St. Boniface (Herne)

Entrance side of the new Bonifatiuskirche

Statue of Saint Boniface at the church entrance

Above the church room, below the community rooms

The tower from 1889, monument in Herne

Boniface statue from 1954

The St. Bonifatius Church is a Catholic parish church in the city center of Herne . In the originally rural Herne, which has been Protestant since the Reformation , it was the original church of the new Catholic foundation as a result of industrialization. Today it is the parish and parish church of the St. Dionysius parish of the Emschertal dean's office in the Archdiocese of Paderborn.

Community, building history and structure

In 1851, for the first time since the Reformation, Catholic families were sealed in Herne. On October 31, 1858, the first Catholic church service was celebrated here in a rented house by the Eickel dean Schrepping. During this time, Herne was administered by St. Marien through a missionary and school vicar. In 1860 a Catholic private school opened and an emergency church was built from donations from the Catholic residents in Riemke . The parish of St. Boniface was founded on January 19, 1862 as a mission parish. After the first Catholic cemetery was inaugurated in 1865 (today the site of the community's kindergarten), a suitable piece of land was acquired in 1870 on Bahnhofstrasse, today's pedestrian zone. In a first construction phase, the nave (laying of the foundation stone on May 22, 1873) and the parish church choir were erected directly on Bahnhofstrasse from 1872 to 1874 (acceptance test on May 14, 1874). The consecration took place on October 8, 1886 by the then Bishop of Fulda Georg von Kopp , whereby the mission parish of Herne was raised to an independent parish. In a second construction phase, in which the striking tower was also built, the parish church was completed between 1888 and 1889. The architect of the entire building was Gerhard August Fischer , who was responsible for the reconstruction of Burg Castle . Since its construction, the church had to contend with severe subsidence, which made it necessary as early as 1890 to pull steel struts from pillar to pillar in order to support the building.

The current church was built between 1973 and 1974 behind the old church. The upper part of the building is used as the actual church, the lower part as a community center and youth home. The old church was then torn down. The church tower, which is a listed building and has been integrated into a row of shops, was preserved. The access road from Herner Bahnhofstrasse to the new building now leads through the location of the former nave.

inner space

The first concept of the church as a forum church was achieved through a square, open construction with a lowered altar area and a stepped arrangement of the seats. The lighting fixtures were modeled on street lamps. The only decoration on the altar wall was a finial. There are no striking windows. The sobriety of this concept was weakened by the later works of art and renovations.

If you enter the church under the figure of St. Boniface , you don't get directly into the sacred space, but into a closed anteroom. The path leads the visitor past a large rose sculpture with the symbol of the "corner stone" as the center. The church itself lives from the mosaic frieze created in 1978 by the Benedictine sister Erentrud Trost from Varensell . Scenes from the Old and New Testament as well as from the life of St. Boniface are depicted under the motif “God's story with man”. The organ and the free-standing tabernacle are striking .

Some furnishings from the old church were integrated into the new building, such as the Way of the Cross and the high altar as wall installations.

The crib dates from 1976, was revised and redesigned in 2003. From the first Sunday in Advent to Candlemas it presents itself in several scenes adapted to the narrative.

Works of art

For the 1200th anniversary of the death of St. Boniface in 1954, the community donated a 3-meter-tall statue made of Anröchter stone by the sculptor Hubert Hartmann , which is located on a plinth between two windows of the church tower.

organ

The organ of the old Bonifatius Church came from the organ builder Karl Kemper, owner of the organ building company Emanuel Kemper & Sohn , from 1948 and its technical substance was largely taken over into the new church. In 1975 the S. Sauer company set up a new plant, which in 1983 saw some changes in the disposition . Today's organ has 58 registers , which are divided into four manuals and pedal .

