St. Josef (St. Ingbert)
The Church of St. Josef in St. Ingbert is a Catholic parish church in the neo-Gothic style. It lies on the slope above Kaiserstraße and, together with the Beckerturm, forms one of the city's most important landmarks . The rectory further south belongs to the church . St. Josef is the largest church in the Speyer diocese in the Saarland. In the list of monuments of the Saarland the church building is a single monument listed.
history
prehistory
Due to the population growth in St. Ingbert in the 19th century, it was decided to build a new church for the then only parish in St. Ingbert and in 1878 a church building association was founded . There were two opposing views: one side wanted another, new church in addition to the Engelbertskirche , the other wanted to rebuild the Engelbertskirche or even tear it down to make space for a new church building. The then pastor Dengel was always a strict opponent of a second church and the church building association could initially only meet secretly in order to be active.
First of all, a decision had to be made between three construction sites: one behind the Engelbertskirche, one “on the planer” and a third on the front planing site on Kaiserstraße. For financing, the church administration turned in a petition to the royal government of the Palatinate in 1880 to approve a prize lottery with two drawings in favor of the church building association.
It was not until January 16, 1882, that a government resolution first called for the construction costs to be determined and for the detailed plans and the surcharge for the new church to be submitted. Before the question of the building site was decided, on April 13, 1882 the committee of the church building association, with the help of the church administration, commissioned the architect Franz Schöberl from Speyer to draft a plan. The new church should offer space for around 3,500 people.
A commission, which also included Pastor Dengel, initially advocated a building site behind the Engelbertskirche, which the royal government refused. Because of the free, high and from three sides accessible location, in the immediate vicinity of the Kaiserstraße, after long deliberations, the decision was finally made in favor of the building site on the front planing area, so that the acquisition of the site was decided.
The plan submitted by the architect Schöberl on June 21, 1883 was rejected by the government for reasons of cost. The sum for the church building should be 350,000 marks .
Pastor Dengel died on October 1st, 1888. His successor, Pastor Jakob Zimmer, worked with all his might for the new church. In 1889 the building site was bought and the church administration contacted architect Ludwig Becker from Mainz, who was supposed to draft a new plan.
Becker's plan was simpler and therefore more cost-effective than that of the architect Schöberl, so the decision was made in favor of Becker's plan. However, the building site cost 42,000 marks because a number of residential buildings had to be bought and demolished beforehand.
Laying of the foundation stone and inauguration
On September 28, 1890, the foundation stone was laid in the southwest corner pillar of the choir . This was done by Dean Eugen Huth from Zweibrücken on behalf of the Bishop of Speyer . A document about the history of church building in a tin-plated tin box was placed in the foundation stone, along with the foundation stone certificate, a replica of the nail from the cross of Christ and consecrated earth from Jerusalem from the catacombs of Rome. A number of viable coins as well as a number of the “ Saarbrücker Zeitung ” and the “Pfälzer Zeitung” were also attached .
At the end of the second year of construction, in 1891, the tower and the entire nave were completed up to the upper edge of the roof cornice. In the third year of construction, 1892, the shell of the church was completed. The interior work had also already begun and was largely completed by the day of the inauguration.
In the meantime, however, there have been a few incidents. The first nave timber was crooked and the second burned down.
On May 13, 1893, the new St. Josef Church was finally inaugurated by the Speyer bishop Joseph Georg von Ehrler .
The total cost was 250,000 marks.
Church fire and reconstruction
The building was badly damaged in a major fire on July 17, 2007. The roof of the nave was completely burned and the spire collapsed. At first glance, the entire interior including the altars , organ , pulpit and confessionals remained largely intact, but all five old bells of the former Otto bell foundry (which no longer exists today) had cracked in the great heat. Welding was impossible because the crack of the big bell (A °) was about 1 meter long. The cause of the fire was possibly an overloaded cable during construction work.
After the population showed great sympathy and willingness to donate, the sacred building was rebuilt after the static feasibility had been clarified. The new bells were consecrated on August 28, 2011, the renovated organ on November 1 of the same year. On November 20, 2011, the church was put back into service in a solemn pontifical ministry.
