St. Josef (Eutingen an der Enz)

St. Josef in Eutingen an der Enz , a district of Pforzheim in Baden-Württemberg , is a Catholic parish church that was built in 1960/61 according to plans by Otto Linder .

history

Since the Reformation and the abolition of the Dominican convent in Pforzheim, to which Eutingen was a monastery village, the place was purely Protestant until the 19th century. The industrialization in the Pforzheim area brought Catholics back to the place, who were initially looked after by the parish of St. Franziskus . In 1912 there was the first request for an own prayer room in Eutingen, which, however , remained unfulfilled because of the First World War . It was not until 1919 that the Eutingen Catholics were able to use the dance hall of the Gasthaus Zum Waldhorn for regular church services.

In 1920 the local Catholics acquired a building site north of the railway line, where an emergency church was built in 1922 according to plans by Hans Holl with funds from the Bonifatius Association . The church was intended for the Catholics from Eutingen, Niefern , Öschelbronn and Kieselbronn , who together were about 360 believers. After the Second World War , the parish grew to over 2,000 believers due to the influx of displaced people. In 1948 the parish took the first step towards a parish by appointing the displaced pastor G. Ruck, who built a parsonage himself from his own resources . The parish of Eutingen was formally raised to a parish on April 1, 1950. In 1952 a small organ could be procured for the emergency church. In 1954 the Elisabethenhaus was opened with a kindergarten and children's house.

Niefern and Öschelbronn received their own church in 1955, the Liebfrauenkirche, and in 1960 they became their own parish curate . The church community in Eutingen was relieved, but the old emergency church was still too small and also had considerable construction defects, which spoke against an extension or a renovation. Because of this, the community acquired another building site on which the St. Josef Church was built in 1960/61 according to plans by Otto Linder . The Pforzheim parish and the Archdiocese of Freiburg covered a large part of the construction costs . The church was consecrated on September 24, 1961 by Augustin Olbert .

In the following years the old organ was moved from the emergency church to the new church. In 1964 a four-part bell could be procured. In the late 1960s, the church was rebuilt according to the requirements of the Second Vatican Council , with the altar being placed one step lower and closer to the faithful. The bare wall behind the altar received a hanging mosaic cross by Josef de Ponte , who also created the stained glass windows of the church. Around 1970 the old organ was replaced by a new electronic organ. In the course of the municipal reform in Baden-Württemberg, through which Eutingen became a district of Pforzheim, the subsidiary community Neulingen / Dürrn was created, which was affiliated to the community in Eutingen. In the first half of the 1980s, the exterior and the tower were renovated, and after 1985, smaller renovations were made inside the church.

literature

• Parish of St. Franziskus Pforzheim (Ed.): 100 years of St. Francis 1891–1991. Catholic life in Pforzheim. Pforzheim 1991.

Coordinates: 48 ° 54 ′ 34.9 "  N , 8 ° 44 ′ 31.1"  E