Limbach town church

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Limbach town church
Limbach town church

The Limbach City Church is the Evangelical Church of the twin town of Limbach-Oberfrohna . It emerged from a wooden village church documented in 1412 after several renovations between 1510 and 1899 in its current form. Since the Reformation - only introduced here in 1539 by the Saxon rulers - it has served as the town church and has the address An der Stadtkirche 5. The church has been a listed building since 1939.

history

First mention of the parish in 1346

The church building was partly rebuilt around 1510 in half-timbered construction and with quarry stone walls . The first evangelical pastor after the Reformation was Matthäus Vogel, who, in addition to his pastoral work, also managed the parish and church lands (Pfarrlehn).

In 1570, George I donated a stone altar. Soon after the end of the Thirty Years War , in 1650, the church received a new pulpit . The tower knob, which was badly damaged in the war and contains valuable documents and evidence from the beginnings of church building, was not replaced by a new gold-plated knob until 1675 and filled with new documents from the period. The commissioned master craftsman J. M. Erhardt from Penig also re- gilded the spindle and the weather vane . Later repairs (1744, 1761, 1808 and 1813) always brought interesting news from the respective periods to light.

The original church cemetery is no longer preserved; it was probably leveled as early as the 16th century.

In 1746 Anton von Schönberg donated a wooden and painted baptismal angel , which initially served as a baptismal font holder. Only later was it placed floating above the baptismal font, where it is still located.

In 1760 the big bell fell to the foot of the belfry without being damaged. The stay of Austrian soldiers on the tower was assumed to be the cause. The damaged middle and smallest bells were removed, melted down and re-cast in the 18th century. The casting cost only 209  thalers , as the value of the bell bronze had been offset.

The church, initially designed and equipped in the rural Baroque style, was extensively rebuilt in 1811 for the then large amount of 6000 Thaler. It was created according to plans and under the direction of the builders KF Scherf and Chr. F. Künzel in the classicism style . On this occasion, the merchant Johann Samuel Esche, descendant of the stocking manufacturer Johann Esche , donated a new altar with a marble slab which, together with the renewed pulpit, forms a "harmonious unit". After that, the municipal administration officially declared the house to be the town church of Limbach.

The manor owner Count Sebastian von Wallwitz and his wife Luise Wilhelmine von der Schulenburg donated a cast - iron three - legged baptism in 1799 , cast in the Lauchhammer art and bell foundry, as well as a silver baptismal bowl .

In 1811 the merchant Esche had a new altar made at his own expense, consisting of an altar table, a structure with column shafts and capitals and a richly structured, almost graceful-looking pulpit with a pulpit lid. Above it ran a frieze with a carved running dog and a gable triangle completed the construction.

On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Reformation in Limbach in 1839, donations from the community were used to purchase new altar and pulpit clothing, gilded altar vessels, cast-iron altar candlesticks and a crucifix .

With the growing population of the place, the desire to have a larger representative church building and a fuller bell also grew . In 1849 the church administration had the three bells cast in the bell foundry in Apolda . The interior of the church was repainted as the long use had left traces of dirt and soot. The painter Albert Ackermann replaced the chosen dark colors with lighter, friendlier colors as early as 1888.

The year 1894 led to further important additions and renovations to the church: an urban -looking arched portal with a completely new gable part in which a colored glazed rosette made from Hilbersdorf porphyry tufa is an eye-catcher. In addition, two large staircases were added on both sides of the portal inside, which lead up to the likewise redesigned galleries , which had previously disrupted the room acoustics. In the larger anteroom created by the extension, there was now space for a new, larger organ, which was manufactured and installed by the Ladegast company from Merseburg.

The 29 meter high steeple steeple was damaged by lightning and was completely renovated in 1899 by the Limbach construction companies E. Poser and C. Sussig, including the ball and weather vane. The old tower ball contained parchments from 1675 written in Latin and old coins. Now news from the end of the 19th century came into the freshly gilded ball, a wider roof turret with a curved hood has adorned the church tower ever since.

Despite financial and personnel problems, the Dresden organ construction company Gebrüder Jehmlich built a new organ with 28 sounding voices in 1918 . The organ consecration took place on August 28, 1918.

The small ash chapel on the east side of the church was demolished in 1934. At the same time, an earlier underground escape route was walled up, the facades of the church were given fresh plaster and the roof was given a new covering. Finally, in 1936, the altar was given a new image that thwarted the interior architecture of the church. In 1940 the parish handed over a large number of ecclesiastical objects and art objects such as cast iron and pewter candlesticks, a communion jug , an altar cover , an agende from 1658, a coffin from the stocking guild from 1791, bell bags and fragments of the foundation stone to the local history museum, then known as the German Antiquities Museum the former cantor school. In 1941 the cast-iron baptism and the alliance coat of arms of the manor-owner families from Rhöden and Campen were delivered to the museum.

