Dutch Reformed Congregation in Wuppertal

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Church and parish hall

The Dutch Reformed Parish in Wuppertal (hist .: Dutch Reformed Parish in Elberfeld ) is an independent Protestant parish of Reformed character . It has the legal form of a corporation under public law and has been a full member of the Evangelical Reformed Church since 2001 .

organization

Today the community has around 200 members, most of whom live in Wuppertal and the surrounding area. The center of church life is the Sunday service, where the word of God - spoken with the Heidelberg Catechism - is 'learned', God is publicly called upon (in spoken prayers and sung psalms and songs) and the offering of thanks is given.

The leadership body of the congregation is the presbytery , in which the three offices (pastor, elder and deacon) are represented.

Various committees (e.g. the administrative and planning committee headed by the church master) and a visiting service group support the work of the presbytery.

History of origin

Dedicated church members of the ev. Reform. Community Elberfeld , among them the brothers Daniel and Carl von der Heydt , resisted the intervention of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. in church affairs. Reformed and Lutheran congregations should be united in one union. A protest movement formed, from which the Dutch Reformed Congregation finally emerged in 1847 .

The fact that Carl von der Heydt belonged to this protest movement and was then one of the church planters prompted some people outside the church to speak of the "Carlists".

In 1835 the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. the Rheinisch-Westfälische Kirchenordnung and Agende. The Reformed community of Elberfeld accepted the "little liturgy" under pressure from the consistory. In June 1843, Daniel and Carl von der Heydt's group broke up with the Reformed Elberfeld community. The Kohlbrügge family moved to Elberfeld in June 1846. From then on, Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrügge led the first services, initially in his house, Wirmhof 12, rented by Daniel von der Heydt. There were also plans to call Kohlbrügge the fifth preacher of the Reformed Elberfeld congregation.

Kohlbrügge's application to join the Reformed community of Elberfeld was granted on November 4, 1846. In mid-November of the year, however, there were growing misunderstandings between Kohlbrügge and the presbytery. At the end of December, Kohlbrügge received confidential information from Berlin that the formation of an independent community would be possible. The Edict of Tolerance of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV on March 30, 1847 finally allowed the establishment of free communities independent of the state and regional church. By signing the so-called Constitutional Act on April 18, 1847, the (later) Dutch Reformed Congregation came into being; the first signatory was Dr. theol. HF Kohlbrügge. The first service took place on April 25, 1847 in the inn of the widow Obermayer (parish member) " Auf dem Wall ". The phase of the church foundation was concluded with the official departure of the signatories of the constitutional acts from the regional church. 92 parishioners entitled to vote elected the first presbytery: three elders and three deacons, Daniel von der Heydt became church master. Dr. Kohlbrügge was ordained pastor of the congregation by his elders. On December 11, 1847, the foundation stone was laid for the church in Deweerthstrasse, where the first service could be celebrated on September 30, 1849.

By royal decree of November 24, 1849, the community was granted limited corporate rights. On May 3, 1851, the community bought the burial ground (Gottesacker) " Am Schaffstall " (originally not a sheepfold, today: Katernberger Strasse cemetery ). On April 26, 1852, the Kohlbrügge family moved into the new pastorate in Deweerthstrasse. In July of that year Daniel von der Heydt, Gustav Schlieper and the Mennonite David Peters presented their concept for the redesign of the urban poor relief to the city council. The organization of the diakonia in the Dutch Reformed community served as a model. The new poor order - later known as the " Elberfeld System " - came into force on January 1, 1853.

1875–1880 Dr. theol. Adolph Zahn third pastor of the congregation, Lic. Theol. Theodor Stiasny as "auxiliary preacher" of the community. Benjamin Lütge was the fourth pastor of the congregation from 1901 to 1927, followed by Gottfried Locher from 1905 to 1930.

During the First World War , the sending of sermons held in the community to the soldiers at the front was forbidden as "destroying the defense". Lic. Theol. Alfred de Quervain , a Swiss friend and friend of Karl Barth , became the sixth pastor of the congregation in 1931 (until 1938). He had close ties to the Confessing Church . From 1935, de Quervain also worked as a lecturer in Reformed dogmatics at the illegal church college in Wuppertal , lectures were "camouflaged" as community meetings.

During the bombing raid on Elberfeld on 24./25. June 1943 the church, parish hall, sexton's apartment and pastorates were destroyed. Then the congregation gathered in the cemetery chapel on Katernberger Strasse for their services. From September 10, 1967, the cemetery chapel was no longer the sermon site , but the Old Reformed Church on Calvinstrasse. On September 15, 1983, Heinrich Lüchtenborg became the ninth pastor of the congregation. On September 10, 1989, the preaching site moved from the temporary solution of “subletting” in the Calvinstrasse Reformed Church back to Katernberger Strasse 61. The cemetery chapel was renamed the parish hall. On November 11, 2012, Jan-Henry Wanink was elected to succeed Heinrich Lüchtenborg as the tenth pastor of the congregation. It was adopted in early 2019.

literature

  • Klaus van Bürck, Heinrich Lüchtenborg, Dutch Reformed Congregation Elberfeld: 150 Years of the Dutch Reformed Congregation in Elberfeld 2000, ISBN 3-932735-41-2
  • Confessional writings and forms of the Dutch Reformed Church in Elberfeld, with e. Forward d. Presbyterii. Dutch reform. Gemeine, Elberfeld 1882 digitized

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Klugkist Hesse: Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrügge . Emil Müller, 1935 ( licht-und-recht.de [PDF; accessed on July 27, 2020]).
  2. ↑ " Jan-Henry Wanink elected in Wuppertal ", altreformiert.de (PDF; 632 kB)
  3. ↑ adoption of Pastor Wanink at 13.1. In: Dutch Reformed Community of Wuppertal. Retrieved July 27, 2020 .

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 31 ″  N , 7 ° 7 ′ 33.5 ″  E