St. Nikolai (Altenau)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Nikolai from the southwest

The Sankt Nikolai Church is an Evangelical Lutheran church in Altenau , in the Goslar district .

history

The first church services in Altenau were held in an old colliery house by clergymen from Clausthal . In 1579 the church visitation of the Herzberg castle preacher Johannes Schellhammer mentions a pastor on the Altenaw . A church in Altenau was first mentioned in a document in 1588. This construction was initially carried out without weather protection. This changed in 1603 with a makeshift disguise. In 1606 the church tower received the first clock. The church tower was demolished in 1642. In 1603 the community was given a mine house, which served as a school building until the 1960s. The previous building of the St. Nikolai Church, which can be seen on an engraving by Caspar Merian from 1654, was demolished in 1668 due to the increasing number of Altenau's inhabitants and its poor state of preservation.

The new building was erected in the same place, on a terrace in the Okerschleife above the city center. The starting point of the location was the settlement situation of Altenau at the time. At that time there were two settlements, one on Oberstrasse, where mining was carried out in the Treasury and Rose mine , and another settlement core existed on the former Silberhütte . Residents of both districts had to cover a similarly long church path. In May 1669, the judges and council agreed with the carpenter Thomas Eckhard that the new church should be 80 feet long (25 meters), 40 feet (13.4 meters) wide and 24 feet (24 meters) high to the threshold of the palate. The new building was consecrated on Pentecost 1670. The old name St. Nicholas was retained.

The wooden church was constructed from spruce and oak in half-timbered construction with a boarded-up facade and lattice windows, hipped roof and three-sided choir . The three portals are provided with small porches . The main entrance is at the transition from Oberstraße to Bergstraße. Another entrance is in a porch on the clock tower and the last entrance is opposite the main entrance on the stairs to the market square. Thus the entrances create a kind of transept, a cross, the center of which lies in the crossing.

As early as 1684, 16 oak trunks had to be built under the church. A year later the roof had to be re-covered with 200 shingles. In 1689 the outside was given a new facade and in 1700 the tower had to be renovated with 20 new oak trunks. The repairs, which cost 232 thalers, were delayed until 1735. The west gable was re-boarded in 1742 for 139 thalers, but this happened again in 1820 and cost 136 thalers. It was not until 1857 that the church got its first interior painting. In 1858 the tower was repaired for 118 thalers. In 1866 the roof was re-covered. In 1905 the nave got the first heating and in 1910 a lightning rod was installed. In 1951 and 1961 the church received a new paint job. The heating from 1905 was replaced in 1955 by warm air heating from Kori ( Berlin ).

The church was last renovated in 1953, 1999 (tower and facade) and 2006. During the renovation in 2006, load-bearing wooden beams as well as the foundation and the gallery had to be repaired after the nave had sagged.

Interior

The interior, which is kept quite simple and painted in 1957, is barrel vaulted and has a crossing from which the nave with the central nave , side aisles and altar goes off. The central nave has church stalls in the form of 22 lay benches and the side aisle has choir stalls , which are also available for worshipers. From the crossing, against the central nave, further choir stalls go off in a northerly direction. From the crossing there are stairs to the three-sided, U-shaped gallery , which is also provided with benches.

The large baroque pulpit altar from 1674, donated to the community by Pastor Bernhard Bertram, is striking . In the prella it shows the Lord's Supper , the four evangelists with Jesus, the resurrection and to the side the apostles Peter (left) with key and Paul (right) with sword. The sound cover of the pulpit presents next to a table, which gives information about the donor of the altar, also Christ with the flag of victory and the dove of peace.

Inscription on the table of the altar:

Altare HOC IN HONOREM CRVIFIXI IESEV ERIGI FECERE RD BERNHARDVDS BERTRAMS PASTOR HVIVS ECCLESIAE. ET HO = NESTA MATRONA CATHARINA SCHVLTZEN CONIVGES: ANNO D (OMI) NI.MDCLXXIV

Translated:

The venerable pastor Bernhard Bertram, pastor of this community and his wife Katharina Schultze, had this altar built in 1674 in honor of Jesus crucified

The altar cross dates from 1640. Behind the altar is the sacristy , through which the ascent to the pulpit takes place. In the chancel there is also a baroque baptismal angel made of beech wood, which was donated in 1730, but is no longer used for baptisms. Instead, a hexagonal, wooden baptismal font from 1674 is used. There is also a sideboard and in front of it a simple wooden desk , framed by two free-standing metal candlesticks. During the work to install a heater in 1905, the grave of Pastor Bertram was discovered, who was buried in front of the church's altar in 1695. Pastor Henning Calvör, who died in 1766, is also in front of the altar.

