St. Christophorus (Wolfsburg)

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The parish church of Sankt Christophorus , located in the city center of Wolfsburg (Antonius-Holling-Weg 21) and named after the patron saint of motorists , is the oldest and largest Catholic church in Wolfsburg today. The listed church was built in 1950/51 according to plans by Peter Koller and belongs to the Wolfsburg-Helmstedt deanery of the Hildesheim diocese .

Parish Church of St. Christophorus

history

In October 1938, the year the city ​​of the KdF-Wagen was founded , an Italian priest who had come to the city to provide religious support to the Italian workers and the pastor from Gifhorn held Catholic services in the hall of the Zum Brandenburger Adler restaurant in Heßlingen . At that time, the closest Catholic church was the St. Michael Chapel in Fallersleben . From the end of 1939 the Heßlinger Saal was expanded into an emergency church .

On March 1, 1940, the Bishop of Hildesheim, Joseph Godehard Machens , commissioned the chaplain Antonius Holling (1908–1996) , then active in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg , to serve as parish vicar for the city ​​of the KdF-Wagens and its surroundings. From March 1940, he used the hall of the Zur Gute Quelle restaurant in Rothenfelde for church services , until the Gestapo forbade this a few weeks later. From then on, the Catholics living in the city ​​of the Kdf-Wagen had to make the way to the chapel in Fallersleben for worship. In a letter dated June 28, 1940, the Bishop of Hildesheim founded the curate of the city ​​of the KdF-Wagen , and appointed Antonius Holling as curate, who was promoted from chaplain to pastor . From September 29, 1940, he was also able to use the hall of the Zum Brandenburger Adler restaurant in Heßlingen.

In mid-April 1945, the city ​​of the KdF-Wagen was liberated from National Socialism by the invasion of American forces . On May 25, 1945, at the urging of the British occupying power, the city council decided to rename the previous city name "City of the KdF-Wagons near Fallersleben" to "Wolfsburg". As early as August 1945, Holling applied to the Wolfsburg mayor to designate a building site for a new church, and in September 1945 to build the church with the bishop. The episcopal approval was initially missing, so that the building site was given to someone else. On August 1, 1950, the Wolfsburg Curate was elevated to a parish, and on December 1, 1950 or 1954 to a parish.

Cornerstone

Construction of the church began on September 17, 1950 with the groundbreaking ceremony by Heinrich Nordhoff , and the foundation stone was laid on December 3, 1950. Next to the foundation stone there are stone fragments from the Colosseum in Rome and from Hildesheim Cathedral to express the connection to the center of the Catholic world church in Rome and to the Bishop of Hildesheim. On August 12, 1951, the last service took place in the emergency church, with a procession to the St. Christophorus Church, consecrated on that day by Bishop Joseph Godehard Machens.

The church was built near the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg and named after the patron saint of motorists, St. Christopher . St. Christopher was also the patron saint of the Catholic churches in the vicinity of the Volkswagen factory in Braunschweig and the Volkswagen factory in Hanover , St. Christophorus (Braunschweig-Rühme) and St. Christophorus (Hanover) .

In 1958 the Wolfsburg dean's office was established. In August 1963, the Heßlinger restaurant with the hall that had served as an emergency church was demolished. On May 24, 1986 Antonius Holling retired as pastor and stayed in Wolfsburg until his death. Martin Verdiesen (1923–2009) was appointed his successor. Since July 16, 1989, a stele created by Joseph Krautwald in Heßlingen commemorates the former emergency church. Martin Verdiesen retired in November 1993 and lived in Wolfsburg until his death, his successor being Prelate Heinrich Günther until June 2013. On September 7, 1996 the first pastor of the parish, Antonius Holling, died and was buried in the forest cemetery. In 2004, the Antonius Holling Foundation was established, which has so far focused on the education of children and young people as part of the annual Kids Academy .

Since November 1, 2006, the church has been the seat of the Wolfsburg-Helmstedt deanery, which was then formed from the Wolfsburg deanery and the Helmstedt part of the Helmstedt-Wolfenbüttel deanery. On September 1, 2010, the parish of St. Christophorus also added the churches of St. Joseph ( Wohltberg ), St. Heinrich ( Rabenberg ), St. Bernward ( Alt-Wolfsburg ), St. Raphael ( Detmerode ) and St. Elisabeth ( Westhagen ) connected. The Church of St. Joseph was profaned on November 27, 2015, followed by St. Elisabeth on November 19, 2016 and St. Heinrich on March 22, 2019.

