St. Josef (Ilmenau)
The Catholic Church of St. Josef in Ilmenau was built between 1979 and 1983. It belongs to the deanery of Weimar in the Roman Catholic diocese of Erfurt .
history
With the Reformation , Ilmenau became Protestant in the 16th century . With the onset of industrialization in the 19th century, Catholics again moved to Ilmenau. On April 26, 1896, the first Catholic mass was celebrated in the Gasthof zum Deutschen Kaiser (later Bahnhofshotel).
In 1900 the KTV Unitas was founded in Ilmenau. It mainly consisted of members of the Thuringian technical center , from which the Technical University of Ilmenau later emerged. Like all other fraternities, the KTV Unitas was banned by the NSDAP in the Third Reich . Former members later re-founded them in Kassel as KTV Unitas Ilmenau / Kassel. At the same time, the KTV Unitas Ilmenau was secretly re-established in Ilmenau. It existed under the guise of the student community. Both connections only found out about each other after the reunification. The KTV Unitas Ilmenau today consists only of old men due to a lack of young people . Some of their traditions entered the student community.
The first Catholic clergyman was installed in Ilmenau in 1900 and the Ilmenau community was founded in 1901. In the same year the mission house in Unterpörlitzer Strasse was approved and built by the Episcopal Vicariate General in Fulda. The mission house had a St. Joseph chapel on the ground floor , in which the services were celebrated. Today the community uses the chapel as a large hall, although the former main entrance is only used sporadically.
The Nazi regime banned various Catholic clubs and associations and hindered previous community life through various ordinances. At the same time, at the end of the Second World War, many Catholic refugees moved to Ilmenau and thus increased the number of believers. In 1947 a nurses' station was set up, which was closed again in 1969. In 1953 the Catholic student community in Ilmenau was founded. In 1964, the diocese converted the Ilmenau parish curate into the canonical parish of Ilmenau. The chapel in the mission house turned out to be too small for the community early on, which is why an application was made to the GDR government to build a church. However, the SED was opposed to this for a long time. The construction was only approved in 1979 and completed in 1983 as part of the construction program of the state-owned foreign trade company Limex . This made the Ilmenau parish one of the few that received approval to build a new church in the GDR.
In 1989 the Catholic community took an active part in the turnaround process. Pastor Sammet himself sat at round tables and organized demonstration marches. In addition, the rectory was available to various organizations. At times it was known as the “House of Democracy”, because the New Forum , Democratic Awakening , the German Social Union , the SPD and a renewed CDU met here, partly in parallel . On December 12, 1990, the St. Martin Christian Kindergarten opened .
The community comprises approx. 1990 community members (as of May 2012) who live in Ilmenau and the 30 localities belonging to the community. 1330 of them live in the city of Ilmenau (including its districts). The area of the community roughly coincides with the former Ilmenau district . This means that the Catholics have a share of around 3.3% of the population in the region and around 5.2% in the city.
On January 1, 2017, as part of a general reform of the diocese of Erfurt, the parish of Ilmenau was merged into the parish of St. Elisabeth Arnstadt. The new parish covers an area that extends from Erfurt to Rennsteig. The area roughly coincides with today's Ilm district .
Building
The church was built with the help of the Bonifatiuswerk . It was designed by Wolfgang Lukassek and is based on a tent that rests on six wooden beams. The tent carries the symbolism of the wandering people, and meant the Christians in the GDR protection . The church faces north-west, with the skylight facing south-east. On the right is a one-story extension that connects the church with the former mission house. It houses the sacristy , a group room, toilets and several storage rooms.
The cross is partially gilded. The 12 tongues of fire that came down on the apostles at Pentecost are symbolically represented around the Corpus Christi . The seven works of mercy are also shown on it.
The pews in the church are divided into four areas, with no main aisle. To the left of the altar is the tabernacle symbolizing fire. On the other side of the church, between the sacristy and the main entrance, stands the baptismal font , which together with the windows behind it symbolizes the water. The church windows were designed by Christof Grüger and designed so that a color gradient from water (blue) to fire (red) is recognizable. The window mosaic can be interpreted as rays of the sun emanating from the cross.
To the left of the tabernacle is the Marian altar. To the right of the altar there is a mobile ambo and a wooden statue of Joseph the worker .
Student community
The Catholic Student Congregation (KSG) Thomas More was founded in 1953 around the then pastor Bröhl. During the GDR era, only the Protestant student community existed next to it .
At first the KSG was just a loose community of students of Catholic faith. Later she was given rooms at Manggasse 8, where the chaplain also lived. They gradually expanded the building and the associated site.
Religious life was only possible to a limited extent in the GDR. The KSG itself, but also individual members, were partly under observation by the Stasi . Nevertheless, contacts with the Catholic University Community of Aachen have been maintained since 1964 . There was encrypted correspondence and meetings of pastors and students in Berlin . Books were also received that were on the index in the GDR . These were put in the so-called poison cupboard in the student priest's bedroom, because it was forbidden to search a priest's bedroom. The books were borrowed and read by many students, which is why some copies were available in triplicate.
Since the re-founded KTV Unitas zu Ilmenau existed under the guise of the KSG during the GDR era , many fraternity traditions were transferred to the KSG, albeit in a folklorized form. Other traditions emerged from the reprisals of the GDR regime. So it was only partially possible to rent restaurants for celebrations. Authorities demanded full guest lists for alumni meetings and the Stasi had an interest in being present there itself. Therefore, a couple from the community was found for the annual patronage party , who registered an engagement or wedding party and only announced the location of the inn to the rest of the community at the very last moment. Former students described the situation as follows: “There were two reasons for students (KSG) to get married at the time. Either you needed a shared apartment or the party was on. ” To this day, the place of celebration is kept secret until the end. The engagement kiss is also an integral part of this evening.
Since the reunification , the KSG has been involved at the federal level in the working group of Catholic university communities .
Since the fall of the Wall, other Christian communities have settled at the university in Ilmenau. At the same time, the Protestant student communities have continued to shrink, which is why the KSG is currently the largest Christian group at the university. There is also the Student Mission in Germany (SMD), the Ring of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS) and a community of Chinese Protestants.
The former Federal Family Minister Claudia Nolte is one of the best-known members . The Phillistertreffen (alumni meeting), which takes place every two years, is one of the largest at the university with over 100 participants.
Under canon law, the student community is subordinate to the diocese of Erfurt. However, since the student pastor is also the local pastor, the KSG is organizationally closely affiliated with the parish.
Chaplain
- Damian Dangel (1900–?)
- Johannes Bröhl (? −1954)
- Anton Goeb (1954–1967)
- Gerhard Marx (1968–1972)
- Arno Wand (1972–1973)
- Gerhard Sammet (1973-2002)
- Stephan Riechel (2002–2015)
- Herbert Meyer (since 2015)
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Lord's Day : Witnessing Faith Before the World
- ^ Herbert Meyer: Arnstadt. One of thirty parishes. In: Diaspora yearbook 2017/2018. Bonifatiuswerk der deutschen Katholiken eV, Paderborn 2017, pp. 66–69.
- ↑ Day of the Lord : 25 years of St. Josef Church in Ilmenau celebrated
- ↑ a b Reinforcement in the rectory . In: Thuringian General . ( thueringer-allgemeine.de [accessed on September 17, 2018]).
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 41 '22.7 " N , 10 ° 55' 0.7" E