Altenberg House

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House Altenberg after the renovation in 2017

Haus Altenberg is a youth education center of the Archdiocese of Cologne in Altenberg near Cologne, municipality of Odenthal ( Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis ), Ludwig-Wolker-Strasse 12, on the site of the former Cistercian Abbey of Altenberg . From 1926 to 1954 it was the center of the Catholic youth movement in Germany, with interruptions caused by the war . Today the sponsor is the youth education center Haus Altenberg eV , owner is the Archdiocese of Cologne.

Development and task

Foundation and construction

The Altenberg Cistercian Abbey, founded in 1133, was secularized in 1803 , and the buildings immediately south of Altenberg Cathedral were sold and served as a chemical factory. In 1815 they were badly damaged in an explosion and fell into disrepair. In the 19th century, various new buildings were erected on the site, including a rectory in 1863 by the Archdiocese of Cologne, the "Archbishop's Villa".

Altenberg Cathedral with the Altenberg House on the right (1925)
The "Altenberger Madonna" in the cathedral

In 1922 the General Praeses of the Catholic Young Men’s Association , Carl Mosterts , leased the land and the superstructures in order to establish a recreation and holiday home for young men who had returned from the First World War . A few days after the lease was signed, a fire broke out in the former “ Konversenflügel ” next to the main entrance to the cathedral, which was used as a hotel and destroyed large parts of the building. A “work group” of volunteers started the reconstruction. The layout and shape of the buildings were based on the earlier abbey buildings. Groups of boys soon met in the rooms, which were completed in sections, for relaxation and further training. The new building and renovation of Haus Altenberg was completed in 1933.

Carl Mosterts died in 1926. His successor, Ludwig Wolker, developed Haus Altenberg into the “Reichsfuhrer School” of the Catholic Young Men’s Association, which combined youth club management and youth pastoral care. The neighboring Altenberg Cathedral was intensively involved in this spiritual youth work. Ludwig Wolker liked to refer to himself as "Rufer von Altenberg", the fundamentals of church youth work and pastoral care he designed as "Pastorale Altenbergense". He declared the Madonna von Altenberg in the cathedral "Queen of the League".

From 1934 onwards, the Catholic youth organizations had to accept increasing restrictions on their external activities from the Nazi regime . From July 23, 1935, police ordinances prohibited them from practicing any activity except purely religious, initially in Prussia and then throughout the German Reich. It turned out to be necessary to find new organizational forms of youth work. The emphasis was on religious celebrations, rallies, light processions and pilgrimages . During this time, Altenberg was often the destination of large youth pilgrimages that came to the Madonna in the "Youth Cathedral". The Marienlied Well, Brothers, We Are Cheerfully , composed in 1935 by Georg Thurmair and set to music by Adolf Lohmann , became the “Altenberg Pilgrimage Song”.

Haus Altenberg was occupied twelve times by the police and the Gestapo and was finally confiscated in 1942. A training center for the Hitler Youth was to be housed there, but the HJ soon had to make it available to the bombed-out Cologne old people's home Riehler Heimstätten .

After the Second World War

After the war, Ludwig Wolker immediately tried again to reorganize the work of the association. In 1946 he founded the "Verlag Haus Altenberg" , which still publishes publications for young people in the legal form of a GmbH. In 1948, Cardinal Frings from Cologne appointed Wolker as rector of Altenberg's house and as head of the newly established episcopal headquarters for youth pastoral care based in Altenberg. The umbrella organization Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend (BdkJ), founded in 1947, was initially based in Haus Altenberg. Wolker founded the "Altenberger Singewerk" in 1948. In this series, Christophorus-Verlag first brought out the “Altenberger Singebuch” in 1948, a “basic song book” which, according to Wolker's foreword, “gives boys and girls from all classes and tribes, groups and fraternities a stock of songs that they all sing should connect ".

In 1954 the Episcopal Headquarters and the BdkJ headquarters were relocated to the restored youth center in Düsseldorf , as well as the Verlag Haus Altenberg GmbH. Since then, Haus Altenberg has been a youth education center for the Archdiocese of Cologne, but cross-diocesan conferences and training courses continue to take place there, as well as major diocesan events such as altar boys' days .

The light relay of peace called Altenberger Licht has existed with interruptions since 1950 and begins annually on May 1st in Altenberg. In the 1970s and 1980s, Rector Winfried Pilz took up the monastic tradition of Ora et labora ( pray and work ) for youth work and invited to Ora-et-labora weeks in Altenberg. Pilz's song Laudato si started its triumphal march from here at Pentecost 1975.

From 1976 onwards, various conversions and extensions were carried out under the direction of Paul Georg Hopmann . On the site of the medieval east wing of the abbey with the chapter house and the monks' dormitory, a wing was built which, in addition to guest rooms and the reception, also contains a conference room called the “chapter room”. Only the former “cellar” still dates from the monastery era. The part of the building right next to the entrance to Altenberger Dom is used by the “Altenberger Domladen” bookshop.

