St. Sebastian (Atsch)

St. Sebastianus in Atsch

St. Sebastian is the Roman Catholic branch church of the Stolberg district of Atsch in the Aachen city region in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The church is dedicated to St. Martyr Sebastian consecrated and a branch church of the St. Lucia Stolberg parish, founded on January 1, 2010. It is also entered as an architectural monument in the list of architectural monuments in Stolberg (Rhld.) .

location

The church building is located in the center of Atsch on the corner of Sebastianusstraße (L 236) and Pastor-Keller-Straße and is surrounded by a small green area. The Catholic kindergarten is located to the south of the church.

history

In the area of ​​what is now the Atsch district, there was a forest area until the 19th century. During the course of the 19th century, industrialization created housing estates here, which eventually formed the new town of Atsch. There is evidence of a Sebastianus chapel in the Atscher Forest as early as the 15th century, to which the church's present patronage can be traced.

In 1889 a church building association was founded that collected money for its own church in Atsch. Atsch was part of the parish of St. Severin Eilendorf at this time . The church was completed in 1901 and in the same year Atsch received the status of a rectorate within the parish of Eilendorf. Atsch finally became an independent parish on March 1, 1908.

The parish of Atsch was dissolved on January 1, 2010 in the course of the restructuring measures of the diocese of Aachen and with the also dissolved parishes Herz Jesu Münsterbusch , St. Franziskus Stolberg, St. Lucia Stolberg, St. Hermann Josef Liester , St. Josef Donnerberg and St. Assumption of Mary Stolberg-Mühle merged to form the new large parish St. Lucia Stolberg.

Building history

After the church building association was founded in 1889, it took another 11 years before the construction of the Atsch church could begin. In the meantime, Aachen's master builder and architect Peter Friedrich Peters had drafted the plans for the new church, so that the foundation stone of today's church could be laid on September 2, 1900 . The plan was to build the church in two phases. The first construction phase, consisting of the choir , side choirs, transept and first yoke of the nave, was completed in 1901. On July 7, 1901, the first Holy Mass could be read. The construction of the second construction phase, which included the rest of the nave and the bell tower, never happened.

The church was badly damaged during World War II . Artillery fire in September 1944 caused all roofs and all vaults to collapse . The reconstruction was completed in 1950. The vaults were not restored. Instead, flat wooden ceilings were installed. The re-inauguration after the reconstruction was completed took place on November 3, 1950. After the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council , it was decided to convert the interior accordingly. Between 1970 and 1971, the choir with the chancel was redesigned according to the new needs according to plans by Friedrich Melzener from Stolberg. The new altar was solemnly consecrated on December 4, 1971.

Building description

St. Sebastian is an unfinished three-aisled hall church made of brick with a transept in the neo-Gothic style . The structure has a small roof turret over the crossing. The transept has two bays, the nave consists of only one bay. The secondary choirs are rectangular and the main choir is closed on five sides. The central nave and side aisles are divided by ogival arcades . The interior is spanned by wooden beam ceilings. The windows all have two-lane tracery . In the interior there are 120 seats available for worshipers.

Furnishing

There is modern equipment in the church. The altar is a marble work by Friedrich Melzener from 1971. The organ has 20 registers and was made in 1957 by the Karl Bach Organ Builders . Only three figures from 1900 with depictions of the Sacred Heart , the Mother of God and St. Anthony of Padua has been preserved. The 18 stained glass windows are all works by the well-known artist and glass painter Ernst Jansen-Winkeln from 1963.

Pastor

The following pastors worked at St. Sebastian as pastors until the parish was dissolved in 2010:

from ... to	Surname
1901-1908	Karl Gülden (Rector)
1908-1928	Leonhard Otten
1928-1937	Heinrich Fins
1937-1943	Friedrich Keller
1943-1967	Hubert Sahler
1967-1968	Johannes Stockebrand
1969-1986	Karl Josef van Kück
1986-2009	Heinz Arnold Heinrichs

Pastor Friedrich Keller , who was pastor of Atsch between 1937 and 1943, was active in the resistance against National Socialism and was therefore arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp on December 15, 1941 . There he was released on October 9, 1942 and taken to Aachen, where he was still imprisoned. On May 15, 1943, he died at the age of 51 in Aachen prison from the consequences of his imprisonment.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Episcopal General Vicariate (Ed.): Handbook of the Diocese of Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 243.
2. ^ History of the parish of St. Mary's Assumption, mill. (No longer available online.) In: Website of the parish of St. Lucia. Formerly in the original ; accessed on December 15, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
3. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (Ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 244.
4. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (Ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 244.
5. ↑ Stolberg-Atsch, Catholic Church of St. Sebastian. In: Internet site Forschungsstelle Glasmalerei des 20. Jahrhundert eV Retrieved on December 17, 2017 . 
6. ^ History of the community of St. Sebastianus, Atsch. In: website of the parish of St. Lucia. Retrieved December 17, 2017 . 

Coordinates: 50 ° 47 ′ 9.3 "  N , 6 ° 12 ′ 38.3"  E