Furnishing

There are three chalices in three sizes available for the Lord's Supper . According to the inscription, the large chalice was made in Goslar in 1730 for 32 guilders from gold-plated silver. The manufacturer Mügger took a small silver chalice from 1613 in payment. The middle existing chalice, which is also gilded, dates from 1697 and was donated by the smelter Johann Georg Kern, the council member Hans Martin Hille and the forestry officer Henrich Valentin Schumach. The small chalice, which is made of silver on the outside and gold-plated on the inside, was donated by the Zellerfeld master builder Müller in 1860. A silver wine jug dates from 1600.

At the crossing there are two wooden processional crosses , which are richly decorated and dated to the year 1715.

The grave slab for the church mayor Martin Hillen from 1706 is on the southern porch.

  • Interior towards the altar

  • organ

  • Altar and pulpit

organ

In 1648 the parish procured a used organ prospectus with five sounding voices, which was renovated in 1660 by the organ builder Holst. The positive was taken to the new church in 1670. In 1690 the organ was sold to the owners of the von Sieber huts . In 1687 Johann Andreas Vetter ( Nordhausen ) built a new organ with a manual as well as a pedal and 12 registers, which was supplemented by a register in 1782. In 1855 the Carl Giesecke company from Göttingen built an organ with two manuals, pedal, main and upper works, which had 15 registers, which was renovated in 1933 and replaced by a new organ in two construction phases 1966–1970 and 1973–1975. The new organ comes from Schmidt and Thiemann and has two manuals and a pedal with 16 registers (12 manuals, 4 pedal registers) and a Zimbelstern . The organ has a main piece and a rear unit with slider chests and is equipped with mechanical play and stop action.

Church tower and bells

The church has a bell house, which is located above the church on the Glockenberg. It was built in 1648.

The church building itself is equipped with a clock tower , which was built on the previous building in 1642 and is provided with a Welscher hood . The clock tower has a clockwork from the company Weule from Bockenem from 1902, which has been electrified since 1964. On the clock tower there is a weather vane , which also dates from 1642 and bears the following inscriptions:

Above: ICB
Middle: MTL
Below: CHR with year.

Next to the inscription, the weather vane shows a mermaid and Christ on top.

The pommel was re-gilded in 1870 and 1984.

The bell house has three chiming bells. The first bell was named in 1603.

In 1644 the parish procured a new bell, which would be cast in 1806, 1849 and 1873. This bell had to be given in to be melted down for armaments purposes in 1917. Another bell was cast by Nikolaus Greve in Hanover in 1693 and replaced in 1921 by two sound cast bells made by Lattermann und Schilling from Apolda . A striking bell from 1735 was melted down in 1942 for armaments purposes.

The current inventory is divided into three ringing bells in the bell house in the tones h ′ (bronze, year of casting 1962 by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling , Heidelberg); cis ″ (bronze, year of casting 1961, Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling, Heidelberg); e ″ (bronze, foundry year 1982, bell foundry Heidelberg) as well as two bells in the clock tower in the tones f ″ (bronze, foundry year 1950) and b ″ (foundry year 1735, Peter Johann Gretel, Braunschweig). The clock strikes every 15 minutes.

Documents were deposited in the tower knob of the Sankt-Nikolai-Kirche, which could be viewed during renovations of the tower. The oldest document dates from 1870 and was written by August Rögener. The document provides information about the number of inhabitants Altenau had at that time and about the city's infrastructure.

graveyard

A first cemetery is mentioned in 1603 in Bergstrasse, which was moved to Bergwiese Rose by 1851. The chapel house there was built around 1900 with a roof turret. The bell carrier was built in 1983 and has a former bell (strike tone e ″, iron, found in 1950, company Weule) from the church. There is a war cemetery in the cemetery ; In addition, the artist Karl Reinecke-Altenau and the pastor Georg Schulze are in the cemetery.

More buildings

The parish owned a rectory on Bergstrasse from 1606 to 2014 , which was sold. Adjacent is a church meeting center built in 1977.

In 1966 and 1971 there were plans to build a chapel in the Torfhaus district , but these were not implemented.

local community

The community, which has around 1000 members, includes the mountain town of Altenau as well as the village of Schulenberg in the Upper Harz Mountains with the St. Peter's Chapel there and belongs to the Harzer Land church district .

Sunday services are celebrated three times a month. A gospel choir was founded in the community in 1996 .