Building description
Dimensions
The Josefskirche has the following dimensions:
- Tower: 73 m
- Clearance in the nave: 21 m wide
- Clearance in the transept: 28.30 m wide
- Width of the central nave: 12.40 m
- Height of the ribbed vault: 15.50 m
- Height of the star vault in the crossing: 17 m
- Height of the choir vault (orientation of the choir to the southeast): 12.80 m
- Total inside length of the church with choir: 50.50 m
After the Protestant St. Johann Johannes Church with a tower height of 74 m and after the war destruction of the tower of the Saarbrücken Josefskirche with originally 75 m height, the tower of the St. Ingberter Josefskirche is the second highest church tower in Saarland.
The inside of the church
The high altar , a winged altar, is the work of the sculptor Stuchtei from Münster , who is also responsible for the organ front and the pulpit . The cafeteria of the high altar, made of white Baumberger sand-lime brick , is built on a substructure of five steps. In the middle of the cafeteria you can see a representation of the Lamb of God. To the left and right of this are glass mosaic pictures with depictions of animals. The structure of the high altar shows the tabernacle , above it a closable exposition behind which the high central canopy of the altar rises. In this canopy you can see a figurative representation of Christ as the judge of the world , above God the Father and above him the Holy Spirit in the representation of the dove. The middle canopy is flanked by two further canopies. In the left we see the Mother of God , in the right John the Baptist . The reliefs below the side canopies show the flagellation and the crowning of thorns of Jesus. Like the altar wing pictures, they refer to the holy mass offering . Painted wings are attached to the reliefs, which can either be opened or closed. The open wings show Christ on the Mount of Olives and Christ carrying the cross, while on the reverse the miracle of the multiplication of the bread and the manna rain in the desert can be seen.
Stylistically, the two side altars adapt to the main altar. The left side altar is the Marian altar with a statue of the Mother of God under a canopy. On the right side altar, the Joseph Altar, a statue of St. Joseph is placed, also under a canopy. In front of it is the font .
On the walls in the transepts and side aisles there are 14 stations of the Cross with free-standing carved wooden figures.
Compared to the rest of the church, the choir , on the right-hand side of which is the entrance to the sacristy, is reduced in width and height. The choir is separated from the church interior by a pointed arch .
The gallery , which was enlarged in 1930, shows figures in light limewood on its wooden parapet . The organ prospect on the gallery adapts to the style of the church's furnishings.
The wooden pulpit , which is directly connected to one of the crossing pillars , is located on a sandstone substructure that rests on small gray marble pillars . The parapet of the pulpit shows painted reliefs of the four evangelists and their symbols : Matthew with the winged man, Mark with the lion, Luke with the bull and John with the eagle. In the middle of the pulpit's sound cover is a representation of the dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit.
The communion bench shows alternating niches with seated figures and tracery fields and originally had two central doors. These doors were removed when the choir was redesigned in 1971 and converted into a new celebration altar in 1980.
The church exterior
The church is built in the neo-early Gothic style. It is designed as a three-aisled hall church with a transept . The main staircase with two platforms , which were supposed to carry the symbols of the evangelists, leads from Kaiserstrasse in 33 steps (the traditional number of the years of Jesus' life) up to the platform that surrounds the tower. From this point another 11 steps lead into the interior of the church. Above the entrance portal there is a relief with the scene in which Jesus is found again by his parents in the temple. A quotation from the Bible is carved into the stone under this relief ( Luke 2.49 EU ).
Tower and bells
The church tower is at the front and has a height of 73 meters from Kaiserstraße to the top. In a niche in the portal gable at the front of the tower is the statue of the church patron, St. Joseph, which depicts him as a carpenter . The side niches that were supposed to accommodate the figures of the princes of the apostles initially remained empty. Finally, on August 19, 2012, figures of St. Barbara and St. Ingobertus were placed in the niches.
