St. Simon and Judas Thaddäus (Otzenrath)
_(09).jpg)
St. Simon and Judas Thaddäus was the Catholic church in Otzenrath . It was an early work of the Kassel architect Hugo Schneider and was demolished in the course of the Garzweiler II open- cast lignite mine .
Previous buildings
Nothing is known about the appearance of the first Catholic church in Otzenrath. Around 1660 it was replaced by a three-aisled church about ten meters long, which was equipped with a tower and organ. When this building became dilapidated in the 19th century and there was no longer enough space for the community, it was decided to build a new one.
The last Catholic church in Otzenrath
In 1867 the young architect Hugo Schneider, whom Pastor Sebastian Planker had contacted, made the first plans for a new church in Keyenberg . At first he thought of a central dome, which would have required strong abutments and a building made of stone blocks that the community could not afford. Since brick was the only possible building material , Schneider changed his plans and designed a church with a single central pillar. This system was unique in Germany.
The foundation stone was laid on April 12, 1869, after a number of generous donations had secured the financing. The bricks were burned right next to the construction site. Darker bricks were used for the foundation of the church, which does not have a basement, and a granite frame followed . The actual church building was made of lighter bricks. The main room had an elliptical floor plan with an umbrella vault , which a granite column served as a central support. The column stood on a base made of basalt lava and carried a sandstone capital. It was 63 centimeters in diameter. The room was about 12 meters high and its east-west axis was 16.50 meters long, the north-south axis a little longer at 18.50 meters. In the choir, which had a ribbed vault , the floor was slightly raised compared to the room for the congregation. The floor was covered with anthracite, gray, and white tiles; there was a wooden floor under the pews.
The church building, covered with slate, reached a total height of around 28 meters. At the top of the central room was a figure of the Madonna with a baby Jesus and on the church tower a weather vane with a rooster motif was attached. This church tower was designed in the form of an octagonal tent roof with four corner turrets and housed three bells.
Hugo Schneider also designed the high altar . It is 2.90 meters wide and 3.60 meters high and richly decorated in the Gothic style. Another altar, which stood in the Marienkapelle on the north side of the church, was made from Trier sandstone by Wilhelm Odenthal based on a design by Hugo Schneider . On this altar stood the Otzenrather Madonna, a wooden sculpture from the 18th century, which is probably of Lower Rhine origin and which was probably part of the previous building of the church. Opposite the Marien- there was a Katharinen altar on the south side of the church. It was made by Andreas Völker according to Schneider's plans .
In the north of the entrance area there was the baptistery with a slightly lowered floor, on the south side a further chapel was added around 1900, which then housed the Pietà by Nicolas Elscheidt , which had previously stood between the choir and Catherine altar.
The organ gallery in the west of the church rested on two granite supports. The first organ in the church came from Johann Müller from Viersen . In 1910 it was redesigned and replaced in 1960 by a new organ by K. Bach in Aachen . This new organ had 18 stops, two manuals, a pedal and 1178 pipes.
Transformations and changes
Around 1900 the church was expanded to include the chapel on the south side of the entrance area. Hugo Sauer created the plans for this . In 1917 two of the three bells were melted down for armament purposes. They were replaced in 1922, but withdrawn again in 1942. The next bells could not be procured until 1954. In the 1930s, the wall paintings in the choir were painted over. In 1937 the church received a heating system; possibly the canopies were added over the side entrances at that time. In 1951 a memorial for the victims of the two world wars was erected on the north side of the central area. A mission cross had already stood there before, which was included in the composition. An originally built communion bench was removed from the church after 1934. The first glass windows fell victim to the effects of the war in 1943 and 1945 and were replaced by abstract stained glass windows in the 1950s. After the liturgical reform in 1962, the high altar was removed from the church and replaced by a marble celebration altar. In 1967 the Otzenrather Madonna, who was no longer in the church, returned. It was bought at an auction. In 1973 the Katharinen altar was renamed St. Joseph's and equipped with a statue of Joseph. In 1984 the original floor covering was replaced by reddish-brown ceramic tiles. At that time, the renovated high altar was returned to the church and the celebration altar was removed again, as was the staircase that was built in the meantime. During the redesign, old tiles from the chancel, decorated with pictures, came to light again, which have now been laid between the high altar and the new celebration altar. After the pulpit had also been removed, three pictures painted on copper, which they had previously adorned, were attached to the celebration altar.
Dedication and demolition
On April 20, 2006, the three bells that were to be used in a new church in Neu-Otzenrath were removed . The wrought-iron tower cross with the weather vane was also removed and brought to the resettlement site. Furthermore, the life-size Madonna with the child, which had stood on the octagon of the main room, was removed. On June 18, 2006, St. Simon and Jude Thaddäus were divorced. The monstrance , ciborium, Bible and relics were brought to Hochneukirch . At this point, most of the houses in Otzenrath had already been demolished.
The granite column in the main room of the church was clad in order not to be damaged when the church was demolished. This began on March 8, 2007 and was completed on March 12.
After the church was demolished, the column was transported to its new location, the church square of the resettlement site, and adorned there with the statue of the Madonna. Bells, high altar, parts of the pews etc. will continue to be used in the new church. In 2005 a CD was recorded to document the sound of the Otzenrath organ and the acoustics of the church for posterity.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 51 ° 4 ′ 11.2 " N , 6 ° 27 ′ 49" E