Saarbrücken Oblate Monastery

Steeple

Figural representation above the entrance

Späth organ

The Saarbrücken Oblate Monastery is a former Roman Catholic monastery of the Oblates of the Immaculate Virgin Mary . It is located in the residential district of Rotenbühl , which is why it was sometimes referred to as the Rotenbühlkloster .

history

The Saarbrücken Oblate Monastery was built in 1928 in the style of a simple abstraction-historicism. From its construction to the inauguration of the new parish church Maria Königin in 1959 it was at the same time a pastoral center and monastery parish for the Catholic population in this part of the city. From 1995 onwards, there was only one Father left here, Father Hermann-Josef Esser. In 2011 the monastery was abandoned by the Oblate Order. Various plans for subsequent use that were up for discussion have not yet been implemented, so that the building is empty to this day.

Monastery church

The monastery church is integrated into the L-shaped building. She bears the patronage "Mary of Perpetual Help". The rectangular church space is spanned in the middle by a barrel ceiling, which merges into a flat ceiling on the sides. The chancel of the monastery church is separated from the nave by a long lancet arch, the flanks of which extend to the floor and ends with a flat choir closure. On both sides there is a low aisle, which is separated by such pointed arches. In the north there were a few benches and a St. Mary's altar and the early masses took place there regularly. Above the aisle, there are rectangular cliff windows with colored lead glazing. All of the church's furnishings, with the exception of the simple stone high altar, were sold after the monastery was closed. To the side of the church is a simple, low church tower, which has striking similarities to the tower of the Old Catholic Church of St. Willibrord in Munich .

organ

On the gallery of the church there was a relatively stately organ with 19 registers plus three extensions and a wind reduction. The instrument was built in 1937 as Opus 488 by Gebr. Späth Orgelbau from Ennetach using older parts from Roethinger . In 1970 Hugo Mayer added a Krummhorn in Manual II. Since there was no more space in the existing swell housing, a separate small swell box was built around the Krummhorn, which was controlled synchronously with the main rocker. The free pipe prospect was adapted exactly to the course of the ceiling. The organ had both cone and pocket shops. After the monastery was closed, the organ was sold to Poland . Today it is in the parish church of Sw. Idziego in Choceń . When it was installed there, the organ got a completely rearranged prospectus that had been adapted to the new church. To what extent further changes have been made to the instrument is currently not known. The instrument had the following disposition (at the Saarbrücken location):

I Hauptwerk C – g ³
1.	Principal	8th'
2.	Drone	8th'
3.	Dulciana	8th'
4th	Fugara	4 ′
5.	Smalled up	4 ′
6th	Fifth	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
7th	Mixture II-III	2 ′
8th.	Trumpet	8th'

II Swell C – g ³
9.	Violin principal	8th'
10.	recorder	8th'
11.	Salicional	8th'
12.	Vox coelestis	8th'
13.	Reed flute	4 ′
14th	Forest flute	2 ′
15th	Fifth	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
16.	Sesquialter II	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
17th	Krummhorn	8th'
	tremolo

Pedal C – f ¹
18th	Sub-bass	16 ′
	Soft bass	16 ′
19th	Octave bass	8th'
	Chorale bass	4 ′
	soprano	2 ′
	Nursing trombone	16 ′

Pairing :
- Normal coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
- Sub-octave coupling: II / I
- Super octave coupling: I / I, II / I
Playing aids : 1 free combination, tutti, crescendo roller, adjustable automatic piano pedal