Petersdorf Church (East Prussia)

The church in Petersdorf ( Russian Кирха Петерсдорфа ) in East Prussia was a plastered field stone building from the 14th century. From the Reformation to 1945 it was a Protestant church for the parish of Petersdorf (now Russian: Куйбышевское) in the Wehlau district . Today only the ruins of the tower and the remains of the east gable remain of the building .

Geographical location

Kuibyshevskoje is located northeast of the former district town of Znamensk (Wehlau) on the Russian trunk road A 229 (former German Reichsstrasse 1 ). The village with currently 223 inhabitants is a settlement in the rural community Sorino (Poppendorf) in Gwardeisk district ( Tapiau district ) in the Russian Oblast Kaliningrad ( Koenigsberg area (Prussia) ). The nearest train station is Znamensk on the Kaliningrad – Nesterow railway line (Königsberg – Stallupönen / Ebenrode) . The church ruins are in the middle of the old village.

Church building

The Petersdorfer church is originally a plastered, choirless field stone building, probably from the last quarter of the 14th century. The building has a beautiful east gable that has been preserved to this day. The west tower, now in ruins , was built in the 15th century. The founding of the church dates back to around 1368, when the Supreme Marshal of the order gave the faithful Maschwarde the place called Heroldisdorf at the time .

In the church interior, the basket arch ceiling was painted around 1700 and supplemented in the 19th century. There are still traces of medieval paintings on the walls. The altar was a processing of the late Gothic shrine in the church of Alt Wehlau (today Russian: Prudnoje), which was probably closed in 1534. Baroque trimmings and a crucifixion painting adorned it. The pulpit , galleries as well as jubilee and baptismal angels come from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The organ was supposedly built by Mosengel in 1743. The church had three bells.

The structure survived the Second World War undamaged. However, it was then not used and was left to decay. The ruins that still exist suggest an impressive church building. A Russian cross placed in front of the church walls suggests a transfer to the Russian Orthodox Church .

Parish

Church history

The foundation of a parish in Petersdorf goes back to around 1368. Already in the pre-Reformation period, the parish developed significantly after the arrival of the Reformation by 1945 into the largest parish in terms of area in the Wehlau district . In 1925 the parish had 3,897 parishioners who lived in 32 parish towns. Until 1945 Petersdorf was incorporated into the church district Wehlau (today Russian: Snamensk) in the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union .

Because of the flight and displacement of the local population and the anti-church efforts of the Soviet Union , all church life in Kuibyshevskoye came to a standstill. Today the place is in the catchment area of ​​the Evangelical Lutheran congregation in Talpaki (Taplacken) , a subsidiary congregation of the Resurrection Church in Kaliningrad (Königsberg) in the Kaliningrad provost of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia (ELCER).

Parish places

Up to 1945 32 villages were parish into the parish of Petersdorf (* = school location):

German name	Russian name		German name	Russian name
Agnesenhof	Nesterovskoye		New Weissensee
Fire paints	Brody		Oppen	Prigorki
Eduardshöhe			* Petersdorf	Kuibyshevskoye
Götzendorf	Detskoye		* Partners	Krasny Jar
* (Large) Weissensee	Bolshie Gorky		Pettkuhnen	Dalneje
Grünwalde			Reichenhof	Balashevskoye
Gudlacken			Ripkeim
Iodeics	Meshdulessye		* Sandits	Lunino
Kawerninken , 1938–1946: Kawernicken	Odesskoye, now: Olchowka		Stobingen	Liwny
Klein Weißensee	Malyje Gorki		* Taplacken	Talpaki
Ringtone	Radolnoye		Trakischkehmen, 1938–1946: Kleintraschken
* Kolm	Wereschagino		Trakischken, 1938–1946: Großtraschken
Nalegau	Amurskoye		Wattlau
Naukel	Meshdulessye		* Wilkendorf	Orechowo
Nehne			Wilkendorfshof	Tamanskoye
New Petersdorf			Wilkenhöhe

Pastor (1528–1945)

From the Reformation to 1945 there were 22 pastors as Protestant clergy:

• Sebastian Hoffman, 1528-1530
• Adam Groß, 1530-1534
• Bartholomäus Lorips (Sunday?), 1559–1562
• Bonifatius Rodau, 1562–1580
• Urban Oehlert, 1580-1616
• Balthasar from the greening forest, 1616–1650
• Georg Sannius. 1650-1680
• Johann Gottfried Rußwurm, 1680–1684
• Gottfried Steinfeldt, 1684–1722
• Christian Hein, 1722-1749
• Varl Gottsched, 1749–1786
• Gottlieb Theodor Scheller, 1786–1809
• Carl Friedrich Venzky, 1810-1827
• Carl Friedrich Doerk, 1827-1870
• Heinrich Adolf Frachet, 1870–1887
• Wilhelm Leopold KG Stengel, 1887–1898
• Hermann Heinrich Ernst Fauck, 1898–1913
• Paul Rudolf Müller, 1913–1927
• Herbert Kriwath, 1929-1934
• Jahannes Carl J. Zachau, 1935–1939
• Wilhelm Sauermilch, 1940–1945
• Herbert Hohendorf, 1943

Church records

From the church records of the parish Petersdorf survived the Second World War and are kept in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin-Kreuzberg :

• Baptisms: 1844 to 1944, lists of names 1723 to 1913
• Weddings: 1844 to 1944, directory of names 1827 to 1944
• Burials: 1844 to 1944, directories of names 1827 to 1913,

as well as a special list of the fallen from 1914 to 1915.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Petersdorf picture gallery with pictures of the church from the time before 1945
2. ↑ Walther Hubatsch , History of the Protestant Church of East Prussia , Volume II: Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen, 1968, page 83, fig. 326 and 327
3. ↑ The east gable as it is today
4. ↑ The ruined tower
5. ^ Kuibyschewskoje - Petersdorf at ostpreussen.net
6. ^ Walther Hubatsch, History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume III: Documents , Göttingen, 1968, page 475
7. ↑ 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. (German Russian) 
8. ↑ Walther Hubatsch, as above, Volume III, page 475
9. ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor's Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg, 1968, p. 109
10. ↑ Frachet († 1889) was a member of the Corps Littuania .
11. ↑ 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. 90–91

Coordinates: 54 ° 38 ′ 38.2 "  N , 21 ° 16 ′ 43.7"  E