The outer arch above the portal of the open vestibule in the lowest tower section shows the hand of God in its keystone . In the vestibule, in the keystone of the vault, an angel is depicted who protects the coats of arms of the Speyer diocese and the city of St. Ingbert.
After the Second World War, the Saarlouis bell foundry in Saarlouis-Fraulautern, which had been founded by Karl (III) Otto from the Otto bell foundry in Bremen-Hemelingen and Aloys Riewer from Saarland, cast in 1954 for five St. Ingbert churches, including the St. Joseph Church, bronze bells. The St. Joseph Church received five bells with the following series of strikes: a 0 - c sharp ′ - e ′ - f sharp ′ - a ′. The diameters of the bells were: 1840 mm, 1470 mm, 1228 mm, 1098 mm, 940 mm. They weighed: 3850 kg, 1946 kg, 1126 kg, 792 kg, 550 kg. They had the same tones as the five big bells of the new peal that was bought after the fire. Since 2011 there have been seven new bells in the rebuilt tower, which were cast by the Bachert bell foundry in 2007 after the fire . Master Albert Bachert cast the big bell on March 11, 2011 and the remaining six bells on July 8, 2011 in heavy ribs. The full bells sound before church services at high feasts and every Saturday at 6 p.m. to ring in Sunday together with all city center bells.
|
No. |
Surname |
Chime |
Mass (kg) |
Diameter (mm) |
inscription |
| 1 | St. Theodore | A 0 | 4,413 | 1.910 | Deum laudo Sancte Theodore - ora pro nobis |
| 2 | St. Carolus | cis 1 | 2,189 | 1,515 | Deo gratias ago Sancte Carole - ora pro nobis. |
| 3 | St. Mary | e 1 | 1,252 | 1,252 | Vivos voco Sancta Maria - ora pro nobis. |
| 4th | St. Joseph | f sharp 1 | 908 | 1,127 | Fac nos innocuam, Josef, ducerrere vitam sitque tuo semper tute patrocinio. |
| 5 | Guardian Angel | a 1 | 672 | 976 | Sinite partulos, et nolite eos prohibere ad me venire: talim est enim regnum caelorum. |
| 6th | St. Florian | h 1 | 460 | 872 | This should prove your faith, and it will show that it is more valuable than gold that has been tested in the fire. |
| 7th | St. Ingobert | d 2 | 305 | 739 | St. Ingobert sent by God; you came to us from a far country You brought the good news of salvation and power to our fathers. |
organ
St. Josef received its first organ in 1894. The two-manual, pneumatically controlled instrument with 36 registers was built by the organ factory of H. Voit & Sons in Durlach (Opus 600). Because of the many basic voices, it was a typical instrument of the romantic era. This instrument was probably a decisive magnet for Ludwig Boslet to take up the position as organist here. He came from Ludwigshafen , succeeded Franz Woll and stayed for ten years.
The instrument cost 14,220 marks in 1894 plus 3740 marks for the case. It had an organ that was no longer preserved in this form today, with a pneumatic and mechanical cone shutter action. The manuals were operated pneumatically, the pedal mechanically. The approval of the organ expert Julius Orth from Speyer took place on June 15, 1894 and originally had the following disposition:
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Pairing :
- Normal coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P, 4 fixed combinations (Piano, Forte, Fortissimo, Tutti), 4 releases (I, II, Ped. Zu)
The Voit instrument was renovated for the first time in 1902. At the request of Boslets, the second manual was given a swell box with swell step. Boslet's fifth organ sonata (Opus 30), which was composed in St. Ingbert in 1908, may have been influenced by the sound of this organ.
However, around 40 years after the organ was built, dissatisfaction with the instrument grew. Faults often occurred and the sound no longer corresponded to the taste of the time, so that in 1933 the Späth company ( Mengen-Ennetach ) was rebuilt and expanded . The result was an expansion and conversion to an electric action , but many parts of the “Voit organ” (entire registers, windchest , prospectus) were taken over.
