St. Peter and Paul (Wallhausen)

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Church of St. Peter and Paul (2017) from the southwest
Church of St. Peter and Paul (2017) from the west

The Protestant village church of St. Peter and Paul is located in the Wallhausen community of the Goldene Aue community in the Mansfeld-Südharz district in Saxony-Anhalt . It is the smaller, towerless new building in place of a church that was destroyed in an air raid on February 22, 1945. It belongs to the parish area bridges in the parish of Eisleben-Sömmerda the Evangelical Church in Central Germany .

history

The church, which was destroyed in 1945, was a quarry stone building . The hall church had a gable roof and a two-bay, rib-vaulted, just closed choir. The west tower had a balustrade and an octagonal tower. Between the nave and the choir stood a pointed triumphal arch resting on warriors. On the south side of the choir there were buttresses and two tracery windows, on the east side there was a sacristy extension. Two coupled windows on the north side of the ship. The church was consecrated in 1408. The nave was extended to the south in 1582. The steeple, which was destroyed by a storm in 1612, was replaced by a Welsche dome in 1613. In 1732 galleries were built. In 1876 a renovation took place, with the window and door frames being renewed in a Gothic style.

→ Main article: Air raid on Wallhausen (helmets)

On February 22, 1945 the village church was the victim of an American air raid , which also destroyed large parts of the village. The nave was destroyed to the ground, the massive tower damaged. There was a long crack in it from top to bottom. On September 3, 1949, the church tower was blown up "because of the risk of collapse", and the former family crypt of the von Asseburg family below was buried. On August 7, 1945, a meeting of the local mayor, building experts and politicians of the district had advised after appraisal to "preserve the tower as a landmark in the landscape that can be seen from afar and as a valuable architectural monument". Mayor Karl Nebe and the district defense leader were photographed on a group photo after the demolition. The rubble remained for many years. In 1962 the stones were piled up in a semicircular shape as a memorial at the former location of the tower west of the rest of the church, on the personal initiative of a community worker.

From the choir of the destroyed church from 1408 only parts of the ruins were preserved. From 1954, with their partial inclusion, the new building of a church took place, which was completed with a short front building against the destroyed ship. A massive bell cage was erected on the south side of the new building, which is open to the outside and under which the entrance to the church is located. The architect was Wilhelm Schleef from Sangerhausen, and honored master mason of the Wallhäuser Otto Wurm. The church is a listed building: "Village Church (partial construction)".

The preserved cross-rib vaulted ceilings and the tracery windows are remarkable . The head of Christ built into the south wall was also preserved - mutilated. In the church there is a carved winged altar borrowed from the church of Hackpfüffel and the remains of an epitaph from the late 16th century.

The previous church had three bells , two of which were melted down in the 1942 war. The main bell from 1745 was classified as a valuable cultural asset and has been preserved. It was recovered before the tower was blown up in August 1949 and temporarily stored in the parish barn. In 1957 it was installed on an iron yoke manufactured by the Wallhausen locksmith's shop Kurt Osterloh in the new bell house. In 2005 the bell was overhauled, and by deciphering the inscription it was possible to confirm that it was the original bell from 1745 - which thus survived two world wars and a bombing.

Contemporary witnesses doubt that the church tower had to be blown up and that the nave could not have been rebuilt.

Every year on February 22nd at 13:05 the church bell rings as a reminder of the devastating bomb attack in 1945.

A remnant of the Asseburg crypt chapel from 1750 has been preserved to the east of the church .

South of the church was a war memorial from 1925 for the fallen soldiers of the First World War, including those who fell in 1864, 1866 and 1870/71 (sculptor: Möbius / Artern). It survived the bombing but was demolished after World War II.

literature

  • M. Trippenbach: From Wallhausen's past . Sangerhausen 1907. p. 13 f
  • Renate Kroll: Fate of German Monuments in World War II . Edited by Götz Eckardt. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 2. P. 336
  • Klaus Thieme, Marlies Peter and Wolfram Beck: Wallhauser Church History. The bells of the Wallhausen Evangelical Church Peter and Paul . Ed. Ev. Wallhausen parish. 1st edition 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Renate Kroll: Wallhausen (district of Sangerhausen) . In Fate of German Monuments in World War II . Edited by Götz Eckardt. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 2, p. 336
  2. ↑ The church on www.karstwanderweg.de Accessed on March 18, 2014
  3. ^ Heinz Noack: Stories from the Golden Aue , Sutton Verlag 2009, ISBN 978-3-86680-428-9 , pp. 85-98.

Web links

Commons : Saints Peter and Paul  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 11.2 "  N , 11 ° 14 ′ 11.4"  E