Ludwig Church (Bad Dürkheim)

Catholic parish church of St. Ludwig

St. Ludwig, Bad Dürkheim
Basic data
place	Bad Dürkheim, Germany
Building history
architect	Johann Bernhard Spatz
construction time	1828-1829
Building description
Architectural style	classicism
Coordinates 49 ° 27 '45 "  N , 8 ° 10' 9.5"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 27 '45 "  N , 8 ° 10' 9.5"  E

The parish church of St. Ludwig in Bad Dürkheim was built according to plans by Johann Bernhard Spatz between 1828 and 1829 in the classical style. It was renovated again in the 1970s and in 2008 due to heavy interior pollution and other defects. The church belongs to the parish of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Bad Dürkheim , which was created in 2015 by amalgamating the previous five parishes of the parish community Bad Dürkheim.

Building stock

Altarpiece by Paul Thalheimer , crucified criminal with the facial features of Adolf Hitler

It is an east-facing , classicist hipped roof building with seven window axes, portico and tower with gallery attached to the east. The interior is modern. The construction of the church is related to the re-establishment of a catholic church, which took place for the first time after the Reformation. Parish in Bad Durkheim, 1828 and was largely through a 1827 by King Ludwig I in the whole Kingdom of Bavaria advertised collection financed. In addition, the ancient St. Peters Church in Pfeffingen , which serves as the main church for the Dürkheim Catholics, was given up and sold along with the rectory and grounds.

Altarpiece

In 1938/39 the artist Paul Thalheimer (1884–1948) made a monumental crucifixion mural in the choir room. As an opponent of Hitler, he portrayed the Chancellor as one of the criminals who died with Jesus on the cross. The painting has been preserved to this day and is one of the city's special rarities. Strangely enough, it was not objected to during the Nazi era.

Bells

The church has four bells that were cast by Hamm from Frankenthal in 1954 :

1. Christ König , 1380 kg, strike tone c sharp ¹ , largest bell in town.
2. St. Josef , 1040 kg, strike tone dis ¹
3. Sta. Maria , 720 kg, fis ¹
4. St. Michael , 510 kg, g sharp ¹

The bells F sharp and D flat are connected to the clock. The former strikes the quarter of an hour, the latter the hours. After Uhrschlag ringing bell 3 at 12:00 fis ¹ , at 18:00 bell 2 dis ¹ .

All bells hang on yokes cranked by the height of the crown in a steel bell chair and have Omega chimes HEW from 1954. The cranking had to be carried out for reasons of space, but had no sound losses.

organ

The organ was built in 2010. It replaces an instrument that was built by Walcker in 1959 and had 31 registers on three manuals with a pedal . It was last heard on September 28, 2008. After that it was dismantled because of its bad condition and sold to Poland.

View of the organ

The new organ was built by the organ building company Matz & Luge (Rheinmünster). The instrument has 28 registers on 2 manuals with pedal and a glockenspiel. The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3 Bourdon 16 ′ Principal 8th' Gamba 8th' Reed flute 8th' Dolce (from c) 8th' octave 4 ′ Hollow flute 4 ′ Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Super octave 2 ′ Mixture IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Cornett III 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Trumpet 8th' Glockenspiel (c 0 –f 2 )

II Swell C – g 3 Salizional 8th' Lovely Gedackt 8th' Bifaria 8th' Flauto amabile 8th' Fugara 4 ′ Transverse flute 4 ′ Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Piccolo 2 ′ third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ Progressio III 2 ′ oboe 8th' Tremulant

Pedal C – f 1 Violon 16 ′ Sub bass 16 ′ Octave bass 8th' Flood bass 4 ′ trombone 16 ′

• Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P

Individual evidence

Ludwigskirche from the west, with facade

1. ^ Handbook of the Diocese of Speyer , Speyer, 1961, p. 131
2. ↑ Profile. In: www.kath-kirche-bad-duerkheim.com. Retrieved October 9, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Michael Frey : Attempt at a geographical-historical-statistical description of the royal Bavarian Rhine district , Volume 2, Speyer, 1836, p. 404 u. 405; (Digital scan)
4. ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung München , supplement to no. 280, of October 7, 1827, p. 1120 of the year; (Digital scan)
5. ^ Franz-Josef Wittkampf: Hitler depicted in the crucifixion scene , in: Der Pilger , No. 1, from January 8, 2017
6. ↑ English website with a picture of the painting
7. ↑ Large image of the mural (Hitler on the left edge of the picture as crucified)
8. ↑ Information on the organ

Web links

Commons : Ludwigskirche Bad Dürkheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the parish of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Bad Dürkheim