New Home Church (Emden)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Neue Heimat church in Emden belongs to the Evangelical Reformed Church . It was built in the post-war period as a replacement for the destroyed inn church and put into use on March 31, 1957.

history

In 1938 the Emden Gasthauskirche burnt down

Until the Second World War, the ecclesiastical life of the Reformed Community of Emden took place in the three inner-city churches, although the buildings had long since reached beyond the wall. It is true that after the First War the need for construction for the north of Emden and Harsweg was seen when massive apartments were built up to the barracks. A plot of land on Geibelstrasse was examined. The architects Arthur Risius drew up a building design in November 1938, but this was not carried out due to the economic crisis and the Nazi era. In 1938 the Gasthauskirche burned down, in 1943/1944 the Great Church and New Church were destroyed. Soon after the war, the latter could be rebuilt with the help of Swiss and US congregations - the Swiss church served as a replacement building for the Great Church. The city of Emden acquired the area of ​​the Gasthauskirche. For some years no new buildings could be realized. For a few years, the northern part of the community could use the YMCA barrack on Schillerstrasse. With 3200 parishioners, there were 150 church and children's worship attendees each in 1953, as well as 80 confirmands and 80 pre-confirmants. During community evenings, “the hall was often full to the last seat.” All of this, although “the barracks were by no means inviting and the access was very poor,” as the church council wrote to the regional church in Aurich.

The barracks became more and more dilapidated, even if the floor was repaired with the help of young men in the fall of 1952. But as early as May 1953 the church council wrote that entire floorboards threatened to break through, so that a new community center had to be built. At the end of 1954, the church council determined that the barrack was completely abandoned and that the construction of the parish hall had to start in 1955.

Naming

For years there has been no uniform designation in the protocols. There you will find the designation “community center” or “church (in the) new home” or “on Bolardusstrasse”; But the church master Grabe once spoke of a "chapel". A resolution on the naming of the church Neue Heimat cannot be found. The name probably caught on by itself.

Planning time

In January 1953, planning began for an entire complex with a church, rectory, youth rooms, kindergarten and two sexton's apartments. At the suggestion of the regional church council, the building officer Müller-Stiller in Leer was asked for a draft. The church council sent an application for aid to the regional church with a very detailed justification.

On February 2, the church council appointed a building commission with the following members: Richard Harders, Egon Risius, Jannes de Boer, Peter Bakker, Kirchmeister Grabe and the senior building officers Beck and Snitjer. This probably also included the church council chairman and district pastor Brunzema.

In March 1953, the building design for the church was ready and the building commission presented three Emden architects to the building council for construction management. He initially hesitated to choose one of the three and finally commissioned the Janssen and Latta office in November to revise the design and to manage the site. For financial reasons, the planned aisle and one of the two tower floors were omitted. An exit with a vestibule in the area of ​​the pulpit was also not implemented - the intended opening can still be seen in the outer wall on the street.

financing

The financing of the church building was uncertain for two to three years, although the building site was secured by an exchange with the city (part of the hospital property) and the community received a designated amount of DM 40,000 as an insurance benefit (devalued by the currency reform) for the inn that burned down in 1938 -Church decreed. According to the first plan for the church and youth room, the costs of 170,000 DM were to be distributed as follows: fire fund 40,000, community 10,000, loan 50,000 and aid 70,000 DM from the regional church. What is striking is the very low own contribution by the municipality in addition to the fire insurance sum, which turned out to be unenforceable. In September 1953, President Fokken from the regional church office declared that regional church funds could not be expected in the foreseeable future, and in May 1955 he said that the construction should not cost more than 150,000 DM. The church council reacted by increasing the parish share to 20,000 DM after a church building association had been founded. A revised financing plan failed due to the cancellation of the Swiss aid organization, since the Swiss Church and New Church had already received decisive support from Switzerland and the USA.

At the end of 1953, the architect Janssen submitted four designs for the church with costs of 107,000 to 220,000 DM. The church council was unanimous in favor of design II (153,000 DM), which the regional church council also unanimously approved. Although the funds were not paid until late 1955 or early 1956, the call for tenders took place in June 1954.

