position was held by Ms. Ruth until 1997, then by Ingrid Klocke until 2005.
In 1990 the Radbod colliery was shot down. Pastor Karl Heinrich Supplie retired on September 30th this year. On December 16, Pastor Elke Daasch was introduced as pastor of the 2nd district. She still holds this office today. On February 20, 1991, the two blood beeches in front of the Kreuz-Kirche were placed under protection in the building directory of the city of Hamm under No. 6/2001. On March 31, 1991, new bells were put into service in the Church of the Resurrection. Pastor Georg Stöcker retired on October 1st. Pastor Karlfriedrich Shikora became pastor of the 5th parish on September 15, 1991, until October 1, 1993. On December 15, 1991, Hans Witt became pastor of the 4th district. He still holds this position today (currently: 3rd pastor's position).
In the autumn of 1992, the conversion and renovation work on the Gustav-Adolf-Haus began. On November 26, 1993, it could be put back into operation. In 1994 Pastor Rebekka Klein became pastor of the 5th pastorate. She is still working on the parish, today on the first parish office. The Jochen Klepper House was inaugurated in Herbern on December 10, 1995. In July 1996 a B church musician position was set up, which was filled with Tobias Heinke from January 1, 1997.
Restructuring phase
In 2003 Dorothea Richter retired. Her successor was the current (as of 2009) pastor of the Kreuzkirche, Ms. Rebekka Klein .
On June 1, 2004, the first parish office was reduced to 75%. Also in 2004, Pastor Dr. Christian Klein introduced into office. He stayed there until September 2005. After Pastor Dr. Christian Klein in the same year the first pastor's position remained vacant. Also in 2005 the old rectory at the Kreuz-Kirche was demolished. The “Ludgeristift an der Kreuz-Kirche” retirement home was built on the site by the Metz family. The motto of the cooperation was: "We build on each other".
On January 1, 2006, the church district changed the financing of the congregations. The building, staff and youth center were now part of the community budget. On November 1st, 2006 the first pastor's position was canceled and the fifth was converted to the first.
On April 1, 2007, the sponsorship of the Uphof youth center was handed over to the Hamm church district. As a result, youth work was put back into one hand, namely that of the church district. After long and difficult structural discussions, on September 1st 2007 Walstedde was assigned to the parish of Ahlen and Herbern to the parish of Werne. At the same time, the 4th pastorate was abolished and replaced by the 3rd pastorate.
On June 30, 2008, the B church musician position was dissolved for cost reasons. Church musician Tobias Heinke was thus unemployed. On August 1, 2008, the three day-care centers of the congregation became the sponsorship of the church district.
On December 1st, 2009 the parish office was moved to the KLC. Internal disputes led to the dissolution of the Evangelical Church Choir.
Also in 2009 it was decided to demolish the parish hall for 2010, as no funds were available for the extensive renovation that had become necessary. In fact, the demolition did not begin until March 29, 2011. The Gustav-Adolf-Haus was given up with a solemn church service on the 4th of Advent 2009. The Metz family took over the building and the property on January 1st, 2010 on a long lease basis and built apartments for the elderly there.
The community now has 8,496 members and three pastors.
Current situation
The municipality currently consists of three districts, which include the municipality of Bockum-Hövel.
- District 1: Hövel (because historically it was one of the first districts with the Bockum district).
- District 2: Bockum (because it was founded with the Hövel district, but did not have a church).
- District 3: Uphof (created in 1962 because it only became necessary due to the growth of the Protestant population in the northern Bockum-Hövel).
The Hövel district finds its spiritual center at the Kreuzkirche on Hammer Strasse. Since the Kreuzkirche was closely connected to the now closed Radbod colliery when it was built at the beginning of the 20th century, it includes parts of the old colliery colony and the formerly catholic urban area of Hövel . The district currently has (as of December 2009) 2,800 parishioners.
Structural condition
The entire building of the Kreuzkirche is kept in a style that ties in with the traditional Art Nouveau forms . Its architect Siebold called it Modern Romanesque . Plain, simply structured walls rise above a high base made of rubble stones . The west, east and north arms are two-story.
The tower and main entrance of the church are opposite the former Kaiserstraße, today's Friedrich-Ebert-Straße. Siebold created a cross-shaped central structure directed from north to south with the same west and east arms, a longer north arm and a shorter south arm with a lower, flat-closing choir room flanked by common side extensions . The name Kreuzkirche is derived from this type of construction.
