Evangelical parish church in Steyr

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Evangelical parish church in Steyr

The Evangelical Parish Church of Steyr in the town of Steyr in Upper Austria dates from 1897–1898. The Evangelical Parish AB Steyr is part of the Evangelical Church AB in Austria and belongs to the Evangelical Superintendentur Upper Austria . The church of Steyr is also called the city ​​church . The sacred building and the rectory are with the titles Evang. Rectory including fencing and evang. Parish church AB under monument protection .

The Protestant Church

The Protestant parish church in Steyr was built in 1897–1898 at Bahnhofstrasse 20; the architect Ludwig Schöne (also known as: L. Schoene) was responsible for the construction plans . The style of the church is neo-Gothic . The church has a slightly indented choir with a 5/8 end. The tower on the west side has five floors. The tower is closed by a high pointed helmet. A round arch frieze comes into its own in the eaves area.

The stained glass windows and the altar, both with neo-Gothic elements, create a uniform church image. Today's organ, which has 20 registers, was inaugurated in 1973 and named after an important musician as the Paul Peuerl organ . In the church there is also a baptismal font, this is probably from the 16th century.

The Protestant rectory

The Protestant rectory was also built in 1898. Here, too, the plans of the neo-Gothic architect Schöne from Vienna were decisive. The rectory is on two floors. The edges of the building are emphasized by plaster blocks with different colors and surfaces. There is a balcony on the west facade. Bifor windows are integrated in the gable areas. The parish church and the rectory are surrounded by a wrought iron fence.

History of the Protestant Congregation

From the pre-Reformation times to the 19th century

Pre-Reformation period

Already in the pre-Reformation period, the city of Steyr was the seat of a Waldensian Bible school . This was housed in the so-called Bummerlhaus , which today is the oldest and best preserved town house of the Gothic period . Throughout the 14th century, Steyr remained a center of Austrian Waldensianism, and persecution by the Inquisition in 1311 could not prevent this. At the end of the century, in 1397, there was a new inquisition tribunal. Over 1000 Waldensians from the Steyr area were presented and about 100 of them were given to death by fire.

Reformation and Counter Reformation

The ideas of the Reformation found their way into Steyr through the preacher Father Calixtus. From 1525 he preached the teachings of Martin Luther in the (Catholic) parish church. From this time on, the aristocrats in this area also employed evangelical preachers. From 1545 the (Catholic) pastor Wolfgang Waldner worked in the Protestant sense and later married his housekeeper. Pastor Lorenz Twenger was active from 1556, and the Reformation had meanwhile also reached the Garsten Abbey , which was responsible for pastoral care . Pastor Twenger introduced reforms: Divine service in German, Holy Communion with bread and wine, abolition of Corpus Christi, no obligation to confess, no indulgence, abolition of celibacy and instead of 7 only 2 sacraments. In 1559, the city founded the Evangelical Latin School in the building of the former Dominican monastery, which soon became very popular. Protestant services were introduced in the school church (today St. Mary's Church), as well as in the hospital church (today the suburb parsonage). At the beginning of the 16th century, Steyr was a consistently Protestant town and there were only 18 Catholic citizens left.

The Counter Reformation began in 1599 and the evangelical preachers were expelled from Austria. The (Catholic) parish church was consecrated on February 21, 1599 and a Catholic pastor was reinstated. After a brief relaxation phase, executions and expulsion of those parts of the population who did not want to accept the Catholic faith again took place from 1624 in the course of the Upper Austrian Peasant War. In Steyr, over 200 families, i.e. around 2500 people, emigrated. This also resulted in a vacancy of 228 houses in the city area. Several orders for Catholic pastoral care and the Counter Reformation were settled. The Protestant faith disappeared from the Steyr townscape in the further course.

