Heiligenkreutz Church (East Prussia)

Historical view of the Heiligenkreutz church

Heiligenkreutz, north of Fischhausen and not far from the Samland amber coast, on a map from 1910.

The Heiligenkreutz Church was a Protestant church in the Samland village of Heiligenkreutz until 1945 (today Russian: Krasnotorowka, in the Zelenogradsk district of the Kaliningrad Oblast ). It was a brick building , the beginnings of which went back to the year 1353, of which today only a few remains of the wall are left.

Geographical location

Krasnotorowka is located in the northeast of the Samland Baltic peninsula on the Russian highway A 192 , 36 kilometers northwest of the city of Kaliningrad (Königsberg) . The church stood in the south-western part of the village in a significantly elevated position, although the few remains of the wall are still hidden under an irregular pile of rubble.

history

The Heiligenkreutz Church was founded in 1353 by the Samland bishop Jacobus to eradicate the last remnants of paganism in the region.

Church building

The church in the former Heiligenkreutz was a brick building on a stone foundation with a square tower and a just closed choir. Its oldest parts date from the middle of the 14th century, when a chapel was built here - mentioned in a document on December 24, 1353 - which was then also a pilgrimage church for a long time .

A wooden ceiling arched over the middle of the nave and ran flat over the side galleries. Only in the choir have remains of the original vault been preserved. Numerous additions and alterations damaged the balanced spatial character of the church. Remains of medieval wall paintings were found under the plaster of the choir .

Most of the furnishings still in existence in 1945 came from the 17th century and were probably installed after a fire in 1767. The original pulpit altar was replaced around 1900 by a separate altar and pulpit. In 1786 the galleries were moved into the nave, and in 1832 the church received an organ . In 1869 the building was expanded. The bells were from 1789 and 1839.

The church survived the world wars in the 20th century unscathed. After 1945, however, it was misused as a leisure clubhouse and quickly fell into disrepair due to a lack of structural maintenance. In the late 1960s, the building fell victim to a fire, presumably by arson. The remains of the ruins were torn off. A few remnants of the wall remained, hardly to be discovered under a pile of rubble.

Parish

Heiligenkreutz has been a church village since 1353. According to legend, the first Christian cross in Samland was erected here on an old Prussian sanctuary . The Reformation found its way here early on. In 1554 and 1567 the parish Heiligkreutz was named as belonging to the diocese of Samland , in 1720 it was assigned to the archpriesthood of Fischhausen (today in Russian: Primorsk) and from 1789 to 1854 it belonged to the Fischhausen inspection. Before 1945 the parish of Heiligkreutz was incorporated into the parish of Fischhausen within the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union . In 1925 there were 2,850 parishioners.

Since 1913 there was in the parish of Groß Kuhren (today Russian: Primorje) with finches (Molodogwardeiskoje) on the northern Baltic Sea coast a newly built branch church.

Parish places

The wide-ranging parish of the Heiligenkreutz parish church included 22 parish locations in addition to the parish:

German name	Russian name		German name	Russian name
Old cat germ	Tolbuchino		Klein Kuhren	Filino
Nodding	Jagodnoye		Klycken	Klyukvennoye
Bieskobnod	Okhotnoye		Circle paints	Bakalino
Birkenhof			Mandtkeim	Maiski
Breast place	Mayak		Marches	Marjinskoye
Finches	Molodogwardeiskoje		New cat germ	Barkassovo
Great Dirschkeim	Donskoye		Nod	Prislovo
Groß Kuhren	Primorye		Shells	Orechowo
Grünwalde			Cheek nod	Yantarowka
I nod	Sarajevo		Wilhelmshorst
Cat germ	Storoschewoje		Woydiethen	Listowoje

Pastor

Protestant clergy at the Church of Heiligenkreutz:

Caspar Sander, 1525–1569 Bartholomew Sunday, 1569–1570 Laurentius N., 1570-1588 Adam Zahn, 1588-1601 Michael Benicius, 1601-1612 Paul Rhige, from 1612 Georg Ditzel the Elder Ä., 1619-1652 Georg Ditzel the Elder J., 1652-1658 Johann Chr. Rehefeld the Elder Ä., 1659-1688 Johann Chr. Rehefeld the Elder J., 1688-1698 Johann Christoph Beyer, 1698–1712 Georg Friedrich Johansen, 1712–1740 Christian Theophil Geier, 1741-1742

Johann Bernhard Suchland, 1742–1752 Johann Dietr. Gottfried Miri, from 1752 Johann Joachim Dickow, 1776–1780 Johann Friedrich Halter, 1781–1799 Christian. Benjamin Dietrich, 1799-1818 Johann Zancharias Hoffmann, from 1819 Carl Ludwig Hendewerk, 1843–1872 Carl Ferdinand Rockel, 1873–1885 Eduard Carl Roloff, 1885-1894 August Chr. David Brenner, 1895–1899 Georg Wilhelm Henkys, 1900–1916 Ewald Ernst Edelhoff, 1916–1929 Georg Henkys, 1929–1945

In 1929 the future pastor, professor of theology, hymn poet and translator Jürgen Henkys was baptized in the church of Heiligenkreutz .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Max Toeppen : The last traces of paganism in Prussia. Using some handwritten sources . in: Prussian provincial sheets . Volume 2, Königsberg 1846, pp. 331-344, in particular pp. 340-341.
2. ↑ Walther Hubatsch, History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume II: Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen, 1968, page 33, Fig. 39
3. ↑ Krasnotorowka - Heiligenkreutz at ostpreussen.net
4. ↑ Patrick Plew, The Church in Heiligenkreutz
5. ↑ Krasnotorowka - Heiligenkreutz at ostpreussen.net (as above)
6. ↑ Data based on Walther Hubatsch, History of the Evangelical Church in East Prussia , Volume III: Documents , Göttingen, 1968, pages 403, 406 and 417
7. ↑ Walther Hubatsch, History of the Evangelical Church of East Prussia , Volume III: Documents (as above), page 454
8. ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg, 1968, page 52

Coordinates: 54 ° 53 ′ 44 ″  N , 20 ° 1 ′ 7 ″  E