Johanneskirche (Kerpen)

The Evangelical Johanneskirche from 1854 in Kerpen is one of the oldest diaspora churches in the formerly purely Catholic area around Cologne . It is a listed building.

The Johanneskirche

View to the apse of the church

Church history

Kerpen, an enclave in the area of Kurköln and belonging to the Catholic Duchy of Brabant , remained purely Catholic until the time of Prussia . The first evangelicals are Geusen who had fled from the Netherlands and the little church was also called dat Klümpche after their Klompen . Only the Prussians sent Protestant officials to their newly acquired territories. The mayor of Kerpen was evangelical. In addition, trade and industry emerged, such as the Kerpener stocking factory JJ Heick with Evangelical owner. Around 40 Protestants lived in Kerpen in the middle of the 19th century. They were looked after by the Evangelical Church and Community of Frechen from the more tolerant Duchy of Jülich . In 1852 influential Protestant citizens asked the municipal council whether a Protestant church service could be held every 14 days in the parish hall. This was sharply and clearly rejected in the local council meeting on April 3rd. “... The Kerpen citizenship is Catholic as long as Kerpen exists and hopes to stay that way. Kerpen has been faithful to his faith through the centuries, and thank God! no apostate is known yet. Because the Kerpen citizenship is Catholic, it must also reject any other so-called Reformed Christianity and may and will therefore not encourage any foreign faith or its services. "The Catholic mayor Schoengen, who did not want to support this foreseeable decision, presided over the Municipal council handed over to his deputy Dominick. Thereupon, Johann Josef Heick, with the support of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk established shortly before (at that time still Gustav-Adolf-Stiftung), raised a donation of around 2000 Taler , with which the building of his own church was started in 1853, and with a gift of grace from König Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Over 1,000 thalers, which was approved on June 12, 1854. The funds were sufficient for the construction and equipment of the organ from the Ehrenfried Leichel company from Duisburg (1859) and two steel bells from the Bochum Association . The church was inaugurated on August 9, 1854 in the presence of the general superintendent of the church province of Rhineland Georg August Ludwig Schmidtborn and the Kerpen mayor Alexander Wolff. At the same time, the first parish vicar for Kerpen and Bergheim, Cornelius Schwabe, was introduced into his office.

The church district continued to be managed responsibly by Frechen and remained the same small for the next few decades. Evangelical journeymen came to the Kolping city occasionally . The lignite industry grew in the Horrem and Brüggen districts . A church building was built in Horrem in 1925 ,] and in 1928 the Kerpen-Horrem parish was founded. At the beginning she was still connected to Frechen as a pastor, that is, the pastor of Frechen was also chairman of the presbytery of the new congregation. The Lukas Church was consecrated in Brüggen in 1937 . Service took place in the morning in Horrem and in the afternoon alternately in Kerpen and Brüggen. After the church was built and the end of the Second World War , a separate parish was founded in Brüggen, which - due to the church struggle and the consequences of the war - only became independent from Frechen on July 1, 1949 with its own pastorate. It included the villages of Brüggen, Balkhausen, Türnich, Mödrath , Kerpen, Blatzheim (with Bergerhausen) and Niederbolheim . In 1969 the district of Kierdorf was incorporated, which until then belonged to the parish of Liblar . Since a number of refugees from the east had settled in Blatzheim, the religious community had the Johannes Bugenhagen Church , named after the reformer of Pomerania , built there in 1966 . Kerpen (together with Blatzheim) had a good 3200 Protestant Christians when Kerpen became an independent parish on January 1, 1974 and the parish districts of Kerpen, Blatzheim, Bergerhausen and Niederbolheim were parished out of Brüggen.

Building description

The church, set back from the escape of the Filzengraben, is free. It is not noticeable in residential areas due to its small size. The single-aisled , gable - independent brick building facing the street is 12 meters long and 8 meters wide. A semicircular apse adjoins the west. The slate roof is crowned by a turret with two bells. The sound holes reflect four times the side windows of the building. The roof turret has a cross, a weather arrow and a weathercock at the top. Pilaster strips and a circular arched frieze are attached as external architectural decoration. The side walls each have two high arched windows . In the apse, two further windows illuminate the chancel. The apse and the entrance gable each have a round window. A colored wooden door with coffering, above it a semicircular arch with rosette bars as in the round gable window forms the entrance to the Filzengraben on the east side. In 1965 the old sexton's house behind the church was demolished and a community center was built in its place. In 1968 a sacristy was added .

The interior of the church is kept simple. In the apex of the choir is - typical for Reformed churches - the pulpit towering . The organ gallery above the entrance was originally supported by two pillars. During the last renovation in the 1990s, the gallery was expanded and supported with an iron beam.

Furnishing

The bells in the original equipment were exchanged after 150 years in 1984 for two bronze bells made by the bell founder Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock .

The organ by Ehrenfried Leichel was completely overhauled in 2008 and got an additional separately installed pedal unit . It is a listed building and is probably the only largely preserved work by Leichel.

literature

• Frank Kretschmar: Churches, monasteries and chapels in the Erftkreis , Cologne 1984
• Frank Kretschmar: Churches and places of worship in the Rhein-Erft district . Cologne 2005. ISBN 3-7616-1944-8
• Susanne Harke-Schmidt and others: 150 years of Klümpchen, on the history of the evangelical communities in the city of Kerpen , publisher: Verein der Heimatfreunde Stadt Kerpen eV (contributions to Kerpen history and local history, Volume VII), Kerpen 2004

Web links

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

• Community history on evangelisch-in-kerpen.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ s. Literature and book announcement of the Rhein-Erft-Rundschau from April 27, 2004.
2. ↑ according to history, ev. Gem. Brüggen
3. ↑ According to section "History" (1) of the Kerpen parish website (date of foundation wrong, however)
4. ↑ Article at kirche-koeln (archive) from May 24, 2008 ( memento of the original from November 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Organ page of the community

Coordinates: 50 ° 52 ′ 11 ″  N , 6 ° 41 ′ 27 ″  E