Germanus Church (Brombach)

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Germanus Church in Loerrach-Brombach

The Germanus Church in the Lörrach district of Brombach is visible from afar on an elevated edge of the town. The church was first mentioned in a document together with the village of Brombach in a St. Gallen document 786, the oldest preserved part is the west tower, it comes from the 13th / 14th centuries. Century. After extensive renovation work, the nave of the church was built across from 1903 to 1905 to enlarge the space. The Germanuskirche is the parish church of the independent Protestant community in Brombach.

history

Beginnings

The Germanus Church in Brombach was mentioned for the first time on February 27, 786 in the deed of gift to an abbot named Werdo from the St. Gallen monastery . It is unclear who was the founder of the church. Depending on whether it was a Franconian or an Alemannic , the patronage goes back either to Germanus von Auxerre or Germanus von Granfelden . In 1113, Count Walch von Waldeck , who at the time was the richest landowner in Breisgau , bequeathed Brombach and his church to the St. Blasien monastery . Until 1415, the Bishop of Constance was responsible for filling the Brombach pastorate, with the abbots of St. Blasien having the right to object and have a say. In 1415 the abbots of St. Blasien in the Council of Constance were able to antipope John XXIII. move to place the Brombacher parish entirely under the ecclesiastical administrative law of the monastery.

Construction of today's church and renovations

The oldest surviving parts go to the 13th / 14th centuries. Century back. The west-facing bell tower and parts of the choir have been preserved to this day . The latter are dated to the year 1479; the year is carved on the north side. The choir had been on record since the incorporation of the church. The tower was probably built in the 14th century. It suffered multiple damage over the centuries. Inside, three different construction phases with different building materials can be seen on the wall. The color of the cuboid corner stones still shows clear differences on the outside.

In 1595, Sebaldt Hofmann in Basel cast the big bell with the denomination f sharp after the previous bell of the Germanus Church had cracked in the harsh winter of 1594.

The late Gothic, polygonal shape of the church has remained almost unchanged to this day. It only lost the tracery windows in the Baroque period .

After the Thirty Years' War the rear gallery was installed. In 1720, an abbot of St. Blasien had the altar removed from the choir wall and chairs attached to the wall. In 1734 extensive glazing work was carried out. It was probably about the renewal of the choir windows. Since the space gained by building the new gallery was insufficient, it had to be expanded further on the southern long side in 1740. In 1755 an organ was built into the choir and its ceiling was renewed at the same time.

New construction of the nave

Germanus Church around 1903 in front of the new building of the nave

In the 19th century the church became too small for the growing parish population, which is why the parish entered into negotiations. Since the choir could not be moved any further because of the plateau and the medieval tower was to be preserved, a controversy arose over the enlargement of the nave. The then pastor Schneibel (1839–1844) had considered building a new church on the ruins of the Reichenstein castle. The community did not want to give up the traditional church and violently opposed these plans. The Grand Ducal Building Director Josef Durm from Karlsruhe also warned that the appearance of the “typical Markgräfler church” should be preserved as well as possible.

A building inspector summarized the situation in a report dated March 3, 1894 as follows:

“The community cannot think of a new building ... especially since the choir and tower, for which the church and political community are required to build, are in better structural condition and show stylistic shapes than the nave, which has been disfigured by all kinds of patchwork; this could be doubled according to the terrain, while it is impossible to move the choir and tower. "

- a building inspector after a visit to the Germanus Church

The decision was made for a new - transversely installed - nave between the tower and choir. The extensive work on this lasted from 1903 to 1905 and increased the number of places from 430 to 810. In 1904 the Großmann family, who played a key role in promoting industrialization with their textile production, donated three new choir windows with the motifs of the four apostles and Jesus Christ , who was baptized by John the Baptist on the Jordan .

In 2009 the architectural office Thoma, Lay, Buchler from Todtnau was commissioned to build the new Evangelical parish hall, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the Germanus Church. The new building, which cost a total of 1.2 million euros, was completed in 2013 and is integrated into the slope of the church and blends in with the terraced topography. In 2014 the parish hall received the Hugo Häring Award from the Association of German Architects .

description

Church building

Germanus Church in their area
"Heidenköpfchen"

The Brombacher Germanuskirche stands on a small plateau at a height of 320 meters, around 15 meters higher than the village center. This means that it is also clearly visible from the surrounding districts. The east-facing church has a cruciform floor plan because of its transverse nave ; its axis to the southwest measures 26.6 meters, the axis to the southeast 27.3 meters. South of the church square, a flight of stairs leads up to the war memorial for both world wars. Only epitaphs remain from the former cemetery around the church .

The entrance portal in the west leads into the tower hall; another door leads into the nave. The arched portal bears the year 1904 from the time of the renovation. The two-winged wooden door of the arched portal is artistically painted in multiple colors. A sandstone head at the entrance portal, which is believed to represent the patron saint Germanus, dates from the 12th century. The Romanesque representation is popularly called "Heidenköpfchen" and was only attached to the church after the Reformation - which condemned the cult of saints.

The simple 22 meter high, three-storey tower with a gable roof is lightly plastered like the nave. The edges are accentuated by reddish ashlar stones and optically separate the floors from each other. The tower has only small loopholes-like openings. On the third floor there is an arched acoustic arcade on each side of the tower. The side facing the village has a clock tower below the sound window. The tower is flanked by two structures with a monopitch roof , in which there are separate stairways to the gallery. These visually hide the new nave a little and connect it to the remains of the original building.