From the tolerance patent 1781

The tolerance patent of 1781 issued by Emperor Joseph II allowed the reestablishment of Protestant parishes in the Habsburg lands. In today's Austria a total of 48 tolerance communities were created by 1795. At that time there were only a few Protestants in the Steyr area and therefore no tolerance congregation could be founded. A parish was only able to establish itself when the arms industry expanded strongly in Steyr and therefore workers from Protestant areas in Austria and Germany also migrated here. On October 23, 1875, the official approval was given to create a Protestant parish AB in Steyr. Karl Freyler was appointed as the first pastor in November 1877. After a break of 233 years, a Protestant pastor was able to deliver a sermon again. In 1897 and 1898 the parish church and the rectory were built. Part of the construction costs could be financed by the sale of 14,000 guilders from the sale of the old prayer house in Gleinkergasse to the arms factory-workers-consumer association.

20th and 21st centuries

From the 1920s

In the 1920s, the Los-von-Rom movement resulted in around 1,000 entries in the Evangelical Church; another wave of entry was from the civil war in 1934. In the 1930s, the parish stretched over 1,300 m² and had around 3,000 members. In 1947 the number was 4500 members and around 1500 Protestant refugees. The parish church of Steyr coordinated the services in Steyr, Waidhofen, Weyer, Wolfern, Dietach, Molln, Münichholz, Großraming, Reichraming, Ternberg, Kronstorf and St. Valentin. In the 1950s, pastoral care areas could be ceded to the Lower Austrian diocese and the Protestant parish church of Kirchdorf an der Krems.

The former Evangelical Parish AB Steyr-Münichholz until 1999

From 1971 to 1999 there was an independent Evangelical parish AB Steyr-Münichholz with its own parish church and parsonage. The beginnings of Münichholz go back to 1938, when a new district was built downstream of Steyr to settle thousands of arms industry workers. Around 1,000 Protestants were among the settlers. In 1962 a building site was acquired and in 1966 the pastor's apartment including the parish hall and, from 1969, the parish church were built. Fritz Rollwagen and Rudolf Pamlitschka are named as architects. On July 1, 1971, the parish was elevated to the status of an independent parish of Steyr-Münichholz at Albert-Lortzing-Straße 19. Due to a steady decline in the parish population, the parish was abandoned in 1999 and merged with Steyr.

In the 21st century

The new Steyr parish hall opened in 2001. In terms of members, the parish announced around 2000 people who are staying in Steyr and the Ennstal as far as Weyer. In addition to the parish parish of Steyr, the pastor is also responsible for pastoral care in the Steyr hospital and in the Garsten prison. In 2011 a Protestant private school with public rights (ImPuls School) was founded on the area of ​​the former Steyr-Münichholz church after appropriate renovations. The Reformed Pedagogical Upper Level Realgymnasium of the Evangelical Church (ROSE) in Steyr has existed since 2014. For 2017, Steyr received the title Reformation City of Europe .

  • Evangelical parish church in Steyr

  • Evangelical rectory in Steyr

literature

  • Leopold Temmel : Evangelical in Upper Austria. Career and existence of the Evangelical Church . 1st edition. Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag, Linz 1982, ISBN 3-85214-334-9 .
  • Helmuth K. Koehrer: Evangelical Upper Austria today . 1st edition. Almesberger, Linz 1994.
  • Peter F. Barton: Evangelical in Austria . 1st edition. Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Graz 1987, ISBN 3-205-05096-7 .

Web links

Commons : Evang. Parish church AB, Steyr  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Helmut K. Koehrer: Evangelical Upper Austria today . 1st edition. Almesberger, Linz 1994, p. 198 .
  2. ^ A b c d e Leopold Temmel: Evangelical in Upper Austria. Career and existence of the Evangelical Church . 1st edition. Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag, Linz 1982, ISBN 3-85214-334-9 , p. 215-223 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f The history of the Evangelical Parish AB Steyr. Evangelisches Pfarramt AB Steyr, November 1, 2018, accessed on August 12, 2019 .
  4. ^ Peter F. Barton: Evangelical in Austria . 1st edition. Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Graz 1987, ISBN 3-205-05096-7 , p. 129, 203 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 2 '21.7 "  N , 14 ° 25' 24.4"  E