St. Bonifatius (Tauberbischofsheim)

Parish church St. Bonifatius Tauberbischofsheim, view from the west with main entrance (2013)

The Roman Catholic parish church St. Bonifatius (also Bonifatiuskirche ) in Tauberbischofsheim was built from 1964 to 1967 according to plans by Erwin van Aaken and is consecrated to St. Bonifatius .

history

Foundation stone of the Bonifatiuskirche with the inscription "ANNO CONCILII + VATICANI SECUNDI 1964". In a copper time capsule it contains a certificate, ecclesiastical and secular newspapers, coins, water from the deaf, baptismal water, salt, chrism, sick oil, wheat grains, wine and earth from the Sancta Domitilla catacomb in Rome.

After the Second World War , the population of the city increased sharply due to the influx of expellees and members of the Bundeswehr from the Kurmainz barracks . Therefore, it was decided to build a church for the parish east of the Tauber and the military community. City Pastor Spiritual Councilor Anton Ulrich conducted the preparatory negotiations and discussions and his successor Ludwig Mönch submitted the plans to the Archbishop's Ordinariate in Freiburg on May 13, 1963 . This approved the plans on October 23, 1963. The subsoil investigations in March 1964 led to a pile foundation on the rock at a depth of about 15 m. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 7, 1964, and the foundation stone was laid on November 8, 1964 . The church was built according to the design of the architect Erwin van Aaken and under local construction management by Emil Kunzelmann. The main construction work was carried out by the construction company Herbert Jana KG (Tauberbischofsheim); Most of the other work was also done by local companies. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on March 25, 1966. On November 27th , Ludwig Mönch dedicated the church and celebrated the first mass there. Auxiliary Bishop Karl Gnädinger performed the consecration of the church on September 30, 1967. The rectory parish office and parish library at the southwest corner of the church and the free-standing bell tower at the southeast corner were built together with the church, while the town hall has been added at the northeast corner 1,983th

The area to the right of the city Tauber Tauberbischofsheim was from August 31, 1968 Pfarrkuratie (municipality under construction) and on 1 July 1978 with Archbishop Oskar Saier to parish collected. The first pastor was Rudi Müller, who worked here from 1968 to 1989. Since Müller's departure, the parish priest of St. Martin has also been responsible for St. Boniface. The parish of St. Bonifatius today belongs to the pastoral care unit Tauberbischofsheim , which is assigned to the deanery Tauberbischofsheim of the Archdiocese of Freiburg .

Church building

Church tower (height to Kreuzspitze: 35.7 m)

The Bonifatiuskirche is shaped by the ideas of the Second Vatican Council : "When building churches, care must be taken to ensure that they are suitable for carrying out liturgical celebrations and for realizing the active participation of the faithful." (VII. Chapter of the Constitution on the Holy Liturgy , 1963).

The church visitor should be attuned to entering the church by guiding the access paths with courtyard formation, including the rectory and tower.

The square floor plan of the church has a side length of 26 m. A tent roof in the form of two intersecting gable roofs rises above a base made of exposed concrete. The gables form the large church windows. Inside, the ceiling is made of light spruce wood and the floor is made of gray-yellow marble. There is a chapel on either side of the main entrance: a confessional chapel and a Marienkapelle, the altar of which was later replaced by the baptismal font that was previously placed on the altar island in the large interior. The stone in the area of ​​the main entrance, in the corners of which are holy water fonts , is the original baptismal font of the church.

In the interior of the church, the congregation gathers on three sides in five bank blocks in a semicircle around the altar island with a massive sacrificial altar, the rock of which is supposed to remind of Golgotha , in the middle, flanked on the left by the tabernacle and on the right by the ambo; on the fourth side, the east wall, the sediles of the priest and the altar boys are arranged.

