Goldbach Church (East Prussia)
The Goldbach Church ( Russian Кирха Голдбаха ) in the East Prussian district of Wehlau was a hall building made of field stones and bricks dating back to the 14th century and was fundamentally restored in 1706. Until 1945 it served as a Protestant church in the settlement known today as Slawinsk in the Russian Oblast Kaliningrad ( Koenigsberg area (Prussia) ).
Geographical location
Today's Slavinsk is located on the Russian highway R 512 approximately in the middle between the Rajons capital Gwardeisk (Tapiau) and Polessk (Labiau) . Both cities are also the nearest train stations on the Kaliningrad – Nesterow (Königsberg – Stallupönen / Ebenrode) - former Prussian Eastern Railway - for onward travel to Lithuania and the Russian heartland or Kaliningrad – Sowetsk (Königsberg – Tilsit) . Until 1945 Goldbach was a train station on the Tapiau – Labiau railway on the Wehlau – Friedlander Kreisbahnen .
The location of the church was on a slight hill in the middle of the old village, which can still be seen today.
Church building
The Goldbach church was a hall building with a tower in front and was made of field stones and bricks. The strong walls suggested that it had its origins as a fortified church . The founding of the building goes back to the beginning of the 14th century.
A major restoration was carried out in 1706. In this measure, those responsible ran out of money. There were legal disputes with the handicraft businesses, which concluded a judgment of the Higher Appeal Court in Königsberg (Prussia) . A financial donation from a royal casket alleviated the financial misery, which lasted even longer and could only be ended with funds from King Friedrich II and a collection in all East Prussian churches.
The interior of the church was covered by a flat wooden ceiling. The pulpit altar in the center was a subsequent combination of the altar made around 1672 and the pulpit made by Christian Klodssey around 1685 . A baptismal angel and a confessional also came from Klodsey’s workshop. It is not possible to say with certainty whether he was involved in the making of the crucifix in front of the pulpit altar.
The organ , inaugurated in 1859, came from the Scherweit workshop in Königsberg (Prussia) . The bells bore the casting years 1741 and 1848.
The Goldbach Church survived the Second World War unscathed. In the following period it was misappropriated and used as a warehouse . In the 1970s it began to decline when the roof collapsed and large parts of the masonry were stolen from the nave. What is left today is the tower as a ruin without a roof and some wall fragments.
Parish
Goldbach was already a church village in the pre-Reformation period. In 1404 a pastor appeared in the files for the first time. The Reformation gained a foothold here quite early, so that a Lutheran cleric was already serving here in 1527 . Until 1945 the parish Goldbach with its 32 parish places belonged to the church district Wehlau (today Russian: Snamensk) in the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union . In 1925 the parish had a total of 3,000 parishioners.
Due to flight and expulsion as a result of the war as well as restrictive measures in the Soviet era , the Protestant church life in Goldbach and Slavinsk came to a standstill.
It was not until the 1990s that new Evangelical Lutheran congregations emerged in the Kaliningrad Oblast . Slavinsk lies in the catchment area of two such communities: Gwardeisk (Tapiau) in the south and Turgenewo (Groß Legitten) in the north . Both are branches of the Church of the Resurrection in Kaliningrad (Königsberg) in the Kaliningrad provost of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia .
Parish places
The parish Goldbach included to 1945 a total of 32 cities and smaller centers (* = school places):
| Surname | Russian name | Surname | Russian name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adamswalde | Little Koew | |||
|
Augstuphnen , 1938–46: Uderhöhe |
Demidowo | Small Kuglack | ||
| Garbeningken | Klein Uderballen, 1938–46: Kleinudertal |
Talalichino | ||
| * Goldbach | Slavinsk | Lischkau | Jastrebki | |
| * Large Fritschienen | Ostrikovo | * Moterau | Sabarje | |
| Groß Grünlauken | Perkeisten | Nakhimovo | ||
| Great Keylau | Poddubnoye | * Perkuiken | Nakhimovo | |
| Great lock | Perpolken | Belowo | ||
| Great Koew | Sovkhoznoye | Roddau | Nakhimovo | |
| Big Kuglack | Yassenskoye | Rosenfelde | ||
| * Groß Uderballen , 1938–46: Großudertal |
Demidowo | Rosenwalde district of Labiau | ||
| Heinrichshof | Plodovoye | Schönbruch | ||
| Carpau | Jarki | Szillenberg, 1936–46: Schillenberg |
Lukjanowo | |
| Small Fritschienen | Ostrikovo | Szillenbruch, 1936–46: Schillenbruch |
Kostyukovo | |
| Klein Grünlauken | Wekowoje | Wilhelminenhof district of Wehlau | Nakhimovo | |
| Klein Keylau | Wilmsdorf | Ramenskoye |
Pastor
From the time of the Reformation until the end of the war in 1945, the pastors in Goldbach officiated as Protestant clergy:
|
|
Church records
Some church records from the parish of Goldbach have been preserved and are now stored in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin-Kreuzberg :
- Baptism documents: 1842 to 1863, directories of names 1801 to 1845
- Wedding documents: 1842 to 1857, directories of names 1801 to 1857
- Funeral documents: 1842 to 1872, lists of names 1801 to 1847.
References
Individual evidence
- ↑ picture of the church (before 1945)
- ↑ picture of the church ruins (current)
- ↑ Walther Hubatsch , History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume II: Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen, 1968, pages 82 to 83, Fig. 319
- ^ Slawinsk - Goldbach at ostpreussen.net
- ↑ Harry Schlisio, Die Goldbacher Kirche , in: Goldbach, a village in East Prussia , pages 15 to 20
- ↑ Patrick Plew, The churches in Samland: Goldbach
- ^ Walther Hubatsch, History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume III: Documents , Göttingen, 1968, page 475
- ↑ Harry Schlisio, parish Goldbach , in: Goldbach, a village in East Prussia , page 11 to 14
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Walther Hubatsch, (as above), Volume III, page 475
- ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor's Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg, 1968, page 44
- ↑ Christa Stache, Directory of the Church Books in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin , Part I: The Eastern Church Provinces of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , Berlin, 1992³, Seute 47
Web links
- Harry Schlisio, Goldbach, a village in East Prussia . Goldbacher Chronik, Volume 1 (PDF; 6.2 MB)
- Кирха Голдбаха - Goldbach Church at prussia39.ru
Coordinates: 54 ° 45 ' N , 21 ° 5' E