Bells

The six bells have the tone sequence a ° -h ° -cis'-e'-fis'-a 'and were cast by the Bochumer Verein in 1954 . The bells are dedicated to Christ (a °), St. Bonifatius (h °), St. Mary (cis '), St. Josef (e'), St. Dionysius (fis ') and St. Barbara (a').

Clergy (selection)

Term of office	Surname	Life dates	Remarks
1859-1862	Vicar Schmelzer		Mission and School Vicar
1862-1873	Pastor Otto Schwartz	* April 24, 1836 in Arolsen ; † September 23, 1873 Herne	Ordained priest on August 18, 1859 in Paderborn, since April 29, 1862 mission pastor of the mission parish Herne
1873 / 1887-1892	Pastor Gerhard Strickmann	* March 7, 1844 in Herzebrock , † June 17, 1892 Herne	Ordained priest on March 21, 1871 in Paderborn, since 1872 parish vicar of the mission parish and first pastor of the independent parish. During the Kulturkampf, he was deprived of the parish office and expelled from the Arnsberg administrative district . He took up his apartment in Recklinghausen-Süd, but was able to return in 1876, but was only able to officiate again in 1880.
1892-1924	Franz Schäfer	* May 22, 1848 Olpe	Ordained priest on March 21, 1874 in Paderborn. Seminar priest and chaplain in Thieringhausen and Detmold . Active in Herne since October 20, 1892, dean of the Herne deanery.
1924-1947	Heinrich Wüseke	* August 14, 1875 Paderborn , † April 27, 1947 Herne	Ordained priest on March 30, 1900, vicariate in Hagen (1900–1903), Iserlohn (1903–1917) and pastor in Detmold (1917–1924), clergyman.
1947-1969	Aloys Deppe	* February 21, 1900 Gütersloh , † April 7, 1991 Langenberg (Gütersloh district)	Ordained priest on March 20, 1926, 1936–1941 pastor in Krombach , 1949–1969 dean of the dean's office in Herne, honorary dean and clergyman. From 1969 subsidiar in the Liebfrauengemeinde in Gütersloh.
1969-1983	Theodor Villis	* April 10, 1913 in Gelsenkirchen , † April 29, 2009 in Essen-Heisingen	Ordained priest on April 2, 1938 in Paderborn, 1941–1949 parish vicar in St. Konrad (Herne-Süd) , 1956–1969 pastor in St. Joseph Siegen-Weidenau , clergyman.
1983-1999	Pastor Hermann Josef Klöpper	* June 2, 1933 Dortmund	May 27, 1958 ordination, military chaplain a. a. in Augustdorf from 1969 to 1972, clergyman, dean of the dean's office in Herne from 1989 to 1997, today subsidiary to St. Johannes Baptist Stukenbrock
1999-2016	Pastor Christian Gröne	(* 1962 Bodelschwingh )	1988 ordained priest, vicar in Arnsberg and Fröndenberg-Langschede . School chaplain and religion teacher in Dortmund. Parish vicar in Iserlohn , since 1999 pastor and parish administrator of St. Elisabeth (Herne) and St. Marien (Herne-Baukau) (2014). Head of the pastoral network in Herne Mitte and from June 2010–2016 dean of the Emschertal dean's office.
2017-present	Pastor Georg Birwer		Pastor of St. Dionysius Herne

Web links

Commons : St. Bonifatius (Herne) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ The West - Herne March 18, 2008

↑ www.hallo-herne.de 100 objects. Retrieved on April 20, 2013 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2
↑ Stephan Polock: Organ Movement and Neo-Baroque in the Ruhr Area between 1948 and 1965. (PDF; 8.4 MB) p. 230
↑ Schematism of the Diocese of Paderborn. 1899, ZDB -ID 630825-9 , p. 35 .
↑ www.recklinghaeuser-zeitung.de June 22, 2010 accessed on February 26, 2013

51.539351 7.223827Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 21.7 " N , 7 ° 13 ′ 25.8" E

[1] The West - Herne March 18, 2008