George's Church (Horkheim)
The Georgskirche is a parish church in Horkheim , a district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg, mentioned for the first time in the 14th century . Historical grave slabs of the Lemlin patrician family have been preserved in and on the church, which was largely rebuilt in 1610/11 .
history
The church in Horkheim is first mentioned in a document in 1330. Georg is named as a church saint in 1360. The church belonged to the Weinsberg regional chapter of the Würzburg diocese . The right of patronage lay with Württemberg in 1382 and came to the Teutonic Order in 1389 .
In addition to the church, there was also a castle chapel in Horkheim Castle in Horkheim , which was donated by the Laemmlin family in 1469 , but its chaplaincy was no longer occupied from the early 16th century.
Against the resistance of the Teutonic Order, Duke Ulrich von Württemberg carried out the Reformation in Horkheim by "forcibly" appointing a Protestant pastor. After the death of the Protestant pastor in 1545, the Teutonic Order Commander wanted to bring the vicar from the monastery in Sinsheim , namely Johann Diettenhofer, to Horkheim as pastor. Duke Ulrich refused this, however, and first appointed a Magister Bartenschlag, who was expelled from the Teutonic Order, and then appointed the Protestant pastor Ivo Heintzelmann from Stuttgart in Horkheim. The Komtur cut the pastor's remuneration, but Duke Ulrich made up for this afterwards. In 1551 the St. George's Church in Horkheim was able to report a pastor Weys (Weiss) who was married to the widow of Seifrids von Holtz. In 1553 the right of patronage finally passed formally to the Duke of Württemberg, who in return took over the construction of the church, while the Teutonic Order had to maintain the tower of the church in return for the remaining great tithe . From 1555 to 1605 the following evangelical pastors were in Horkheim: Binder, Sartor, Edging Casters, Praetor, Rau, Molitor, Isenmann, Körner.
In 1563 the local lord Volmar Laemmlin , who was married to Barbara von Rinderbach († 1561), the widow of Wilhelm von Gemmingen , who was shot in 1523 , had a burial chapel built next to the church for his family. This chapel is occupied until the 18th century and was then demolished. The Laemmlin once had their aristocratic chair on today's organ loft to the right of the church archway . Later the chair of the respective lords of the castle was on the men's gallery on the north wall. The aristocratic chair had its own entrance, about which there were always disputes, especially since the castle rulers had the path from the castle to the church fenced in, making access from the church to the cemetery difficult.
After the Laemmlin died out in 1605, Württemberg acquired additional parts of Horkheim. The new building of the nave by Heinrich Schickhardt , which Württemberg initiated in 1609/10, is probably connected with the consolidation of the Württemberg influence on the site . The pulpit on the north wall still dates from this time, and opposite was the patronage gallery on the site of today's organ. Thus, the church, including the stalls on the ground floor, was and is primarily geared towards the pulpit as the place for the preaching of the Word of God and thus corresponds to the Reformation conception of a preaching hall or transverse church , which is the altar table, which Heinrich Schickhardt also implemented elsewhere In the small choir room as a meeting place for receiving the Lord's Supper, only a subordinate role is granted. There is also a stone tablet on the south wall, reminding of the renovation in 1610. In 1617, the Teutonic Order took over the cost of renovating the tower, which was also increased at that time so that it towers above the new, higher nave.
In 1693, during the War of the Palatinate Succession , a decisive battle occurred near Horkheim. Soldiers passing through caused major damage to the church.
The organ and baptismal font were not procured until the early 18th century. In 1743 the church convent had a wall of the church painted with a large-format picture by the Heilbronn painter Lazarus Holzhon , which depicted Christ in the circle of the apostles. The picture was probably removed again in the 19th century. In 1746 a new sacristy was built over the old one.
The building load on the tower was with the Teutonic Order until the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , then came to the Kingdom of Württemberg and in 1867 to the parish. In 1884 the tower received a tower clock.
In 1897 the Georgskirche was renovated after severe damage from hailstorms, with the spire, roof, floor and organ being repaired and the gallery seating and the choir windows renewed. Further renovations followed in the 20th century, including a comprehensive exterior renovation in 1965/66.
description
architecture
Three doors lead into the church, the side walls each have three windows. The church is painted white inside and has a flat ceiling. A Gothic pointed-gable choir arch leads to the east-facing chancel. To the right of the choir arch is a small organ gallery, which was the patron's gallery until 1723 and has since supported the church organ. At the western end of the church there is another one-story wooden gallery.