In addition to late romantic features, the disposition of the three-manual electropneumatic organ also shows features of the so-called organ movement , which was modeled on the baroque organ. In order to lighten the sound, some registers were subsequently replaced or rebuilt (for example, higher-lying mixtures ). The Hugo Mayer company ( Heusweiler ) made new low-lying mixtures in 1988 in order to do justice to the late romantic sound of the instrument. In 1994 Hugo Mayer made further changes.
The electrical system was also revised by H. Mayer in 2006, as was the gaming table by installing a setting system . During the fire in 2007 the organ remained largely undamaged, but was dismantled by the H. Mayer company in order to keep it safe from a possible ceiling collapse.
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Pairing :
- Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Sub-octave coupling: II / I, III / I
- Super octave coupling: II / I, III / I
- Playing aids : electronic typesetting system, two free combinations, tutti, crescendo, crescendo starting
- Remarks
- ↑ Wind attenuation of the sub-bass 16 ′
- ↑ a b c d octave excerpt from trombone 16 ′
- ↑ a b Transmission from the positive
Organists
Because of its special position as the main church, important organists were employed at St. Josef:
- Franz Woll (1859–1899)
- Ludwig Boslet (1899–1909)
- Franz Müller (1909-1918)
- Alois Maria Müller (1920–1961), who became known throughout the German-speaking area for his compositions
- Willi Pressmann (1961–1991), recognized organ improviser
Web links
- Parish website
- Construction diary of the reconstruction of St. Josefskirche On: www.pfarrei-st-josef-igb.de
- Sound recording of the destroyed Otto bells
- Presentation of the 7 new bells (single chimes and plenary) in the Catholic parish church of St. Josef (video with sound)
- Tower recording of the new plenum in the Catholic parish church of St. Josef (video with sound)
- St. Ingbert, St. Josef: Comparison of the old and new bells (video with sound)
- Tower recording of the bell concert for the 125th anniversary of the consecration in the Catholic parish church of St. Josef (video with sound)
- Literature on St. Josef (St. Ingbert) in the Saarland Bibliography
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of monuments of the Saarland, sub-monuments list Saarpfalz-Kreis (PDF; 1.2 MB), accessed on July 31, 2012
- ↑ a b c d e f g The history of the building on: www.pfarrei-st-josef-igb.de, accessed on June 3, 2012
- ↑ a b c From the laying of the foundation stone to the inauguration On: www.pfarrei-st-josef-igb.de, accessed on June 3, 2012
- ↑ Fire of the St. Josef Church in St. Ingbert ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Damage and clean-up work at: www.pfarrei-st-josef-igb.de, accessed on June 4, 2012
- ↑ Beate Braun-Niehr: St. Josef, St. Ingbert, Regensburg 2008, pp. 12-15.
- ↑ a b c d e f g The interior of the church at: www.pfarrei-st-josef-igb.de, accessed on June 3, 2012
- ↑ a b The exterior of the church at: www.pfarrei-st-josef-igb.de, accessed on June 3, 2012
- ↑ Around the church tower - St. Barbara and St. Ingobertus complete the main portal On: www.pfarrei-st-josef-igb.de, accessed on October 5, 2012
- ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells - family and company history of the bell foundry dynasty Otto . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, here in particular pp. 87 to 95, 566 .
- ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 566, here in particular pp. 105 to 112, 517 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).
- ↑ Almost as many bells as in the Speyer Cathedral. In: Der Pilger , September 1, 2011. Retrieved on June 4, 2012
- ↑ should read: parvulos
- ↑ a b c The organ on: www.pfarrei-st-josef-igb.de, accessed on June 3, 2012
- ^ Christoph Jakobi: Saarpfälzisches Präludienbuch , Volume 1 : St. Ingberter Spätromantik, Musikverlag Robert Car, Mandelbachtal 2006
- ↑ Organ of the Church of St. Josef (Catholic) ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Info page of the Orgeln im Saarland website , accessed on June 3, 2012
Coordinates: 49 ° 16 '50.1 " N , 7 ° 7' 8.4" E