Finkenberg Church

The Finkenbergkirche is a reformed church in Stolberg (Rhineland) . The church, completed in 1725, was built in several stages. Its name is derived from the Finkenberg, an offshoot of the Hammerberg on which it was built.

Chronology of the church building

In the 17th century, the Stolberg Reformed congregation did not have its own church. The premises offered by copper master Leonhard Schleicher in his copper courtyard in Burgstrasse, which later became the Adler pharmacy , were therefore used as the prayer room .

In 1617 the small community began building a wooden church on the Finkenberg, where preacher Friedrich Kessler (1615–1626) was the first to officiate. The lighting conditions in the church, made of black boards and raw columns, made it necessary to install two additional windows on the pulpit side in 1635.

The small church was soon no longer sufficient, as the increase in visitors from both Stolberg and neighboring Aachen continued. At the beginning of the 1660s, the congregation began expanding the church. This time stone was chosen as the building material. Construction was halted when the Catholic mayor Severin Drießen, using force, ordered the construction work to be stopped in June 1669. A long-standing dispute ensued, which ended with the mayor being sentenced to return the seized goods of the people involved in the construction in the course of the dispute. On July 9, 1670, the Wilhelmsteinsche Vogt finally cleared up the situation with one hundred riflemen by taking back seized brass goods.

The continuation of the church building stalled because the financing could not be clarified. It was not until 1688 that a stone church tower including a tower clock (which no longer exists today) was built. The as-church bell with the inscription “Soli deo gloria”, cast by Johannes Bourlet in Jülich in 1686, has a diameter of 107 centimeters and a weight of 770 kilograms. Until 1686 the Catholic priest had always rung the bell of the castle chapel and the Reformed had to give him a new coat every year as compensation. The nave had to for financial reasons in turn are built from wood.

In the 18th century, the reformed parish of Stolberg, which had become rich due to the flourishing brass industry, replaced the wooden nave with one made of stone, which offered space for around five hundred visitors. The builder Tilman Roland took over the planning and construction management. Construction began in 1724 and was completed in 1725. During the transition period, the services took place in the Möglingschen Saal of the Kupferhof Enkerei . The community raised 3000 of the costs of 5000 Reichsthalers directly, 2000 Reichsthalers were collected through collections.

Financial problems arose again and again. It is reported that some copper master families had sold their jewelry to purchase organs, stalls, pulpit or gallery. The heavy burden of debt was largely repaid by a generous donation from the brass manufacturer Abraham Friedrich Schleicher. After a business trip to Amsterdam he presented the community with a donation of 4600 Dutch guilders.

When building the Finkenberg Church, the community attached great importance to quality and the first major repairs were not necessary until about a hundred years after the church was completed. The roof of the church had leaked and had to be replaced with a new slate roof. Only in 1993 was work inside the church necessary again.

Bells

In 1864, the church received an f and b bell in addition to the existing as bell. These were cast by Josef Beduwé in Aachen and weighed 930 and 450 kilograms, respectively, with a diameter of 116.5 and 88 centimeters. The inscriptions “Vivos voco, mortuos plango” and “Gloria in excelsis deo” were attached. The names of the members of the presbytery at that time were also attached. The bells were preserved during World War I , but were melted down in 1943. In 1956 they were replaced by two new ones of the same sound.

The new f-bell bears the inscription “1943 That I showed the way was not respected - 1956 God's grace made me new”, the b-bell “1943 Life should give way to hell - 1956 brothers from East and West united in the sign of the cross ”.

Church interior

Inside of the Finkenberg Church

The interior of the church gives the impression of desired simplicity and friendliness. The walls as well as the pulpit are kept in light colors. The pulpit behind the Lord's Supper table with side access rests on a foundation that represents a pelican .

The organ, which is kept in brown, comes from the organ builder Jakob Brammerts from Kornelimünster . It has a register with 14 voices. The cost of the instrument was five hundred Reichsthaler.

The Lord's Supper can be dated to the year 1739, and the baptismal bowl and baptismal jug were created in 1621.

literature

• Gustav Lohmann / Kurt Schleicher: History of the Protestant Churches in Stolberg and the Finkenberg Cemetery , Ed. Stadtbücherei Stolberg (= Contributions to Stolberg History, Volume 10), Stolberg 1957.

Web links

Commons : Finkenbergkirche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the parish

Coordinates: 50 ° 45 ′ 58 ″  N , 6 ° 14 ′ 3.5 ″  E