St. Bonifatius (Loerrach)

St. Boniface

St. Bonifatius is the main Catholic church in the southern Baden town of Lörrach . The St. Boniface dedicated neo-Romanesque church from brick is framed by a small park, north Lörrach town on the corner of Luis Street and Tumringer road. In contrast to the two other Lörrach churches, the town church and the Fridolin church from the Weinbrenner era , St. Bonifatius follows the style ideal of the Nazarenes and is similar to the Catholic church of St. Martin in Obersäckingen .

history

On July 9, 1865, the foundation stone was laid in the south-west corner of the building. The construction management had the archbishop's building authority under Lukas Engesser (1820–1880), a student of Heinrich Hübsch . The Lörrach architect Meeser was responsible for the building supervision. The four bells of the church were consecrated on July 28, 1867 and on August 6 of the same year , the Mainz Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler consecrated the church.

Interior of the Bonifatiuskirche

A quasi- parish was founded in Lörrach in 1867, and a year later a regular Catholic parish with the branches Tumringen , Rötteln , Wittlingen , Hauingen , Haagen , Brombach , Haltingen , Binzen , Rümmingen and Schallbach . The new parish was incorporated into the Wiesental regional chapter and the rectory was built in 1869/71. In 1880 Lörrach had 6,716 inhabitants, in 1883 there were 2,334 Catholic parishioners.

In 1892/93 the church building was restored for the first time and the interior was also completed. In 1901 the area around the church was declared a public square. In 1903 the church received a new monstrance . In 1908 the painter Karl Jennes painted the head of Christ in the choir between the two windows; at the same time, the nave received two new colored windows from the Helmle & Merzweiler workshop . A year later, V. Domisch from Kirchheim revised the church organ. The last piece of equipment was a new high altar from the studio of the Moroder brothers in Offenburg .

The church survived the Second World War undamaged. In the following period, pieces of equipment from the 19th and early 20th centuries were removed during restorations. Further restorations and renovations took place in 1948 and 1971/72. In the latter, the high altar and pulpit have been removed. In the basement of the tower, a Lady Chapel with a Baroque Madonna from around 1700/1750 was built.

On July 15, 2007, the spire and belfry of the Bonifatiuskirche were severely damaged by a major fire, so that the church had to be completely renovated in 2007/08. As a reminder of the fire, there is a bell from the burnt-out belfry on the Laeuger relief on the outside of the choir. On October 5, 2008, church operations could be resumed.

description

Church building

Laeugerrelief

The Bonifatiuskirche is a three-aisled columned basilica . The inner walls and eight pillars are white; the strong wooden beam ceiling is a bow construction that is held in place by supported beams . The choir vault has broad ribs. This form of the round arch style in the vault is due to the influence of Heinrich Hübsch. The bell tower is 40 meters high.

On the outer facade of the choir there is a crucifixion group made of colored ceramic tiles. The relief was made in 1902 by Max Laeuger based on a template by Fridolin Dietsche as one of the stops on the Lörrach Sculpture Path . The work was specially created for the 1902 art exhibition in Karlsruhe. There it caused a stir, so that the Freiburg Minster Construction Association acquired it. Since no suitable place could be found in the cathedral years after the purchase, the Lörrach Museum Association bought the relief with the help of Julius Wilhelm . In 1950 the association initially offered the monumental crucifixion group to the Bonifatius congregation as a loan and gave it to them in 1955.

Interior and equipment

The travertine altar by Bruno Knittel is kept simple and rests on four solid corner legs. The tabernacle stele and the ambo are made of bronze . A bronze cross hangs over the altar. All of these pieces come from Bruno Knittel. The cycle of colored glass windows comes from the Düsseldorf artist Jochem Poensgen . In the tower hall there is a Marienkapelle with memorial plaques for the fallen and missing of the world wars as well as a baroque portrait of Mary with child from 1700/1750.

