St. Laurentius (Helmstadt)
The Catholic Church of St. Laurentius in the Helmstadt suburb of the Helmstadt-Bargen community in the Rhein-Neckar district in northern Baden-Württemberg was inaugurated in 1956.
history
Helmstadt has been almost entirely Protestant since the Reformation . A larger number of Catholics settled after the Second World War with the influx of displaced persons and refugees from East Prussia , Czechoslovakia , Hungary and Yugoslavia . In the immediate post-war period, Catholics were initially given a prayer room in the old Protestant kindergarten in the town, and later the cooking class room of the Helmstadt school. From 1949 the Catholics were able to use the old Protestant church of the place. The congregation quickly grew to over 500 members, so that the financial basis for building and maintaining its own church was given.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place on October 21, 1954, Dean Joseph Mundel laid the foundation stone on April 24, 1955, and the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on July 24, 1955 . The construction took place with a lot of personal contribution from the community. The church was consecrated on August 5, 1956 by Bishop Augustin Olbert , relics of Saints Charus and Venantius were placed in the main altar. Church patrons are Saint Laurentius as well as Mauritius with companions and Bernhard von Baden. In 1959 the church received a Laurentius tapestry and bells from the Schilling foundry in Heidelberg. In 1960 a statue of the Virgin Mary was put up in the church by Franz Spiegelhalter from Freiburg. In 1961 the parish established its tradition of Corpus Christi processions . In 1962 a new church choir was founded, the first choir had existed from 1946 to 1956. Also in 1962 the church got its baptismal font and a pieta by the sculptor Wolfgang Kleiser from Vöhrenbach. In 1964 the church received a two-manual organ from Michael Weise's workshop in Plattling.
The first extensive renovation of the church took place in 1978/79. In 1980 the church received a statue of Laurentius from Kleiser. The old station of the cross, which was removed in the course of the renovation in 1979, was replaced in 1980 by a series of passions by Meinrad Lehmann from Etzenrot consisting of art prints .
After Pastor Ernst Dochat left in 1975, the church was temporarily looked after from Waibstadt , before a pastor was found for Helmstadt again in 1979, who also looked after the Catholics from Eschelbronn . In 1987 the parish in Helmstadt was assigned to the parish in Waibstadt, so that the respective clergyman has to look after both places. In 1990 the congregation in Helmstadt had around 750 members.
literature
- Sankt Laurentius Helmstadt: 50 years catholic Church, 40 years cath. Church , Helmstadt-Bargen 1996
- Municipality of Helmstadt-Bargen (ed.): Helmstadt 782–1990 , Helmstadt-Bargen 1990, pp. 124–133.
Coordinates: 49 ° 19 ′ 32.9 ″ N , 8 ° 58 ′ 20.6 ″ E