Michaelskirche (Espelkamp)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michaelskirche-Espelkamp.jpg

The Michaelskirche Espelkamp is a church building on Tannenbergplatz in the East Westphalian town of Espelkamp in the Minden-Lübbecke district in North Rhine-Westphalia and belongs to the Protestant Martins parish Espelkamp in the Lübbecke parish of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia . It was built in 1982 as the successor to a church that had already opened in 1956 for the Martins community, which mainly consisted of displaced people . In the 1950s and 1960s, it was a center of ecclesiastical debates and the venue for important meetings of the Evangelical Church in Germany .

history

Creation of the parish

The history of the parish began in 1945, when numerous refugees displaced as a result of the Second World War found acceptance on the site of the former ammunition plant Espelkamp-Mittwald. The first services, Bible studies and confirmation classes took place in a temporarily usable barrack . Since Pentecost 1948, the former ammunition facility's celebration room could also be used. A little later, the expansion of the refugee accommodation into a new housing estate began. The Evangelical Church of Westphalia , the Evangelical Aid Organization of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia took over the planning and financing with the support of the Swedish and Swiss Churches . In the autumn of 1949, the construction community Espelkamp GmbH was founded to realize the church and state joint venture .

The Ludwig-Steil-Hof

As one of the first larger projects, the Ludwig-Steil-Hof was founded on October 3rd, 1948 in Espelkamp. The initiative went back to Eugen Gerstenmaier from the Evangelical Aid Organization and was supported by the Westphalian church leadership and Superintendent Hermann Kunst . From 1949 to 1982, Kunst was chairman of the supervisory board of the Espelkamp development community. Gerstenmaier saw the Espelkamp project as “social and charitable action that halfway does justice to the needs of the present”.

The aim was initially to create a new home for the numerous refugees and to support them in their new beginnings. The diaconal institution, named after the pastor of the Confessing Church Ludwig Steil , who was murdered in the Dachau concentration camp in 1945 , is still active in the field of elderly and youth welfare, psychosocial rehabilitation and the promotion of young people through special school and vocational training measures. Initially, they used a building on the site of the ammunition plant, which was called the "steep house". Various public facilities were also located here, including a. a pension office of the post office, school rooms, library and parts of the administration. After the Ludwig-Steil-Hof had moved, the previously used building was transferred to the parish in 1952. In 1964 it was officially renamed Martinshaus. Organizationally, the Ludwig-Steil-Hof remained connected to the Martinskirchen community until 1980.

Foundation of the Martinskirche parish and construction of the first Michaelskirche

On July 27, 1952, the new Martinskirche parish Espelkamp was officially founded. This was initially divided into two pastoral care districts. In 1955 the “House of Youth”, founded by church youth groups, and a kindergarten (“Swedish Kindergarten”) were established. A year later, the first St. Michael's Church was inaugurated in the "colony". The focus of the church's work, however, remained the integration of the numerous newcomers. Ecumenical contacts were also made early on . a. to Sweden and to the Catholic St. Mary's Church, consecrated in 1955, and to the Söderblom grammar school established in 1953 . In 1963 a second church was inaugurated with the St. Thomas Church in the center of the village.

The parish in the 1950s and 60s

The fact that Espelkamp, ​​as a “town for people who have been displaced”, was heavily influenced by refugees from the former eastern German territories also had an impact on church life. The parish, regarded as an exemplary model project, has hosted church policy conferences on current political problems on several occasions. In March 1955, the Evangelical Church in Germany chose Espelkamp as the meeting place for its second synod . a. to deal with the future attitude of the church to West German rearmament . In 1961 the Eastern Church Convention took place here, which dealt with the right of homeland and self-determination of the expellees and theologically sanctioned the "right to homeland" demanded by the expellees.

On October 1, 1965, the Evangelical Church in Germany published a memorandum entitled The Situation of Expellees and the Relationship of the German People to Its Eastern Neighbors . This dealt with the situation of the expellees and the difficulties of integration into West German society and tried to relate this problem to the guilt of the German people for the crimes of National Socialism. The memorandum was one of the most important initiatives in the context of the new East and Germany policy of the Federal Republic and was hotly contested within the Protestant Church. Especially in Espelkamp the so-called "Ostdenkschrift" of the EKD was hotly discussed. As a result, theological tensions arose as a result of disputes with the confessional movement and the Evangelical Alliance , which put a strain on both internal church life and relationships with the neighboring Catholic community.

