Luther Church (Barmen)
The Luther Church is a Protestant church on Oberen Sehlhofstraße am Heidt in the Heckinghausen district of Wuppertal . As Lutherkirche Heidt , it is one of the last two remaining preaching sites of the Evangelical parish of Gemarke-Wupperfeld in Barmen after the closure of the Alte Wupperfeld Church and the Hatzfeld Church .
The church is one of the most striking buildings on the Barmer Südhöhen. Due to the typical hillside location of the church, its tower can be seen from afar from the valley. The church is under monument protection , as is the immediately adjacent parish hall and the rectory , which each have their own monument number.
Building description
The church corresponds to the type of a neo-Romanesque - neoclassical hall church . The 30 meter long nave and the choir face west. On the north side of the ship there is a transept-like extension, the width of which corresponds to two bays . On the east side of the nave, the galleries dominate a covered entrance area, which can be entered from the north with a staircase and from the south at ground level. The tower is crowned by a gold-plated ball on which a cross with a spear and hyssop stands. This should refer to John 19 : 28-34 LUT and is also used in this representation in the seal of the church that was used until 2008. The 46 meter high church tower is in front of the church on the north side, the tower entrance is adorned with a mosaic by Gustav Wiethüchter with the portrait of Martin Luther and the song verse "A strong castle is our God". That song verse is intended to indicate the intended “ castle-like ” effect of the church, which results from the two gables down the valley and the crenellated steps on all gables. This impression is reinforced by the rusticated stone in the basement, on the building edges and on the window frames.
The fifteen meter high interior is made entirely of in-situ concrete . The coffered ceiling, which was painted light from the start, was intended to create the impression of a “friendly” and open church space in conjunction with the light colors of the church windows, especially the west and east rosette . The triumphal arch that marks the transition between the church hall and the choir was originally designed with colorful art nouveau painting, which was not restored after the Second World War. The painting was dominated by the quote from Psalm 36,10 LUT “With you is the source of life and in your light we see the light”. The pews are arranged asymmetrically and allow 900 visitors to attend the service. The arrangement also allows for a closer congregation in the nave itself when there is less crowds.
Bells
The bells are made of cast steel and were manufactured by the Bochumer Verein in 1911 . At that time, the bell of the Luther Church was the first bell of its kind in Wuppertal and, unlike the bronze bells customary at the time, did not have to be given in the Second World War due to the material used. The entire bell cage has been preserved almost unchanged today, the bells themselves are the oldest steel bells still in use in all of Wuppertal.
| Chime | Diameter (mm) | inscription | Caster | Casting year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a ° | 1870 | A Mighty Fortress Is Our God | Bochum Association | 1911 |
| c¹ | 1580 | The Lord is my power and my psalm and my salvation | Bochum Association | 1911 |
| it¹ | 1320 | The word you should let stahn | Bochum Association | 1911 |
Motif: diminished triad / tritone
history
planning
Due to the constant growth of the Lutheran parish of Wupperfeld , a separate parish was created for the Heidt in 1887 , whose members met regularly from June 16, 1901 in the rented church hall at Albertstrasse 10, which was completely overcrowded almost every Sunday because the parish of Wupperfeld was meanwhile open 42,000 members had grown. The still young parish of Heidt was split into a north and south part to facilitate pastoral work, with the northern part of Heidt being designed as an auxiliary preacher district. In 1906, it was decided to build a new church between the St. John's Church , which was destroyed in the war, and the Fischertal street , precisely at the intersection of the northern and southern districts . The personal commitment of Kirchmeister Geß enabled the approval of a presbytery resolution for the simultaneous construction of a rectory and an extensive complex of buildings for parish work. As early as February of that year, a loan of 300,000 marks was decided on from the Barmer Sparkasse and the property on Oberen Sehlhofstrasse was purchased.
