St. Anthony of Padua (Dehre)

Exterior view (2014)

The Church of St. Anthony of Padua was the Catholic church in Dehre , a municipality in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel in Saxony-Anhalt . It belonged to the parish " St. Laurentius " with its seat in Salzwedel and was the westernmost church in the deanery Stendal of the diocese of Magdeburg . The church, named after St. Anthony of Padua , was located at Friedensstraße 34, behind the rectory on the street.

history

With the introduction of the Reformation in the 16th century, the population in the Altmark also became Evangelical-Lutheran .

In 1852, Salzwedel became the seat of a missionary vicariate , which also included Dehre, some 22 kilometers away. In 1920 the Mission Vicarie Salzwedel was raised to a parish.

In 1933 a census showed that 9 of the 844 residents of Dähres were Catholic. In 1937 the Salzwedel pastor Bernhard Speckenmeier acquired a piece of land in Dehre. In the first few years afterwards, the service took place in the living room of the house, which was furnished as a chapel . At that time, Dehre belonged to the Archdiocese of Paderborn . From January 23, 1941 on, Dehre had the first local priest , Vicar Leo Kahler , and on February 1, 1941, Dehre became the seat of a curate .

After the Second World War , the number of Catholics in the Dehre area increased due to the influx of Catholic refugees and displaced persons from the eastern regions of the German Empire . Around 1948/49 the curate of Gut Langenapel was given a bell for which a tower was built. In the early 1950s, the church was set up in the barn on the property . About 10 years later it will be refurbished and equipped with new pews. In the following years a statue of the Virgin Mary was purchased from Eichsfeld .

Herbert Kabath was the last local priest until autumn 1979, and since then Dehre has belonged entirely to the parish of Salzwedel again. The Diocese of Magdeburg was founded on July 8, 1994, to which Dehre has belonged ever since. In 1998 Dehre received a statue of Antonius that had previously been in Salzwedel.

On October 1st, 2006 the association of municipalities "Salzwedel- Apenburg - Arendsee -Dähre" was founded, which on May 2nd, 2010 was merged into a parish. The 2011 census in the European Union showed that of the 1541 inhabitants of the political community Dehre 70, or around 4.5%, belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. The last service took place on May 23, 2015, and the property with church and rectory was sold to private customers. Since then, Catholic services have been held in Dehre in the evangelical community room.

Architecture and equipment

The church, on the entrance side of which was a cross , was set up on the upper floor of an already existing barn at a height of around 46 meters above sea level . Its interior included a confessional and a harmonium . In the hallway on the ground floor there was a statue of the patron saint of the church, St. Anthony of Padua , in a niche . Two pictures showed the Tower of Babel and the Flood . The common room and toilet were also on the ground floor. In the past few years before the church was profaned, the church services were held in the parish room in order to facilitate access for older parishioners, as the church was only accessible via stairs. It was equipped with an altar , a crucifix , a statue of the Virgin Mary and 14 stations of the cross . In front of the church there was a free-standing metal tower with a bell that has been hanging in the St. Laurentius Church in Salzwedel since 2017.