Germanus Church in Brombach at night Panorama.jpg
View of the Germanus Church and Brombach, illuminated at night

Interior and equipment

Altar and choir

The windows in the choir with depictions of four apostles were created in 1905 by the Basel artist Hans Drenckhahn. They were donated by the Großmann family of manufacturers in Brombach. Opposite the south window in the choir, a wall-filling painting shows a story from the Gospel of John . The scene with Jesus and the Samaritan woman, Photina, is signed with the sentence from the Gospel (4.14 EU ): "Whoever will drink of the water that I give him will never thirst". The picture from 1943 was painted by Daniel Greiner from Brombach.

The baptismal font at the entrance, designed for a full-body baptism, dates from the 14th century or earlier.

organ

The organ stands on the gallery , on the balustrade of which hangs a crucifix from the 15th century. The first organ dates from 1754 and was placed on the tower side of the former nave. This was replaced in 1888 by an organ with eleven registers by Friedrich Weigle in Stuttgart. The new organ from Mann in Mainbernheim / Lower Franconia , inaugurated on October 30, 1966, has 25 stops on three manuals and one pedal . During an extensive five-month renovation by the Freiburg organ building company Späth in 2018, the sound quality of the organ was greatly improved and is now also suitable for organ concerts.

In the tower room there is a memorial for the fallen of the Second World War with two memorial plaques on the northern inner wall. On the opposite wall is a painting from 1954. The work created by the East Berlin painter Gerhard Olbrich shows a motif from Johann Peter Hebel's conversation about transience . The depiction on light plaster represents the enthroned judge of the world who holds the book of life in his hand. Below are seven angels, heralding the Day of Judgment , who look out over a destroyed village.

Bells

The oldest bell in the Germanus Church dates from 1595. It was cast in a Basel workshop. The missing syllable (ben) in the word “die” in their inscription was either left out due to lack of space or was intended to indicate the fragmentation of life. The saying goes back to Sirach in the Old Testament (14.18 EU ).

A small bell that was cast in 1702 was confiscated by French troops during World War I.

The middle bell, decorated only with a crucifix, was cast in Lörrach in 1760. During the Second World War, it was fetched from the tower on February 5, 1942, to be melted down for war material. This did not happen, however, so that she could be brought from the Hamburg bell cemetery to Brombach and hung up again on August 10, 1948.

No. Surname Nominal Casting year use inscription
1 Big bell f sharp 1595 Memorial bell All flesh wears out like a dress -
that's the old Bunt man you have to
2 Medium bell a 1760 Our Father Bell no
3 Little bell H 1952 Baptismal bell pray and work - this is how God helps you at all times.

Epitaphs

On the west wall of the Germanus Church are epitaphs by Anna Scherer, b. Brötlin († December 16, 1687) and Johann Scherer († August 1, 1713), a former bailiff of Brombach.

On the south side of the tower there are tombs of the following people: Pastor Johann Jakob Scherbaum († November 18, 1662), his wife Margareta Scherbaum, b. Küenin († March 30, 16-5) and their children Anna Elisabeth († November 11, 1649), Anonymus († March 28, 1653), Sebastian († March 21, 1654) and Jakob († February 11, 1658).

On the north side is the epitaph of Pastor Johann Christian Schneibel († March 19, 1844) and on the east side stones remind of Emilie Maler († November 19, 1832) and her mother Carolina Maler, nee. Schmidt († 19 ?? 1830). Pastor Friedrich Stein († February 2, 1714) and his second wife († March 19, 1714) share a common plate.

literature

  • Otto Wittmann et al., City of Lörrach (Hrsg.): Lörrach: Landscape - History - Culture. Verlag Stadt Lörrach, Lörrach 1983, ISBN 3-9800841-0-8 , pp. 613–616.
  • Peter Krauel: On the history of the Protestant parish church and its community. In: Municipality of Brombach (ed.), Fritz Schülin: Brombach. Pp. 910-950.
  • Johannes Helm : Churches and chapels in the Markgräflerland. Müllheim / Baden 1989, ISBN 3-921709-16-4 , pp. 173-175.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lörrach: Landscape - History - Culture , p. 613.
  2. ^ Krauel: On the history of the Protestant parish church and its community , p. 915.
  3. ↑ a b Lörrach: Landscape - History - Culture , p. 614.
  4. ^ Krauel: On the history of the Protestant parish church and its community , p. 919.
  5. ↑ Lörrach: Landscape - History - Culture , p. 615.
  6. ^ Freiburg State Archives : Files of the Grand Ducal Domain Administration, Brombach Kirchenbau 1838–1904, 579/9/4/1/5.
  7. ↑ a b Gerhard Moehring : Brief history of the city of Lörrach. Braun, Karlsruhe 2007, ISBN 978-3-7650-8347-1 , p. 134.
  8. ↑ thoma-lay-buchler.de: Project description Evangelisches Gemeindehaus, Brombach , last accessed on March 1, 2018
  9. ↑ The new building is integrated into the slope. From: Badische Zeitung of December 13, 2009, on the website of the Evangelical Congregation.
  10. ^ Project description of the evangelical parish hall Brombach , last accessed on March 1, 2018.
  11. ↑ verlagshaus-jaumann.de: Two Lörrach projects receive Hugo Häring awards from the BDA Hochrhein. Article dated July 11, 2014, last accessed on April 5, 2014
  12. ^ Krauel: On the history of the Protestant parish church and its community , p. 940.
  13. ↑ Lörrach: Clearer, stronger and with character - Jaumann publishing house. Retrieved December 15, 2018 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 37 ′ 53.8 "  N , 7 ° 41 ′ 40.7"  E