An architectural competition among architects from the Rhine Province , the Province of Westphalia and the Grand Duchy of Hesse was announced for the building designs . Requirements included at least 750 seats, a third of which in galleries, a church tower and a two-story rectory with nine bedrooms and a kitchen and four to five rooms on the top floor. Separate specifications were made for the parish hall, including two large halls, two confirmation rooms with space for school desk seating and the necessary ancillary rooms, a sexton apartment and a living room and three bedrooms for deaconesses. The prize money was 5,500 marks. A total of 98 designs were submitted. The design with the motto "In the cityscape" by the architect Ernst Müller in Mülheim am Rhein won 1st prize . However, the commemorative publication of 1911 reports that the building commission did not find any of the submitted designs "immediately suitable for execution". Only Müller's design was felt to be the most appropriate due to its "overall layout" of the building ensemble consisting of the rectory, church and parish hall. However, since Müller's still young age was seen as an obstacle to the professional execution of the building, a second, narrower competition between the two successful Barmer architects Wilhelm Werdelmann (who had won 3rd prize in the first competition) and Peter Klotzbach was based on Ernst Müller's Draft hosted. The design by Wilhelm Werdelmann prevailed.
construction
Implementation encountered initial problems right from the start. According to an initial cost statement, the originally planned 300,000 marks were not enough, and the community members had to be asked for donations. Additional funds were also borrowed, which, however, was not easy due to the rise in interest rates at the time. Nevertheless, Kirchmeister Geß managed to organize enough funds for the construction projects on the Heidt and a community hall in the Friedenskirche district without the church tax , which was then still independently set by the communities, having to be raised by even one percent. The groundbreaking ceremony was done in March 1909 , but the foundation stone was only laid after the vaulted cellar had been completed. The reasons for this were the terrain softened by bad weather conditions and the impassability of the construction site. As a result, the foundation stone is not hidden in the ground, but can still be viewed openly under the altar today. The inscription reads "By Faith Alone - March 24, 1909".
The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on all three buildings at the end of 1909 . However, work in the interior stalled as the cleaners called a wage strike. After all, the apartments of the community sisters were ready for occupancy on October 1, 1910, and at the beginning of November the first event was celebrated in the community center with the Heidter Women's Festival. On February 1, 1910, the rectory was also ready for occupancy, while the construction work on the church itself came to an end. Despite the difficult location of the construction site and the extremely cumbersome material transport due to the slope, no major accident occurred during the entire construction period. The costs also remained within limits and were just four percent higher than planned, with the parish and community center even remaining below the budget. The originally planned 395,400 marks became a total of 410,990 marks. The main reasons for the higher construction costs were above all a stoker's apartment below the church hall and the rhombic roof of the church tower covered in sheet copper . The bell was also made larger than planned and was given a bell. A total of 68,900 marks went into the building.
On March 7, 1911, the congregation was finally able to move into the church with a festive procession from the parish hall. The first altar Bible was a personal gift from Empress Auguste Viktoria and was written by her with the saying "This is the joy that we should have, so that if we ask something according to his will, he hears us" from 1 Jn 5, 14 LUT signed. After the service there was an invitation to a gala dinner in the Barmer Stadthalle .
The church remained almost completely undamaged in the first years of the Second World War . It was only during the air raids on Wuppertal on May 30, 1943 that the Luther Church was badly hit by several fire bombs . The incendiary bombs struck through the roof of the lateral transept set the entire wooden interior on fire within a few minutes. In no time at all, sexton August Winter organized a chain of buckets to rescue the Luther Church, regardless of the fact that at the same time the parish hall and its apartment fell victim to the flames. Afterwards the church served as the first point of contact for the bereaved of the victims, where the remaining presbytery members set up a makeshift pastoral care. The two pastors themselves were sent to Thuringia and Mainfranken to look after those who were scattered.
The always extensive church music work was able to be continued even during the war. Between the air raids , smaller organ concerts were given until the end of the war, and even in the first years of peace, concert work was not stopped until the start of the major renovation work, which was unique in Wuppertal. In addition, the Luther Church was used for a short time as a venue for the funeral ceremonies of the funerals in the cemetery on Heckinghauser Strasse, as the cemetery chapel there ( Stephanuskapelle ) was unusable until the funeral services were held directly at the cemetery in the open air due to the distance to the cemetery.
