Church (Riebrau)
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Riebrau belongs to the Lüchow-Dannenberg parish of the Hanover regional church .
location
The church is located on the outskirts of the village of Riebrau on the K21 two kilometers north of Zernien , the main town of the political community.
history
Before 1541 there was a small chapel on the "Loitzer Berg", the highest elevation in the Göhrde - about halfway between the forester's house Zienitz and the town of Göhrde. Since 1528, with the introduction of the Reformation, Protestant services were held there. Then the Göhrde became the hunting ground of the Dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. The inhabitants of the Göhrdedörfer (Loitze, Sandrock, Lissau, Kroitze no longer exist today) had to leave this area. The chapel was also demolished. The inhabitants of the villages were forcibly relocated. The assigned settlement area is quite dry without artificial irrigation, the soil yields were sparse and Riebrau, the new village, remained a poor settlement for a long time.
In 1541 the chapel was also rebuilt directly outside the Göhrdeforest . The responsible pastor lived in Dannenberg and always came here to serve.
The chapel was almost completely destroyed in the Thirty Years' War . The farms in Riebrau had also been burned down or abandoned. In 1651 the old, destroyed chapel was demolished and in the following years a small church was rebuilt, as was a new rectory. The strange situation arose that the rectory and church were already back in Riebrau, but the other farms were not settled again until up to 100 years later. Many surrounding villages belonged to the parish; Service was already held in Riebrau and Gülden at that time .
In 1734 the old dilapidated rectory was replaced by a new rectory - one of the oldest four-column houses in the district. The house originally had a thatched roof. Otherwise not much has been changed externally to this day. The old beams made of Göhrdeeiche have lasted for over 260 years. The pastor ("Pfarr-Herr") used to be a farmer at the same time, received hardly any salary, but certain taxes from the farms (grain, eggs, meat, etc.) and was allowed to cultivate a large area of land and forest himself.
The present church was built between 1759 and 1763. The royal British bailiff Alexander Heinrich Isenbart (1696–1763) from Hitzacker raised the money for the construction. A document says that even the English crown contributed funds to the construction - Isenbart probably approached King Georg during a hunting visit in the Göhrde . Isenbart was buried in front of the altar, as was his wife later. The tombstones of the two can be seen today on the outside wall of the apse.
In 2000 the church was completely renovated inside and out. The walls became visible again as originally stone and the ceiling was given the original cloudy blue again - the vaulted ceiling always symbolized the open sky at the time of construction. An originally existing star window was reinstalled at the front. The marbling of the wooden columns also follows older findings.
In 2003 an intercession candle chandelier in the shape of a globe was inaugurated. The cemetery at the church is no longer occupied today. The town of Zernien has grown so rapidly with the construction of the railway line since 1920 that it has become too small. The new cemetery is on the outskirts of Riebrau.
Architecture and equipment
The church is a half-timbered church , the half-timbered is built from Göhrdeeiche. The tower is half built into the church. The basic shape of the church is a square (10 by 10 meters) to which half an octagon is attached. The interior has a wooden barrel vault typical of the late Baroque period .
Interior
The interior tried to use simple means to recreate the baroque style of the time. The altar used to be a little further in front, the pulpit was raised behind it - for example behind the cross.
The carved figures probably date from the time when the church was built. Mary , the mother of Jesus, and John , his favorite disciple, stand under the cross of Jesus . John points to the cup in his hand and hands it from the cross to the congregation. The disciple proclaims: "Christ's blood shed for you". To the right of the altar (with latticework) is the sacristy, in front of it the former family chair of the Riebrauer forester. In the chair opposite, on the left-hand side, the church leaders still sit in service today.
organ
The organ in the church in Riebrau was built in 1956 by organ builder Ernst Brand, Quickborn in Holstein. It has three registers on a sliding drawer and an attached pedal. In 2001/2002 the instrument was last cleaned by master organ builder Martin ter Haseborg and its sound was noticeably improved. This small instrument is mainly used to accompany the singing congregation in worship.
The church today
The parish includes 15 small towns in the area. Since 2001 the parish in Breselenz has been connected to Zernien in the pastor's office - the pastor now looks after 31 villages and 5 churches - but a total of only 2100 parishioners. The service takes place in every church approximately every three weeks, more often on the festive days.
The largest place is now Zernien in the middle, which only developed into the center with the construction of the railway line and federal road. But there is no church there, only a rented community room.
Individual evidence
- ↑ D. Mithoff: Lutheran churches and chapels in the principality of Lüneburg . In: Journal of the Historical Association for Lower Saxony , year 1868. pp. 357–376, on Riebrau p. 372.
- ↑ Flyer of the parish for the 250th anniversary of the Riebrau Church.
- ↑ EJZ article on the inauguration after the renovation , accessed on January 29, 2013.
literature
- Sabine Tielker, Michael Gierow: 250 years of the Riebrau Church - finds from two and a half centuries , Zernien 2013
- Ernst-Günther Behn: The Hannoversche Wendland - churches and chapels. Köhring Verlag, Lüchow 2011, ISBN 978-3-926322-50-0 .
- Doris Schmidtke: The churches in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district. in: Klaus Poggendorf (Hrsg.): The Hannoversche Wendland. Lüchow-Dannenberg district (self-published), 3rd edition, Lüchow 1985, pp. 183-189.
Web links
- Entry of the parish on the homepage of the church district
- Parish on the website We-are-Protestant
- List of pastors since 1534
Coordinates: 53 ° 5 '28.63 " N , 10 ° 53' 6.01" E