Heart of Jesus (Elberfeld)

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Heart of jesus

Herz Jesu , also popularly called Nordstadt-Dom , in the Elberfelder Nordstadt in Wuppertal is the third Catholic church in the district, built in the 19th century.

history

The Catholic community planned to spin off new parishes from the Laurentius community for the north and east of Elberfeld, which expanded rapidly in the second half of the 19th century . The St. Mary's Church on the eastern edge of the Elberfeld was planned at the same time as the Sacred Heart of Jesus . The architect August Lange (1834–1883), a student of Georg Gottlieb Ungewitters (1820–1864), who was a famous neo-Gothic and author of a Gothic sample book, was commissioned with the design . After Lange's death, the diocesan master builder Franz Schmitz completed the construction work. Bernhard August Thiel laid in May 1884 during a home visit, the foundation of the church, on September 30, 1886 was carried blessing of the church.

For a long time the church was planned as a neo-Gothic, three-aisled basilica with a three-aisled transept, which is a clear counterpoint to the mostly simple, single-nave Protestant sermon churches in Elberfeld. The nave and choir face northeast. Chapel and sacristy extensions are located in the corners of the cross arms. A slender, pointed octagonal tower is in front of the building in the south-west, the square substructure of which stands at right angles to the street grid, while the cross of the church floor plan takes up the extension of the tower diagonal as the axis of the nave - that is, it is inclined to the streets - thus making optimal use of the rectangular property This enables a church room with places for around 1,000 believers (with no galleries ). The main portal is at the end of the southeast cross arm. A small, slender crossing tower originally rose above the star-vaulted crossing . The four cross arms each consist of two cross-vaulted , narrow rectangular yokes , which approximates the church to a central building, which of course was not functionally implemented by the high altar in the 5/8 choir.

The church is built entirely of brick , only the portals and the pillars inside are made of sandstone . Gothic tracery windows , eyelashes , friezes and buttresses decorate the exterior. Eleven of the original church windows with figurative representations and several windows with graphic patterns were made by the Cologne-Lindenthal glass painting company Schneider and Schmolz . The interior of the church was originally painted.

The church was destroyed by a bomb attack in 1943 except for the outer walls and rebuilt in 1948/49. Another renovation took place in 1970/71, with the altar being installed in the middle of the crossing , encouraged by the Second Vatican Council . A fundamental renovation took place between 2005 and 2007. Inside, a new color design was dared, and outside the joints in the masonry were renewed. The entire neo-Gothic interior is currently being renovated.

Today the Herz-Jesu-Kirche is the parish church in the north of Elberfeld. The churches of St. Maria Hilf in Wuppertal-Dönberg, Christ König , St. Michael and St. Johannes Ev belong to the Sacred Heart Congregation. in Elberfeld. Herz Jesu is also a place of worship for the Croatian Catholics in Wuppertal.

Bells

The renowned Otto bell foundry from Hemelingen near Bremen supplied four bronze bells for the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in 1896. Three of these bells were confiscated and melted down during the First World War; only one bell remained. After the war, Otto delivered two new bronze bells in 1925. These three OTTO bells, together with a bells from Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock (Gescher) from 1962, form today's four-part bell ringing, which is tuned to: c sharp '- dis' - eis '- f sharp'.

literature

  • Klaus Pfeffer: The church buildings in Wuppertal-Elberfeld . Cologne 1980, ISBN 3-88094-301-X .
  • Klaus Goebel , Andreas Knorr (Ed.): Churches and places of worship in Elberfeld . Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-930250-35-7 .
  • Michael Grütering: House of God in the melting pot of cultures. 125 years of the Herz Jesu Church in Wuppertal. Lindenberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89870-654-4 .

Web links

Commons : Church of the Heart of Jesus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kunst-Glasmalerei Schneiders & Schmolz GmbH Koeln-Lindenthal: List of a number of already executed glass paintings together with a few illustrations . Cologne 1902, p. 13 .
  2. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto Glocken - family and company history of the bell foundry dynasty Otto, self-published, Essen 2019, 588 pages, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , here in particular s. 78, 508, 526.
  3. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen. Nijmegen 2019, 556 pages, Diss.Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770, here in particular pp. 97, 474, 488.

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 45.3 "  N , 7 ° 8 ′ 33.2"  E