Redemptorist Monastery Bochum

Church tower of the Redemptorist monastery in Bochum

The Redemptorist monastery "Maria Hilf" was a Redemptorist monastery in the city of Bochum , was founded in 1868 and existed with interruptions until 2011.

history

The initiator for the foundation was the Paderborn Bishop Konrad Martin . In 1869 the foundation stone was laid for the church, designed by master builder Heinrich Sonntag in the neo-Romanesque style , which was consecrated a year later.

The monastery was closed several times and the fathers were expelled, for the first time during the Kulturkampf by the Prussian government in 1873. The church was initially used by the neighboring parishes of St. Marien and St. Joseph. The resettlement took place in 1899. During National Socialism , the Gestapo dissolved the monastery and the buildings were occupied by Lithuanian resettlers. During the Allied bombing raid on Bochum in 1943, the monastery and its church were also hit and burned down completely.

The reconstruction began in 1950 and was led by the architects Kurt Hubert Vieth and Günter Settnik. The new facility, completed in 1958, differed greatly from the original one. The windows of the aisles were designed by Franz Pauli , those of the choir by Fidelis Bentele.

Dissolution and demolition

Remains of the Redemptorist monastery in Bochum

After there had been rumors about a possible abolition of the monastery, the official confirmation followed in 2010. Due to a lack of new blood and the aging of the Convention , it was decided to repeal it for 2011. The original plan to found a senior citizens' monastery in cooperation with a retirement home could not be realized because there was no retirement home in which the Redemptorists could have rented a room; Such a senior monastery was then realized in Cologne-Ehrenfeld.

On January 16, 2011, the Bishop of Essen, Franz-Josef Overbeck, celebrated the last Holy Mass in the Maria Hilf monastery. The Lord Mayor of Bochum Ottilie Scholz and Johannes Römelt CssR, Provincial of the German-Flemish-Swiss Redemptorist Province of St. Clemens, were also present. The building of the church was also profaned . The religious moved to Kirchhellen and Cologne.

The neighboring St. Vinzenz Children's Home and the Bochum St. Johannes Stift acquired the buildings. There are plans to build a nursing home for people with dementia and apartments. The monastery garden with its old trees is to be preserved and used equally by the residents of the nursing home and the children and young people of the Vinzenz children's home. The demolition of the monastery and the church was decided, but it was a question of at least preserving the tower and integrating it into the new building. However, two reports came to the conclusion that the tower lacks stability.

In July 2012 the monastery and church were demolished, the organ of the church was sold to the St. Franziskus Church in Weitmar . Some of the church windows were brought to the branches of the Redemptorist Order in Cologne and Mönchengladbach, the other part is to be integrated into the new nursing home. Other inventory had previously been sold at a flea market.

literature

Brandt, Hans Jürgen: The Redemptorist monastery in Bochum and the Polish pastoral care in the Westphalian industrial area. In: Spicilegium historicum Congregationis SSmi Redemptoris. Annus 23 (1975). Pp. 132-203.
Hansi Hungerige: Everything has its time ... The branch of the Redemptorist order in Bochum 1968-2011. In: Bochumer Punkte , No. 29, February 2013, pp. 3-18.
Scholten, Bernhard: One hundred years of the Redemptorist monastery in Bochum. Bochum no year