St. Elisabeth (Wolfsburg)
The church Saint Elisabeth was the Catholic Church in Wolfsburg district Westhagen . Most recently it belonged to the parish of St. Christophorus and was the youngest church in the Wolfsburg-Helmstedt deanery of the Hildesheim diocese . Their catchment area included the Westhagen district.
history
Due to the high demand for housing in the growing city of Wolfsburg, the City Council of Wolfsburg decided in 1963 to build a new district in the south-west of Wolfsburg. Residential construction began in 1969, and the first residential buildings were completed and occupied in 1970/71.
As early as 1972, a Catholic emergency church was set up in a rented wooden barrack on the corner of Stralsunder Ring and Eisenacher Strasse , which originally served as an Edeka store and then briefly as a savings bank branch. On October 22, 1972, the first service took place there under the direction of the pastor of St. Joseph's Church . In 1973 a parish curate named after Elisabeth of Thuringia was established and linked to the St. Joseph parish, in 1974 it became a parish vicarie with its own pastor .
In 1977 the foundation stone was laid for the church. In February 1978, the move from the emergency church to the new church took place, which was consecrated on February 25, 1978 by Bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen . The parish of St. Elisabeth had already been established on January 1, 1978, and on December 25, 1982 it was elevated to a parish ; and in 1996 the pastoral care unit Wolfsburg-Süd was founded from the parishes of St. Elisabeth, Motherhood of Mary in Fallersleben and St. Raphael in Detmerode .
In 2000 the last resident priest left the parish; from 2000 to 2007 a deacon had his seat at St. Elisabeth. From November 1, 2006 the church belonged to the Dean's Office Wolfsburg-Helmstedt; previously it belonged to the dean's office in Wolfsburg, which at that time was renamed and enlarged to include the Helmstedt part of the then-dissolved dean's office in Helmstedt-Wolfenbüttel. From September 1st, 2010 the church belonged to the parish of St. Christophorus , the parish of St. Elisabeth was abolished in this context.
Due to the declining financial resources as well as the lower number of clergy and church visitors, it was decided in 2014 to profane and sell the church . On October 2, 2016, the last event was a farewell meeting under the motto “One last time in the Elisabeth Hall” in the Elisabeth-Saal (community hall), as the community center is being converted into a day-care center. Since then, the remaining groups of the congregation have been meeting in the St. Elisabeth day care center and in the rooms of the evangelical Bonhoeffer congregation. On November 1, 2016, Bishop Norbert Trelle issued the decree of profanation, and on November 19, 2016, the feast of St. Elisabeth, the church was profaned by Auxiliary Bishop Heinz-Günter Bongartz . The building complex was sold to the city of Wolfsburg, with the parish hall and rectory being converted into a day-care center, and the church building at a later date into a community meeting place. The closest Catholic churches today are St. Raphael and St. Marien in the neighboring districts of Detmerode and Fallersleben.
In 2017 the community center and rectory were converted into a day-care center, which started operations at the beginning of November 2017, but was not officially inaugurated until December 19, 2017. The St. Franziskus day care center is named after St. Francis of Assisi . Your building is owned by the city of Wolfsburg, but the day-care center is operated by the Association of Catholic Churches in Wolfsburg.
On March 14, 2018, the Wolfsburg City Council decided to convert the former St. Elisabeth Church into a cultural center.
Architecture and equipment
The church was on the property at Dessauer Strasse 12 (corner of Hallesche Strasse). The shape of the towerless church designed by Josef Fehlig symbolized the tent of God among the people. The St. Elisabeth House (parish hall) and the rectory were located south of the church, separated from the church by an inner courtyard .
The church, located 101 meters above sea level , offered over 192 seats. The stained glass windows are the work of the artist Albert Reinker (1926–2014) from Everswinkel .
The altar, created by Joseph Krautwald , showed Christ with the Emmaus disciples on the front . The sides showed the wonderful multiplication of bread and the wedding at Cana . The reverse shows Jesus with his disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee . On the wall behind the altar was a crucifix with a bronze body . The Eternal Light was integrated into the tabernacle stele, and the Lamb of God was depicted on the outer tabernacle door.
The Wolfsburg artist Helma Kölblinger designed the bronze-cast stations of the cross, which integrated the risen Christ by Joseph Krautwald, so to speak floating. Helma Kölblinger also designed a mural from fired clay plates with symbols of the Old and New Testaments. The panels were put together to form a wall cross and hung in the hall of the community center.
In the rear of the church there was a statue of St. Elisabeth, which was created after a late Gothic model. In January 2017 it was put up again in the St. Christophorus Church. A confessional was set into the wall near the entrance to the sacristy . On the east side of the church there was a Marienkapelle open to the nave , which could also be entered through its own entrance door. In addition to a statue of the Virgin Mary, in front of which sacrificial candles could be placed, there was also an image of Jesus of Divine Mercy in the chapel .
The group rooms in the adjoining Elisabeth-Haus (parish hall) were named after Saint Vincent von Paul , Elisabeth von Thuringia, Bernward von Hildesheim , Ignatius von Loyola (pottery room) and Dominikus (billiard room).
organ
The pipe organ was built in 1980 by the Breil organ builder for St. Hedwig's Church in Braunschweig . In 1998 the instrument was moved to the St. Elisabeth Church and also greatly expanded by Breil. Previously, an electronic organ was used in the St. Elisabeth Church.
The slider chests -instrument has 14 registers on two manuals and pedal . The actions are mechanical.
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Further Catholic institutions in Westhagen
The St. Elisabeth day care center (Weimarer Straße 13) opened in August 1974. In 2014/15 a two-storey extension was built according to plans by the Brunswick architect Heribert Maurer (* 1952). Today (2015) around 90 children are cared for in five groups.
The St. Franziskus day care center (Dessauer Straße 12) opened in 2017. In 2017, a total of 70 children can be looked after in two crèche and standard groups.
In 1974 a branch of the Eichendorff primary school was set up in Westhagen, in 1982 it was relocated to the neighboring district of Detmerode .
See also
literature
- 20 years of the parish of St. Elisabeth. Wolfsburg 1998.
- PEDA art guide No. 173/2001: The Catholic Churches in Wolfsburg. Passau 2001, pp. 27-29.
- Nicole Froberg, Ulrich Knufinke, Susanne Kreykenboom: Wolfsburg. The architecture guide. Braun Publishing, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-03768-055-1 , p. 126.
Web links
- Chronicle of the St. Elisabeth Congregation
- Profanation of the church on the website of the Hildesheim diocese
- Website of the St. Elisabeth day care center
- Internet presence of the St. Francis day care center
Individual evidence
- ^ Catholic parish St. Christophorus Wolfsburg (ed.): Chris. Easter 2014 edition. Wolfsburg 2014, pp. 4–6
- ↑ St. Franziskus day care center officially opened. ( 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. Internet presence of the Wolfsburger Allgemeine, accessed on December 21, 2017
- ↑ Hans Karweik: Digital Market Hall: Compromise. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Friday Packet for March 16, 2018.
- ↑ http://www.bshv-everswinkel.de/heimatverein/kunst/004reinker.html#u
- ↑ Catholic parish of St. Christophorus (ed.): Sunday greeting. Issue January 22-29, 2017, p. 3.
- ↑ http://www.maurer-architektur.de/aktuell/frame-aktuell.htm
- ↑ 1948–1998, 50 years Eichendorffschule Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg 1998, pp. 10 and 14.
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 20.5 " N , 10 ° 44 ′ 23.8" E