Furnishing
A crucifix from around 1500, which was donated to the church in 1687, is hung above the altar in the choir arch. The crucifix appeared too plain when the church was renovated in 1897 and was replaced by a new crucifix, but was re-hung in 1949.
The baptismal font was donated by Balthasar and Magdalene Holl in 1725. The initials of the founder and the year of the foundation are chiseled in.
In the choir room there is the painting The Last Day with the depiction of the apparition of the Holy Trinity on the day of the Last Judgment, painted by the painter Ernst Bader from Horkheim , who was consulted when the church was renovated in 1897 to answer questions about the painting. The picture was donated by Bader's widow and was taken to the church in 1935. It was restored in 1968.
To the left of the choir arch is the pulpit with a painted sound cover , which still comes from the original interior of the church from the time the nave was built in 1610. Only the pulpit seems to have been renewed later, presumably after the damage in the Palatinate War of Succession.
The stained glass window on the pulpit side of the nave was designed by Josef de Ponte in 1988 and shows the calling and sending of Jesus' disciples. The opposite window was designed by Raphael Seitz in 1997 and shows the return of the disciples from Emmaus. The window in the choir is also by Raphael Seitz and dates from 1997.
Laemmlin epitaphs
An inscription stone reminds of the construction of the burial chapel by Volmar Laemmlin in 1563. An epitaph on the churchyard wall, also dated 1563, once showed the coats of arms of Laemmlin, Rinderbach and Gemmingen. Two historical Laemmlin grave slabs from the burial chapel were placed in the church. The first of these epitaphs in the choir of the church is that of Philipp Christoph Lamemlin († 1596) and Anna Maria von Venningen († 1585), son and daughter-in-law of the chapel founder. The epitaph shows the family coats of arms of the deceased, in the faces of the capital figures of the columns to the left and right of the coats of arms you seem to recognize the faces of the deceased. The second epitaph is that of Georg Friedrich Laemmlin, the last male Laemmlin to die on July 30, 1605 at the age of almost 27 weeks. On the outside wall of the church there is also the heavily weathered grave slab of Agnes Lemlin born received by Bach from around 1474.
organ
The first organ of the church was made in 1722/23 at Schmal (en) in Heilbronn. Initially, the construction of an additional organ gallery was considered, but a woman from Engelbronn, who held the aristocratic chair at the time, offered the gallery of the nobles to set up the organ. The instrument was thoroughly renovated in 1851 and received the organ prospect that is still preserved today , which was used to cover the Rückpositiv when the present organ was built in 1965 .
Rectory
South of the church is the historic Horkheim rectory , which was built in 1769/70 in place of a previous building that burned down in 1642 and rebuilt in 1662/66. The two-storey house with a half-hipped roof has a passage designed as a "German hall", which is a rarity in rectories.
Individual evidence
- ^ Knupfer, document book of the city of Heilbronn , p. 57
- ↑ Christoph Seeger: “It doesn't always have to be Schickhardt!” On the importance of Heinrich Schickhardt for church building in Württemberg at the beginning of the 17th century ; in: Robert Kretzschmar (ed.): New research on Heinrich Schickhardt . (Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg B 151), Stuttgart 2002, pp. 111–143
- ↑ Martin Schüz: The Georgskirche in Horkheim - To the church building 400 years ago ; ed. Evangelical Church Community Horkheim 2010, page 4 with Schickhardt plans
- ↑ Evangelical Church of Saint-Martin in Mömpelgard , town church Göppingen , town church Bad Wildbad
- ↑ Jörg Widmaier: Church stands across. The search for the "ideal" Protestant church building in Baden-Württemberg ; in: Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg. News bulletin of the State Monument Preservation, Volume 46, No. 4/2017, Stuttgart 2017, pages 244–249; Unfortunately Jörg Widmaier does not consider - apart from the Schlosskirche Stuttgart - the other transverse churches of the Renaissance and Baroque in Württemberg
- ^ Description of the Oberamt Heilbronn, Stuttgart 1865, p. 305.
literature
- Gerhard Kuppler: From church history , in: One thousand years Horkheim , Heilbronn 1976
- Martin Schüz: The Georgskirche in Horkheim. In: Matthias Driver (ed.): The Protestant churches in the Heilbronn church district. Evangelical Church District Heilbronn, Heilbronn 2005, pp. 40–41
- Eugen Knupfer (edit.): Document book of the city of Heilbronn . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1904 ( Württemberg historical sources . N. F. 5)
- Description of the Oberamt Heilbronn . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1901/1903
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 6 '55.2 " N , 9 ° 9' 59.1" E