Despite the war returning to Germany, another major renovation and redesign of the city church took place in 1943 under the direction of the building councilor Georg Laudeley from Chemnitz in collaboration with the painter Helas from Dresden. The following has been changed:

  • Enlargement, elevation and cladding of the altar table with French gray marble,
  • Enlargement of the sanctuary by removing two rows of benches,
  • Attachment of rotatable song badges on both sides of the pulpit,
  • Creation of a central aisle and painting of the entire church interior in the colors white, gold, blue, based on the original classical design,
  • Redesign of the gallery fillings in brown color with 35 symbols from the Old and New Testament,
  • Attachment of a white text on a blue background with a reference to God's plan of salvation : "So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that all who believe in him would not be lost, but have eternal life."
  • Installation of a wall of honor in the side portal on the market side with black mourning ribbons for the fallen parishioners.

After 1945, most of the museum's items returned to the church. Especially on the initiative of the city church music director Rudolf Levin, employees of the organ company Jehmlich cleaned and expanded the organ in August / September 1946. The two-manual work, until then in a romantic sound conception, was set in a baroque tone mood. The console has been given a new place right next to the choir gallery.

In the years that followed, the most necessary maintenance measures were carried out on the organ, the floor, the heating, the pews and above all on the roof with great personal commitment from the church members. After overcoming all political and material difficulties, the community received the green light in 1973 for an urgently needed renovation.

After the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR , in 1999, the Limbach parish and the Luther parish KÄNDER merged to form the parish Limbach-KÄNDER .

Furnishing

architecture

The church is a hall building with a three-sided east end and a slate-covered hipped roof with ridge turrets . In the relatively steep roof there are several staggered dormers on both sides .

On the east side of the church building, facing today's town hall , the family coat of arms of the von Wallwitz family, a jumping red deer, is carved over a window. In the past there was a door instead of the window, from which a covered corridor led to the manor house. So the landowners reached the church with dry feet .

Furthermore, the church has a tower clock , which was renewed in 1879 by Bernhard Zachariä tower clocks from Leipzig and again in the 1940s.

Interior

Main church room

altar

A first altar is documented in 1535 when it received some special relics . In 1811 an altar was added, donated by the merchant Johann Samuel Esche, which was changed several times in the following years (see under History ).

organ

Between the 17th century and 1918 the church was equipped with new organs from various organ building companies. The instrument, which was restored in 1945/46 and in the 1990s, was made by the Jehmlich brothers in 1918.

Peal

In connection with the lightning strike in 1899, the bells were also reworked, on March 28, 1900, the bells were consecrated . The new three-part bell with a total weight of 40  centners now found space in the larger tower. It rang in E flat major triad, and each bell bore a spiritual symbol and a Bible verse. The cost of the new casting was 5,275 marks.

During the First World War , the parish had to hand over all bells as metal donations from the German people to the Reich Military Treasury. They were removed in June 1917 and then melted down.

The missing bells could only be replaced by new ones in 1921, donated by Arno Scherf , manufacturer, city councilor and church council member. The ringing in the triad d-f sharp-a weighed 2,800 kg, the bells weighed 450, 750 and 1,600 kg. In 1927 an altarpiece created by the Chemnitz painter Fritsche and financed by a foundation replaced the previous one.

In the war year 1942 , the bronze bells had to be returned as a metal donation from the German people for the extraction of war equipment, only the smallest bell was allowed to hang.

For various reasons, replacing the delivered bells was out of the question shortly after the end of the war. Nevertheless, the community council meeting in the summer of 1945 decided: New bells should be big and ring loudly. If the tower is too narrow or cannot be loaded statically, they should be hung on a bell cage next to the church building. Pastor Heintze then asked Georg Laudeley, now a building maintenance worker, to work out a project for a free-standing wooden bell tower, which he presented in February 1948. Realization quickly proved to be impossible.

In 1950 was able to infinity tough negotiations with the City Council and the occupying power to ensure that in Apolda by the traditional bell-founder family Schilling two new Bronze - church bells were cast for the Limbacher church. The two sound bodies in the tones d and h and weighing 183 and 320 kg respectively were pulled onto the tower at a small ceremony ( bell greeting ) on June 20, 1950. The pastor was also able to order a new, really larger bell: it was created by casting a large bronze bell in the community of Hettstedt and in partnership with the pastor of Sehma at the time . Community members brought in small quantities the required amount of scrap metal or its equivalent for production. The Apolda foundry produced a bronze bell weighing 843 kg with a lower diameter of 1.32 m in the key of f sharp . After strengthening the church tower, the bell was consecrated in the spring of 1951. Up until 1953, all bells had to be operated manually; the municipality now had an electric drive installed for the two smaller ones.

additional

From the time before the Reformation, after all Catholic relics, images of saints and Mary have been removed , only a silver-embossed and gilded Holy Communion chalice with the inscription MARIA on the pommel remains .

