Reformed Church Langnau in the Emmental
The Reformed Church Langnau im Emmental is the Reformed village church of Langnau im Emmental , Canton of Bern , Switzerland .
Building history
The current building was built in 1673 according to plans by Abraham Dünz and inaugurated in 1674. Before that there were at least three predecessor churches on the property . The first was dedicated to Saint Martin and stood before the Trub Monastery was founded in 1125.
The new building took place because of the massive increase in Anabaptists in the 17th century and in the wake of the Swiss Peasants' War of 1653. The church was later renovated several times , most recently from 1997 to 1998.
The coffered ceiling made of fir wood and colored with bone glue , the pulpit decorated with the coat of arms of the founder Samuel Frisching , the communion table donated by the community of Langnau , the baptismal font and some glass windows on the south side date from the construction period .
Church window
The three church windows in the choir come from the Mayer'schen Hofkunstanstalt in Munich and were used for the renovation from 1897 to 1898. They show the birth of Christ , the Sermon on the Mount and the Gethsemane scene. In addition to the coats of arms of patricians from Bern, the other windows contain the following images:
- Parable of the sower ( Mark 4, 1–9), donated by the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Bern for renovation in 1957, based on a design by Robert Schär (1894–1973)
- Archangel Michael as a dragon slayer , donated by the State Bern also for renovating in 1957, to a design by Paul Zehnder (1884-1973)
- Parable of the Good Samaritan ( Luke 10: 25–37), donated by the Langnau secondary school class, who entered in 1910, for the 1960 anniversary
organ
Today's organ dates from 1958 and was built by the Kuhn company in Männedorf based on a concept by Ernst Schiess. The first organ was created in 1767 by the Schaffhausen organ builder Speisegger. In 1793 it was refurbished and provided with additional registers by Peter Schärer from Sumiswald , who had previously built the organs in Lauperswil (1779), Rüderswil (1784), Würzbrunnen (1785) and Eggiwil (1787). Further repairs were carried out by Mathias Schneider from Trubschachen in 1828 and by the Wüthrich-Wirz company from Burgdorf BE in 1881 , until a completely new construction was carried out in 1885, which, like today's organ, was also carried out by the Kuhn company.
Church tower and bells
The church tower probably goes back to the 13th century. The upper half is made of tuff and the current shape of the bell storey and tower spire dates back to 1938. The five bells from 1923 in the strike tone sequence c 'es' f 'g' b 'replace three older bells (d' fis 'a'), the first of which was cast in 1617 and two more were added in 1815.
Monuments in the churchyard
In the churchyard there is a memorial for those who fell in the Sonderbund War of 1847 in the form of a pylon with an ionizing cover plate and a soldier memorial for the Emmental victims of the First World War by Karl Indermühle from 1921. At the lower end of the northern churchyard wall, a boulder has been erected since 1898 whose inscription commemorates the peasant leader Niklaus Leuenberger , who was executed in 1653 .
Pastor
Among the reformed pastors in Langnau are worth mentioning:
- Johann Strasser, father of Gottfried Strasser , in Langnau from 1855 to 1884
- Ernst Müller (1849–1927), made an honorary doctorate from the University of Jena for his History of the Bernese Anabaptists published in Frauenfeld in 1895 , and father of Elisabeth Müller , in Langnau from 1883 to 1927
- Karl Walter Dähler (1903–1986), vicar of Friedrich Eymann , Bern German dialect writer and father of Jörg Ewald Dähler , in Langnau from 1936 to 1961
Web links
Coordinates: 46 ° 56 '30.5 " N , 7 ° 47' 6.1" E ; CH1903: six hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred seventy-three / 199025