Church of the Holy Cross (Meiningen)

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Church of the Holy Cross

The Church of the Holy Cross , also called Kreuzkirche , is an Evangelical Lutheran church in the district town of Meiningen in southern Thuringia . It belongs to the parish of Meiningen in the parish of Meiningen the Evangelical Church in Central Germany .

history

The Church of the Holy Cross is the successor to a church hall barrack built in 1952 at Leipziger Strasse 42 in the Nordstadt district. The steady expansion of the city to the north required a new church for the districts of Nordstadt and Jerusalem . The church hall barracks were named after the infirmary church "Zum Heiligen Kreuz" which existed not far from the late Middle Ages and was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War . The church hall barrack was initially considered a temporary measure and was later to be replaced by an appropriate new building.

After the construction of the new church, which began in 1974, was stopped due to local sensitivities, the new Kreuzkirche was finally built between 1975 and 1978 with funds from a construction program financed by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), just under a kilometer away at a new location, also on Leipziger Strasse . 75% of the construction costs were borne by the Württemberg partner church through Limex-Bau Export-Import. During the GDR era, building a new church was a rare occurrence. The architect was Carl Landgraf, and the building supervision was in charge of the church building superintendent, Rolf Wolfram. In 1977 the organ was installed. The consecration took place with a festive service on April 16, 1978. The bell carrier with the bell from the previous building was inaugurated in 1988. From 1993 to 2000 modernization work was carried out and the roof was re-covered with copper plates. The Kreuzkirche is used in particular for church services for the Christians living in the surrounding districts, for confirmations and youth services and as a meeting place for different cultures.

Building

Bell bearer

The Church of the Holy Cross is located in the Nordstadt district not far from the Jerusalem district near the federal highway 19 . The exterior, simple building, corresponds to the GDR style of the 1970s, provided with large windows with square concrete bars on the west side. The windowless north side is adorned with a large copper cross and the entrance door has a cross of nails, both created by Meiningen's art blacksmith Klaus Tenner. Inside the church offers space for 150 people. The artistic design of the sacred furnishings in wood and copper was carried out by Elly-Viola Nahmmacher from Greiz . The altar wall is provided with natural stone panels and seven candle holders in the form of torches. She has dedicated the front of the altar to the theme of “Walking People of God”. The symbols of the Trinity God the Father , Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are attached to the pulpit . Christ is represented both as crucified and resurrected from an atomic nucleus, increasing larger than life.

The bell hangs outside the church building in a bell stele that is modeled on the bell stele of the Reconciliation Church in Gotha- West. The bronze bell with a diameter of 60 centimeters has the tone of it and was in 1646 by Jacob Koignen in Erfurt for the Church in Behrungen cast. In 1952 she came to Meiningen and was hung in a roof turret of the church hall barracks. The rededication took place on the 4th Advent in 1988. The church also has a sexton's apartment. In 2004 and 2005 the building was renovated.

See also

Web links

Commons : Church of the Holy Cross  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The church on www.kirchenkreis-meiningen.de. Retrieved April 21, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b c Lexicon on the history of the city of Meiningen. Bielsteinverlag, Meiningen 2008, p. 131.

Coordinates: 50 ° 35 ′ 10.3 ″  N , 10 ° 24 ′ 40 ″  E