Herz-Jesu-Kirche (Bad Rappenau)
The Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Bad Rappenau is a Catholic church that was built from 1929 according to plans by the Heidelberg architect Franz Sales Kuhn and expanded in 1954 under the direction of the architect Anton Ohnmacht .
Church history
After the Reformation, Rappenau was almost completely Evangelical-Lutheran and remained so when the local lord Sigmund von Gemmingen converted to Catholicism in 1764. A larger number of Catholics only came to the site in the 1820s during the construction of the Rappenau salt works with Catholic workers. In 1825 there were 20 Catholics, in 1828 there were already 80. Before 1860 there were already Catholic services in Rappenau, then the Rappenau Catholics visited the churches in Siegelsbach and Wimpfen , before a Catholic prayer room was set up on the upper floor of the Rappenau moated castle in 1896. The adjoining room in the round tower served as the chancel, and the priest from Siegelsbach provided the service. In 1906 a church building fund and a church building association were founded, which received a building plot on Salinenstraße from the local lord. The church building association collected around 30,000 marks in the following years, but these were consumed by the inflation after the First World War. The church building plans therefore had to be postponed while the congregation continued to grow. In 1925 there were already 140 Catholics. The pastor from Siegelsbach, Alois Beuschlein, who took office in 1926 and was also responsible for the Rappenau Catholics, vigorously pushed ahead with the construction of the church. With grants from the political community, the construction of a Catholic church finally began in 1929 on a piece of land donated by the von Gemmingen family on Salinenstrasse according to plans by the Heidelberg architect Franz Sales Kuhn .
The new church was opened on September 28, 1930 and consecrated on June 25, 1932 by Auxiliary Bishop Burger from Freiburg . The high altar was designed by Elisabeth Stapp from Munich.
The Catholic community continued to grow rapidly after the Second World War due to the influx of displaced persons and refugees. The number of parishioners tripled to 629 people. In 1949 the Parish Curatie Bad Rappenau was established, in whose association the Catholic parishes in Babstadt , Treschklingen and Zimmerhof were included. In 1950 a rectory was built next to the church.
The church, which had become too small, was significantly enlarged until 1955 under the direction of the architect Ohnmacht. The northern wall of the upper cladding received a sgraffito (wall decoration) by Franz-Valentin Hemmerle , which shows all 14 stations of the cross. Hemmerle also created a depiction of the mercy seat on the choir wall, but this was removed again when the church decoration was simplified as a result of the 1963 Vatican Council.
The parish curate was raised to an independent parish in 1959. In 1974 a community center was built on a neighboring property.
When the Catholic deaneries were reorganized on May 1, 1976, the Kraichgau deanery was formed, which consists of four parish associations. The Parish Association of Bad Rappenau today includes the parish Herz Jesu Bad Rappenau with the branch churches St. Johannes Baptist Heinsheim, St. Georg Siegelsbach and Maria Königin Hüffenhardt as well as the parish St. Cyriak Obergimpern with the branch church St. Josef Untergimpern and the parish St. Margaretha Grombach Filial church of St. Giles Kirchardt.
In August 2013, the church began to be renovated and expanded again over several months.
Partial view of the Way of the Cross
Cross over the altar
Baptismal font in front of the baptismal window
Bells
In the beginning the church did not have its own bells, instead the borrowed saline bell was used in the first few years. It was not until 1936 that two used bells could be purchased, but one of them had to be returned in 1942 during World War II. As a replacement for the melted down bell, the municipality came into possession of a loaned bell from 1592 in 1952, which was previously hung in Stonsdorf in Lower Silesia . The bronze bell has the strike note e '', a diameter of 66 cm, a weight of about 170 kg and bears the inscription VERBUM DOMINI MANET IN ETERNUM ANNO DOMINI 1592 . Since the bell on loan did not sound like the existing bell, the existing bell was cast into two new bells by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling in Heidelberg in 1954 . The larger of the two has a c sharp '' strike, a diameter of 71.5 cm and a weight of 242 kg. It bears the inscription HEART JESUS - YOU DESIRE THE CREATION HAVE MERCY OUR and is adorned with a depiction of the Sacred Heart. The smaller bell from 1954 has the strike tone f sharp '', a diameter of 53.1 cm and a weight of 93 kg. It bears the inscription YOU SHOULD BE ME Witnesses and is decorated with a St. Boniface marked with a miter, staff, cross and sword. In 2005 the bell was finally extended to four-part with a bell cast at the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe. The youngest Christ bell strikes h ', is 81 cm in diameter and weighs 341 kg. The bronze bell bears a longer inscription in memory of Pope John Paul II , Hans and Sophie Scholl , Mother Teresa , Cardinal József Mindszenty and the priest Max Josef Metzger , and is adorned with numerous symbols.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Simon Gajer: The Catholic Church is cleared, in: Heilbronner Voice of August 5, 2013.
- ^ Norbert Jung: Immaculata - A contribution to the history of bells in Bad Rappenau , in connection with the Bad Rappenau town archive, ed. by Norbert Jung, Heilbronn 2010, pp. 10–13.
literature
- Rudolf Petzold: 1932 - The Catholic Church is consecrated , in Bad Rappenauer Heimatbote 23, December 2012, pp. 42–55.
- Gustav Neuwirth: History of the City of Bad Rappenau . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 1978
Web links
- Herz Jesu Church at the Catholic pastoral care unit Bad Rappenau
Coordinates: 49 ° 14 ′ 16.1 ″ N , 9 ° 6 ′ 25.2 ″ E