The tower has a pointed helmet covered with slate and marks the northwest corner of the church. This is accompanied by a porch, also located to the northeast, with an entrance hall and ancillary rooms on the ground floor. The structure is spanned by a cross-shaped gable roof. Small windows break through the smooth plastered tower facade. At the height of the nave ridge, three groups of windows are built into the bell storey on three sides, slightly recessed. The side facing the forest does not contain any windows, with the exception of the one-story additions for the sacristy and waiting room that are accessible from the sides.
A crooked hip roof arches over the choir and continues as a pent roof over the extensions to the east and west cross arms. The interior of the church, which is vaulted by two rabitz barrels crossing each other in the middle, was heavily changed by several, sometimes improper, renovations in 1966. The chancel in particular has changed significantly compared to its original appearance. Paintings were painted over, the wooden principal pieces were replaced by concrete work. In 1985 the building was placed under a preservation order, which made it possible to partially dismantle it. So the arch over the sanctuary was decorated again as before with John III verse 16: So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son . The original structure behind the altar table was designed in neo-Romanesque style, richly structured and provided with a round arch. It no longer exists, but the painting with Jesus and the Emmaus disciples inside has been restored and set into the back wall of the choir after it had hung in the confirmation room for decades. There are galleries around three sides of the interior, which are constructed without pillars in the east and west. A confirmation hall, which could be separated from the church interior by blinds, was located under the deep north gallery from the start. Today, however, the openings between the two still existing romanized columns are walled up.
In the lower gable walls of the western and eastern arms there are five square windows each. Four arched windows are set into the wall above. Between 1988 and 1996 the artist Elisabeth Altenrichter-Dicke adorned two high windows in the middle, one on each side, with colored glass pictures. These show on the east side a choir of angels and the orchestra of angels and on the west side the melody of the song You my soul, sing! . The antique glass windows are framed by heavenly flowers . In the lower area of the north wing, five tall rectangular windows can be seen, above the uniformly arched group of windows. Althoff writes about it: It is to be understood as four coupled arched windows, the middle of which are directed both downwards and upwards and filled with no gaps . Three circular openings have been cut across the four arches. The arched walls, which encompass the entire window system, are decorated like scales. In the gable above there is a cross made of quarry stone, which is flanked by two small arched windows. The design of the main portal on the north side of the tower corresponds to the north window surrounded by the arch. This is precisely aligned with Friedrich-Ebert-Straße and is intended to signal to people coming from there that they are ready to accept them. The fine design of the arches over the door, filled in yellow sandstone , underlines the inviting character. The original wooden door is decorated with small lattice windows. The tympanum field is broken through by cross and round openings. Two squat columns on the rubble stone base frame the entrance.
Furnishing
Upon entering, the church visitor notices a huge chandelier that hangs over the two rows of pews separated by a central aisle. It was made of brass and copper in 1988 by the Radbod colliery's apprentice workshop. The 320 kilogram chandelier is attached in the middle of the vaulted ceiling and has 24 glass cylinders with two light bulbs each .
The altar bible is a gift from the last German Empress Auguste Viktoria . Even the three bronze bells were not missing. The church is built in the Romanesque style. Their shapes are simple and simple. The altar used to be decorated with a painting by the church painter Mause, which depicts the Emmaus scene. After the church was repainted, the picture found its place in the Confirmation Hall. The pulpit and baptismal font are made of wood and their workmanship is valuable pieces of craftsmanship.
Bells
A triple bell (cis' - e '- g') cast by the Rincker company in 1912 for the new church fell victim to the First World War when it was just five years old; the exception was the small bronze bell that remained in the possession of the community. In 1922 it was replaced by the cast steel bell that still exists today and was manufactured by the Bochum Association for Cast Steel Manufacture. In 1942, the small bronze bell - tone c sharp, inscription Romans 12, verse 12 - that had rung with the other two bells until 1918 and then alone until 1921, had to be handed in as a war measure.
- 1922, BVG (steel), Ton d´ + 3, diameter 1489 mm, weight approx. 1400 kg.
- 1922, BVG (steel), tone f´ - 5, diameter 1321 mm, weight approx. 1000 kg.
- 1922, BVG (steel), Ton as'-1, diameter 1092 mm, weight approx. 550 kg.
