Johanneskirche (Eickel)

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Johanneskirche (from the main street)

The Johanneskirche in Eickel is a neo-Gothic church of the Evangelical Parish of Eickel named after Johannes the Baptist .

The old Johanneskirche

Before the Johanneskirche was built, there was a late Romanesque village church on the Eickeler Markt, the beginnings of which date back to the 14th or 15th century. After the Reformation , the originally Catholic church was assigned to the Protestant community. The church has been rebuilt several times over the centuries. After hand-width cracks had appeared in the tower masonry since 1774, the tower was demolished in 1778 due to its dilapidation and completely rebuilt from 1780 to 1784. In 1867 the spire was "45 feet high with a cross 10 feet high". At that time the church offered "700, admittedly very cramped seats". In addition, the Gothic cross vault of the sacristy was converted into a simple beamed ceiling in 1842.

Information board at the Eickeler Markt

On the north side of the church was the Dorneburg burial chapel, the ground floor of which served as a prayer chapel above the crypt. There was, among other things, the tomb of Conrad von Strünkede - "The huge monument made of Baumberger sandstone is one of the most important grave monuments in Germany of the early 18th century" and was created by Johann Wilhelm Gröninger .

In 1887 the presbytery decided to build a new church. On the one hand, the old church was no longer sufficient with the increasing number of parishioners and, on the other hand, its structural condition was declared inadequate. The old Johanneskirche was demolished in 1890/91. The grave monument of Conrad von Strünkede was sold to the Märkisches Museum in Witten for 1,000 marks . The baptismal font, dating from 1650, was given to the Wanne-Süd parish (now the Wanne parish of Matthew) and is now in the Twelve Apostles Church.

Today there is an information board donated by the SPD -Ortsverein Eickel in 1998 at the Eickeler Markt, which among other things also refers to the history of the old Johanneskirche.

history

Building history

View from the southwest

Immediately after the decision to build a new church, the parish of Eickel acquired a plot of land on Bismarckstrasse (today Richard-Wagner-Strasse). However, the new church could not be built at first, as the authorities described this place as unsuitable because of the mining operations beneath it. The decision to build the new church on the old church square had already been taken before an agreement was reached with the mining company Hannibal on July 20 and 24, 1889 . The congregation there agreed to wait four to five years before rebuilding the church - by then enough time would have passed since the coal under Bismarckstrasse had been completely dismantled. The mining company provided the community with an emergency church to be built by it free of charge and contributed 8,000 marks to the construction costs of the planned new building. On May 5, 1890, after the last service in the old Johanneskirche, a procession to the emergency church took place, which was used by the congregation as a place of worship until 1896.

On May 23, 1895 the foundation stone of the new church was laid. According to the plans of the architect Gerhard August Fischer ( Barmen ), it was completed in just under a year and a half and inaugurated on December 10, 1896 by the general superintendent Gustav Nebe . He brought an altar bible given by Empress Auguste Viktoria with the saying Mk 13.31 EU written in it by her own hand . The cost of the new building with inventory amounted to 210,000 marks. After its completion in 1896, the Johanneskirche was 20 meters wide, 34 meters long and offered space for 1,200 people. The tower was 52 meters high.

Furnishing

In the Johanneskirche there was an organ with two manuals and 34 voices from the workshop of the court organ builder Wilhelm Sauer . The high altar with a representation of the Ascension of Christ was adorned with a painting by Erwin Küsthardt with the title "Peace be with you". The pulpit was donated by the Hülsmann couple, the owners of the Hülsmann brewery . Opposite the pulpit was the font. The wording of the children's gospel (Mk 10.14 EU ) is engraved on the silver baptismal bowl, which was donated in 1896 by the former Engeling family .

In 1914 the Johanneskirche received an electric lighting system and an electric organ drive. Since two of the three bronze bells cast by the Munte bell foundry in Witten in 1896 had to be delivered for armaments purposes during the First World War, three cast steel bells were purchased by the Bochum Association in 1919 . The third bronze bell that the community was allowed to keep was sold to the community of Langschede-Dellwig for 8,000 marks. In 1926 a new heating system was installed. A year later the church was renovated and completely painted by church painter Hans Berg (Dortmund).

