St. Joseph (Neustadtgödens)

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St. Joseph in Neustadtgödens
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The small Catholic parish church of St. Joseph in Neustadtgödens , a district of the municipality of Sande in the district of Friesland , is the first Catholic church built in East Frisia after the Reformation . It was consecrated in 1715 . Today it belongs to the parish community Aurich-Wittmund-Wiesmoor-Neustadtgödens in the Diocese of Osnabrück .

history

From the 1520s, the Reformation took hold in East Frisia, initially in a Lutheran , later more and more in a Reformed form. All historic churches became Protestant. The practice of Catholic worship was only possible privately.

The glory of Gödens came into the possession of a branch of the Westphalian noble family von Frydag through marriage in 1574 . Franz Ico von Frydag married the Catholic Baroness Margarethe Elisabeth von Westerholt in 1639 . In the same year a Catholic house chapel was built in Gödens Castle , and in 1692 a mission station in Neustadtgödens. The place that was created from 1544 through dykes and land reclamation was subject to the parish compulsion of the Reformed Church in Dykhausen . But a Mennonite and a Lutheran church and a synagogue were also allowed to be built for the immigrant workers - an extraordinary situation in the age of sovereign religious sovereignty .

Made possible by a foundation of Rentmeisters widow Johanna Sophia Breneisen geb. Hoyerbeck and supported by Burchard Wilhelm von Frydag , the simple church building was erected in 1715, which also contained the apartment for the clergy and school rooms. The financing enabled supra-regional appeals for donations.

The pastors - at first Jesuits , later Franciscans - had to look after a large area including Esens , Wittmund and Wiesmoor until the Second World War . In 1938, Hermann Lange , one of the Lübeck martyrs , was a substitute pastor at St. Joseph.

As a result of the influx of Catholic expellees , new churches were built and the parish area was reduced. Since 1983 there is no longer a separate pastor for the approximately 600 Catholics currently belonging to St. Joseph.

Building description

The north-south facing brick church is externally recognizable as a place of worship only through the 8  m high, free-standing bell tower. The northern third of the building with rectangular windows was reserved for residential and school purposes, the southern part with arched windows and doors contains the church hall, which is spanned by a flat beamed ceiling.

Web links

Commons : St. Josef (Neustadtgödens)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Until the regional reform in Lower Saxony in 1972, Neustadtgödens belonged to the East Frisian district of Wittmund .
  2. ↑ a b c Information board at the church
  3. ↑ a b c The church on the website of the parish community
  4. ↑ Frisian Freedom and the Reformation Movement - Reformation in East Frisia (reformiert-info.de)
  5. ↑ Neustadtgödens - the church-rich place , accessed on October 12, 2019.
  6. ↑ Michael Clemens: The Mennonites of Neustadtgödens and their contacts in the Netherlands. The closest relationships existed for 300 years . In: Harlinger Heimatkalender. Ostfriesischer Almanach , Vol. 58 (2007), pp. 91-103.
  7. ↑ Donor board on the north side of the church with the beginning of 2 Chr 7.6  VUL as a chronogram
  8. ↑ Isabella Spolovjnak-Pridat, Helmut Siepenkort (ed.): Ecumenism in Resistance. The Lübeck Christian Trial 1943. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck, 3rd, updated and expanded edition 2006, ISBN 3-7950-7035-X , p. 21.

Coordinates: 53 ° 28 ′ 49.5 ″  N , 7 ° 59 ′ 7.9 ″  E