Rosow Memorial Church
The Rosow Memorial Church is a field stone building from the second half of the 13th century. Since 2007 it has served as a “German-Polish memorial for flight , displacement and a new beginning” as a result of the Second World War .
Geographical location
The small Pomeranian village of Rosow, which until 1939 belonged to the district of Randow , until 1945 to the district of Greifenhagen , is today in the northeasternmost tip of Brandenburg in the district of Uckermark, right on the border with Poland . The Rosow border crossing is the end point of federal highway 2 , which runs as the Polish national road DK 13 via Kołbaskowo ( Kolbitzow ) to the port city of Szczecin , 14 kilometers away .
Rosow is nestled between the Randow Basin and the Lower Odertal landscape protection park and is now part of the municipality of Mescherin in the Brandenburg-Western Pomerania district of Gartz (Oder) . While the federal motorway 11 can be reached via junction 3 ( Penkun ) in 14 kilometers, the Rosow station on the Berlin – Stettin line was closed in 1980.
Church building
Rosow was first mentioned in 1243 in a confirmation of ownership of the newly founded nunnery in Stettin, and it remained in the possession of this monastery until the Reformation. The church is a medieval stone church. Remnants of the plaster from 1748 can still be seen on the church. At that time the windows were also changed.
The church burned down completely in the last days of the war in 1945. The former tallest church tower in the region was demolished down to the stump, and the entire interior was destroyed. In the 1950s, at least the nave could be restored with the modest means available at the time. A newly installed organ failed after a short time due to the ingress of moisture. The church was consecrated again in 2002 with a modern organ.
Memorial Church
On the initiative of Karl Lau, mayor and church elder in Rosow, a support group Gedächtniskirche Rosow was established in 2003 . After 1945 the eastern border of Rosow suddenly became a state border, which cut off the close connection to Stettin. Numerous refugees from the east found a new home in Rosow, while on the other side of the Oder displaced people from the Baltic states and former eastern Poland settled. The idea of a “German-Polish memorial for flight, displacement and new beginnings” was developed, which was tackled with the support of the Old Churches Association (Berlin-Brandenburg) and funds from the Pomerania program of the European Union and other sponsors.
Construction began on November 1, 2005 and the symbolic laying of the foundation stone took place on May 24, 2006. The medieval floor plan of the church and the existing masonry remained untouched. The baroque window and door design was retained. However, since the interior was destroyed, it has been redesigned. The arched south portal with segmented arched gable, plaster panel and plaster framing above remained striking.
The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on October 13, 2006, and the impressive 42-meter-high steel scaffolding as a tower was completed on November 28, 2006.
On June 9, 2007 the ceremonial inauguration of the Rosow Memorial Church took place. The building is a memorial, but still offers the possibility of church services for the Rosow parish.
Parish
The parish Rosow covers a wide area with the places Damitzow, Nadrensee , Pomellen , Radekow , Rosow, Schönfeld and Tantow , whose affiliation is divided between the districts of Uckermark (Brandenburg) and Vorpommern-Greifswald ( Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ).
After the Reformation, Rosow was released from the property of the Cistercian monastery in Stettin. The patronage was then held by the sovereign or the landowners of the branch villages. Until 1945 the parish of Rosow belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Pomerania (seat: Stettin) of the Church of the Old Prussian Union , which - for the area of Western Pomerania - was merged into the Pomeranian Evangelical Church (seat: Greifswald ). Since 2012 Rosow has been part of the Pasewalk Propstei in the Pomeranian Evangelical Church District of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany .
literature
- Bernd Janowski: A sign of reconciliation. The Rosow Memorial Church . In: Open Churches 2007. Brandenburg churches invite . Berlin, 2007, p. 94.
Web links
- Literature on Gedächtniskirche Rosow in the state bibliography MV
- Friends of the Rosow Memorial Church
- Rosow Memorial Church / Old Churches Support Group
- Rosow Memorial Church / Pomeranian Evangelical Church
- Rosow Memorial Church / Propstei Pasewalk
Footnotes
- ^ Klaus Conrad (arrangement): Pommersches Urkundenbuch . Volume 1. 2nd edition (= publications of the Historical Commission for Pomerania. Series 2, Vol. 1). Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Vienna 1970, No. 416.
Coordinates: 53 ° 18 ′ 17.5 ″ N , 14 ° 23 ′ 8.7 ″ E