Now there was a stronger commitment on the part of the Emden community and the church building association. The community's funeral association approved a loan of DM 7,000. The building sites at Bolardusstrasse 16 and 18 were sold. The church building association raised 23,860 DM by September 1956 and earmarked 15,000 DM for the church building and the rest for the furnishings. A house collection around February 1955 brought in a further DM 5,009.94.

The final invoice for 1957/1958 showed DM 165,696.43, still without the organ , which was ordered in June 1957. The community from the collection of the church building association should contribute to the costs of 4,200 DM with 3,000 DM. On September 8, 1958, however, the church council decided: “The order to build an organ in the Neue Heimat church is to be changed so that the Ahrend and Brunzema company in Leer delivers an organ for the Swiss church. The plan to build an organ in the church Neue Heimat remains in place. ”In the spring of 1957 the congregation bought a harmonium for 800 DM for this church, which they had to make do with for several years. In 1966 the Alexander Schuke company built a positive organ with six registers on a manual and pedal .

In April 1958, the regional church council determined total costs of 186,000 DM. Fire fund and community raised 78,000 DM. The church deferred DM 25,000 because the congregation urgently needed the money to build the kindergarten.

The construction of the church

On September 22, 1955, the regional church council in Aurich approved the construction of the church and requested the submission of the tender documents. The most important work was commissioned on January 6, 1956. If construction begins immediately, the shell including the roofing should be in place after twelve weeks. Twenty weeks were allotted for the entire completion. October 21 was targeted as the date of the inauguration, but it could not be kept. Only on February 18, 1956, the building permit was granted by the city. The shell of the rectory and church was finished in May. Since the church had not been completed by the end of the year, it was to be used in an unfinished state with a sermon by the state superintendent Herrenbrück (senior) on the 4th of Advent. But that didn't happen either.

On September 2, the church master drove forward the glazing of the windows. He wrote to Glashütten: “We need 100 square meters of new antique glass in a gray color as quickly as possible. We would be grateful for an immediate offer stating the shortest delivery times ”. Two days later he asked for offers for 250 chairs with hat racks, “specifying the shortest delivery time.” Another seventy chairs had been reordered by mid-March. Corner cabinets for the tower room, 15 folding table benches, 100 more chairs and even the Lord's Supper table will only follow after the inauguration, well into 1958.

On March 31, 1957, the church was solemnly used with a festive meeting at 8 p.m. State Superintendent Herrenbrück and President Fokken were present.

Pastors in the Barenburg-Harsweg district

  • 1935–1964 Gerhard Brunzema
  • 1964–1970 Udo Groenewold (introduced in 1965)
  • 1970–1981 Berthold Schröder (1970–1973 as vicar and pastor collaborator)
  • 1974–1998 Hans-Jürgen Lukait
  • 1982-2004 Reinhard Hendricks
  • 1999–2008 Martin Hinrichs
  • 2010–2013 Manfred Meyer
  • 2015–2016 Angelika Schmidt
  • vacant since 2016

literature

  • Christian Züchner: About times and spaces. From the history of the Ev.-ref. Municipality of Emden. Gerhard, Emden 1997, ISBN 3-88656-020-1 .
  • Christian Züchner: Room for the surprising. Contributions from the New Church. Self-published by the building association Neue Kirche Emden, Emden 1999, ISBN 3-00-003817-5 .
  • Ev.-ref. Community of Emden, 50th anniversary of the New Home Church, Emden 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wir in Barenburg , Issue 16, March 2007: The Neue Heimat Church is 50 years old , p. 2, accessed on June 27, 2018 (PDF).
  2. ↑ Eiwin Scholl: The building history of the church Neue Heimat. Emden 2007.
  3. ↑ Ralph Nickles: Organ inventory of the Krummhörn and the city of Emden . Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-929902-62-1 , p. 496 .
  4. ↑ Christian Züchner: About times and spaces, From the history of the Ev.-ref. Municipality of Emden. Emden 1997.

Coordinates: 53 ° 22 ′ 5.4 "  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 38.6"  E