On March 13, 1945, the Catholic Church of St. Elisabeth on Hebbelstrasse was finally badly hit and the Catholic community was allowed to hold its services in the Luther Church for the first time. This event was considered to be the cornerstone of ecumenical parish life on the Heidt, which already had a high priority in the post-war period compared to the other parishes of Barmen. Since then, every year since then, the new Easter candle has been carried by a representative of the Catholic parish from St. Elisabeth to the Luther Church and lit by representatives of both denominations, a tradition that is only common in a few parishes of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland and in other communities came up late.
The community after the Second World War
In order to collect the community after the end of the war, the highest priority was the end of the church struggle, and on April 30, 1945 the Alt-Wupperfeld presbytery decided unanimously to submit to the Evangelical Synod of Confessions in the Rhineland. The church services continued without interruption, now also with the visitors of the parishes of Wupperfeld, district and occasionally also the parish of the Friedenskirche . The children's services , which had been suspended since 1939, were resumed with great success from April 29, 1945.
The Lutherheim was poorly prepared as early as 1947, and the last restoration measures were completed in 1955. The renovation of the roof of the Luther Church began in 1947, and in 1955 work began on the interior, which was badly damaged by the phosphorus fire. The magnificent painting of the interior was replaced by simple elements, whereby the tapestry on the north side of the triumphal arch deserves a special mention. This takes up the destroyed saying from Psalm 36,10 LUT , the new baptismal font was completely carved from Altmühltal marble. The tapestry and font were both donated by a former parishioner. To improve the acoustics, a sound cover was installed above the pulpit , which, however, did not significantly influence the sound guidance; this situation only changed 22 years later with the installation of a high-quality sound system. The last renovation work was officially declared over on the fiftieth anniversary of the Luther Church on March 5, 1961.
At the beginning of the 1980s, damage to the entire building complex had to be repaired again. Some of these had been known for over ten years, but for financial reasons the renovation work could only be planned after the Oberwall 50 district center and its complete equipment were sold in 1974. The Lutherheim received a solid tiled roof for the first time and the former stoker's apartment under the church was combined with the other basement rooms to form several youth rooms. Those had been provisionally in use since the end of the war, but still without proper equipment and heating . In 1981, in a first construction phase, damage to the west gable, the tower and the entire south side of the nave were repaired and in 1982 damage to the east side. The entrance hall had to be completely renewed in 1983 because the floor beams were all rusted through . The rectory was then renovated and the roof structure of the church was conserved, work on the south wall and the repair of minor damage to the large window rosettes followed. The work was carried out by the Filz architects' office in Essen . In order to finance the work still to be done, the sale of one of the two parsonages to date was considered for the first time, which could even have resulted in the cancellation of a pastorate. But the Wupperfeld community association provided the Luther church community with an interest-free loan of 420,000 D-Marks , plus a total of more than 89,000 D-Marks in donations from all over the Wuppertal area.
The Luther parish, which initially belonged to the Lutheran parish of Alt- Wupperfeld , was removed from the parish in 1967 as part of the restructuring of the parishes of Barmen and declared an independent Evangelical Luther parish in Heidt . The church service order was fundamentally redesigned, for example the Lord's Supper was only distributed after the actual service. In 1984 the Lutheran and Reformed congregations of Oberbarmen were united, which initially had little influence on the congregational structure of the Luther Church. Since then it has been called the United Evangelical Church Congregation Heidt .
In 2008, it was finally merged with the communities of Gemarke, Wupperfeld and Hatzfeld, which had been organized in a community association until then, to form the new larger community of Gemarke-Wupperfeld in Barmen . The Heidt parish was the largest of the parishes financially, in terms of membership and area, but with the establishment of the Gemarke-Wupperfeld parish, which was clearly dominated by the Gemarker Church , it lost a lot of the right to have a say and since then has been faced with constant pressure to save. Although the number of people leaving the church in the new district of Heidt was always the lowest of all four districts, there was still a clear focus on the district of Gemarke, which was later followed by the closings of the Old Church in Wupperfeld and the Hatzfeld Church. In retrospect, the association to the municipality of Gemarke-Wupperfeld, especially on the Heidt, is viewed largely negatively, which is also clearly evident in the municipal work, which is now being continued almost completely independently of the Gemarke on the Heidt.
An arson attack was carried out on the church on the night of November 2, 2016, which fortunately remained unsuccessful. In the cellar under the church hall, a piece of wood that had been set on fire shortly before but went out by itself was found. A parallel to the arson in the Erlöserkirche in Wichlinghausen two days earlier is considered likely.
