Norkitten Church

The Norkitten Church ( Russian Кирха Норкиттена ) was an elongated-oval brick building from the beginning of the 18th century and until 1945 a Protestant church in what is now called Meschduretschje in the former East Prussia . Today only ruins remain of the church .

Geographical location

Today Meschduretschje between Snamensk (Wehlau) and Chernyakhovsk (Insterburg) on the Russian highway A 229 (former German national route 1 , nowadays European route E28 ) and belongs to Swobodnenskoje selskoje posselenije (Town Swoboda (Jänischken , 1938-1946 Jänichen) ) in Chernyakhovsk district ( Insterburg district ) in Kaliningrad Oblast ( Koenigsberg region (Prussia) ). The place is a train station on the Kaliningrad – Nesterow railway line (Königsberg – Stallupönen / Ebenrode) , a section of the former Prussian Eastern Railway . The location of the church is in the middle of the village.

Church building

Soon after the Reformation was introduced, Norkitten was given a Protestant church. A Lutheran clergyman was already in office here in 1540. A weather vane installed later was dated 1609. In 1730 the tower collapsed on the nave during a heavy thunderstorm and destroyed the building.

It was Prince Leopold Maximilian von Anhalt-Dessau (son of the "old Dessauer" Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau ) who had a new church built in Norkitten between 1731 and 1733. Following the example of George Church in Anhalt Dessau a plastered emerged elliptical building of brick , which are thoroughly restored in 1746 already had. The church tower was destroyed during the Seven Years' War and completely demolished in 1761. He found a replacement in a half-timbered belfry standing apart .

The interior of the church was kept very simple with two semicircular galleries. Altar and pulpit from around 1760 formed a whole. The font and organ were more recent. Two church bells rang in the belfry.

The church was badly damaged in World War II and was then left to its fate. Your current condition is desolate. In the overgrown environment, only parts of the outer walls are still standing today; there were roof beams before 1997.

Parish

There has been a parish in Norkitten since the Reformation . The church patronage was noble and was incumbent on the princes of Anhalt-Dessau and Anhalt (last until 1945 Joachim Ernst von Anhalt ) as owners of the estates Norkitten, Schloßberg (today Russian: Botschagi) and Paradeningken (1938 to 1946: Paradefeld, today Russian: Trjochdworka ).

The extensive parish comprised 24 places in which in 1925 a total of 4,200 parishioners lived. It was part of the church district Insterburg in the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union .

Because of the flight and expulsion of the local population as well as the restrictive religious policy of the Soviet Union , church life in Norkitten broke off after 1945.

It was not until the 1990s that an Evangelical Lutheran congregation was formed again in Meschduretschje . It is a subsidiary of the Chernyakhovsk church region in the Kaliningrad provost of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia .

Parish places

The parish of the Norkitten church included 24 locations (* = school locations):

Surname	Change name from 1938 to 1946	Russian name		Surname	Change name from 1938 to 1946	Russian name
Burkdorfshöhe				Schlossberg		Botschagi
Daupelken		Iswilino		Schönfeld
* Big Bubainen	since 1928: Waldhausen	Berezhkovskoye		Schwägerau		Saovrashnoye
* Groß Jägersdorf		Motor buoy		* Stuttgart		Winogradnoye
Hopfenau				Szaluppchen
Cossacks		Kosakovo		* Uderballen	Otter's cheeks	Iswilino
Kutkehmen	since 1928: Pregelau	Ushakovo		Uszbundszen	since 1928: Eichenstein	Voronovo
Mangarves		Priwalowo		Waldhausen		Pastuchowo
Metschullen	Lehwald	Motor buoy		Wenskowethen
Dairy stall				* Wiepeningken	since 1928: Staatshausen	Podgornoje
* Norkitten		Meshdurechye		* Worpillen		Voronovo
Paradeningken	Parade field	Trjochdworka		Woynothen	Small kittens	Schljusnoye

Pastor

From the Reformation until 1945, a total of 20 evangelical clergymen officiated at the Norkitten church:

• NN., From 1540
• Laurentius Willenberg, 1547
• Ambrosius Dryskiss, 1550–1552
• Hader Pfaff, from 1551
• Hieronymus Beitner, 1554–1564
• Valentin Pusch, 1577–1583
• Ambrosius Krause, until 1617
• Johann Weigand Günthersdorf, 1618–1660
• Christian Walther the Elder Ä., 1649-1679
• Johann Richovius, 1681–1695
• Friedrich Christoph Rabe, 1695–1720
• Christian Melchior Rhode, 1720–1755
• Carl Friedrich Jordan, 1755-1803
• Friedrich Wilhelm Jordan, 1797-1845
• Julius Adolf Teschner, 1844–1867
• Johann Eduard Siebert, 1867–1890
• Wilhelm John, 1890–1928
• Franz Birken, 1928–1934
• Friedrich Mickwitz, 1935–1938
• Guido Brutzer, 1937–1945

Individual evidence

1. ^ The church in Norkitten at ostpreussen.net
2. ↑ Walther Hubatsch , History of the Protestant Church of East Prussia , Volume II: Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen, 1968, page 103, fig. 450 and 451
3. ↑ Picture of the Norkitten church ruins before 1997
4. ↑ Picture of the church ruins from 2010
5. ↑ Picture of the church ruins from 2010
6. ↑ Кирха Норкиттена The Norkitten Church at prussia39.ru
7. ^ Walther Hubatsch, History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume III: Documents , Göttingen, 1968, pp. 481–482
8. ↑ 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. (Russian German) 
9. ↑ Walther Hubatsch, as above, Volume III, page 482
10. ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor's Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg, 1968, page 104
11. ^ Teschner (1810–1867) was a member of the Corps Masovia .

Coordinates: 54 ° 37 '  N , 21 ° 31'  E