The destruction of the church tower on September 12, 1944

The first air raid in broad daylight with a focus on Eickel, Röhlinghausen and Bickern began on September 12, 1944 at 1:50 p.m., lasted twenty minutes and claimed 37 lives. During this attack, a bomb hit the tower of St. John's Church, which was torn down to the foundation walls. The organ on the gallery belonging to the structure of the tower was also totally destroyed, leaving a huge hole in the nave on the west side. Two of the three bells that Pastor Herbert von Stockum had placed on the western side of the church were recovered from the rubble with excavator shovels. The third bell could later also be recovered during clean-up work. Incidentally, the church ruins were left to their fate until the end of the war.

Reconstruction after the war

View from the south of the transept and apse

At the end of the war, the number of parishioners had dropped to around 6,100. Young people in particular helped clear up the rubble and rebuild. On Sunday, April 14, 1946, the first church service with confirmation by Pastor Hans Mühle in the Johanneskirche could take place in a makeshift nave .

On November 1, 1952, the congregation was able to celebrate a festive service on the occasion of the reconstruction of the church tower. The ceremonial sermon was held by Joachim Beckmann , who later became the President of the Rhenish Church , whose father was a pastor in Eickel from 1900 to 1934. The new church tower, which is clad with Ruhr sandstone , was planned by the architect Willi Wallmeier ( Wanne-Eickel ). The three bells stored on the west side of the church could be reinstalled.

The carillon

In the slender bell cage under the onion dome placed on the massive tower shaft there is a carillon consisting of 14 bells , which was given to the community by the Glockenspielverein Eickel eV and has been operated mechanically by means of a roller since Advent 1957. Twice a day, different melodies from the Evangelical Hymnbook (EG) sound from the church tower .

The new organ

Many members of the congregation signed a list of house collections in order to have the organ destroyed in the war back. In the late 1950s, for example, a new organ could be purchased for 80,000 DM . The organ building workshop EF Walcker & Cie. (Opus 3772) built organ with two manuals and 28  registers was heard for the first time on the 4th of Advent 1959 in a service. Since then there have been regular organ concerts in the Johanneskirche. At this point in time, the structural requirements for an extension to include a Rückpositiv have already been met. 30 years later, the presbytery decided to tackle this expansion. In addition to the addition of a Rückpositiv, a technical and tonal reconditioning of the entire organ was necessary.

The Hinrich Otto Paschen workshop in Kiel was commissioned with the work . The organ got a new console, the action was revised, old registers were re-voiced, the reed registers replaced, the prospectus redesigned and finally the back positive added. In February 1994 the work on the organ, which now has 35 stops on three manuals and pedal , was completed.

The sanctuary

In the 1960s, the sanctuary with its three columns on each side was redesigned as a new picture window was installed above the altar. This picture window with pointed arch made of lead glass, installed by the company Grönegräs from Eickel, shows the "light from above" in a very abstract way. Since the new altarpiece was pulled deeper into the sanctuary and a new marble altar was erected, the old altarpiece by Küsthardt was attached to the right side wall.

The bronze relief

Mirror-inverted miniature version of the bronze relief at the entrance

On the left side wall there has been a bronze relief since December 1988, which is a reference to the namesake of the church. It shows the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The relief is a work by the artist Heinrich Brockmeier from Recklinghausen . In addition, a mirror-inverted miniature version hangs to the right of the entrance to the church.

Modernization and restoration since 2011

In 2011 the Johanneskirche was extensively renovated and comprehensively modernized. In nine months the interior design, lighting, heating and thermal insulation of the church were brought up to date. The church rooms were repainted, a lighting concept based on LEDs was developed, the insulation of the outer shell was reinforced and the heat supply was renewed. The technical concept for the renovation and renewal was developed by the engineering and planning office Gertec in Essen . The church is now heated by means of a combined heat and power system . In addition to these measures, which the municipality expects to reduce both carbon dioxide and energy consumption, investments have also been made in event technology. A four-meter-wide motor-driven screen, which lies on the floor behind the altar in the parking position, can now be pulled up and extended if necessary. The sound technology should enable optimal hearing, especially for older people: Not only conventional loudspeakers are used, but digital sound systems that are matched to the room reverberation of the church. Due to this equipment, the Johanneskirche has established itself as a venue for concerts of all kinds. The Norwegian duo Garness played the first major concert after the modernization of the church on December 2nd, 2011.

With the restoration of the baptismal font in spring 2012 and the pulpit in March 2014, the renovation of the interior of the Johanneskirche was completed.