Church building

Next to the main entrance of the church, which is about 63 meters above sea level , there are stone tablets with the Ten Commandments , they were put up in 2013 on the occasion of Pastor Heinrich Günther's retirement.

The interior of the church is a light, hall-shaped building without pillars, so that each of the 440 seats offers a clear view of the semicircular chancel.

Furnishing

View towards the altar

The figures of St. Mary and St. Joseph, which have been located to the left and right of the sanctuary since 1952, are each 2.60 m high. Since 1953 there has been a 6 m high window on the south wall with a depiction of St. Christophorus, designed by the painter Richard Holzner (1883–1958), glass painting FX Zettler , Munich . The mural on the apse of the Last Judgment by the Osnabrück painter Franz Josef Langer (1916–1981) was unveiled on September 15, 1956, but has been covered by a thermal insulation wall since the 1960s. Above the side entrance door there is a statue of St. Christophorus, it reminds of Heinrich Nordhoff, the former general director of the Volkswagen factory and member of the parish. In addition, the statue of St. Elisabeth of Thuringia from the secular St. Elisabeth Church was erected in January 2017 . The two paintings above the entrances to the Kreuzkapelle show the Holy Family and the stoning of Stephen ; they are a gift from the Dutch Volkswagen importer Ben Pon . Parts of the interior, including the tabernacle , the angel with the eternal light and the ambo , were created by the Wolfsburg master goldsmith Raimund Lange (1928–2006). The seven ceiling paintings with scenes from the Gospel of John were created by Claus Kilian on the occasion of the renovation for the 50th anniversary of the church in 2001.

organ

Today's organ was built in 1994 by the Westphalian organ builder Siegfried Sauer and consecrated on June 17, 1994. It is the largest organ in Wolfsburg. The slider chests -instrument has 52 registers on three manual works and pedal and French romantic scheduled . The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric. The pipe material from the previous instrument, which was built by Emanuel Kemper (Lübeck) in 1951, was reused . In 2019 the organ was completely overhauled by the company Mitteldeutscher Orgelbau A. Voigt .

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Principal 16 ′
2. Octave 8th'
3. Double flute 8th'
4th Pointed flute 8th'
5. Gamba 8th'
6th Octave 4 ′
7th Coupling flute 4 ′
8th. Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ H
9. Super octave 2 ′
10. Cornett V 8th'
11. Mixture V 2 ′
12. Trumpet 16 ′
13. Trumpet 8th'
Tremulant
Zymbelstern
II Rückpositiv C – g 3
14th Music-playing 8th' H
15th Quintad 8th' H
16. Principal 4 ′
17th flute 4 ′ H
18th Forest flute 2 ′ H
19th Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ H
20th Sesquialtera III 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ H
21st Scharff III 1' H
22nd Dulcian 16 ′ H
23. Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
III Swell C – g 3
24. Drone 16 ′ H
25th Ital. Principal 8th' H
26th Pipe pommer 8th' H
27. Salicional 8th'
28. Vox coelestis 8th'
29 Principal 4 ′
30th Transverse flute 4 ′
31. Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ H
32. Schwiegel 2 ′
33. third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ H
34. Seventh 1 1 ⁄ 7  ′
35. Piccolo 1' H
36. Fittings V. 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
37. Basson 16 ′
38. Trumpet harm. 8th'
39. oboe 8th' H
40. Vox humana 8th'
41. Clairon 4 ′
Tremulant
Pedals C – f 1
42. Principal 16 ′
43. Sub bass 16 ′ H
44. Octave bass 8th' H
45. Dumped 8th'
46. Choral bass 4 ′
47. Flat flute 2 ′ H
48. Back set IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ H
49. Bombard 32 ′
50. trombone 16 ′
51. Trumpet 8th'
52. Hautbois 4 ′
  • Coupling : II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
  • Remarks
H / h = register completely (H) or partially (h) taken from the previous organ

Steeple

The 51 meter high free-standing church tower was built in 1951 and is a gift from the city of Wolfsburg to the parish. The tower shaft is made up of four columns and the infill masonry. The steel bell cage, which is surrounded by an octagonal reinforced concrete structure, is anchored on its upper platform . The five steel bells were installed on August 8, 1951 and hang in the following order (from top to bottom) in the bell cage:

  • Antonius (weight 440 kg)
  • Michael (weight 1570 kg)
  • Josef (weight 1080 kg)
  • Maria (weight 2580 kg)
  • Christophorus (weight 780 kg)

Above the belfry there is another platform that can be reached via a spiral staircase surrounding the belfry . On June 29, 1973, a cross relic was embedded in the spire, which is crowned by a cross and a weathercock . In 2016/17 the tower was renovated and lighting was installed.

