Reformed churches in Braunwald

Engraving 1904

"Bergkirchli" east side

North side of the church with tower

View to the west with the tower in the center

The village of Braunwald in the canton of Glarus has two reformed churches . A mountain church built in 1904 at the RehaClinic on the lower edge of the village and the village church and church center built between 1962 and 1964 at a central location.

Mountain Church

Until 1939, the mountain community of Braunwald belonged politically to the valley community of Rüti GL , which in turn was part of the church community of Betschwanden . "Both the person to be baptized and the deceased had to be carried or led there, while the wedding people and other churchgoers had to go down and up the stairs themselves," reports a chronicler. In 1896, the Braunwald sanatorium, whose founder was the Betschwandner pastor Gottfried Heer, was built and opened. Two years later, Rev. Heer began to hold services for Braunwald in the sanatorium's dining room. On November 15, 1899, the first child was baptized in Braunwald. In the same year, Betschwanden gave the still churchless villagers the historic bell, which is said to have rung the storm at the Battle of Näfels in 1388. The needs of the patients in the sanatorium as well as the needs of the villagers and the bell given "in stock" led to the decision of the mountain community Braunwald on March 8, 1903 to build their own church.

Harmonium 1904

"Just in time for the day of the inauguration, the little church received a splendid harmonium (2 manuals and pedal), which had served in the Niederurnen church until December 1903 and now that it was replaced by a new organ, a gift from Mr. Jenni-Aebli, was replaced by the Löbl. Church Council Niederurnen as a gift to the church in Braunwald. "

It was a "pedal harmonium with two manuals according to the German system (pressure wind) and comes from the Krauss Harmonium Building Institute in Stuttgart." It had 6 games tongues:

I. Manual: One continuous game 8 ' One continuous game 16 ' II. Manual: One continuous game 8 ' One continuous game 16 ' pedal A game 16 ' A game 8 ' Manual coupling. Propagation for the treble half. Pedal coupler zIMan. Advance for the bass half. Tremolo. Collective train for the full work. Sourdine Wind lever for a second person Self-wind kicks.

Theodor Buss wrote about the instrument in 1908: "The harmonium has divided registers in the manuals, ie two stops have to be pulled in order to sound a game. The pedal registers are of course continuous. The pedal and the pedal coupling have been removed. The kicks for self-windmaking do not work, which is why a second person is necessary for windmaking. The magazine bellows groans a little. The instrument has an extremely garish, vulgar and tiring tone and takes up a very large space. "

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinrich Vögeli, The Reformed Church Community , in New Year's Messenger 1982 for the Glarus hinterland
2. ↑ Gottfried Heer, The little church on mountain heights , sermon for the inauguration of the little church on October 9, 2904
3. ^ Theodor Buss, report on the organist course in Glarus from October 1907 and the status of organs in the canton of Glarus , p. 46f

Web links

Commons : Dorfkirche Braunwald  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Commons : Bergkirchli Braunwald  - Collection of images, videos and audio files