Development after 1970

In the 1970s, various initiatives by the Martinskirche community followed to include non-German families who had moved here in community life. So in 1972 the so-called “Greeks Room” was built on the upper floor of the Martinshaus as a meeting center for the strongest group of foreign workers in Espelkamp. In the same year an open youth café was set up. In the tradition of the integration efforts of the early days of the community, this later also devoted itself to the problems of refugees, u. a. by setting up a “Third World Store” (1979) and the “Asylum Working Group”.

Planning and construction of the new Michaelskirche

In order to be able to carry out the numerous community activities, an expansion of the existing Michaelskirche was planned as early as 1975, while largely preserving the old structure. The result of a competition, however, was very unsatisfactory and for the time being the idea of ​​a community center in St. Michael's Church was abandoned. Later, a plot of land on the Gabelhorst was considered as the location of the new community center and discarded in 1979, and it was decided to build the community center in connection with the Michaelskirche. When various preliminary drafts were submitted at the beginning of 1980, it became clear that renovation was not possible for cost reasons.

Instead, the decision was made to build a completely new “Michaelszentrum” with a church, community and youth rooms under one roof. The design planning with its unusual shape of the floor plan caused discussions in the presbytery and district church office. The character of the worship room required a special design of the altar , pulpit and baptismal font , which, in the architect's opinion, should adapt as much as possible to the construction of the room, both in terms of material and shape. Michaelskirche and Michaelshaus were consecrated on May 31, 1982. Currently (2014) the parish has around 4,700 parishioners.

architecture

The interesting layout of the new building (triangular grid) resulted in a strikingly lively, three-dimensional roof architecture. The room shapes in the different heights represent a special feature. The asymmetrical layout of the individual rooms is intended to underline the dignity of the worship room and the independence of the other rooms. The hexagonal worship room with its height and mass is the dominant point of the building. In the basement are the connectable rooms of the youth, which due to their shape also have their own style.

The windows in the church service room were designed by the glass painter Erhardt Jakobus Klonk from Oberrosphe near Marburg . They were created in 1982 and were made from antique and opal glass . In addition to various strips of light in the nave, Klonk also created the window in the chancel and, as the main work, a glass window with the theme "He pushes the mighty from their throne and raises the lowly" from the Magnificat of the Gospel of Luke.

organ

In 1992 an organ from the organ building workshop Alfred Führer from Wilhelmshaven was installed. It has 10 registers and 2 manuals and offers many sound options due to its unusual disposition . The basis is the disposition of a one-manual organ, with the flute and reed stops being assigned to a second manual if necessary. Technically, it is based on organs from the Baroque period. The action is made of wood, the pipe plates were cast on linen. In addition, the instrument was tuned according to Johann Georg Neidhardt's "Mood for a Small Town" from 1724.

literature

  • Waltraud Meyer, Ernst Kreutz: The Evangelical Martins Parish Espelkamp. Attempt a chronicle. Espelkamp 1993.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gertrude Stahlberg: The expellees in North Rhine-Westphalia , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, p. 83.
  2. ↑ Hartmut Rudolph: Evangelical Church and Expellees 1945 to 1972: Church in the new home (= work on contemporary church history, volume 2). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1985, pp. 353f., ISBN 9783525557129 .
  3. ↑ Johannes Michael Wischnath: Church in Action: the Evangelical Relief Organization 1945–1957 and its relationship to the church and internal mission (= work on contemporary church history, volume 14). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1986, p. 312, ISBN 9783525557143 .
  4. ^ Website of the Ludwig-Steil-Hof - accessed on July 3, 2014.
  5. ↑ Die Pfarrer-Revolte , in: Der Spiegel , edition 12/1955 online .
  6. ↑ Hartmut Rudolph: Evangelical Church and Expellees 1945 to 1972: Church in the new home (= work on contemporary church history, volume 2). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1985, pp. 53f., ISBN 9783525557129 .
  7. ↑ Website of the Evangelical Church in Germany ( Memento of the original from July 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Article dated October 30, 2005. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ekd.de
  8. ^ Website of the Research Center for 20th Century Glass Painting Foundation (with pictures).
  9. ↑ ESPELKAMP: Little "Queen of Instruments" celebrates her birthday .
  10. ↑ The instruments of the Michaelskirche on www.martins-kirchengemeinde.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 49.2 "  N , 8 ° 36 ′ 13.2"  E