In the spring of 2017, a partial renovation of the belfry and the inner spire began, and the tower clock was also repaired. At the beginning of March, the tower lost the clock hands on all four sides and, in this state, shaped the image of the quarter until August 2017. On August 1st, the renovated tower clock with new clock hands and new mechanics was put back into operation.
future
In the past few years there have been repeated discussions about closing the Luther Church. The financial situation of the community led to the closure of the Old Wupperfeld Church and the Nommensenhaus in 2014 and the closure of the Hatzfeld Church in 2015. The rectory has meanwhile been sold and the range of services in the Luther Church has been greatly thinned out; Services are only held every second Sunday. This does not yet affect the work in the parish hall, which is being continued unchanged and extensively, as is the parish library, which is worth mentioning in the region. Many community events have been moved from the Wupperfeld Church to the Luther Church and can be continued there in a slightly different way. However, the presbytery Gemarke left the question of the continued existence of the Luther Church open, so it was to be expected that the entire ensemble of Luther Church, Lutherheim (parish hall) and kindergarten could hardly be continued in the long term.
At the beginning of 2017, the range of services in the Luther Church was further thinned out. Although the church and community center Hatzfeld were completely sold in January 2017, contrary to the statement of the presbytery regarding the temporary cessation , and several jobs were cut, especially in youth work, the presbytery continues to pursue the austerity measures set for the last two remaining churches. Church services in the Luther Church now only take place about once a month, the nationally known laudatory services will also only take place sporadically.
Church music
The church became known nationwide in particular for its tradition of church music, which existed together with the Old Church in Wupperfeld. In 1974 the Wuppertal Organ Days were brought into being in this church by church music director Joachim Dorfmüller , who has been organist at this church since 1959, and the authorized signatory Reiner Bergmann. Since 1971, a laudatory service has usually taken place on the last Sunday of the month, which is characterized by a special emphasis on the music. Since 1972, the organ has been used for a total of 15 recordings and 21 CD recordings, as well as several times for recordings by West German radio . Various choirs prefer the church for their recordings due to its particularly quiet location, including the Wuppertal carolers . In 1983 this use reached a high point when the choir could be heard in a Vespers service broadcast throughout Germany by ARD . Most of the world premieres recorded by Joachim Dorfmüller took place at the Luther Church Choir.
Years before the Luther Church was built, a church choral society was formed on the Heidt in November 1907 under the direction of the Heidt music teacher Paul Menzel , which initially was an offshoot of the traditional Wupperfeld church choir. Until Eduard Kuhl was hired as the first church musician in the Luther Church in 1912, the choral society directed the musical organization of the first services. Eduard Kuhl remained a church musician at the Luther Church for a total of 37 years until 1948.
The Barmer Bachverein , founded in 1914, was always associated with the Luther Church in its early years. Although the set Old Church Wupperfeld long time the only performance venue, but with the 400th anniversary of was his theses without the assistance of up to seventy singers of the choral society Heidter einkehr end return to music of the Reformation not possible. On average every third Sunday in the service, works by Johann Sebastian Bach , Dietrich Buxtehude , Melchior Vulpius , Johann Hermann Schein and Samuel Scheidt were sung, occasionally also more contemporary works by Moritz Hauptmann , Conradin Kreutzer and Arnold Mendelssohn . In 1931 the choir officially changed its name to Heidter Kirchenchor and became a member of the regional association of Rhenish church choirs. The rehearsals could now be accompanied by a concert grand piano acquired in 1927 in the Lutherheim. In close cooperation with Gottfried Grote , a performance of the Bach cantata Wachet, the voice calls us , was organized in 1930 on the second gallery of the old church in Wupperfeld. In the Luther Church itself, at least three different oratorical performances were organized in the first fifty years of its existence ; 1912 Bach's Christmas Oratorio by the Barmer Lehrergesangsverein, and in March 1945 two performances of the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms with the participation of the Wuppertal Municipal Orchestra (today the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra ). The symphony orchestra made a second debut in the Luther Church on April 8, 1984, when the church, under the direction of Lothar Kneppers, served as the recording location for the mass in D major by Antonín Dvořák and several organ concerts by Josef Gabriel Rheinberger and Georg Friedrich Handel with Joachim Dorfmüller on the organ .