The steeple is a separate building on the southeast corner of the church. It is 35.7 m high, made of concrete slabs and carries five bells from the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe (then part of Carl Metz GmbH):

No.	Surname	Caster	Casting year	material	Ø (cm)	Weight (kg)	Nominal
1	Peace bell	Bachert, Karlsruhe		bronze		1,490
2	Boniface Bell	Bachert, Karlsruhe		bronze		1,060
3	Christ and death bells	Bachert, Karlsruhe		bronze		655
4th	Baptismal bell	Bachert, Karlsruhe		bronze		470
5	Supplication and prayer bell	Bachert, Karlsruhe		bronze		385

Furnishing

Main entrance with bronze reliefs by Lukas Gastl

The bronze decoration of the church was designed by Lukas Gastl from Würzburg:

• The bronze reliefs on the portal doors show scenes from the life of St. Boniface. From left: His crossing from England - with the Pope in Rome - Boniface doing missionary work - Lioba's visit - his martyrdom.
• The tabernacle is the symbolic representation of an angel bent forward on his knees, protecting the Holy of Holies between his raised wings.
• The cross on the choir wall above the sediles shows Jesus as the victor.
• The Way of the Cross on the north wall comprises 15 stations. The last station is the risen Jesus.
• The Madonna (Mary with baby Jesus) is in the side chapel.
• The figures of Boniface and Lioba on the east wall were added later.

The statue of Anthony of Padua on the west side under the gallery is an early work by Thomas Buscher from 1898, which he revised in 1929 and was originally located in the town church of St. Martin .

Church window

The large gables are walls and windows at the same time, their large area makes the church bright. Emil Wachter from Karlsruhe was commissioned to design the glass windows in 1964, he made them in 1968. They are executed as lead glazing after Wachter's first draft with concrete glass walls was rejected. The flow of color in the individual panes in the glass mosaic was created within them without painting. The four windows are each dedicated to a topic.

East window (easter window)

The choir window is dedicated to the Easter theme. The red triangle in the top of the window symbolizes God. Below that is a broad area of ​​the sky with cosmic forces and heavenly beings in bluish eddies and moving ribbons. In the lower deep blue zone you can see the slaughtered lamb from the Revelation of John and the book with the seven seals in the middle of the heavenly Jerusalem , whose gates, walls, buildings and apartments occupy a large space to the right and left of it. On the far left of the building, Boniface is depicted as a martyr with a bleeding head and tongues of Pentecostal fire above him. In the left corner of the window there is still a whitish vortex of a heavenly being and in the right corner a brownish rock, protruding from life, which results in connections to the motifs of the neighboring windows.

North window (Pentecost window)

The Pentecost window in the north also ends at the top with a red triangle, which is supposed to represent a glow here. Below, a large red fireball dominates the window wall in front of stormy blue paths in the sky. In a dark blue band directly below on the left the crucified Christ and on the right two candles - signs of mourning and hope - can be seen over night houses. Further to the right, a city in the morning light indicates the Easter event. To the left of the cross there are two dry trees, but further to the left is the tree of life and above it, too, a large green zone testifies to the fruitful work of the Holy Spirit.

South window (window of creation)

Emil Wachter was the first to design the window of creation in the south. From the top of the window, in the first act of creation, paths of light plunge down into an area of ​​“fog, haze and currents of the still undivided water” (quote from Wachter), but below that again white light and large and small streams of water break their paths. In the lower third of the window there is again a series of motifs: From the left you can see red sparks in cold white as Pentecostal harbingers and next to it a city on a brownish mountain, a bright blue torrent is followed by a gemstone in a thick shell (from Wachter interpreted as a treasure in the field ), below further red gemstones there is a cloud from which it rains, next to it traces of the first human settlement activity, the glowing interior of the earth can be seen shining in large red.

West window

The west window is partly covered by the organ and behind it is kept in dark blue to protect the organ from the sun. Here a "praise of creation" sounds: on the left symbolizes life in lush green and on the right the theological virtues as three vertical bands in green (hope), red (love) and white-yellow (faith).

organ

The first organ was inaugurated on March 31, 1971 . It was made by Franz Heissler GmbH, Markelsheim , and had three manuals , four movements and 2630  pipes . The game contracture of the slider chest was mechanically and electrically the registry. This large organ covered a large part of the west window.

