Liebfrauenkirche (Goch)
The Liebfrauenkirche is one of the three Roman Catholic churches in the city of Goch on the lower left of the Lower Rhine. It was consecrated in 1933 and profaned on November 22, 2009 by decision of Bishop Felix Genn .
history
The number of parishioners grew noticeably at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1927, the pastor Brimmers announced the need for another church for Goch. The church council finally decided in 1932 to build the Liebfrauenkirche. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on 22 May 1932. After topping on 14 September 1932, the church was completed in 1933 and on 30 April 1933 consecrated . Until 1940 was Liebfrauen rectory , then the self-created parish of Our Lady with Ferdinand Zumegen as the first pastor. During the Second World War , the Liebfrauenkirche was initially used as a school, as the Gocher schools served as a hostel for soldiers. As a result of a state ordinance from 1940 on, Corpus Christi , parish and Kevelaer processions were also prohibited. However, the desire for common prayer was so strong that the believers made a pilgrimage in small groups to Kevelaer and in 1944 even a Corpus Christi procession took place on the church premises. On September 30, 1944, the church was badly damaged by air mines in a triple air raid. The destruction was so great that masses were only held in the crypt .
In January 1945 the priests of the Liebfrauenkirche were expelled from Goch by a police order and the church building was made available to the Waffen-SS as an ammunition store. In a major attack by allied air forces, the city was in ruins; However, the Liebfrauenkirche got away with comparatively little damage. Only when German paratroopers finally blew up the church on their retreat did the tower collapse.
After the war, the first services were celebrated as early as August 1945 with up to 500 people in the cellar. Later this room became the Liebfrauen library. The Liebfrauenkindergarten was also housed there until 1968. In the 1980s the church was completely renovated. A new organ has adorned the Liebfrauenkirche since its inauguration on April 13, 1997, it had 1296 pipes and 20 registers , distributed over 2 manuals and pedal . Even after the profanation, there are occasional musical performances here, as the church has good acoustics .
Current situation
After the merger of the Gocher parishes, the church belonged to the St. Arnold Janssen parish. The profanation of the Church of Our Lady took place against the declared will and after partly public protests of the affected believers on November 22, 2009, the festival of Christ the King .
In the meantime, all movable objects and furniture have been removed from the church. The sacred works of art have mostly found a new place in the other two churches in Goch, the relatively new organ (built in 1993) was sold to Herten-Langenbochum. Some of the pews were set up in the nave of the parish church of St. Maria Magdalena.
The future of the church building itself is still unclear. According to press reports, an appraisal drawn up in 2009 puts the value of the building including the surrounding property at around € 800,000.
In terms of canon law, the parish in Goch is the owner of the building, but since any further use is subject to the approval of the diocese of Münster, the future of the Church of Our Lady will be decided by the episcopal administration. The diocese originally intended to lease the church building to the Klever Hospital Society, which wanted to set up and operate a senior citizens' home in the premises. Since the Liebfrauenkirche has meanwhile been placed under monument protection at the request of some parishioners , the associated requirements make it no longer economical to carry out the considerable renovations required for a retirement home. A move of the Goch city library to the former church was already decided in 2012 when the library temporarily moved into the former premises of the Röchling car dealership.
The concept of a district center with a variety of cultural uses, which was brought up and supported by the community base, was rejected by the diocese of Münster due to doubts about the financial feasibility.
In 2015 the conversion to a refugee home is planned. [outdated]
See also
Web links
- Homepage of the community of St. Arnold Janssen Goch
- Documentation and memory of the Liebfrauenkirche
- 75 years of the Liebfrauenkirche - for the 75th anniversary of consecration on April 30, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ The End of Liebfrauen. (No longer available online.) In: RP Online . November 23, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved November 29, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Information on the organ. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 29, 2014 ; Retrieved November 19, 2014 . 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.
- ↑ Established: Church is worth 800,000 euros. (No longer available online.) In: RP Online . November 23, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved November 29, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Thomas Claassen: Goch: Library moves into the Röchling dealership. rp-online.de, January 26, 2012, accessed on April 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Refugee home in the Liebfrauenkirche. Retrieved September 17, 2015 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 46 ″ N , 6 ° 9 ′ 51 ″ E