Web links

Commons : Johanneskirche (Herne)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Horst No: Eickel. From the year 774 to modern times . Wanne-Eickel 1965, p. 39.
  2. ^ Heinrich Lührig, Peter Zimmermann: Eickel. A home book in pictures . Herne-Eickel, Bochum 1982, p. 24.
  3. ↑ Johannes Daniels, Julius Beckmann: History of the Evangelical Church Community Eickel . Wanne-Eickel 1927, p. 163.
  4. ↑ Johannes Daniels, Julius Beckmann: History of the Evangelical Church Community Eickel . Wanne-Eickel 1927, p. 164.
  5. ^ Heinrich Lührig, Peter Zimmermann: Eickel. A home book in pictures . Herne-Eickel, Bochum 1982, p. 24.
  6. ^ Streets in Herne ( Memento from January 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 7, 2018.
  7. ↑ Alexander von Knorre: The family grave monument Conrad von Strünkede zu Dorneburg in Witten and its model, the grave monument of Jobst von Strünkede in Herne. In: Yearbook of the Association for Local and Local History in the Grafschaft Mark , Volume 88. Witten 1990, p. 20 f.
  8. ↑ Johannes Daniels, Julius Beckmann: History of the Evangelical Church Community Eickel . Wanne-Eickel 1927, p. 167.
  9. ^ Frank Sichau : The Johannes Church in Eickel . In: Society for local history Wanne-Eickel eV (Ed.): Sacred buildings and religious art in Wanne-Eickel and Herne. (= Der Emscherbrücher ) Herne 2000, pp. 29–32 (for this p. 30).
  10. ↑ Friedhelm Degenhardt: The Twelve Apostles Church of the Evangelical Church Community Wanne-Süd . In: Society for local history Wanne-Eickel eV (Ed.): Sacred buildings and religious art in Wanne-Eickel and Herne. (= The Emscherbrücher ) Herne 2000, p. 28.
  11. ↑ Johannes Daniels, Julius Beckmann: History of the Evangelical Church Community Eickel . Wanne-Eickel 1927, p. 167 f.
  12. ↑ Gustav Hegler: Eickel tub then and now. History of the parishes of both offices. Siegen 1903, p. 67.
  13. ↑ Johannes Daniels, Julius Beckmann: History of the Evangelical Church Community Eickel . Wanne-Eickel 1927, p. 170.
  14. ^ The art for everyone , 16th year 1900/1901, p. 531.
  15. ↑ Johannes Daniels, Julius Beckmann: History of the Evangelical Church Community Eickel . Wanne-Eickel 1927, p. 170 f.
  16. ↑ Wolfgang Berke (Ed.): Night over Wanne-Eickel. Diary of a city. Essen 2005, ISBN 3-89861-474-3 , p. 84.
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Berke (Ed.): Night over Wanne-Eickel. Diary of a city. Essen 2005, ISBN 3-89861-474-3 , p. 86.
  18. ↑ Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Eickel (Hrsg.): 400 years Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Eickel 1577-1977. Herne 1977.
  19. ^ Frank Sichau: The Johannes Church in Eickel . In: Society for local history Wanne-Eickel eV (Ed.): Sacred buildings and religious art in Wanne-Eickel and Herne. (= The Emscherbrücher ) Herne 2000, p. 32.
  20. ↑ . House releases, company EF Walcker & Cie 26/1961, page 50. (PDF file, 14.1 MB) as of November 1, 2012.
  21. ^ Opus list from EF Walcker Orgelbau GmbH ( MS Excel ; 1.3 MB) Status: November 1, 2012.
  22. ^ Stiftung Forschungsstelle Glasmalerei Status: October 15, 2012.
  23. ^ Frank Sichau: The Johannes Church in Eickel . In: Society for local history Wanne-Eickel eV (Ed.): Sacred buildings and religious art in Wanne-Eickel and Herne. (= The Emscherbrücher ) Herne 2000, p. 31.
  24. ↑ In praise of the new lightness on www.derwesten.de , accessed on October 15, 2012.
  25. ↑ Johanneskirche in Eickel shines in new splendor Status: October 15, 2012.
  26. ↑ Johanneskirche Eickel project completed  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Status: October 15, 2012.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.medientechnik-ruhrgebiet.de  
  27. ↑ WAZ: Garness concert in the Johanneskirche Status: October 15, 2012.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 51.3 "  N , 7 ° 10 ′ 41.9"  E