Baptistery

Baptistery

The baptistery, only accessible from the church, was completed in November 1951. The baptismal font is in the center of the chapel . The lid of the baptismal font is the work of the Wolfsburg master goldsmith Raimund Lange.

Lady Chapel

Lady Chapel

The Marienkapelle, consecrated on September 8, 1953, has 42 seats. Your tabernacle with the enamelled pictures from the life of Mary comes from Wilhelm Keudel ( Salzgitter ). On August 22, 1954, a statue of Mary was placed in it, which had been brought in a Volkswagen from the Portuguese pilgrimage site of Fátima . In the side chapels on the east side of the Marienkapelle there have been statues of the patron saint of the church, St. Maria Goretti , as well as St. Anthony of Padua and Jude Thaddeus since 1954 . On the west side of the Marienkapelle there is a representation of the Archangel Michael . A Pietà , which still comes from the emergency chapel, has its place in the passage room between the church and the Marienkapelle .

Kreuzkapelle

The cruciform chapel, which is accessible from the church and was built in 1966 as a confessional chapel, now houses the cross from the former emergency church. Two confessionals were set into the east wall , which were later supplemented by a room for confessional discussions. There is also a small altar of the Schoenstatt Movement and a picture of the Sacred Heart in the chapel . Occasionally the Kreuzkapelle is also used for exhibitions.

Marienbrunnen

Between the church and the Prälat-Holling-Haus is the Marienbrunnen, which was built in June 1983 on the occasion of Antonius Holling's 75th birthday on the spot where the first groundbreaking for the church took place in 1950.

Church institutions

In the parish of St. Christophorus, within the boundaries before the merger carried out on September 1, 2010, the following Catholic institutions are located:

Rectory

Initially, the apartment that Antonius Holling moved into on Steimker Berg in 1940 also served as a parish office. On May 1, 1945, the American local commandant of the Catholic Church made the house available to the NSDAP local group at Weddigenstrasse 15 (from 1945 Windhorststrasse 15), where the parish had the first public pastoral office. At the beginning of the 1950s, the new rectory was opened at what was then Lindengasse 6, and in 1983 the move to the current location at Antonius-Holling-Weg 15.

Boniface House

Around 1980 the building of the former St. Elisabeth home for the elderly was converted into the parish center Bonifatius-Haus, which still exists today at Antonius-Holling-Weg 11; in addition to offices and apartments, it also includes a community hall on the upper floor and, since 1995, the Caritas lunch table.

Föhrenkrug

Föhrenkrug with old hall (1984)
Föhrenkrug today

In March 1957 the Föhrenkrug at Pestalozziallee 3 was opened as an inn and community hall, named after the pine standing in front of the main entrance .

In 1984 the hall was torn down and replaced by a new building because it no longer met the structural requirements, and the Föhrenkrug was given its current shape. The Föhrenkrug has been a meeting place for Caritas since 2008 and is used for public and private events.

St. Christophorus House day care center

Entrance area of ​​the day care center with portal from 1948, tower from 1999 and buildings from 1960

In autumn 1945 the first Catholic kindergarten in Wolfsburg was set up in some of the former elementary school barracks in the area of ​​today's VfL stadium and opened on December 1, 1945. Initially 189 children were looked after by 6 employees. Since the city of Wolfsburg needed the barracks again for school lessons, the building application for a new kindergarten was submitted in 1947, after the kindergarten was temporarily housed in two barracks provided by the Volkswagen factory. As early as July 26, 1947, the foundation stone for a massive kindergarten building was laid in what was then Lindengasse 1, later renamed Kettelerstraße, which was built in the form of a solid barrack according to the plans of the Wolfsburg architect Edmund Goebel. It offered space for around 200 children and had, among other things, a roof turret with a bell and a small house chapel. A possible northern extension, which was not realized until 1960, was already planned. On December 5, 1948, the new building was inaugurated by Bishop Joseph Godehard Machens . In 1948 40 linden trees were also planted in the vicinity of the kindergarten building . In 1960 it was replaced by the new building that still exists today, but the old entrance portal from 1948 was retained. In 1999 the entrance area on the west side was redesigned and the 7.5 m high tower was built according to a design by Wolfsburg architect Wilhelm Wacker. In 2010 the after-school care ended. In 2016/17, to the east of the Karl Leisner House, which had to sacrifice its garden for this, the construction of ChrisMIDA , a workshop for creative and artistic work. Today the day care center with over 200 children is one of the largest day care centers in the Diocese of Hildesheim. It is run by the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Catholic Church, founded in 2011 . St. Christophorus-Haus eV day care center supported.