Pastors

(List incomplete)

  • 1583–1597 Hermann Brennecke
  • 1591–1602 Engelhard Kleipmeyer
  • 1601–1610 Jakob Kahle
  • 1611–1633 Valentinus Schneider
  • 1633–1643 Wolfgang Calenius
  • 1644–1664 Johannes Robertus
  • 1664–1695 Bernhard Bertram
  • 1695–1729 Christoph Heinrich Walther
  • 1729–1766 Henning Calvör
  • 1767–1776 August helmet fight
  • 1776–1801 Johann Samuel Heddewig
  • 1842–1863 Georg Schulze
  • 1863–1888 Wilhelm Thiel
  • 1889–1932 Georg Schreiber
  • 1932–1937 Wilhelm Wenzel
  • 1938–1949 Herbert Wöldecke
  • 1949–1954 Erich Rau
  • 1954–1965 Bruno Janz
  • 1967–1971 Klaus Eichhofer
  • 1972–1986 Dietrich Walsdorf
  • 1987–1996 Christoph Jebens
  • 1996-2004 Michael Kalla
  • 2004-2010 Mark Trebing
  • 2010–2018 Helmut Fiedler-Gruhn
  • since 2018 Walter Merz

legend

In Altenau a night watchman saw the church brightly lit at night. She was visited by men dressed in white and a preacher in white. The night watchman saw this for several nights. He then informed the Altenau pastor and when both the clergyman in black and the guard entered the church, the preacher in white disappeared. When the pastor from Altenau read from the Bible, the entire assembly broke up.

The pastor became ill and unable to preach. So he died shortly afterwards.

Web links

Commons : St. Nikolaikirche (Altenau im Oberharz)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Altenau. In: Kirchengemeindelexikon. December 18, 2018, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  2. ^ Heinrich Mohr: Altenau - once a flourishing mountain town. In: Wikisource. General Harz Mountain Calendar 1950, 1950, accessed on February 15, 2020 .
  3. ^ A b c d e f g The Sankt Nikolai Church Altenau, Festschrift by Pastor Janz
  4. ↑ Lars Michel, Samtgemeinde Oberharz: Preliminary investigation of the Bergstadt Altenau on the urban peculiarity and shape as well as options for preserving the historic old town. 2014, accessed March 8, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Lothar Meyer, The Sankt Nikolai Church in Altenau
  6. ↑ a b c d e The Altenau Church . In: General Harz mountain calendar . Clausthal-Zellerfeld 1953.
  7. ↑ a b Heinrich Morich: The Upper Harz Churches . In: General Harz mountain calendar . Piepersche Buchdruckerei, Clausthal-Zellerfeld 1938, p. 35-38 .
  8. ↑ Church renovation cost 1.5 million DM. Goslarsche Zeitung, October 28, 2001.
  9. ↑ Church is lifted . Goslarsche Zeitung, November 5, 2006.
  10. ↑ a b c Altenau. In: Kirchengemeindelexikon.de. December 18, 2018, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Harz church landscape . tape 1 , p. 12 .
  12. ^ Regional Church Archives
  13. ↑ Landeskirchenarchiv (Ed.): Report on the organ revision Altenau . Bl25b, December 7, 1965.
  14. ↑ The historic church clock (1902) of the Altenau church Sankt Nikolai. In: Pension Grüne Insel. October 29, 2017, accessed February 16, 2020 .
  15. ↑ a b 11th Altenauer Heimatfest 1985, Festschrift
  16. ↑ The church of the mountain town of Altenau (ed.): General Harz mountain calendar . 1953, p. 33-37 .
  17. ^ Population of the mountain town of Altenau, 2011 census. In: 2011 census. Destatis, May 9, 2011, accessed on February 17, 2020 .
  18. ↑ a b c d e f Henning Calvör: Historical message from the lower and entire upper Harzerischen mines .
  19. ↑ Sankt Nikolai parish celebrates 400 years of the rectory . Goslarsche Zeitung, August 21, 2005.
  20. ↑ Heinrich Wilhelm Red Mouth: The scholars Hannover . tape 2 , p. 317 .
  21. ↑ Dr Heinrich Wilhelm Rotemund: The learned Hanover . tape 2 . Bremen 1823, p. 285 .
  22. ↑ Axel Wellner: Altenau in old views . tape 2 .
  23. ↑ House of the church inaugurated after extensive renovation work . Goslarsche Zeitung, December 31, 1999.
  24. ^ Spillner: Parish says goodbye to pastor . Goslarsche Zeitung, May 21, 2018.
  25. ^ The pastor of Altenau . In: Harz legends . 1886.

Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 11.5 "  N , 10 ° 26 ′ 47"  E