Wooden church misery

The wooden church in Elend is a sacred building in the Elend district of the municipality of Oberharz am Brocken in the Harz Mountains . The church is used by the Evangelical City Parish of Elbingerode. It is considered the smallest wooden church in Germany and was consecrated on June 27, 1897.

Building history and description

The building of the church was mainly financed by donations. In the neo-gothic built style to plans by the architect E. Wernigeröder Niewerth 1896/97, initially lacked tower and apse . Only a turret with a pointed hood had been erected over the west gable. The missing parts of the building could only be added after a donation from the councilor George Schlägel, who was born in misery, in 1904. After that, the church had a floor plan of five by eleven meters. The two-axis, timber-framed half-timbered building has a gable roof, the tower is crowned by an octagonal pointed helmet. The rectangular apse was also provided with a gable roof and is narrower in width than the nave. From 1990 to 1994 the church was completely renovated.

inventory

The altar dates from the time the church was built. It is assumed that it is an Ore Mountains wood carving that is modeled on the altar of the Elbingen town church. The altar hangings with the symbol of God the Lamb also come from the year of inauguration. The altar is rollable and can be rolled back and forth as needed.

Today's pulpit replaced its two-meter-high predecessor in 1908. It is also a woodcut and comes from the workshop of the Hanoverian Wolfgang Petersen. It shows with Peter , Moses and Paul the people from the Bible. The pulpit was founded by the resident Claus Witte.

Claus Witte and his brother Otto Witte also donated the four windows in the nave in 1908. It is lead glazing that shows the four evangelists Luke , Mark , Matthew and John . In the altar window, Christ is depicted with a crown of thorns and tied up. This window was made by the glass painting company Henning & Andres from Hanover after a painting by Peter Paul Rubens and donated by the Spormann siblings from Elend. The windows were restored in 1990.

The organ building company Friedrich Ladegast & Son from Weißenfels built the organ in 1897. The founder was also the Kommerzienrat Schlägel. It is a two-manual instrument with six registers , the disposition of which was changed in the 1950s. It has 400 pipes, the longest of which is 2.60 m and the smallest 15 mm.

The only bell in the wooden church was acquired in 1901 by the town of Elbingerode, where it had previously hung in the church there. The 200 kg bronze bell was cast in 1857 by the Ulrich bell foundry in Apolda / Laucha . It has to be rung by hand.

A radio-controlled, electrically operated clock is installed in the church spire, the four dials of which point in the four cardinal directions. The chime is located on the east side of the tower and sounds every full and half hour.

altar
St. Luke's Window
pulpit
organ

Web links

51.74343 10.6849Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 36.3 " N , 10 ° 41 ′ 5.6" E