The tall bell bears the inscription: "Consecrated to the Lord in solemn times, us to salvation." The middle one: Jeremiah 22, verse 29: "O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord." The lower one: Romans 12, verse 12: "Be joyful in hope, be patient in tribulation, keep praying."
Pastor
Series pastorum
1st parish office (1911 – now)
- 1907–1910 Hpr Karl Niemann
- 1911–1927 Wilhelm Wiehe (since 1910 Hpr Hamm and Radbod)
- 1927–1930 Hermann Nelle
- 1931–1959 Erwin Lorentz
- 1946–1959 Wilhelm Bufe (east pastor from Silesia for Walstedde)
- 1959–1967 Karl Uffmann
- 1968–2003 Dorothea Richter
- 2004–2005 Dr. Christian Klein
- since 2006 Rebekka Klein
2nd parish office (1931 – now)
- 1923–1924 Hpr Karl Bastert
- 1924–1926 Hpr Karl Pawlowski
- 1926 Hpr Fritz Petry
- 1927 Hpr Gerhard Schloemann
- 1927–1928 Hpr Emil Schneider
- 1928–1929 Hpr August Voss
- 1929–1930 Hpr Hans zur Nieden
- 1930 Hpr Otto Maschke
- 1931–1969 Hugo Echtenkamp (since 1930 Hpr, 1940–46 military service)
- 1969–1990 Karl-Heinz Supplie
- since 1990 Elke Daasch
3rd parish office (1954, Herbern, from 2007 Uphof)
- 1955–1961 Dr. phil. Otto Klein (since 1950 Hpr)
- 1964–1988 Dietrich Böning
- 1989-2005 Wilfried Voss
- 1991 or 2007 to 2015 Hans-Jürgen Witt
- since 2015 Markus Riedler
4th pastorate (1961-2007)
- 1961–1991 Georg Stocker
- 1991-2007 Hans-Jürgen Witt
5th pastorate (1981-2006)
- 1981–1983 Pfvw Christa Blodau
- 1986–1990 Jörg Michael Schmidt
- 1991–1993 Karlfriedrich Schickora
- 1994-2006 Rebekka Klein
Number of parishioners
- 2,000 (1908)
- > 3,000 (1911)
- 6,029 (1921)
- 10,100 (1958)
- 11,350 (1965)
- 11,900 (1970)
- 11,943 (1974)
- 12,050 (1978)
- 11,100 (1985)
- 10,775 (1993)
- 10,369 (2000)
- 9,934 (2006)
- 8,496 (2010)
Individual evidence
- ↑ On the monument status of the Kreuzkirche. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Althöfer, p. 25
- ^ Reporting by the Westphalian Gazette of March 29, 2011.
- ↑ Althöfer, p. 172.
- ↑ Althöfer, p. 172 ff.
literature
- Ulrich Althöfer, the architect Karl Siebold (1854–1937) . In: On the history of Protestant church building in Westphalia, Bielefeld 1998.
- Rainer Brücker: The denominational development in Westphalia in the 17th century , phil. Diss., Münster 2004. miami.uni-muenster.de. ( Memento from June 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Hajo Welden: Heil, free Frisian! . In: The Rotarian - Regional Journal of Rotary Districts 1800–1950, Issue 10/2000, pp. 223 ff.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Jerrentrup : Evangelical Kreuzkirche , in: Churches of the Modern Times in Hamm, Hamm 2002, pp. 100-105.
- Dorothea Kluge: Brief inventory of the churches and chapels of the 19th and early 20th centuries in Westphalia-Lippe 1970-1973 . In: Westfalen, Vol. 53 (1975), p. 223 ff.
- Erwin Lorenz: History of the Protestant parish Bockum-Hövel , Essen 1938/1960.
- Winfried Masannek: Bockum-Hövel - memories of a young, dynamic city , Bockum-Hövel 1974.
- Hans Gerd Nowoczin: Evangelical Kreuzkirche , in: Churches of the Modern Times in Hamm, Hamm 2002, pp. 100-105.
- Fritz Schuhmacher - Hartmut Greilich: Bockum-Hövel - From history and local history , Münster 1956.
Web links
- List of monuments of the city of Hamm 2005 ( Memento of December 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 37 kB)
- List of monuments of the city of Hamm 2007 ( Memento of December 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 37 kB)
- Website of the Evangelical Church Community of Bockum-Hövel
Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 30 " N , 7 ° 45 ′ 31.1" E