Luther Church (Insterburg)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Insterburg's landmark

The Luther Church (also: Stadtkirche ) in the East Prussian town of Insterburg (today in Russian: Tschernjachowsk ) was a choir-free, plastered brick building on the former Old Market. It was built between 1610 and 1612. Until 1945 it was - from 1911 next to the Melanchthon Church - a Protestant church in the three-river city. It was blown up in 1972 and the remains of the wall were then removed. Some cellar vaults and an arcade wall on the outside staircase that leads down to the river remind of them .

Church building

The Luther Church in Insterburg was built between 1610 and 1612 in place of an older church mentioned in 1537. It was a choir-less, plastered brick building with a western tower, later changed in the superstructure.

The interior of the church, which was divided by pillars, covered a flat ceiling. Like the gallery parapets, this was painted between 1644 and 1653. The ceiling had biblical motifs on the subjects of creation , sin , redemption and sanctification - depicted according to Dutch models by the painters Zeigermann and Menio. The galleries showed the heads of the apostles , saints , rulers and men of honor.

The altar of the church was made between 1622 and 1634 and showed a depiction of the crucifixion of Christ in the middle picture and his entombment in the upper part . The ornate pulpit was made by the same master . Parts of the altar are - now reassembled - in the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Morąg (Mohrungen) in the Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship .

Instead of an old Zickermann organ from 1589, a new work was created in 1764 by the Königsberg organ builder Johann Preuss , which was restored in 1898 by the Wilhelm Sauer organ building workshop in Frankfurt (Oder) .

There were three bells in the tower of the church, the helmet of which was restored to its original Baroque shape in 1912. One of them, who was drafted in 1942 for armaments purposes, was found in the bell cemetery after the war ended . It has been ringing in the St. Nicolai Church in Hanover-Bothfeld since 1952 .

In the 1930s, the Luther Church underwent a thorough renovation. During the war in 1945 the church was damaged. In 1972 it was blown up and the site leveled.

Parish

A parish already existed in Insterburg in the pre-Reformation period. The Reformation found its way here early, as a Lutheran clergyman was already in office here in 1525. Insterburg initially belonged to the Samland diocese , later it became the seat of its own inspection department, which also included the Luther church community. The church district was then part of the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union until 1945 . In the years 1909 to 1911 the Melanchthon Church was built as a branch church as the second church of the parish with a large parish, which already had 42,000 members in 1925 . In her last four clergy were active, supported by a special pastor at the prison .

In addition to the Lutheran congregation, a congregation of the Reformed Church had formed in Insterburg since 1701 - initiated by the Swiss and French - whose church , built between 1886 and 1890, was used as a garrison church. It also belonged to the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union , but in a separate Reformed church district.

Due to the flight and displacement of the local population as well as the restrictive church policy of the Soviet Union , church life in Insterburg collapsed almost to zero. It was not until the 1990s that a new Evangelical Lutheran congregation emerged, which is the parish seat of a large church region and belongs to the Kaliningrad provost of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia .

Parish

The entire urban area of ​​Insterburg belonged to the parish of the Lutherkirche, and 44 localities and residential areas in the area were also integrated into the parish Insterburg-Land (* = school locations):

German name Russian name German name Russian name
Abschruten,
1938–1946: Lindenwalde 		Lenkeningken,
1938–1946: Georgenhorst
Alt Kamswicken,
1938–1946: Kamswiken 		Louisenthal Nakhimovo
* Althof Kunskoje Nausseden
Birch field Krasnovka New Kamswicken
* Friedrichshof New Stobingen,
1939–1946: Stobingen 		Gusewka
Dwarischken ,
1928–1946: Eichenberg 		Lesnoye New world
Eichwald Petrozavodskoye * Neuendorf Sagorodnoye
Erdmannsruh Pakalehnen,
1938–1946: Schweizersdorf 		Lenskoye
* Gaitzuhnen Novaya Derevnia Pieragers
* Groß Siegmuntinnen,
1928–1946: Siegmundsfelde 		Baikal Powehlischken, 1938–1946: Happiness in
Hope
Groß Stobingen,
1939–1946: Stobingen 		Gusewka Sandeshofchen
Madmen Nakhimovo Siegmanten
Jessen Solovyovo Siegmundshof,
1928–1946: Siegmundsfelde 		Baikal
Karalene ,
1938–1946: Luisenberg 		Seljony Bor Siemonischken,
1938–1946: Siegmanten 		Makowo
Little Bubainen Szameitkehmen ,
1936–1938: Schameitkehmen
1938–1946: Walkenau 		Lap bunk
Klein Siegmuntinnen,
1928–1946: Siegmundsfelde 		Baikal * Tammowischken ,
1938–1946: Tammau 		Timofeevka
Klein Stobingen,
1939–1946: Stobingen 		Gusewka * Tarpuphnen,
1928–1946: Bergfriede
Cossacks Kosakovo * Tarpupp,
1938–1946: Angermoor
Kraupischkehmen,
1938–1946: Erdmannsruh 		Salivnoe Trakinnen,
1938–1946: Tannenschlucht
Krusinn Uranienhof
Squeeze Wengerin
* Lenkeitschen,
1938–1946: Angerbrück 		Aistowo Moan

