Kreuzkirche (Nordhorn)

Kreuzkirche Nordhorn

The Kreuzkirche in Nordhorn is the oldest of the four churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Christians in the county seat of the county of Bentheim and border town to the Netherlands . It is a listed building .

Construction and building history

The Kreuzkirche is a hall with a rectangular choir. The nine-step stepped gables are striking on the outer front and back. A copper-clad roof turret with a narrow spire crowned with a cross serves as a bell house.

The building design comes from government building officer Weinmann from Lingen , the total building costs amounted to 13,500 marks.

On May 26, 1929, the foundation stone for building the church was laid on Jahnstrasse and the corner of Van-Delden-Strasse. On April 6, 1930 the inauguration took place by the Hanoverian regional bishop and abbot of Loccum D. August Marahrens .

When the new Martin Luther Church was inaugurated in the North Horn district of Blanke in 1956, the church was given the name "Stadtkirche" to distinguish it.

In 1962 a major renovation of the interior of the church took place. The previous wooden altar and the angel pictures on the choir wall have been removed. Instead, a cross-shaped mosaic was created on the choir wall , showing the Lamb of God with twelve gates and angels of the heavenly Jerusalem. It was made by Siegfried Steege from Schwarmstedt .

In 1964 the “City Church” was given its current name “Kreuzkirche” after the new Christ Church was built in the Blumensiedlung district and the name City Church now seemed inappropriate.

In 1985 the interior of the church was renovated again with the interior painting as well as the installation of a new heating system and a general overhaul of the Führer organ.

Peal

During the war , one of the two bronze bells was confiscated for war purposes. On February 6, 1952, the church received a replacement: a bell cast in Königsberg (Prussia) in 1710 , which had rung in the village church in Klein Dexen in the Prussian Eylau district in East Prussia (today Russian: Фурманово (Furmanowo) in the Kaliningrad Oblast ) until 1938 . There the church had to be abandoned because of the construction of a military training area and relocated to Stablack (today Russian: Dolgorukowo). The bell had been saved from being melted down during the war and was kept in the bell cemetery in Hamburg .

Church music

Church music enjoys special care at the Kreuzkirche: both the trombone choir (approx. 16 members) and the Lutheran choir (approx. 40 active members) regularly give concerts in the three main Lutheran churches. Oratorios and cantatas are performed as part of a concert or in a church service. This offer is supplemented by organ concerts as well as solo artists and choirs from various spiritual and secular orientations.

The current cantor is Jens Peitzmeier.

organ

On 15 May 1955, the new, from the organ workshop was Alfred leader in Wilhelmshaven built organ of analysis are passed. The instrument has 20 stops on two manuals and a pedal , the playing and stop actions are mechanical.

I main work C– 1. Reed flute 8th' 2. Principal 8th' 3. recorder 4 ′ 4th octave 4 ′ 5. octave 2 ′ 6th Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 7th Mixture IV-VI 8th. Trumpet 8th'

II breastwork C– 9. Dumped 8th' 10. Reed flute 4 ′ 11. Forest flute 2 ′ 12. Sesquialtera II 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 13. Zimbel II 14th Dulcian 8th' Tremulant

Pedal C– 15th Sub bass 16 ′ 16. octave 8th' 17th octave 4 ′ 18th Rauschpfeife III 19th trombone 16 ′ 20th Trumpet 8th'

• Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P

local community

Since the 18th century, a few Lutheran Christians living in the county of Bentheim have been looked after by the parish office in Lingen, where a pastor and an auxiliary chaplain were appointed. On August 25, 1912, the first Lutheran church in the county of Bentheim was built in the city of Bentheim .

Due to the growing number of Lutheran parishioners in the region, which was largely shaped by the Reformed Confession, the official residence of the Lingen auxiliary chaplain was moved to Bentheim in 1914. Lutheran services were held in buildings that were not owned by the church at various locations in the county.

On October 1, 1924, the parish connection between the County of Bentheim and Lingen was dissolved. Two communities were formed in the county: Bentheim (Upper County) and Nordhorn (Lower County). The pastor in charge was the previous curate Paul Trippe, whose official seat was initially in Bentheim. In 1926 a separate pastor's office was set up for the county of Bentheim with its seat in Nordhorn.

While the number of Lutheran Christians was initially manageable, it skyrocketed in Nordhorn and in the entire county after 1945: Thousands of refugees and displaced persons from eastern Germany looked for new homes here. Most of them came from United regional churches with a Lutheran tradition, for which the Reformed religious practice of the Grafschafter remained alien.

The Lutheran regional church office in Hanover acted promptly: between 1945 and 1949, their own pastors were sent, most of whom had also come from the East and were looking for new activities. A second pastor took up his work in Nordhorn and the Kreuzkirche became the mother church of numerous new chapel congregations in the region.

Of the 11,400 Lutherans in Nordhorn today, 5,200 belong to the Kreuzkirche community, which has since received additional church buildings with the Michaeliskirche in Klausheide , the Jochen Klepper House in the Bookholt district and the youth home “Am Strampel”.

The Cross parish is located in the parish of Emsland-Bentheim the Sprengel Ostfriesland-Ems of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover .

Pastors of the Kreuzkirche

1. 1924-1936: Paul Trippe
2. 1937–1946: Eduard Heller
3. 1945–1948: Gottfried Rudolph (parish assistant)
4. 1947–1964: Egbert Zieger
5. 1949–1956: Erich Schwanitz (becomes pastor of the new Martin Luther Church in the Blanke district)
6. 1959–1962: Friedel Hermann Kleinschmidt
7. 1962–1964: Dirk Koller (becomes pastor of the new Christ Church in the Blumensiedlung district)
8. 1964–1971: Werner Stecher
9. 1966–1977: Hans-Gerd Kaul
10. 1972–1986: Hans-Martin Danckwerts
11. 1978-2002: Albert Freese
12. 1987–1988: Udo Löhr
13. 1988–1997: Jürgen Plötze
14. 1997–2002: Christiane Möhle
15. 1999–2009: Marc Blessing
16. 2002–2004: Wiebke Köhler
17. 2002–2004: Dirk Brandt
18. 2004–2018: Christa Olearius
19. 2005 – today: Thomas Kersten
20. 2010 – today: Simon de Vries
21. 2018 – today: Henrike Lüers

Partner communities

• Since the 1950s, the Kreuzkirchengemeinde has maintained a sponsorship and later partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church Community in Olbernhau (Marienberg Church District) of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Saxony .

• In addition, there has been a partnership with the Masawi parish in the Kondoa district in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania for several years .

literature

• Georg Dehio: Bremen - Lower Saxony. Handbook of German Art Monuments. Munich / Berlin, 2nd edition 1992, ISBN 3-422-03022-0
• Where the Lord doesn't build the house ... Evangelical Lutheran Kreuzkirche Nordhorn. (Festschrift for the 75th church anniversary), Nordhorn 2005

Web links

• Site of the Kreuzkirche
• Kreuzkirche (Nordhorn) in the Lower Saxony Monument Atlas

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Kreuzkirche. In: Lutheran in Nordhorn. The church councils of the ev.-luth. Parishes of Nordhorns, accessed on November 29, 2015 . 

Coordinates: 52 ° 26 '4.4 "  N , 7 ° 3' 45.7"  E