Since there were always problems with this organ, discussions about renovating or purchasing a new organ have been held since 1995. On January 10, 1996, the organ inspector Kohlmann gave the recommendation for a new acquisition, which the parish council then decided on October 23, 2001 and the Archbishop's Ordinariate approved on December 19, 2003. In July 2003 Orgelbau Sandtner was commissioned with the new building. In January 2004 the Heissler organ, which had been sold to the community of Maria Vergine Immacolata in Grinzane Cavour , Piedmont region , Italy , was dismantled . In the same year the new organ was completed as Opus 310 by Sandtner and inaugurated on June 5, 2005. The new organ has 1332 pipes (1278 made of tin and 54 made of wood ; 1190 as labial parts and 142 as reed parts ) and the organ work is purely mechanical. The disposition consists of 22  registers and a transmission on two manuals and the pedal .

I Hauptwerk C – g 3 1. Principal 8th' 2. Bordunal flute 8th' 3. Gamba 8th' 4th Octave 4 ′ 5. Pointed flute 4 ′ 6th Super octave 2 ′ 7th Mixture IV 2 ′ 8th. Trumpet 8th'

II Swell C – g 3 9. Bourdon 8th' 10. Salicional 8th' 11. Voix céleste 8th' 12. Violin principal 4 ' 13. Flute traverse 4 ′ 14th Nazard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 15th Octavine 2 ′ 16. third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ 17th Quartan 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ + 1 ′ 18th oboe 8th' Tremulant

Pedals C – f 1 19th Sub bass 16 ′ 20th Octavbass 8th' 21st Octave 4 ′ 22nd bassoon 16 ′ Trumpet (= No. 8) 8th'

• Pairing :
  • Normal coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
  • Sub-octave coupling: II / I

literature

• Catholic rectory, Tauberbischofsheim (Ed.): St. Bonifatiuskirche Tauberbischofsheim. Tauberbischofsheim 1967 (Festschrift for the consecration of the church) .
• Yvonne Monsees, Otmar Bishop: St. Bonifatius Tauberbischofsheim. (= Little Art Guide No. 1982). Schnell und Steiner publishing house, Munich / Zurich 1992.
• Catholic parish of St. Bonifatius Tauberbischofsheim (Ed.): St. Bonifatius Tauberbischofsheim, commemorative publication for the inauguration of the new organ, June 5, 2005. Tauberbischofsheim 2005.

Web links

Commons : St. Boniface  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The parish church of St. Bonifatius on the site of the Catholic parish Tauberbischofsheim
• St. Boniface Church , entry at Emporis .
• Bells of the parish church St. Bonifatius on the website schwabenmedia.de
• The organ on the Orgelbau-Sandtner website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Catholic parish of Tauberbischofsheim: Bonifatiuskirche . Online at www.kath-kirche-tbb.de. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
2. ↑ Tauberbischofsheim Catholic Parish Office: St. Bonifatius Church Tauberbischofsheim. Tauberbischofsheim 1967 (Festschrift for the consecration of the church) .
3. ^ Deanery Tauberbischofsheim: Pastoral conception of the Deanery Tauberbischofsheim . (PDF, 1.3 MB). Resolution of July 21, 2011. Online at www.kath-dekanat-tbb.de. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
4. ↑ Catholic deanery Tauberbischofsheim: Pastoral care units of the deanery Tauberbischofsheim . Online at www.kath-dekanat-tbb.de. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
5. ↑ Peter Zürcher: Stadtkirche St. Martin Tauberbischofsheim - Artworks by Thomas Buscher (1860–1937) - A guide ( memento of the original from May 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (pdf, 1 MB). Catholic parish of St. Martin Tauberbischofsheim 2007. (Printed available at the writing stand in St. Martin Tauberbischofsheim.) 
6. ^ Emil Wachter Foundation: Emil Wachter, biography . Online at emil-wachter-stiftung.de. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
7. ↑ information to the organ on the manufacturing side, accessed on October 9, 2016

Coordinates: 49 ° 37 ′ 38.9 "  N , 9 ° 40 ′ 15.7"  E