Johannes Bugenhagen Church (Kerpen)

Johannes-Bugenhagen-Church, Kerpen-Blatzheim

The Johannes-Bugenhagen-Kirche is a Protestant church in Blatzheim , a district of Kerpen in the Rhein-Erft district . Together with the Johanneskirche in Kerpen, it belongs to the Evangelical Church Community of Kerpen, which was formed in 1974 through a spin-off from the Evangelical Church Community of Kerpen-Brüggen . The church building essentially consists of a tetrahedron , into which a small entrance area leads.

history

The Johannes-Bugenhagen-Kirche was built in 1966 after an architectural competition. The relatively small Protestant community in Blatzheim, where only three Protestant families lived until the end of the Second World War, was enlarged to almost 370 community members in Blatzheim and the associated towns of Bergerhausen and Niederbolheim due to the influx of refugees after the war . Services were initially celebrated in a private house, later in the local Catholic Gertrudis monastery, while parish ceremonies were carried out in Brüggen.

Until the early 1960s, the then parish of Kerpen / Brüggen grew to over 2,300 parishioners, so that the presbytery considered expanding the Johanneskirche. In 1961, however, this church was placed under monument protection, which made expansion difficult. As an alternative, a separate church was to be built in Blatzheim, for which an architectural competition was announced, which was won by the Cologne architect Helmut Wolfram . He was commissioned to build the church in 1964, the foundation stone was laid on April 3, 1966 and the namesake, the Pomeranian reformer Johannes Bugenhagen, was laid down during the construction period . When choosing a name, the homeland of the parishioners from Pomerania , who represented a large part of the evangelicals in Blatzheim, should be remembered . The church was consecrated on November 27th, the 1st Sunday in Advent.

architecture

The architect Helmut Wolfram designed the church building with about 100 seats as a large tetrahedron . He wanted the building to be based on the metaphor of God's tent among the people , which in the book of Exodus (40.1 EU ) accompanied the people of God wandering through the desert and which John believed he had seen in a vision that he believed was the literary form of a Apocalypse gave (21.3 EU ). The free point is oriented to the east, on the opposite side of the base he built a narrow, rectangular structure which, in addition to the entrance area, also contains a small community room.

While the base side is completely covered with metal panels, the other two surfaces in the lower area have transparent panels up to the parapet height, which allow light to enter. Just below the top of the structure, it has sound openings for the bell chamber behind it. In the interior, the structural elements of the superstructure form triangular cassette patterns made of horizontal and diagonal beams. The altar is built in the center and surrounded on three sides with stalls.

literature

• Helmut Fußbroich, Günther A. Menne, Christoph Nötzel (eds.): Johann-Bugenhagen-Church. In: Fußbroich et al .: Evangelical churches in Cologne and the surrounding area. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2007, pp. 264-265, ISBN 3-7616-1944-8 .

Web links

Commons : Johannes-Bugenhagen-Kirche (Kerpen)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Evangelical parish Kerpen

Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 10.8 "  N , 6 ° 38 ′ 18.1"  E