Evangelical City Church (Offenbach am Main)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evangelical town church in Offenbach am Main. In the background the town hall

The Evangelical City Church in Offenbach am Main is a baroque church centrally located in the city . It was completed in 1749, making it the oldest surviving Lutheran church in Offenbach. It is used by the Evangelical City Parish Offenbach am Main . This belongs to the Evangelical City Deanery Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach in the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau .

The building is a cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .

location

The Evangelical City Parish of Offenbach, which is based in the church, is one of the eleven parishes within the Evangelical Church Community Association of Offenbach. In the area from the Main to Bismarckstraße, the municipality covers the area between Kaiserstraße and Waldstraße. The church is located in the middle of the parish area.

history

Count Reinhard von Isenburg introduced the Reformation in Offenbach according to the Lutheran confession after 1542, but the reformed confession prevailed from 1592 onwards . The city remained reformed over many centuries. It was not until 1734 that Lutheran parishioners were given permission to practice their religion in public again. In 1735 the Lutherans consisted of 40 families. They turned to the sovereign Count Wolfgang Ernst III. with the request to be allowed to build their own house of worship, whereupon permission was given. In 1737 the community acquired the building site at the current seat of the church in Neugasse, today's Herrnstrasse.

On September 2, 1739 the foundation stone was laid in the presence of the sovereign. Due to a lack of money, the construction made slow progress. In 1741 the representatives of 14 German princes met in Offenbach. They donated 772 thalers and silver sacrificial implements to the community . They bear the inscription: Gift of the Prince's Congress in Offenbach 1741 and are still in the possession of the community. With the donation, the construction could be advanced.

On the 1st of Advent 1748 the inauguration of the not quite finished church took place. In 1749 the little church was completed. In 1755 the then Prince Wolfgang Ernst zu Isenburg-Bierstein made the deed of establishment.

In 1848 the local Lutheran and Reformed congregations united to form the unified Evangelical - Protestant congregation . The Lutheran Church was henceforth called the City Church.

building

Door of the city church. The portal with the Isenburg coat of arms is clearly recognizable

The architects of the church are Johann Wilhelm Beck, Johann Fleischmann and Johann Hartmann Leipolt. The building has a two-storey, transverse entrance building. On the gable side it has a tower with a lantern . The interior is a small, rectangular hall with a polygonal, closed, three-sided choir . The Isenburg coat of arms decorates the entrance portal . Just like the French Reformed Church , the town church was originally part of the line of residential buildings on Herrnstrasse. Today it is free-standing and in the vicinity of buildings that are not to scale.

In 1934 the interior was redesigned.

On the night of March 18-19, 1944, an air raid destroyed the town church. It burned down to the surrounding walls. In 1949 the reconstruction took place under the architect Heinz Collin: On March 27, 1949 the topping-out ceremony of the town church, which was rebuilt according to contemporary plans, was celebrated. It was re-inaugurated on November 27, 1949.

In the years 1978 to 1979, the interior was restored, which brought style elements into the functional new building from 1949, which was reminiscent of the old baroque building of the town church. In 2003 another interior renovation of the church was necessary. The color scheme of the inner aisle now underlines the baroque elements in the church even more clearly. In September 2004, the renovation phase was completed with an exterior renovation. Here, too, the color scheme was based on old models.

The building is a listed building .

Facility

View from the altar into the rows of pews

Inside the church there is a simple church room with a stucco ceiling. This is equipped with an organ on the east gallery. There are also older, colored chairs there. The furnishings with pulpit and altar are modern.