The lords of the manor who died in Limbach were buried in the church.

In the years 1972–1974, the baptismal font in the Lauchhammer foundry was revised and repositioned.

Church life

Overview (selection)

The first ecclesiastical trumpet choir was founded in the parish in 1905 and will continue to be active into the 21st century. The instruments could be purchased with the help of a donation.

In addition to regular church services, there is also a meeting café and a meeting point for women in the neighboring community center. To integrate the L.-O. In addition to the existing language course and the international meeting point in the Diakoniezentrum (Pleißaer Straße 13a), a meeting garden is to be created in the allotment garden association Bodenreform . From autumn 2018, the parish will organize the performance of the children's musical “Faith is Trust” by Helmut Jost and Ruthild Wilson. Family vacation trips are occasionally held to keep the community members together.

Pastor

The respective pastor's family lives in the neighboring rectory , which was completely renovated in 1767 and is also a listed building. In the course of the centuries at least the following clergy were active in the Limbach city church (not completely):

  • 1539 - Vogel, Matthäus
  • 1551 - Left, Paul
  • 1579 - Krause, Georg
  • 1614 - Weisshahn, Friedrich
  • 1618 - Hofmann, Matthäus
  • 1687 - Müller, Johann Georg
  • 1734 - Müller, Johann Friedrich, son of Johann Georg Müller
  • 1764 - Kreyssig, Christian Sigismund
  • 1797 - Gilbert, Christian Gotthold Karl
  • 1825 - Mohr, Carl August Friedrich
  • 1832 - Wildenhayn, August Wilhelm
  • 1861 - Beyer, Leberecht Woldemar
  • 1868 - Hofmann, * Karl Volkmar Elias
  • 1872 - Hemmann, Friedrich Wilhelm Otto
  • 1905 - Jeremias, Friedrich * Johannes
  • 1912 - Kohlsdorf, Karl * Ernst
  • 1918 - Kaiser, Johann * Karl Friedrich
  • 1925 - Seidel, Johann Martin * Friedrich
  • 1926 - Wenke, * Horst Ernst Edgar
  • 1937 - Schaaf, Wilhelm Friedrich Werner
  • 1940 - Heintze, Kurt * Walter
  • 1940 - Klötzner, Max * Gerhard
  • 1940 - Ziegler, Ernst Karl
  • 1949 - Wolff, * Hans Conrad Albert
  • 1953 - Reichel, Wolfgang
  • 1954 - chess scarf, Hans
  • 1974 - Seltmann, Heinrich
  • 1979 - Markert, Wolfgang
  • Georg Crusius
  • Ulrich Keil in the 1970s
  • The pastors responsible in the 21st century for the town church and also for the Martin Luther Church in the Klassung district are Andreas Vögler and Johannes Schubert (as of 2018), the cantor Johannes Baldauf operates the organ and rehearses the above-mentioned performance in Limbach.

Parish hall

In 2015 was one to plans and under the direction of architect Kerstin Bochmann from Bochmann architects newly built community center inaugurated. The Saxon Oberlandeskirchenrat Martin Lerchner carried out the consecration on March 28th of that year.

Varia

Church with the point where the crashed vehicle took off and hit
The trajectory went from far left to far right.
  • In the past decades there have been repeated art theft. The church chronicle, for example, noted for November 1927 that a crucifix and two candlesticks were stolen. In December 1930 thieves managed to break into the church building via the sacristy and steal six collection tins, which, however, contained little money.
  • On January 25, 2009 there was a sensational traffic accident in which a car hit the roof of the church after jumping 35 m . The 23-year-old, seriously injured driver was rescued by the volunteer fire brigade with a turntable ladder . After the damaged parts of the wall and the roof had been completely repaired, the parish had a memorial plaque placed below the impact point with the following inscription:
What is impossible with humans is
possible with God. Bible, Luke 18:27
On January 25, 2009 a car flew 35 m over this plaque into the church roof.
The driver survived without any permanent health damage.
We thank God for this miracle.

Web links

Commons : Stadtkirche Limbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag History of the Limbach City Church on Verwaltungsportal.de; accessed on August 26, 2018.
  2. ↑ Laudeley, Dr. in a privately held register of architects; accessed on August 26, 2018.
  3. ↑ Eschemuseum: Timeline
  4. ↑ a b c business card Limbach-Oberfrohna town church , accessed on August 25, 2018.
  5. ↑ pfarrerbuch.de accessed on March 1, 2020
  6. ↑ pfarrerbuch.de accessed on March 1, 2020
  7. ^ Homepage Bochmann Architekten from Chemnitz , accessed on August 26, 2018.
  8. ↑ The car lands in the church roof , N24 , January 26, 2009.

Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 29 ″  N , 12 ° 46 ′ 1 ″  E