St. Josef (Wolmirstedt)

Exterior view

The Sankt Josef Church is the Catholic church in Wolmirstedt , a town in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt . It belongs to the parish “St. Christophorus ”based in Haldensleben , in the Stendal deanery of the Magdeburg diocese . The church named after St. Joseph of Nazareth is located at Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 18.

history

With the introduction of the Reformation in the 16th century, the population and the church in Wolmirstedt became Evangelical-Lutheran . It was not until the early 19th century that some Catholics began to settle in Wolmirstedt again, they went to church in Groß Ammensleben .

From 1856 on , Holy Masses were held in Wolmirstedt by priests from Groß Ammensleben, initially in the hall of an inn, then from 1864 in a residential and commercial building on Stendaler Strasse (later renamed August-Bebel-Strasse). In 1910 a census in the Wolmirstedt district showed that of the 4,333 inhabitants of the city of Wolmirstedt 146 were Catholics. Other Catholics lived in the villages and on the estates in the area. After the First World War , the number of Catholics in Wolmirstedt increased. In 1934, the house acquired in 1864 fell victim to a road expansion, and from then on the services were held in a hall of the “Zum Schwarzen Adler” inn.

In 1935 the church property was acquired and construction began, on March 15, 1936 the foundation stone was laid . On May 24, 1936, Augustinus Philipp Baumann , auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Paderborn , to which Wolmirstedt belonged at the time, consecrated the church . With the church a parish and school house were built, in which from 1937 joint lessons for pupils from first to eighth grade took place. In 1938, however, the school had to be closed again by order of the National Socialist government.

Due to evacuations during the Second World War , a large number of Catholics came to Wolmirstedt temporarily. After the Second World War, the number of Catholics in the Wolmirstedt area continued to increase due to the influx of Catholic refugees and displaced persons , most of whom came from Silesia and the Sudetenland . Since the fall of the Wall, there has been a partnership with the St. Bonifatius community in Wunstorf, Lower Saxony .

On March 1, 2007 the community association "Haldensleben - Eichenbarleben - Groß Ammensleben - Weferlingen - Wolmirstedt" was founded, to which the church belonged from then on. On May 2, 2010, today's parish “St. Christophorus ”. In addition to the church “St. Josef ”also the churches“ St. Johannes Baptist ”in Althaldensleben ,“ Holy Cross ”in Calvörde ,“ St. Nikolaus von der Flüe ”in Colbitz ,“ St. Benedikt ”in Eichenbarleben,“ St. Peter and Paul ”in Groß Ammensleben , " St. Liborius " in Haldensleben, " St. Josef and St. Theresia of the Child Jesus " in Weferlingen and the pilgrimage chapel "St. Anna “on Gut Glüsig . The 2011 census in the European Union showed that of the 11,708 inhabitants of the city of Wolmirstedt, 410, or 3.5%, belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. The St. Nikolaus von der Flüe church in Colbitz, about seven kilometers away, also belongs to the catchment area of St. Josef and is no longer used for regular services .

Architecture and equipment

inside view

The hall church is aligned on the north-south axis. The nave has a gable roof with a slim roof turret in the south. The eight-sided roof turret is closed by a curved hood and crowned by a point with a ball and cross. The bell in the roof turret, which weighs around 45 kilograms, comes from the secular St. Bernhard Church in Goldbeck and was installed in Wolmirstedt in 2015. The previous bell, which weighed only around 30 kilograms and had hung in the roof turret since 1936, has been in the church since then. The nave is lit on the west side through five high windows with flat arched arches and on the north east side through three small arched arched windows arranged in pairs. Two east windows are embedded in a niche inside. The rectory adjoins the south-east side. The church is accessed through a rectangular portal on the south side, above which a rectangular window is let. The north side has no windows.

The interior is closed off by a flat slab that rests on several cross beams . The bright church stalls leave a central aisle free and offer space for 126 visitors.

The chancel on the north side is dominated by the three-part altarpiece, which shows the crowned Christ in the middle, inviting people to sit at the table . Furnishing of the church also includes one of the concrete -made statue of St. Mary (mother of Jesus) , the cup-shaped baptismal font and 14 stations of the cross .

The organ on the south pore was manufactured in 1985 by the " VEB Frankfurter Orgelbau Sauer " as Opus 2179. The instrument has eight registers , which are divided between a manual and a pedal .

I Manual C–
Wooden dacked	8th'
Principal	4 ′
Reed flute	4 ′
Forest flute	2 ′
Fifth	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Third flute	⁴ ⁄ ₅ ′
Sharp III – IV

Pedal C–
Pommer	16 ′

A mission cross on the organ gallery commemorates the people's mission from 1953. Under the organ gallery there is a copy of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help , in front of which sacrificial candles can be placed, as well as the foundation stone, a confessional and the stand of writings. In the anteroom of the church there is a holy water font with a representation of St. Christopher .

At the end of the 1970s a major interior renovation of the church took place, during which the chancel was also redesigned.

literature

Peter Zülicke: 1856 * 1936 * 2016. 160 years on the road as a parish in Wolmirstedt, 80 years at home in St. Josefs Church. Festschrift. Wolmirstedt 2016.
Anniversary celebration 2006