Simultankirche (Brauneberg)
Sankt Remigius with its leaning tower (west side) seen from a vantage point on the Brauneberg on the opposite bank of the Moselle. The entrance to the evangelical section is on the left (northeast side). |
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Basic data | |
Denomination | Catholic-Protestant Simultaneum |
place | Brauneberg, Germany |
Building history | |
architect | Franz Wilhelm Rabaliatti |
construction time | 1775-1777 |
Building description | |
Architectural style | Baroque |
Construction type | Hall church |
49 ° 54 '35.3 " N , 6 ° 59' 20.5" E |
The Simultankirche in Brauneberg is a baroque hall church that was built from 1775 to 1777 as a simultaneous church. In 1956 a wall was drawn in between the nave and the choir to enable both denominations to worship at the same time. The former choir is now Protestant, the nave is Catholic. The tower and the bells belong to both communities. Since they have also committed themselves to preserving the external image of the church in a uniform form, the division of the church is not recognizable from the outside.
history
A church in Dusemond (the former name of Brauneberg) was first mentioned in 1086. The place belonged to the county of Veldenz , where Count Palatine Ludwig II introduced the Reformation in 1523. The medieval church was smaller than the present one and stood in north-south direction close to today's Kirchstrasse. In 1928, when the aqueduct was built, its foundations and numerous graves from the former cemetery were found.
During the Thirty Years' War , when Kurtrier took possession, the pastor 's post was occupied from 1627 to 1648 by a Catholic clergyman. Through the Peace of Westphalia , Count Palatine Leopold Ludwig was reinstated in his rights as sovereign and from 1649 the pastorate was again occupied by the Lutheran clergyman Johann Konrad Happel. However, this moved to neighboring Mülheim as early as 1650, so that from this point in time the church in Brauneberg is to be regarded as a branch church of the Mülheim parish.
After the French occupation from 1680 onwards, a decree in 1684 stipulated that in places with only one church these two denominations should belong. In 1775 the medieval church had to be demolished due to its dilapidation. The new church was again a simultaneous church. It's geosted . One third of the building costs were borne by the Elector Palatinate and two thirds by the Counts of Manderscheid-Blankenheim. The inauguration took place on the 1st of Advent 1777, first separated from the Protestant and then from the Catholic community. According to a contract of 1787, of the 12 hours of the day, Catholics had the right to use the church for 8 hours, and Protestants the right to use the church for 4 hours.
Nevertheless, there were repeated disputes over the rights of use of the church. In the years 1880/87 the construction of a second church, which replaced the simultaneous conditions in many neighboring communities, was considered, but failed because of the financing. After the Second World War, the Catholic side pushed for an end to the simultaneous relationship. Ultimately, both sides decided to split the church into a double church with a ratio of 1/3 Protestant and 2/3 Catholic, corresponding to the share in the construction of the church in 1777. The plans for the division were drawn up in 1955 by Trier's building officer Heinrich Otto Vogel . The Catholic part in the former nave was inaugurated on November 25, 1956, the Protestant on May 12, 1957.
An ecumenical service was celebrated for the first time to mark the 225th anniversary of the parish fair . It was held on the meadow in front of the church by Pastor Leo Ehses and Pastor Thomas Berke with a large number of parishioners from both denominations. Ecumenical actions in the following period were the painting of the church tower on scaffolding up to a height of 22 m and in 2008 the renewal of the exterior painting of the south side of the church and the choir.
Building description
The hall church as a whole is a plastered quarry stone building with a wooden ceiling in the form of a mirror vault and a narrower, three-sided closed choir . It was built according to a plan by the electoral court architect Franz Wilhelm Rabaliatti . He was of southern German-Italian descent, also provided the plan for the Catholic chapel in Mülheim and built the only onion domes on the Moselle at these two churches.