Maria Goretti House children's home

The children's home, named after the church's patron saint, St. Maria Goretti, opened on May 29, 1952 at Lindengasse 3 (later renamed Kettelerstraße 5); An extension building was inaugurated on June 14, 1956. Due to the declining number of children being placed in inpatient facilities, the home closed in June 1990 and was demolished. The extension of the St. Elisabeth Home has been on the property since 1992.

Youth recreation homes Don-Bosco-Heim and Karl-Leisner-Haus

Karl Leisner House

The Don Bosco Home was built for the youth in 1951/52 and inaugurated in May 1953. In November 1976 it was demolished in favor of the new St. Elisabeth nursing home.

On December 12, 1980, the youth home, named after Karl Leisner and still in existence today, was inaugurated at Kettelerstraße 3 , known by many young people for short as Katju (Catholic Youth). For the construction of the home, garages in which VW buses belonging to the St.-Christophorus-Haus daycare center were parked were demolished. The originally one-storey building with a basement was later supplemented by an attic.

Prelate Holling House

Prelate Holling House (2015)

The former rectory at Antonius-Holling-Weg 6, built in the early 1950s, was renamed Prälat-Holling-Haus on October 9, 1986; Senior citizens' apartments were set up in the building after the pastor and the parish office had moved out. The building was demolished at the beginning of January 2017; it was last inhabited by young asylum seekers .

St. Elisabeth senior center

Senior Center St. Elisabeth (House A, 2009)
Chapel of the house chapel (2015)

On October 24, 1957, the St. Elisabeth catholic retirement home, named after Elisabeth of Thuringia , was inaugurated at Lindengasse 5. The first of the initially 35 residents had already moved in on August 30, 1957.

After the home no longer met the growing requirements, the foundation stone for a new building was laid on June 24, 1977 in Antonius-Holling-Weg 4 by the Caritas director of the diocese, Heinrich Schenk. From the architectural office Dr. Ing.Töschner / Dipl.-Ing Wacker , it was inaugurated on July 7, 1979 and in March 1992 an extension building opposite was added. Since March 1, 2013, the home has been run as the St. Elisabeth Seniors Center by the Evangelical Diakonisches Werk Wolfsburg, economic reasons led to the change of sponsorship. In 2013, about 180 people lived in the facility. On September 1, 2016, the last residents of House A , the part of the building that was inaugurated in 1979, moved to a newly built retirement home in Ehmen , because House A was to be demolished and rebuilt. The demolition took place from January to April 2017; the successor building designed by the architect Kai Loewe from Hanover has been under construction since 2017.

The house chapel, inaugurated in 1979, offered 46 seats and remained Catholic until it was profaned ; Catholic and Protestant services were held in it. Its furnishings included a crucifix , a tabernacle stele and a statue of St. Elizabeth. In front of a Pietà there was a book of the dead in which the deceased residents of the home are listed. On the loft to 14 were stations of the cross , a pipe organ with four registers (Gedackt 8 ', Flute tube 4', principal 2 'and fifth 1 1 / 3 ') and a statue. It was profaned on August 2, 2016 by Dean Thomas Hoffmann on behalf of the Bishop of Hildesheim, because House A , in which the chapel was located, was about to be closed. At the end of March 2017, the chapel fell victim to the demolition excavator.

Missione Cattolica Italiana

As early as 1938, the year the city was founded, Italian priests came to Wolfsburg to provide pastoral care for the Italians living in Wolfsburg. From January 1962, Italian guest workers recruited by Volkswagen AG came to Wolfsburg, and in the same year the Vatican set up the “Italian Catholic Mission” in Wolfsburg. After several moves, it is now at home in a former sister house at Antonius-Holling-Weg 9, where it has its own house chapel. From 1987 to 2015 Sisters of Divine Will also worked there.

Eichendorff School

Eichendorff School

In April 1948 a Catholic school started operations as elementary school IV in some school barracks. Since 1954, the school has had its school building on the Frauenteichstrasse, which still exists today. Today they are home to high school and high school .

