St. Joseph (Osterburg)

Partial view of the church

The Church of St. Joseph is the Catholic church in Osterburg , a town in the Stendal district in Saxony-Anhalt . The church, named after Saint Joseph of Nazareth , belongs to the parish of St. Anna , based in Stendal , in the Stendal deanery of the Magdeburg diocese .

history

The first attempts at Christianization in the area of today's Osterburg can be assumed around 790 , after Charlemagne conquered areas of the Slavs up to the Elbe . In the 9th century, the St. Martin Church (today's cemetery chapel) was the first known Osterburg church, in the 12th century the St. Nicolai Church was built. In the 1530s, with the introduction of the Reformation, the population and the Osterburg churches became Evangelical-Lutheran .

Catholics did not settle in Osterburg again until the 19th century; they initially belonged to the parish in Stendal . Even seasonal workers from Catholic areas in agriculture and later in the sugar industry worked, now came to Osterburg. From 1912 on, Catholic church services were held by Stendal clergy in Osterburg, initially in a private house and later in the hotels Stadt Magdeburg and Zur Eisenbahn . In December 1917, the Stendal chaplain Joseph Hagedorn was appointed parish vicar for Osterburg by the diocese of Paderborn , to which Osterburg belonged at the time , and moved to Osterburg in early 1918. The localities of Giesenslage , Goldbeck , Meßdorf and Seehausen , in which their own parishes later emerged, were initially looked after by vicar Hagedorn. In the same year the parish vicarie Osterburg was founded, and he set up a chapel in the hall of the former Hotel Stadt Hamburg (Breite Straße 69), in which he also lived.

In 1927 Parish Vicar Bernhard Speckenmeier, who had replaced Parish Vicar Hagedorn the previous year, acquired a plot of land for a planned church building on the Wallprommenade. The foundation stone for the church was laid on June 24, 1928 , and its consecration followed on December 20 of the same year. The rectory was also built that year. In order to be able to better care for the Catholics living in the Wische , the Immaculate Conception church was also set up in 1928 in Giesenslage in a former dairy . On March 1, 1929, Osterburg was spun off from the Stendal parish and its own branch parish was founded in Osterburg. On September 5, 1929, followed the consecration of the church by Bishop John Hillebrand . In 1929 a church was also built in Goldbeck.

In 1933 the interior of the church was painted. On the back wall of the altar was the picture of Christ Triumphant , next to the chancel there were pictures of Mary and Joseph, the patron saint of the church. In 1937/1938 a new church was built in Seehausen. After France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939 and two days later an offensive against the Saar area began, Saarlanders were evacuated into the interior of the Reich area. As a result, more Catholics came temporarily to the Osterburg area. From October 1944, after the advance of the Western Allies , evacuated Catholics from the Rhineland , especially from Mönchengladbach , came to the western part of the Osterburg parish.

On April 13, 1945, Osterburg was captured by US troops, which were relieved by Soviet units on July 1 . From August 1945 Sudeten Germans as well as other refugees and displaced persons from the eastern regions of the German Reich came to the Osterburg area, which greatly increased the number of community members. In the years that followed, however, many Catholics moved on to West Germany .

In 1960 the church got a new tabernacle and a new altar was consecrated. On the night of October 18-19, 1961, a fire caused by an electrical short-circuit destroyed the roof structure of the church, and on October 28, 1962, the renovated church was inaugurated. During this renovation, the painting of the church from 1933 was also lost. On April 1, 1963, the previous branch parish of the parish of Stendal was raised to the status of an independent parish of St. Joseph . On October 7, 1990, Bishop Leo Nowak again consecrated a new altar. In 1991 the organ , which had become in need of repair, was replaced by a new instrument, and from 1995 to 1997 a new parish hall was built.

On February 1, 2007, the community association "Stendal - Bismark - Giesenslage - Goldbeck - Messdorf - Osterburg - Seehausen - Tangerhütte" was established, to which, in addition to the Osterburg St. Joseph Church, the Holy Cross Church in Bismark , Immaculate Conception in Giesenslage, St. Bernhard in Goldbeck, St. Mary of the Annunciation in Meßdorf, St. Johannes Baptist in Seehausen, St. Anna in Stendal and St. Elisabeth in Tangerhütte . On May 2, 2010, today's parish of St. Anna emerged from the association of parishes , the parish of St. Josef in Osterburg was abolished in this context. The churches in Bismark, Giesenslage, Goldbeck, Messdorf and Tangerhütte have since been profaned . The 2011 census in the European Union showed that 210 of the 10,611 inhabitants of the political municipality of Osterburg, and thus around 2%, belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. The majority of the inhabitants did not belong to any religious community.

Architecture and equipment

The rectory is attached to the brick church with its retracted tower in the west. The parish hall was built later. In the interior of the church, on the back wall of the chancel, the representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem is shown . Next to the chancel there is a representation of the Virgin Mary, in front of which sacrificial candles can be placed. A modern way of the cross is attached to the west wall of the church. The organ has eight registers and was consecrated on November 24, 1991 by Vicar General Theodor Stolpe.

literature

Chronicle of the parish church St. Josef in Osterburg.
Eckhard Pohl: Live real and convincing. In: Day of the Lord , issue 41/2018 (from October 14, 2018). (Article on the 100th anniversary of the parish)

Web links

Individual evidence

52.788856 11.755744Coordinates: 52 ° 47 ′ 19.9 " N , 11 ° 45 ′ 20.7" E

[1] ttps://www.landkreis-stendal.de/de/stadtportraets/article-106004009061-20009061.html

[2] ttp://www.bistum-magdeburg.de/front_content.php?client=4&lang=5&idcat=1410&idart=2469

[3] ttp://www.bistum-magdeburg.de/front_content.php?client=4&lang=5&idcat=2760&idart=14430

[4] ttp://www.volksstimme.de/nachrichten/lokal/osterburg/1081112_Katholische-Kirche-haben-zum-Verkauf.html