St. Joseph (Wolfsburg)

St. Joseph Church

The Sankt Joseph Church was the Catholic church in the Wolfsburg district of Wohltberg (Oppelner Straße 21). The church named after Josef von Nazaret belonged to the parish of St. Christophorus in the dean's office Wolfsburg-Helmstedt of the diocese of Hildesheim . Today the church belongs to the Evangelical Christ Brothers Congregation .

history

After new districts were built in the west of Wolfsburg from around 1952, the St. Joseph Church was built. After St. Christophorus, it was the second Catholic church to be built in Wolfsburg after the city was founded. In 1955 Peter Koller created her design. On July 2, 1956 the foundation stone was laid by Vicar General Wilhelm Offenstein , and on June 16, 1957 the consecration by Bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen . As early as March 1957, St. Joseph had its own priest , and in 1959 the rectory was built. On April 1, 1962, the parish of St. Joseph was founded and on October 1, 1964 it was raised to a parish. In 1968 a new altar was inaugurated. In 1980 the community center was opened and in 1990 a new organ was built. In 1996 the church was added to the register of cultural monuments.

From November 1, 2000, the church was subordinate to the pastor of St. Heinrich . From November 1, 2006, the church belonged to the dean's office in Wolfsburg-Helmstedt; previously it belonged to the dean's office in Wolfsburg, which at that time was renamed and enlarged to include the Helmstedt part of the then-dissolved dean's office in Helmstedt-Wolfenbüttel. As of September 1, 2010 the church belonged to the parish of St. Christophorus, the parish of St. Joseph was dissolved in this context.

Due to the declining financial resources as well as the lower number of clergy and church visitors, it was decided in 2014 to profane the church and offer it for sale. On November 4, 2015, Bishop Norbert Trelle issued the decree on the profanation, and on November 27, 2015, the profanation as a Catholic Church took place by Auxiliary Bishop Nikolaus Schwerdtfeger . After St. Maria Goretti (Meinersen) and the Holy Family (Offleben), this was the third profanation of a church in the dean's office in Wolfsburg-Helmstedt. The former rectory was transferred to the St. Joseph day care center, which will be retained as a Catholic day care center.

On December 1, 2015, the church and the associated community center were sold to the evangelical "Christ Brothers Community", previously located in the Johanneshaus in the Rabenberg district , which reopened the church on May 1, 2016 with a festive service.

Architecture and equipment

The church was built at a height of around 82 meters above sea level on the slope of the Klieversberg , it has 329 seats. The altar is located under its 37 meter high bell tower, which is visible from afar and is accessed by a spiral staircase with around 174 steps . Relics of Saints Eulogius and Clarus were embedded in it until it was profaned as a Catholic Church . Left and right of the chancel were the tabernacle designed by Wilhelm Keudel ( Salzgitter ) and a statue of St. Joseph. On the south side of the church are the Way of the Cross and, only accessible from the church, the baptistery with baptismal font and a statue of St. Anthony of Padua , and the Chapel of Mary. Two confessionals are set into the east wall of the church . The three steel bells, consecrated in 1957 and manufactured by the Bochum Association , are named Joseph, Heinrich and Bernhard.

organ

organ

The organ comes from the workshop of G. Christian Lobback .

The slider chest instrument has 23 registers on two manuals and a pedal . The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.

I main work Quintad 16 ′ Principal 8th' Reed flute 8th' octave 4 ′ Night horn 4 ′ Super octave 2 ′ Mixture 4f. 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Trumpet 8th'

II breastwork Lead-covered 8th' Principal 4 ′ recorder 4 ′ Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Forest flute 2 ′ third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ octave 1' Cymbal 4f.  1 ⁄ 2 ′ Wooden crumhorn 8th' Tremulant

Pedal mechanism Sub-bass 16 ′ Principal 8th' Dumped 8th' Chorale bass 4 ′ Rauschpfeife 3f. 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ trombone 16 ′ Trumpet 8th'

• Coupling : II / I, I / P, I / P
• Playing aids : 2 free combinations , 1 free pedal combination

photos

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  View from the southwest

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  Main entrance

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  Steeple

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  Peal

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  Side entrance

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  Cornerstone

Catchment area

The catchment area of ​​the church included the Wolfsburg districts of Hageberg , Hohenstein , Laagberg and Wohltberg.

day care center

The St. Joseph daycare center is located east of the church (Oppelner Straße 17), it was also inaugurated in 1957. Today (2013) around 90 children are cared for in five groups.

See also

• List of religious buildings in Wolfsburg
• List of profane churches in the Diocese of Hildesheim
• Joseph's Church

literature

• Catholic parish of St. Joseph (ed.): 50 years of the Catholic parish of St. Joseph Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg 2007.
• PEDA art guide No. 173/2001: The Catholic Churches in Wolfsburg. Passau 2001, pp. 15-17.
• Nicole Froberg, Ulrich Knufinke, Susanne Kreykenboom: Wolfsburg. The architecture guide. Braun Publishing, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-03768-055-1 , pp. 81-82.
• Ernst Pauer: Church history and church art. In: Historical-regional excursion map of Lower Saxony, sheet Wolfsburg. Erhard Kühlhorn, Hildesheim 1977, ISBN 3-7848-3626-7 , explanatory booklet p. 115.

Web links

Commons : St. Joseph  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• St. Joseph Church in the Lower Saxony Monument Atlas
• Internet presence of the Ev. Christ Brothers Community eV

Individual evidence

1. ^ Catholic parish St. Christophorus Wolfsburg (ed.): Chris. Easter 2014 edition. Wolfsburg 2014, pp. 4–6
2. ↑ gifhorner-rundschau.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 2 "  N , 10 ° 45 ′ 22.8"  E