Peal

Plenum of the ringing of the bells of the town church

The original bell, which was cast from cannons captured in the Franco-German War of 1870/1871, was melted down in World War II. On April 29, 1956, the bells of the current peal rang for the first time. These bear the following inscriptions and symbols, starting with the largest:

No.
  		Surname
  		Nominal
( HT - 1 / 16 ) 		Weight
(kg) 		Diameter
(mm) 		Inscription and symbol
 
1 Holiday bell H Praised be the Lord forever ( Ps 89,53  LUT )
Symbol: God's eye ( Rudolf Koch ).
2 Memorial bell for the fallen and missing d I am the resurrection and the life ( John 11,25  LUT )
Symbol: The cross overcoming the world (Rudolf Koch)
3 Prayer bell e Watch and pray ( Matthew 26.41  LUT )
Symbol: Gethsemane (Rudolf Koch)

organ

View of the organ

The new organ required after its destruction in World War II was manufactured by Förster & Nicolaus Orgelbau in 1957 , with eleven registers being taken over from an existing organ. The instrument received a good certificate in terms of craftsmanship and artistic quality. With its 15 registers it offers both a grave sound, as is necessary for the interpretation of large organ works, as well as a palette of differentiated chamber music timbres. The relatively large number of basic registers prevents the overtone-heavy nature of small and medium-sized instruments. Some registers are pipe material from the older instrument, but this does not harm the organ in terms of sound, but rather allows a convincing representation of part of the romantic organ literature. In 1969 the reed registers, which were not sonically satisfactory, were renewed with a structurally improved design and finer materials.

Others

Parish hall. On the right the tower of the former castle church
  • The community center, built in 1957, and the rectory are located on the site of the castle church that was destroyed in World War II.
  • The structure of the Evangelical City Parish today is shaped by the inner-city housing situation and mainly includes older citizens. With 750 members, the congregation is one of the smallest congregations in Offenbach (as of December 2013).
  • The community maintains an open self-image. Not only classic marriages, but also registered partnerships receive the church blessing on request.
  • The church is regularly used for exhibitions.
  • The Evangelische Stadtkirche Offenbach parish letter appears four times a year and comprises 24 color pages. In addition to an editorial by the pastor, it contains news from parish life, the daycare center and the Offenbach dean's office. There is also a preview of upcoming services and events and a look back at the casuals .

Web links

Commons : Evangelical City Church Offenbach am Main  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse (ed.): Evangelical City Church In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse .
  2. ^ Evangelical Church in Offenbach am Main: Parishes. From: dekanat-offenbach.ekhn.de , accessed on October 5, 2016.
  3. ↑ Municipality. From: offenbach.de , November 22, 2006, accessed July 1, 2015.
  4. ↑ Places of Faith. (PDF; 3.11 MB) In: offenbach.de. Offenbach am Main City Administration, November 7, 2013, p. 11 , accessed on July 1, 2015 .
  5. ↑ a b c History of the town church. ( Memento from April 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) On: stadtkirchengemeinde-offenbach.de , accessed on April 30, 2016.
  6. ^ Friedrich Jöst: Offenbach a. M. in words and pictures . 2nd revised edition. Wilh. Wagner, Offenbach am Main 1911, p. 186 ( online at commons ).
  7. ^ Friedrich Jöst: Offenbach a. M. in words and pictures . 2nd revised edition. Wilh. Wagner, Offenbach am Main 1911, p. 187 ( online at commons ).
  8. ^ History of the organ. ( Memento from April 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) On: stadtkirchengemeinde-offenbach.de , accessed on April 22, 2015.
  9. ↑ Evangelical city parish. From: dekanat-offenbach.ekhn.de , accessed on April 22, 2015.
  10. ↑ Katharina Platt: Great astonishment at the stars. In: op-online.de. January 4, 2010, accessed July 1, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Veronika Schade: Breaking the great silence. In: op-online.de. January 17, 2014, accessed July 1, 2015 .
  12. ↑ János Erkens: Offenbach: The tree as a symbol of life. In: fr-online.de . March 29, 2016, accessed March 30, 2016 .
  13. ↑ http://www.stadtkirchengemeinde-offenbach.de/index.php/gemeindebrief-online (link not available)

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 19.9 ″  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 43.5 ″  E