St. Hubertus (Grötzenberg)
The St. Hubertus Chapel in Grötzenberg is a historic church building in the municipality of Nümbrecht .
The St. Hubertus Chapel in Grötzenberg was established after the Second World War . Almost four hundred years after the Reformation, it was the first Catholic pastoral care station in the Nümbrecht community.
The flat building on Hammermühler Strasse previously served as an apartment. A small diaspora community had emerged in the Homburg Bröltal through the evacuation of those damaged by bombs and the influx of displaced persons . The services were first celebrated in the inn in Grötzenberg and then in the Winterborn singer's home. When the men's choir needed the hall for itself, a new room had to be found. With the establishment of the chapel in Grötzenberg , the problem was solved in the long term.
The chapel is very closely associated with the name of the chaplain at the time, Josef Weyler. With tenacity and perseverance and with his charm, he won the necessary craftsmen, the volunteers and the many donors in a very difficult time. Nothing came from the archdiocese of Cologne , which was very poor at the time . When things got stuck, his relatives in Oberpleis had to help with food from their farm. So the chapel, poorly furnished, was consecrated to St. Hubert on December 8, 1946. The patron corresponded to the wishes of the then dean Emmerich Wolter and Hubert Blumberg, who lived in Winterborn . Dean Wolter came from the Eifel . His father's name was Hubert, and the family had a close relationship with the St. Hubertus Abbey in the Ardennes. Hubert Blumberg and his family did a great job in the small community.
The spirit of ecumenism was still very weak in the Nümbrecht community at that time, so a family with diaspora experience was valuable. In addition to the room for the church service, there were two smaller rooms in the chapel that served as a sacristy and a youth room. In 1947 Kaplan Weyler (see photos) founded the first Catholic youth group in the Nümbrecht community. His motorcycle, with which he rode across the country for many years, was for him the “eighth sacrament”.
The chapel in Grötzenberg was home to the small community for around thirty years. That changed in 1976 with the construction of the new Church of the Holy Spirit in Nümbrecht. The expatriates had long since returned to their cities, and most of the faithful went to the more attractive new church for Sunday mass. In the last few years there was only a holy day on the first Friday of the month. Mass celebrated. On the other Fridays there was the “Grötzenberg Evening Prayer”.
The St. Hubertus Chapel had a special meaning for the hunters in the parish. Inspired by the late hunter Paul Dick from Waldbröl , they celebrated the feast of St. Hubertus in Grötzenberg their patronage fair. According to an old tradition, this service was co-organized by the hunting horn blowers of the Hegering Waldbröl. The names of the deceased hunters have been burned into the oak frame of the Hubertus picture donated by the hunters in the chapel for decades. When the chapel closed in December 2002, this tradition also came to an end.
Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 27 " N , 7 ° 35 ′ 34" E