Pastor

From the time of the Reformation until the end of the war in 1945, the pastors officiated at the city church in Insterburg as Protestant clergy:

inner space
Preuss organ from 1764 in the Luther Church in Insterburg
Lutherkirche Insterburg, consecration certificate 1935
  • J. Tortilovitz von Batocki, 1525-1537
  • Ulrich Bingelstedt, 1537–1575
  • Peter Artopäus, from 1568
  • Johann Sperber, 1575–1594
  • Johann Höpner, 1581/1590
  • Leonhard Antonick, 1593-1610
  • Georg Rasch, from 1595
  • Thimoteus Fabricius, 1608-1617
  • Christoph von Stein, 1610–1625
  • Peter Nicolai, 1617-1640
  • Valentin Feuerstock, 1626–1653
  • Matthias Sethus, 1640–1654
  • Abraham Hafner, 1653-1687
  • Johann Pedanus, 1654–1657
  • Sebastian Möller, 1657–1674
  • Melchior Becker, 1674-1694
  • Friedrich Partatius, 1675–1687
  • Heinrich Pusch, 1688–1694
  • Johann Friedrich Fock, 1694–1729
  • Georg Funck, 1694–1695
  • Christian. Godfr. Tilesius, 1695-1699
  • Joh. Matthäus Grünmüller, 1699–1706
  • Jacob Perkuhn, 1707-1711
  • Johann Behrendt , 1711–1737
  • Adam Heinrich Pilgrim, 1727–1757
  • Benedict Friedrich Hahn, 1737–1767
  • Jacob Heinrich Gartz, 1757–1762
  • Friedrich Sperling, 1762–1802
  • Samuel Müller, 1768–1792
  • August Friedrich Heydemann, 1792–1842
  • Karl Gottlieb Bauer, 1803–1810
  • Karl Albrecht Sperling, 1803-1818
  • Andreas Friedrich Zippel, 1818–1831
  • Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Geßner, 1832–1847
  • Casimir Iwan Weber, 1842–1882
  • Louis Kalau vom Hofe, 1847–1850
  • Samuel Louis Porsch, 1850–1873
  • Friedrich Oskar Meder, 1873–1876
  • Eduard O. David Em. Koehler, 1877-1892
  • Franz Carl Hermann Pötz, 1883–1890
  • Emanuel Carl Fr. Eschenbach, 1891–1901
  • Louis Adolf Emil Sternberg, 1893–1901
  • Otto Friedrich J. Kolbe, 1893–1907
  • Hans KH Leidreiter, 1901–1926
  • Gustav Fedtke, from 1907
  • Friedrich Johann Rathke, 1907–1935
  • Ernst Hecht, 1921–1931
  • Hermann Federmann, 1926–1938
  • Emil Nitz, 1929–1945
  • Kurt Schalaster, 1935–1945
  • Gerhard Bolz, 1937–1945
  • Ernst Johann Füg, 1940–1945

literature

  • Gustav Fedtke: The Luther Church in Insterburg, Ostpr. - A leader . Insterburg 1940.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Luther Church at ostpreussen.net
  2. ↑ Walther Hubatsch : History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume II: Images of East Prussian churches . Göttingen 1968, p. 102.
  3. ^ A b Walther Hubatsch: History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume III: Documents . Göttingen 1968, p. 481.
  4. ↑ Walther Hubatsch: History of the Evangelical Church of East Prussia , Volume III (as above), p. 508.
  5. ^ Evangelical Lutheran Provosty Kaliningrad
  6. ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor's Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 . Hamburg 1968, pp. 56-57.
  7. ^ A b Member of the Littuania Corps

Coordinates: 54 ° 38 ′ 19.6 "  N , 21 ° 48 ′ 43.4"  E