The Haus Altenberg youth education center also manages several other buildings on the Altenberg site: On the Dhünn, exhibitions and lectures take place in the Morimond house ; it is a wing of the baroque kitchen courtyard . The Altenberg house also includes the old brewery and the baroque orangery to the south , which last served as an apartment for the cathedral organist. The Edith Stein retreat house of the Archdiocese of Cologne will soon move into the old brewery, which was housed in the former Benedictine abbey in Siegburg until 2014 ; it will be converted for this use from 2016.

Restructuring, expansion and refurbishment (2013-2017)

In order to meet the increased fire protection requirements, the Archdiocese of Cologne decided to undertake a comprehensive renovation and restructuring of the building complex, which began in 2013. The aim of the measures was to increase the number of seminar rooms at the youth education center and to optimize internal processes, as well as to undertake a fundamental architectural restructuring on this occasion.

By demolishing some structures and placing new buildings, it was possible to establish a new structure together with the existing buildings. The main entrance was relocated to the west facade, where it had been until the 1930s. From the outside, the changes are clearly visible through a bright two-storey new building on the southwest corner and an extension of the building section on the south facade. In the inner courtyards of Altenberg Cathedral, a new building was realized that is in the footsteps of the historic predecessor buildings. This will restore the historical proportions of the complex. Extensive archaeological excavations and building research took place in the run-up to and in some cases during the construction work.

The Cologne-based architecture office gernot schulz: architektur GmbH was responsible for the design, approval and implementation planning , as well as for the artistic construction management. The tendering, awarding and local site management was the responsibility of the engineering office H&P Bauingenieure GmbH & Co. KG.

The project was awarded the Cologne Architecture Prize in 2017. The project was shortlisted for the DAM Prize for Architecture in Germany 2018 and will be published in the 2018 yearbook.

Haus Altenberg was reopened on August 14, 2016 and blessed by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki . The youth education center gradually resumed operations from September 2016 and now offers 220 beds. It has a house chapel (Christkönigkapelle) for 70 to 120 people and a newly designed dining room with 180 seats. The construction work was carried out in close coordination with the preservation authorities, the Archdiocese of Cologne invested 41 million euros in the renovation as the client. During the consecration of the altar in the Christ the King's Chapel on April 28, 2017, a relic of Blessed Gezelinus von Schlebusch , who according to legend was a lay brother of Altenberg Abbey, was walled into the altar.

The following pictures show Haus Altenberg after the renovation work in 2017.

Rectors of Altenberg House

literature

  • Altenberger leaves
  • Landscape and History eV (Ed.): Looking for traces in Altenberg. Landscape and history in the heart of the Bergisches Land. Gaasterland Verlag, oO 2006, ISBN 3-935873-06-9 (authors: Manfred Link, David Bosbach, Randolf Link), traces of youth therein , p. 40ff.
  • Tanja Junggeburth: Chronicle of the youth education center Haus Altenberg. 2016

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Willi Bokler: Foreword. In: Carlfried Halbach: The cathedral to Altenberg. With a cycle of poems by Georg Thurmair and a contribution by Hans Peters. Verlag Haus Altenberg. Altenberg and Düsseldorf 1953.
  2. Main office of the Federation of German Catholic Youth, Jugendhaus Düsseldorf EV (Hrsg.): Altenberger Singebuch. Christophorus-Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau, eighth edition 1958, p. 5. Foreword to the first edition 1948 , Ludwig Wolker
  3. Winfried Pilz, Peter Jansen: Ora et labora. Young Christians discover a program. Kösel-Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 978-3-466-36167-0 .
  4. Laudato si! , Interview with Winfried Pilz, kathisch.de, June 8, 2015
  5. a b Gernot Schulz: New formulation of "Haus Altenberg" with an overview of the building history
  6. Kölner Stadtanzeiger, May 22, 2013
  7. ^ Gernot Schulz: Team. Retrieved November 23, 2018 .
  8. ^ BauNetz Media GmbH: Altenberg House - Gernot Schulz converts youth education center in the Rhineland . In: BauNetz . October 26, 2012 ( baunetz.de [accessed November 23, 2018]).
  9. competitionline: project "Christkönigskapelle im Haus Altenberg" ... competitionline. Retrieved November 23, 2018 .
  10. ^ Haus Altenberg, restructuring, expansion and reconstruction of the youth education center of the Archdiocese of Cologne | Cologne Architecture Prize _ kap. Retrieved on November 23, 2018 (German).
  11. DAM Prize - Nominations - DAM Prize 2019. Accessed on November 23, 2018 .
  12. ^ Church newspaper for the Archdiocese of Cologne, issue 42/12, October 19, 2012; Information brochure of the Archdiocese of Cologne ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 5.8 MB)
  13. Bergische Landeszeitung, March 5, 2013
  14. Bergisches Handelsblatt, August 16, 2016 ; domradio.de, August 15, 2016 , accessed on September 25, 2016.
  15. ^ Church newspaper Cologne, edition 2017/18 (May 5, 2017), p. 11 Archived copy ( Memento of August 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ).

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 '16.4 "  N , 7 ° 7' 58.8"  E