St. Johannis (Dietendorf)

St. John's Church (southeast side)

The St. Johannis Church is the Protestant village church in the original Dietendorf district of the Neudietendorf community in the Thuringian district of Gotha , south of the Apfelstädt . Since 1965 it has formed its own parish with the Neudietendorf Brethren in the Gotha parish of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany . It was formerly a branch of the Apfelstädt parish . In Dietendorf, church services are celebrated about every two weeks and on church holidays.

history

The St. Johannis Church is the successor to a late Gothic church that was built around 1400. In 1545 Dietendorf became a branch of Apfelstädt. On the tower, the oldest part of the church, you can find the year 1591 on a stone and the coat of arms of a stonemason from the same time, the year the tower was built. As a result of a fire on March 23, 1646 , which destroyed large parts of the village and the church, the nave of the church was rebuilt. In 1672 the church received its organ, which was improved again in 1699. In 1682, the two bells were re-cast by the Johann Heinrich Rausch bell foundry in Erfurt. The interior was repaired and renewed in 1776. The bell cage and tower dome were repaired in 1781. 10 years later, Ulrich from Apolda cast the large bell around it.

Early 20th century was due to disrepair of a new construction nave been commissioned. In 1913 the church cemetery was cleared and on May 3, 1914 the nave was torn down. The laying of the foundation stone , after some changes to the design by the Gotha architect Alfred Cramer , was carried out by the church building committee founded in 1903 on June 1, 1914. Despite the First World War , construction work continued, and on July 16, 1916, the church was opened by the pastor of Apfelstädt , the later church councilor Franz Bonsack, inaugurated again. The parish raised around 80% of the construction costs with 32,000 marks. In view of the war, the usual pageant was abandoned. When the church was rebuilt on June 1, 1914, a new organ was installed, the Rühlmann organ from Zörbig . After this could no longer be used, the master organ builder Friedrich Löbling from Erfurt installed a new organ with mechanical action and seven stops in 1971 and inaugurated it by the pastor. In 1926 the church got new bells from the Störmer bell foundry in Erfurt. In 1951, the community room was separated under the organ gallery, which is used for smaller celebrations ( senior afternoons ) and Christian teaching. In 1966 a room in the tower cellar was made available for the children's church service . In 1967 the interior was renovated. The tower bells, e.g. B. one from 1791 from Apolda, which had been melted down in the two world wars, was replaced in 1984 by 1 bell from the Erfurt company Stoermer (cast: Christmas 1926) and 2 bells from 1983 from the Apoldaer bell foundry. One bell, the "Bach bell", survived the two wars and is now in the Ingersleben local history museum. From 1988 to 1993 the church was renovated inside and out, the pulpit and gallery paintings were restored, and the benches received electric heating.

The outer

The lantern- adorned slate roof of the tower with four clock houses with arched windows arranged in pairs under the tower roof and four arched windows on each side of the nave characterize the exterior of the church.

The inner

inside view

Grave slab of Andreas von Aries

Gallery painting

A Renaissance tombstone placed next to the pulpit dates from 1559 . It shows the patron saint of Dietendorf, Andreas von Widdern. In addition, the foundation stone from June 1, 1914 is walled in.

The elaborate paintings on the twenty-three gallery fields depict biblical scenes; the pulpit is decorated with pictures of the four evangelists . The artist was JA Heubach, a peasant master from Arnstadt , who created his works in the baroque style around 1690 .

The choir impresses with three colorful glass windows , on which Christ as the Good Shepherd , the symbols for baptism and Lord's Supper , the Holy Scriptures and the Ten Commandments are depicted. Like the altar and the pulpit, they come from a Naumburg workshop and are in the style of the Wilhelminian era .

The nave shows with its simple, clean shapes, from Romanesque arch to the late classical column, the design elements of the late 19th century.