Dorfmüller's gallery concerts have become a permanent tradition of the community . Around twice a month there is a concert on the gallery of the Luther Church, with Dorfmüller always taking part in other instruments, some with premieres of special works for church organ and the respective accompanying instrument. On September 10, 2016, the hundredth gallery concert was celebrated.
In the second half of 2017, the Luther Church was also a guest venue for the nationally known Wupperfeld evening music , as the Old Church Wupperfeld was not playable at that time. The concerts at that time are also intended to commemorate the beginnings of the Wupperfeld evening music, which without the participation of the Luther Church Choir would never have reached its high artistic level today. Since 2018, the traditional and nationally known church music tradition from Wupperfeld has been finally continued in the Luther Church, in particular the Luther Church is now a permanent venue for the Wupperfeld evening music. The old church in Wupperfeld was sold at the turn of the year 2017/18.
organ
The first organ on the east gallery of the Luther Church was built in 1912 by the Barmen organ builder Paul Faust and framed the large east rosette with its prospect shape. After the Second World War the organ was still playable, but badly damaged. It is thanks to the personal commitment of Joachim Dorfmüller that this instrument could be played until 1964 with the help of ongoing provisional repairs, even if only with a few registers that were still playable. During one of these repairs in 1961, Dorfmüller found several sheet music from the Six Organ Sonatas op. 65 by the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in the folds of the organ bellows , which were most likely hidden there by one of his predecessors in (pre-) war times.
In 1965, Dorfmüller worked together with the Wupperfeld cantor Winfried Pesch and Helmut Kahlhöfer , the cantor of the Immanuelskirche , on the conception of a completely new organ for the Luther Church. The 1967 established leader -Orgel is the sister instrument for slightly larger organ in the town church in Frisian Jever to coincide originated in the organ workshop leader and with it many similarities in the sound design and the disposition has. It has 32 registers on three manuals with pedal and is the only organ in the city with a free Zimbelstern , which was installed as a foundation at the personal request of a member of the community who died later. With its timbres it enables a wide range of possibilities, preferably it enables baroque music and music of the romantic era in equal measure.
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- Coupling : I / II, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
literature
- Sigrid Lekebusch, Florian Speer (ed.): Churches and places of worship in Barmen. Wuppertal 2008, ISBN 978-3-87707-721-4 .
- Association of Evangelical Churches in the district of Wupperfeld, Fritz Mehnert (Ed.): Oberbarmer Community History . Wuppertal 2002.
- United Ev. Heidt parish in Barmen (ed.): 1911–1986. 75 years of the Luther Church. Commemorative pamphlet with notes on the history of the community. Wuppertal 1986.
- Sigrid Lekebusch: patronage and church building. The Luther Church and its sponsors. In: Geschichte im Wuppertal , Volume 20. Wuppertal 2011, pp. 54–66.
- Joachim Dorfmüller: Chronicle of the gallery concerts in the Luther Church in Wuppertal-Barmen. Festschrift on the occasion of the 100th gallery concert on September 10, 2016. Wuppertal 2016.
Web links
- Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- Church buildings in the Bergisches Land Wuppertal: Luther Church
- Internet presence of the Evangelical Church Community Gemarke-Wupperfeld in Barmen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Another arson in the church. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung (accessed on December 22, 2016)
- ↑ There is only one church left. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung (accessed on December 22, 2016)
- ↑ Community live , Community letter of the Evangelical Church Community Gemarke-Wupperfeld, June / July 2017 edition
- ↑ A life at the organ in the Wuppertal church district: Church music, article from July 7, 2017
- ↑ Well-known faces in Heckinghausen, and why the Wupperfeld district has to rethink. The organ of the Luther Church in Barmer. In: Das Orgeljournal (accessed December 22, 2016)
Remarks
- ↑ The Sonnborn main church has several bells from the 15th century and thus actually the oldest bells in the city, but these are not rung, so the Luther Church has the oldest bells still in use in Wuppertal.
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 4 " N , 7 ° 12 ′ 41" E