Cross Church (Słupsk)
| Cross Church in Słupsk (Kościół św. Krzyża w Słupsku) |
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 The Evangelical Lutheran Cross Church in Słupsk in 2009 |
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| Construction year: | 1857-1859 |
| Inauguration: | April 28, 1859 |
| Architect : | Karl Pape and Ludwig Hundtesser |
| Style elements : | Neo-Gothic |
| Client: | Evangelical Lutheran (Old Lutheran) Church in Stolp |
| Location: | 54 ° 27 '42.5 " N , 17 ° 1' 57" E |
| Address: | ul.Słowackiego 40 Słupsk Pomerania , Poland |
| Purpose: | Evangelical Lutheran Parish Church |
| Local community: | Evangelical-Augsburg parish in Słupsk |
| Parish: | ul. Krzywa 1 76-200 Słupsk, Pastor Wojciech Froehlich |
| Regional Church : | Diocese of Pomerania-Greater Poland of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland |
| Website: | www.slupsk.luteranie.pl |
The Kreuzkirche in Słupsk (Stolp) in the Polish Pomeranian Voivodeship is an Evangelical Lutheran place of worship from the mid-19th century and stands for Lutheran continuity in Pomerania across population and language changes.
Geographical location
The cruciform church in Słupsk is at the western end of ul. Słowackiego (Grosse Auckerstrasse) No. 40 near the city center. The district town is on Landesstraße 6 ( Berlin -) Stettin - Danzig , former German Reichsstraße 2 (now also Europastraße 28 ) and the state railway line Stargard (Pomerania) - Danzig .
Building history and building description
The foundation stone for the Stolper Kreuzkirche was laid on November 11, 1857 ( Martin Luther's baptism ). The building direction followed the designs of the architects Karl Pape and Ludwig Hundtesser .
Sand-lime brick was used as a building material as a supposedly cheap option that corresponded to the poor situation of the old Lutheran congregation at that time . Several times, however, parts of the shell collapsed. As soon as the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on September 15, 1858 , a large part of the building collapsed in the area of the altar. Burned stones were now used and the church was practically built a second time.
Finally, on April 28, 1859, the church was solemnly consecrated. The west tower was crowned with four small corner points. On the altar stood a crucifix and two candlesticks that Count Einsiedel had given the church. On the north and south sides there were eight windows with Gothic pointed arches and in the interior ten columns supported the high vaulted central roof. The Old Lutherans were not allowed to attach bells and a spire.
For the 75th anniversary of the parish fair on October 14, 1934, the church was thoroughly renovated. It received a new altar made of oak with a relief-like depiction of a lamb carrying the flag of the cross.
The Second World War also took its toll on the Kreuzkirche in Stolp: at Christmas 1944, the congregation celebrated its last service here.
After the church was taken over by the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland , it became a place of worship again in the Lutheran sense, both for newly arrived Polish and for some remaining German parishioners. In 1995 this congregation celebrated the 50th anniversary of the church.
In 2005 the building was completely refurbished and a new organ was inaugurated on September 30, 2007 to mark the 150th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the church.
Parish
After the introduction of the ecclesiastical union in Prussia , people gathered who clung to the Lutheran creed and created a movement that, outside the Prussian regional church, aimed at the continued existence of the Lutheran church. In the rural surroundings of Stolp, this group of people had formed in places such as Versin (now Polish: Wierszyno), Klein Gansen (Gałąźnia Mała) and Reddestow (Redystowo) into a parish in the association of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia , which is independent of the regional church then found its organizational center in the city of Stolp. In 1857 the congregation received its first pastor, who at that time had to look after 644 congregation members (157 of them residing in the city). On August 12, 1857, the community (with the branches in Versin, Klein Gansen and Reddestow) received state recognition.
Soon the small community - after church buildings in Klein Gansen and Versin - also started building its own church in Stolp, which was finally inaugurated in 1859. In 1889 a rectory on Holzstraße (today: ul. Drewniana) No. 4 was built by the now 598 parishioners (175 = Stolp, 166 = Versin, 139 = Klein Gansen, 119 = Reddestow).
During the time of the Third Reich, it was possible to assert oneself in cooperation with the Prussian Regional Church, but in 1945 the community's flight and expulsion came to an end. The rectory burned down when the Russians marched in, while the church was soon taken over by the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland.
The first clergy from this church came to Slupsk in 1947. On the initiative of Jan Posmykiewicz , a Polish- speaking congregation was founded here, initially with 800 congregation members, of which around 300 lived in the city. From October 1947, church services were held again in the Kreuzkirche, later also in German, since the parish (Parafia) Słupsk was geographically as far as Białogard (Belgard an der Persante) , Koszalin (Köslin) , Szczecinek (Neustettin) and Świdwin (Schivelbein ) grew - with still numerous German parishioners. In 1997 the municipality was divided into the two districts of Koszalin and Słupsk. The parish of Słupsk today only includes the subsidiary communities Gardna Wielka (Great Guard) , Główczyce (Glowitz) and Lębork (Lauenburg in Pomerania) . It belongs to the diocese of Pomerania-Greater Poland (official seat in Sopot (Sopot) ) of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland with its seat in Warsaw .
Pastor
Between 1857 and 1945 seven German clergymen of the Old Lutheran Church officiated at the Kreuzkirche in Stolp , and pastors of the Polish Evangelical-Augsburg Church have been active here since 1947:
- Georg Friedrich Haag, 1857–1862
- Hermann Steininger, 1864–1873
- Hermann Martius, 1874–1878
- Heinrich Brachmann, 1878-1892
- Alfred Reuter, 1892–1932
- Gerhard Günther, 1933–1937
- Albrecht Stolle, 1937–1945
- Jan Posmykiewicz
- Otto Maks Cybulla, 1957-1959
- Gustaw Burchart, 1959–1961
- Eryk Smoleński, 1962–1968
- Lucjan Steinhagen, 1969–1971
- Emil Gatner, 1971–1972
- Jerzy Krwaczyk, 1972-1980
- Tadeusz Warczyński, 1980–1981
- Rudolf Mrowiec, 1982-1991
- Mirosław Sikora, 1991–1997
- Marcin Makula, 2002-2005
- Wojciech Froehlich, since 2005
literature
- Karl-Heinz Pagel : The district of Stolp in Pomerania. Evidence of his German past . Lübeck 1989.
- Volker Stolle / Jan Wild: For example Stolp / Słupsk. Lutheran continuity in Pomerania across population and language changes. (Oberurseler Hefte, booklet 36). Oberursel (Taunus) 1998, ISBN 3-921613-36-1 .
