St. Elisabeth (Wuppertal)
The Church of St. Elisabeth (also called Hebbelkirche in Heckinghauser vernacular after the street ) is a Roman Catholic church on Hebbelstraße in the Wuppertal district of Heckinghausen and, together with St. Petrus in Eschensiepen, part of the parish of St. Elisabeth and St. Petrus .
The church is a simple, white plastered hall church in the style of the post-war period . The tower from the previous building is in front of the buildings on the south side and overlooks the church hall with the parish hall to the south, to which the parish hall is connected to the west.
history
The Catholics who lived in Heckinghausen at the end of the 18th century have been looked after by the parish of St. Johann Baptist in Oberbarmen since 1890 , but Heckinghausen's rapidly growing population made it necessary to set up a separate pastoral care area. The first church services were held in a community hall on Mommsenstrasse from 1918, and for the first time voices were heard to build a Catholic church in Heckinghausen, after a church building association, which also belonged to St. Johann Baptist, had its own church building association in 1906 and its own church in 1910 for Eschensiepen and Laaken could be inaugurated. The onset of the global economic crisis , however, did not allow any plans to build a Heckinghauser church, and the majority of the available funds were invested in poor relief . Finally, in 1935, sufficient funds could be raised from sources still unknown to the community to build the church, and after a short construction period the church, already equipped with three bells and an organ , was consecrated in 1937.
The church was completely destroyed during the air raids on Barmen , only the heavily damaged tower could be preserved with extensive renovation measures. The rectory burned down completely, and the priest was also killed. Since all of Oberbarmen's parish halls were completely destroyed and unusable, the Catholic community was allowed to hold its masses in the Evangelical Luther Church on Oberen Sehlhofstrasse, which was the only church in Barmen that was spared from profound destruction. This provisional arrangement existed for a total of three years until the church, which had been rebuilt in a modified form, was consecrated in 1948. Although this only comprised two-thirds of the original seats, the structure of the church and parish hall combined in one building meant that there was no need to rebuild other parish halls. However, the construction work was not finally completed until 1988 with the inauguration of the parish hall.
organ
The organ, built in 1950, had 22 registers on two manuals and a pedal and was built by the Hellenthal organ building company Weimbs . In 2009 it was taken out of service due to its desolate condition and the poor quality of the pipe material used. Since then, the community has been collecting donations to buy a new organ, which is to be installed in the old case .
literature
- Sigrid Lekebusch, Florian Speer (eds.): Churches and places of worship in Barmen , Wuppertal 2008, ISBN 978-3-87707-721-4
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 9.3 ″ N , 7 ° 13 ′ 2 ″ E