Organs

In 1882 the Walcker workshop from Ludwigsburg built the organ . In 1909 and 1954/55 it was revised and rebuilt. The instrument had three manuals , a pedal and 38 registers , and was lost in the major fire on July 15, 2007. In 2009 St. Boniface received a new organ. The instrument with 42 registers on three manuals and pedal was built by the organ building workshop Thomas Jann (Laberweinting).

I main work C – a ³
1.	Principal	16 ′
2.	Octave	8th'
3.	Flûte harm.	8th'
4th	Bourdon	8th'
5.	Violoncello	8th'
6th	Octave	4 ′
7th	Pointed flute	4 ′
8th.	Super octave	2 ′
9.	Cornet V (from c ¹ )	8th'
10.	Mixture V-VI	2 ′
11.	Trumpets	8th'
12.	Chamade	8th'

II Swell C – a ³
13.	Bourdon	16 ′
14th	diapason	8th'
15th	Flûte ouverte	8th'
16.	Viol	8th'
17th	Voix céleste	8th'
18th	Prestant	4 ′
19th	Night horn	4 ′
20th	Nazard	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
21st	Tierce	1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
22nd	Octavine	2 ′
23.	Sifflet	1'
24.	Plein Jeu V	2 ′
25th	Basson	16 ′
26th	Trompette harmonique	8th'
27.	Basson-Hautbois	8th'
28.	Clairon harmonique	4 ′
	Tremulant

III Continuo work C – a ³
29	Bourdon	8th'
30th	Salicional	8th'
31.	Reed flute	4 ′
32.	Cornet V (from c ¹ )	8th'
33.	Cromorne	8th'
	Tremulant

Pedal C – f ¹
34.	Grand Bourdon	32 ′
35.	Principal bass	16 ′
36.	Sub-bass	16 ′
37.	Octave bass	8th'
38.	Bourdon	8th'
39.	Octave	4 ′
40.	Bombard	32 ′
41.	trombone	16 ′
42.	Trumpets	8th'

Coupling : II / I, III / I, II / P, I / P, I 4 '/ P, III / P (mechanical); II / I, II 16 '/ I, II 4' / P, II 4 '/ II (electrical)
Secondary register: Lerche, Zimbelstern

Bells

Boniface bell of the burnt belfry

Originally, the Bonifatiuskirche had a chime that consisted of four bells. As a result of the First World War , three of them had to be given up in 1917; they were replaced in 1920. During the Second World War , apart from the small c '' bell, three bells for war material had to be hung. In 1948 the bell foundry JF Weule in Bockenem delivered four new chilled iron bells with the denominations d ′, g ′, a ′, h ′.

After the fire, five new bells were consecrated on September 14, 2008, cast by the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe.

No.	Surname	Nominal	Weight	inscription
1	Boniface Bell	c	2200 kg
2	Joseph Bell	d	1600 kg	To be church together
3	Elisabeth bell	f	1050 kg	What you did to the least, you did to me
4th	Ecumene bell	G	730 kg	Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation
5	Marienbell	b	510 kg	Do what he tells you

literature

Hans Jakob Wörner : Catholic parish church St. Bonifatius Lörrach , Verlag Schnell and Steiner 1978, ISBN 978-3-7954-4854-7 .
Otto Wittmann et al., Stadt Lörrach (Ed.): Lörrach: Landscape - History - Culture , Verlag Stadt Lörrach, Lörrach 1983, ISBN 3-9800841-0-8 , page 628/629.
Hans Freimann: 125 years of St. Boniface in Lörrach. in: Walter Jung, Gerhard Moehring (eds.): Our Lörrach 1993. A border town in the mirror of time , Lörrach-Tumringen: Kropf & Herz 1973, pages 7-19.
Johannes Helm : Churches and chapels in the Markgräflerland , Müllheim / Baden 1989, ISBN 3-921709-16-4 , pp. 167–168.