The two original entrances on the south side are walled up, but can still be recognized as such through the cornices. On the north side of the church there are two entrances created in the course of the renovation in 1956, one each for the Protestant and the Catholic part of the church.
tower
The tower attached to the church in the west forms a unit with the west wall and, according to a measurement from 1956, leaned 96 cm to the west. The problem was that the builders built the church tower on slate. Little did they know that it was only three feet thick and lying on sand. In 1957 the tower was underpinned with 6 m deep concrete pillars and has not moved since then. It is 1/3 in Protestant and 2/3 in Catholic possession.
Furnishing
The altars described by Hans Vogts in 1935 are no longer available today. The cheeks of the stalls were divided, the pulpit is now in the Protestant part of the church.
Equipment of the evangelical part
Since the former choir loft was reused as an organ loft, the altar is in the west of the church directly on the partition wall.
The original, gold-decorated pulpit made of oak with a sound cover and 1/3 of the cheeks of the pews, both a work of the Wittlich master carpenter Dräger, were taken from the undivided church. The interior was designed by the Trier building officer Heinrich Vogel. The Morbach sculptor Klaus Rothe designed the baptismal font with 17 baptismal witnesses and the wall motif above the altar “I am the vine and you are the vines” in the Protestant section. The organ from 1969 comes from the organ workshop Weigle , Echterdingen .
Equipment of the catholic part
The baroque high altar originally comes from Laubach (Eifel) and, like the Protestant altar, stands on the dividing wall between the church parts. The pulpit is on loan from the Liebfrauenkirche in Bitburg . The Stations of the Cross were donated in 1891. 2/3 of the cheeks of the pews of the undivided church were taken over into the catholic part. The organ from the workshop of the Stockmann brothers was inaugurated in 1968.
Church clock
A clock face of the church tower clock from 1788 in the form of a slate plate in which the Roman numerals are carved and gilded is preserved in private ownership.
The current clock was ordered from the Höckel company in 1964 by the civil parish, which is also responsible for maintaining the tower clock .
Bells
The bells are used and maintained by both denominations, whereby the costs are shared in a ratio of 1/3 (Protestant) to 2/3 (Catholic) as with other community tasks.
The church has 3 bells from the Mabilon bell foundry in Saarburg . The oldest and now the smallest bell was cast in 1876 and is tuned to the h tone. Another bell was melted down during the First World War . After the Second World War , a bell, cast in 1564 and originally from Silesia, hung in the tower from 1952 to 1964, but its sound did not harmonize with the existing bell, so that in 1964 two new bronze bells were purchased.
The larger of these two weighs 800 kg, is tuned to the tone f sharp and has the inscription “GLORIA PATRI ET FILIO ET SPIRITUI SANCTO. HONOR TO THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT. "
The smaller bell weighs 480 kg, is tuned to tone a and has the inscription “JESUS CHRIST HERI ET HODIE IPSE ET IN SAECULA. JESUS CHRIST YESTERDAY AND TODAY ALSO IN ETERNITY ”. Both bells also bear the inscription "CATHOLIC AND EVANGELIC CHURCHES BRAUNEBERG 1964".
The bells ring for Protestant and Catholic services and other church events.
use
The Protestant part of the church is a branch church of the parish of Mülheim (Mosel). On some Sundays and public holidays, there is a service of the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Mülheim . During the summer months, the church is open on Sundays as part of the Open Church project .
The catholic part of the church is the parish church of the parish Brauneberg St. Remigius and is used about weekly for masses and other church events. The parish had its own pastor until 1997. Today (2015) she is part of the parish community Right and Left of the Moselle , the former parsonage has been the parish office since 1997.
literature
- Hans Vogts : The art monuments of the district of Bernkastel (= The art monuments of the Rhine province Volume 15, 1). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1935, pp. 154-155.
- Ernst Schiffmann: The Simultankirche in Brauneberg – Dusemond . 2nd Edition. Published by the Catholic Parish of St. Remigius Brauneberg-Mülheim and by the Evangelical Church of Mülheim (Mosel), 2012.