Matthew Church (Sontheim)
The Matthäuskirche in Sontheim is a Protestant church built in 1898/99 and consecrated on October 1st, 1899 in the neo-Romanesque style, which has been a cultural monument since 1991 .
history
The Protestant community in Sontheim, which once belonged to the Teutonic Order and is therefore Catholic, developed in the course of industrialization and with it the strong growth in the population from 80 Protestants in 1825 to 500 people in 1884. In that year, therefore, one (until 1906 von Horkheim from managed) own parish, which initially held its services in a hall made available. In 1888 the construction of a Protestant church was suggested and the Stuttgart building officer Theophil Frey was commissioned with the planning. In 1894 the evangelical community acquired suitable land and in 1897 the construction work was advertised in the Neckar newspaper .
The church was designed by Frey as a realization of the progressive approaches of the " Wiesbaden program " for church construction and was carried out under builder Gottlob Schaudt by the building contractors Eckert from Sontheim and Hagenmayer from Heilbronn with the Heilbronn reed sandstone and high-quality carpentry work inside. The foundation stone was laid on June 2, 1898, the inauguration on October 1, 1899. The construction costs amounted to 119,406.99 marks, which were paid for by a church building fund established in the 1880s and by generous donations from the Ackermann twisting mill in Sontheim . The interior paintings were designed by the Stuttgart court decoration painter Eugen Woernle . The original choir windows were created by Rudolf Yelin the Elder (1864–1940).
A parsonage and a toddler school with a crib were built right next to the church in 1907/08, for which the Ackermann twisting mill again made generous donations (a total of 35,000 marks), so that the toddler school was named Ackermannstift .
During the First World War, the organ's prospect pipes and three of the four bells were melted down. After the end of the war, the delivered parts were newly procured, three new bells, for which the remaining old bell was traded in, were procured from the Bachert bell foundry in Kochendorf and consecrated on July 30, 1922. In 1928 a church choir was founded. During the Second World War, the two large bells had to be delivered in February 1942, only the small prayer bell from 1922 remained. During the war the church was badly damaged.
Since October 23, 1949, the church has been named Matthäuskirche, due to a resolution of the parish council . The origin of this name is likely to be found in the painting of the church at that time, which contained a quote from the Gospel of Matthew in the arch above the sanctuary.
On April 20, 1955, three newly acquired bells were consecrated, which are coordinated with the ringing of the nearby Catholic Church. In the 1950s, several Advent bazaars and concerts were held to collect funds to repair the war damage. In December 1960, the new choir windows designed by Rudolf Yelin the Younger (1902–1991) were installed in the church. In 1965, the last war damage was finally repaired through extensive repair work, and a new altar was also procured on this occasion. However, in 1965 the painting of the church, which no longer corresponds to the simple style of the time, was removed.
In 1980, the church was comprehensively renovated with the support of the State Monuments Office, with a new organ installed and the previously rectangular rows of seats set up in an octagonal shape. In 1991 the church and the surrounding green area were added to the list of cultural monuments in Heilbronn as an example of progressive rural sacred architecture.
From 1986 the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Community Center , which originally belonged to the Matthäuskirchengemeinde, was built, which was inaugurated in 1988 and contains its own church, which in 1991 was raised to its own parish, as a result of which the previous part of the Sontheim-Ost parish was spun off from the Matthäuskirchengemeinde and it became noticeably smaller . In 1992 the church choir had to be stopped because of a decline in membership. After extensive residential development began in 1995 in the center of Sontheim on the former Ackermann site, the Matthäus parish grew again noticeably, so that in 1996 a church choir could be founded again.
description
The church is located on a mountainside and was connected to the main street with outside stairs. The structure was deliberately integrated into the slope and looks much more powerful from the outside than inside. The actual church interior can be reached via the two stair towers to the left and right of the main portal. Placed in line of sight to the Catholic St. Martin's Church , the Matthäuskirche still shapes the townscape of Sontheim today.
The basic form of the building is a central building arranged over a cross-shaped floor plan . “The Matthäuskirche thus represents a prime example of progressive Protestant church building around 1900.” (Dr. Julius Fekete, Landesdenkmalamt). The neo-Romanesque design language of the building and furnishings such as the pulpit, baptismal font, door leaves and organ case was considered “modern” in the 1880s, in contrast to the neo-Gothic style that was widespread at the time . The congregation originally sat at right angles, and since the renovation in 1980 it has been octagonal around the altar. The pastor can be seen by every worshiper at all times, both in the pulpit and at the altar.
Interior with gallery
pulpit
organ
View into the left stair tower
tower
The Matthäuskirche is connected to the Martinskirche by the main street of Sontheim and, like this one, was built in the neo-Romanesque style, with the tower in the middle of the front gable of the Matthäuskirche directly in the line of sight of the main street. The tower was built strong and is not much higher than the ship and has a small semi-circular stair tower attached to both sides of the tower.
Choir apse
The choir of the Matthäuskirche describes a semicircle as the apse . The three choir windows donated in 1960 by Rudolf Yelin the Younger, the son of the artist of the choir windows from 1900, depict the themes of creation, Christ and Pentecost.
Galleries
The church was built on the plan of an isosceles Greek cross. This means that galleries could also be built into the transept, so that at the end the church can hold 300 seats.
literature
- Johannes Merz: The Protestant Church in Sontheim a. N. In: Christliches Kunstblatt 8 , 1900, pp. 120–123.
- 100 years of the Matthäuskirche Heilbronn-Sontheim . Edited on behalf of the Protestant Matthäusgemeinde, Heilbronn 1999.
- Helmut Schmolz , Hubert Weckbach: Heilbronn with Böckingen, Neckargartach, Sontheim. The old city in words and pictures. Vol. 1: Photos from 1860 to 1944 . Anton H. Konrad Verlag, Weißenhorn 1966.
- Helmut Schmolz, Hubert Weckbach: Heilbronn with Böckingen, Neckargartach, Sontheim. The old city in words and pictures. Vol. 2: Photos from 1858 to 1944 . Anton H. Konrad Verlag, Weißenhorn 1967.
- Eugen Knupfer (edit.): Document book of the city of Heilbronn . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1904 ( Württemberg historical sources . N. F. 5).
- Description of the Oberamt Heilbronn . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1901/1903.
Web links
- The Matthäuskirche at the Matthäusgemeinde
Coordinates: 49 ° 7 ′ 1.7 ″ N , 9 ° 11 ′ 20 ″ E