Baltiysk Church

Coordinates: 54 ° 38 ′ 27 ″  N , 19 ° 53 ′ 29.8 ″  E The church in Baltiysk was originally an Evangelical Reformed church in the city formerlycalled Pillau . It was inaugurated in 1866. The Russian Orthodox Church inwhat isnow Baltijsk has been usingthe building for its servicessince 1992.

The formerly reformed and now Orthodox church in Baltiysk

Geographical location

The Orthodox Church in Baltiysk is located in the south-east of the city between the fortress and the parade ground on Golowko Street, which was used before 1945, next to the former district court, which is still a building. The former Pillau (in the former Fischhausen district ) and today's Baltijsk is the seat of the raion of the same name in the Russian Oblast Kaliningrad ( Koenigsberg area (Prussia) ) and is located in the southwestern tip of the East Prussian Samland and is the end point of the Russian trunk road A 193 (former German Reichsstrasse 131 ) or the Kaliningrad – Baltijsk railway line of the former East Prussian Southern Railway .

Church building

In 1685, the Reformed in Pillau was given the opportunity to use the garrison and city church, which was also the place of worship for the Lutherans . On June 27, 1717, the foundation stone was laid for the construction of a reformed church. The new building erected after a fire in 1761 again belonged to both communities. In 1866 the church was built, which is still preserved in its neo-Gothic style. It is made of red brick and has no tower.

The church was only slightly damaged in World War II . It then served as a warehouse, military store and cinema, but was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992 . The furnishings from the time it was built have been lost, the building has been renovated and equipped with an iconostasis in accordance with the Orthodox conception . Services are held here regularly.

Parish

Reformed

The Reformed Church in Pillau was founded in 1685. The number of parishioners was not very high, in the 1925 census there were 94 Reformed church members in Pillau. The Reformed parishes had merged to form a Reformed church district in Königsberg (Prussia) , which was assigned to the consistory of the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union . As a result of flight and expulsion , church life in the Reformed community in Pillau came to a standstill after 1945.

Today Baltiysk is located in the catchment area of ​​the Evangelical Lutheran congregation in Swetly (Zimmerbude) , a subsidiary congregation of the Resurrection Church in Kaliningrad (Königsberg) in the Kaliningrad provost of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia .

Pastor

Between 1685 and 1945 there were 15 Protestant clergymen in the Reformed community in Pillau.

Abraham Ruets, 1685-1712 Johann Konrad Fischer, 1712–1731 Johann Konrad Frank, 1731–1739 David Herwie, 1738-1775 Claudius Schröder, 1775–1806 Friedrich Ludwig Athenstädt, 1807–1809 Heinrich Ludwig Stuckert, 1809–1831 Johann Friedrich Leopold Gerdien, 1831–1836

Hermann Theodor Heinrich Adalbert Merguet, 1837–1846 Friedrich Hermann Waas, 1846–1876 Eduard Werner Schmidt, 1877–1879 Friedrich Gustaf Adolf Copinus, 1881–1889 Emil Berthold Raimund Fr. Muther, 1889–1896 Karl Robert Martin Barkowski, 1896–1906 Paul Rudolf Gerhard Badt, 1906–1923

From 1923 on, the community was also supplied by Alt Pillau and, after 1929, from Königsberg.

Church records

Some of the church records of the Reformed congregation in Pillau survived the war and are kept in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin-Kreuzberg :

• Confirmations: 1808 to 1888
• Numbers: 1837 to 1876
• Communicants: 1712 to 1793, 1807 to 1876, and 1880 to 1888

Orthodox

The former Reformed Church has been owned by a Russian Orthodox community since 1992. This belongs to the diocese of Kaliningrad and Baltijsk of the Orthodox Church in Russia .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Walther Hubatsch, History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume II: Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen, 1968, page 35
2. ↑ Patrick Plew, The churches in Samland: Pillau
3. ^ Building in Pillau at ostpreussen.net
4. ^ Walther Hubatsch, History of the Evangelical Church of East Prussia , Volume III: Documents , Göttingen, 1968, page 508
5. ↑ Evangelical Lutheran Provosty Kaliningrad ( Memento of the original dated August 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Evangelical Pastors' Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg, 1968, pp. 234–235
7. ↑ Christa Stache, Directory of the Church Books in the Evangelical Central Archives in Berlin , Part I: The Eastern Church Provinces of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , Berlin, 1992³, pp. 91–92