Marriage, family and life counseling

The Catholic marriage, family and life counseling, sponsored by the Diocese of Hildesheim, has its counseling center on Kleiststrasse. It offers counseling for individuals, couples and families.

Maltese

The Malteser Aid Service has been active in Wolfsburg since 1964 , and in September 2006 it moved into the still existing branch in Benzstrasse. Since March 1, 2018, Malteser International has been operating ambulance transport for the city of Wolfsburg together with the German Red Cross .

Edith Stein Center

In 1995, after a year of construction, the Edith-Stein church center with community rooms, a chapel and the day-care center that is still in operation was opened in the Reislingen Süd-West development area .

Catchment area

The catchment area of ​​the church includes the Wolfsburg districts Barnstorf , Hellwinkel , Heßlingen , Köhlerberg , Nordsteimke , Rothenfelde , Sandkamp , Schillerteich , Stadtmitte and Steimker Berg ; also the settlement areas Reislingen Süd-West, Reislingen-West and Windberg belonging to Reislingen . Since the desecration of St. Joseph Church, the districts of Hageberg , Hohenstein , Laagberg and Wohltberg have also been part of it.

See also

literature

  • Karl Theodor Weise: 50 years of St. Christophorus Church for the city. St. Christophorus Parish, Wolfsburg 2001.
  • Karen Schaelow-Weber: Wolfsburg, Catholic parish church of St. Christophorus. Kunstverlag-Peda, Passau 2001.
  • 25 years of St. Christophorus Church in Wolfsburg. Anniversary publication on August 22, 1976. Wolfsburg 1976.
  • 1951 - 1991, 40th St. Christophorus Parish Festival. Wolfsburg 1991.
  • Ludgera Austermann: beginning. On the history of the Catholic Church in the city of the KdF-Wagen Wolfsburg 1940–1947. St. Christophorus Parish, Wolfsburg 2001.
  • Karl-Heinz Bögershausen: The emergency church of the first German Catholic parish in Wolfsburg 1940 to 1951. St. Christophorus parish, Wolfsburg approx. 1988.
  • chris Extra: 100 years of Antonius Holling. St. Christophorus Parish, Wolfsburg 2008.
  • Nicole Froberg, Ulrich Knufinke, Susanne Kreykenboom: Wolfsburg. The architecture guide. Braun Publishing, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-03768-055-1 , p. 57.
  • Catholic parish of St. Christophorus (Hrsg.): Festschrift for the consecration of the organ in St. Christophorus on June 17, 1994. Wolfsburg 1994.
  • Renate Kumm: The Diocese of Hildesheim in the post-war period. Investigation of a diaspora diocese from the end of the Second World War to the Second Vatican Council (1945 to 1965). Hahnsche Buchhandlung Verlag, Hanover 2002, pp. 158–162.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lecture “Church History Wolfsburg” on November 26, 2014 in Föhrenkrug, Wolfsburg.
  2. ↑ Address at the profanation of the St. Heinrich Church
  3. ↑ antonius-holling.de
  4. ↑ bistum-hildesheim.de ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bistum-hildesheim.de
  5. ^ A b Ernst Pauer: Church history and church art. In: Historical-regional excursion map of Lower Saxony, sheet Wolfsburg. Erhard Kühlhorn, Hildesheim 1977, ISBN 3-7848-3626-7 , explanatory booklet p. 115.
  6. ↑ Catholic parish of St. Christophorus (ed.): Sunday greeting. Issue January 22-29, 2017, p. 3.
  7. ↑ More information about the organ ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2014 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dekanat-wob-he.de
  8. ↑ Complete renovation of our organ - day of the open organ construction site. kirchewolfsburg.de, accessed on June 23, 2019.
  9. ↑ ndr.de ringing the bells of the Christophorus Church
  10. ↑ ludwig-freytag.de
  11. ↑ kirchewolfsburg.de
  12. ↑ Barbara Benstem: Diakonie - From the city to the new building area. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Edition 206/2016 of September 2, 2016, p. 16
  13. ↑ dhm.de
  14. ↑ KirchenZeitung No. 28/2014 of July 13, 2014, p. 16
  15. ↑ Diocese of Hildesheim, Ordensreferat (Ed.): Day of Open Monasteries May 10, 2014. Hildesheim 2014, p. 35
  16. ↑ Maltese and DRK share major order. Wolfenbütteler Zeitung of May 8, 2018, accessed on July 1, 2018

Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 15.7 ″  N , 10 ° 47 ′ 26.1 ″  E