Luther Church (Ronsdorf)
The Luther Church in Ronsdorf is the oldest church in this Wuppertal district.
History and description of the building
The Lutheran residents of the Reformed town of Ronsdorf belonged to the Lutheran community in neighboring Lüttringhausen until 1789 . Against the resistance of the Reformed community, the building of a school for the Lutherans was enforced in the 18th century, and in 1789 the electoral government approved the foundation of the community and the building of a church. A wooden church, a so-called tente , was immediately built; The construction of the church on a plot of land donated to the community on Schmittenberg began in July 1790, and construction was inaugurated on November 24, 1793.
The name of an architect has not been passed down. The building, which faces north-west and is walled up with quarry stones, is a few meters above street level and has been accessed from Staasstraße by a long flight of 40 steps since 1887 . The number of levels corresponds to the number of days between Easter and Ascension Day. There are 50 steps to the altar, based on the number of days between Easter and Pentecost. As is customary with Protestant churches in the Bergisches Land, a three-storey square tower rises in the middle in front of the facade, in which the main portal was originally located. Above this entrance there is a high round-arched tracery window , the floors above (clock and bell floors) are younger and more evenly walled up.
The hipped roof of the three-aisled hall church rises on an octagonal floor plan (a rectangle with bevelled corners), the main entrance has been in the facade of the south-eastern long side since 1953. Three simple arched windows on the long sides and one on each of the four narrow sides of the octagon illuminate the church space. The central arched window in the narrow side of the altar is now connected to the parish hall. Due to a lack of funds, the completion and installation of the interior furnishings dragged on until the middle of the 19th century. The tower was completed in 1824, a wooden gallery was completed in 1836, which was expanded in 1838 so that the building finally offered space for 1,000 parishioners. 1844–1846 the first organ was installed by the organ builder Roetzel from Alpe near Gummersbach. In 1894 the squat spire was replaced by a high point. A fundamental renovation of the church space took place in 1930–1931 according to plans by the church builder Fritzsche: the pulpit was placed in the middle of the altar and the now covered choir was converted into a sacristy.
On the night of May 29-30, 1943, Ronsdorf was badly hit by an Allied air raid on Wuppertal . The townscape in the center of Ronsdorf was characterized by uniform two- to three-story slid-up residential buildings, which were largely destroyed in this air raid. The church was also destroyed except for the outer walls. The reconstruction took place in the years 1950–1953 according to plans of the Wuppertal architect Adolf Schröder, he opened the view of the window behind the altar again and dispensed with galleries on the northeast side. Another renovation took place from 1969 to 1971.
From the preserved substance, in addition to the Luther Church, the post office , the rectorate school , the ribbon weaver museum and the Reformed Church are worth mentioning.
Today the church is the place of worship for the Protestant parish Wuppertal-Ronsdorf, which continues to follow Lutheran tradition and (as the only case of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland) exists alongside a Reformed parish in the same district. Since 2002, the building has been a listed building as a "contemporary document for the stylistic architectural development of the late 18th century" and "one of the most impressive and earliest urban development evidence of the local history of Ronsdorf".
literature
- Günter Konrad (Ed.): Ronsdorf in facts and figures. History of the Ronsdorf parishes and communities , Wuppertal-Ronsdorf 2000
- Evangelical Church Community Wuppertal-Ronsdorf , o. O., o. J. (after 1975) - Issue of the community without further details
Web links
- Photo galleries on the Church Parish website
Individual evidence
- ^ Ronsdorfer Lexikon: Lutherkirche , Lutherkirche - stairs symbolize days, accessed April 2009
- ↑ wolfgang-mondorf.de , Ronsdorf, Cronenberg, Müngsten, accessed April 2009
- ↑ Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 37.5 ″ N , 7 ° 11 ′ 57 ″ E