St. Georg (Rathenow)
The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Georg was inaugurated in 1893 and is one of the architectural monuments of the town of Rathenow . The parish of St. Georg includes the parishes of Sankt Marien in Premnitz and St. Georg in Rathenow. The parish belongs to the Brandenburg Dean's Office in the Archdiocese of Berlin and is located on its western border. Since the change of pastor on November 1, 2016, the parish has been subordinate to the Catholic parish "Holy Trinity" in Brandenburg an der Havel. The Brandenburg-based pastor is therefore also responsible for Rathenow and Premnitz.
church
The appearance of the church is a fragment of the planned church building, for financial reasons only the main nave could be realized. There are no apses , aisles or a bell tower.
Little of the old furnishings remains inside the church. The sanctuary was rebuilt after the Second Vatican Council . The high altar was torn down and replaced by a simple folk altar . Of the statues of saints that were on the high altar, only Saint George is still standing , but in the entrance area. At the point where the high altar was, a new round stained glass window was let. The reconstruction of the church was completed with the consecration of the altar by Joachim Cardinal Meisner in 1986.
From 2014 to 2015 the sanctuary was completely redesigned. A new liturgical space was created according to designs by the sculptor Robert M. Weber. The back wall was redesigned with a screen, the tobacco bar, altar and ambo were created from Anröchter dolomite, the floor was laid with red bricks. On July 12, 2015 the altar was consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Dr. Heinrich from Berlin.
On the west side of the church is the gallery and on this the organ . The side windows and the large west rosette are originals and have only recently been restored.
A special artistic feature is the Way of the Cross , which was designed in the 1990s by the local painter J. Bode and which relocates the Passion of Jesus to the streets of Rathenow. The old town hall in Jahnstraße, the Sankt-Marien-Andreas-Kirche and the Bismarck tower are the places of action.
More buildings
On the parish property in Rathenow there is also the parsonage next to the church . Like the church building, this was built from red bricks. On the street side there is a memorial plaque for Pastor August Froehlich , who campaigned for the forced laborers in Rathenow and was killed by the National Socialists for it.
The Marien-Kindergarten, which is supported by Caritas, is located at the rear of the property. In the place of the kindergarten was the Catholic school in Rathenow before the renovation.
The community center is located in the former kindergarten, where the festive life of the community takes place.
In the Rathenow district of Steckelsdorf (expansion) there is another Catholic church (St. Josef), which, however, belongs to the parish Tangermünde and thus to the diocese of Magdeburg .
Church life
The parish of Premnitz-Rathenow has existed since 2005, when the two independent parish offices in the towns were merged. Since then there has been a pastor for both churches. Bernhard Scholtz is the parish priest and lives in the rectory in Rathenow. Pastor Drews lives in the Premnitz parsonage. He worked as a parish priest in Premnitz until 2006 and has since been active as a prison chaplain in Brandenburg. Since November 1, 2016 the parish in Brandenburg an der Havel has been subordinate to the parish.
In the community there is a senior circle, family circle, youth and acolytes. The congregation has about 2000 members and services are held in both churches on Sundays. Other highlights of the church year are the Corpus Christi parade and Saint Martin . St. Martin takes place in both churches together with the local Protestant communities and ends in a lantern parade .
The 2011 census in the European Union showed that of the 24,462 inhabitants of the city of Rathenow, 630, or around 2.6%, belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.
Community representatives
Pastor:
| Surname | Period |
|---|---|
| Wolfgang Plischka | 1895-1923 |
| Wilhelm Knobloch | 1923-1937 |
| August Froehlich | 1937-1942 |
| Reinhold Stahl | 1941-1973 |
| Helmut Gentz | 1973-1984 |
| Klaus Vopravil | 1985-1993 |
| Johannes Drews and Johannes Schreiber | 1993 as administrators |
| Bernd Bogensberger | 1993-1999 |
| Matthias Kucklick | 1999-2006 |
| Bernhard Scholtz | 2006-2016 |
| Markus Hartung (Parish Vicar) | 2016-present |
- The church council is the decisive body alongside the pastor. The pastor has to resort to this advice especially in financial matters.
- The parish council is elected by the parish every four years and provides advice to the pastor. His competencies are limited to community organization and participation.
Interior views
The Virgin Mary statue
Saint George
The baptismal font and the Holy Samaritan
A side window
Web links
- Website of the parish of St. Georg
- Chronicle of the community, website of the Dreifaltigkeitsgemeinde Brandenburg ad Havel
- German Resistance Memorial Center , entry by August Froehlich
Coordinates: 52 ° 36 ′ 23.7 " N , 12 ° 20 ′ 43.7" E