Thomas Church (Hamburg-Rahlstedt)

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Church tower
To the left is the extension of the parish hall
Interior, view of the altar
Font in front of the window

The Thomaskirche in Meiendorf is the second oldest Evangelical Lutheran church in the Hamburg district of Rahlstedt and is located there between the streets Meiendorfer Straße and Nydamer Weg . The church has only had the name of the Apostle Thomas since 1968, before it was simply referred to as the Meiendorfer Church . Between 2012 and 2016 the church was used as a youth church. There was a squatting from June 2017 to April 2018 .

Building the church

After completion, the church underwent two extensive renovations and additions, so that the structure of the original building can hardly be recognized today.

After 1933 there was a major wave of entry in the Rahlstedt parishes, which soon meant that the capacities of the Alt-Rahlstedt Church could no longer meet the growing needs. The community initially responded with events at other locations in the district, including confirmation classes in Meiendorf. Soon afterwards, the construction of a full-fledged parish hall, which was completed in 1935 and which represents the origin of today's church. This community hall formed a structural unit with the pastorate and could be divided into two rooms by a roll wall. The altar niche with its clinker brick Gothic arch was the only decorative element inside. From the outside, the building received a small roof turret with a bell, which is now located in the Rogate Church in Meiendorf.

After the population of Meiendorf had grown significantly in the 1950s, the expansion of the community hall began in 1957. The entire building was raised by 1.60 m, a vestibule and a chancel were added. In this way, the gallery for the choir and organ could be drawn in inside. A completely new church was built under the direction of the architect Walter Ahrendt . Only the two side walls of the old community hall remained. The new tower, 26 m high and crowned by a 2 m high cross, was completed in 1958. Since then, the copper-clad entrance door with half-relief by the Hamburg sculptor Karl Schubert has been a special eye-catcher .

Due to the still limited space, the church council decided in 1981 to add new community rooms, which could be inaugurated on December 11, 1983. The external appearance had changed again, as the redesign mainly affected the front part and the entrance area, whereby the previous symmetry of the building was abandoned.

Furnishing

All defining pieces come from the construction phase of the church in 1958. Fritz Huppers created the baptismal font from shell limestone , the altar, pulpit and stalls are kept simple and made of mahogany . A wooden sculpture by Otto Flath , which shows Jesus with his disciple Thomas, was also installed in 1983.

The lead glass windows are a particular eye-catcher . The window in the baptistery is also by Fritz Huppers and shows an impressive angel motif aligned on the baptismal font. A window with a silver cross motif directly behind the altar enhances its effect. The six windows in the nave depict Christian symbols, including the Trinity , in clear colors .

Bells

There are three bronze bells from the Bachert bell foundry in the tower . They are tuned in the so-called Te Deum motif, F sharp, A and H. The bells symbolize the three great Christian festivals Christmas, Easter and Pentecost and therefore carry the inscriptions Now sing and be happy , Christ has risen and now we ask the Holy Spirit .

organ

Organ prospectus

After there was no space for a large organ in the first parish hall , the church had to do without one until 1961. The Weigle organ , which is still in use today, was inaugurated on the first Advent in 1961 . With its 18 registers and 1317 pipes, it has a balanced disposition:

I main work C–
1. Harp pommer 8th'
2. Gemshorn 8th'
3. Principal 4 ′
4th Forest flute 2 ′
5. Mixture IV-V 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
6th Dulcian 16 ′
II Rückpositiv C–
7th Dumped 8th'
8th. Reed flute 4 ′
9. Principal 2 ′
10. Sif flute 1'
11. Sesquialtera II
12. Zimbel III 1 ⁄ 2 ′
13. Double shelf 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C–
14th Sub bass 16 ′
15th Principal 8th'
16. Dumped 8th'
17th Quintatön 4 ′
18th Rauschpfeife II 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′

Development of the community

Grave of Pastor Colditz in the Rahlstedt cemetery , to the left of the crucifix

With the construction of the community hall in 1935, Adolf Böger was the first pastor to take office. Böger was a member of the right-wing organization " German Christians ", whose goal was the formation of a Protestant state church in the Third Reich . He worked closely with the Hamburg provost Gustav Dührkop, who was also active in this movement. Böger remained pastor in Meiendorf throughout the Second World War and only retired in 1953 at his own request. During his tenure, Meiendorf became an independent municipality in 1948 and thus independent of Alt-Rahlstedt.

In 1953 the congregation received Alfred Colditz, a politically different person than pastor. Colditz had been a member of the Confessing Christians since 1937 and had come into conflict with the National Socialist government in his previous position as pastor in Magdeborn near Leipzig . Before 1945 he spent a total of 7 months in prison. Colditz led the Meiendorfer congregation until the 1960s and had a decisive influence on it during his tenure.

In the following decades, too, the community was shaped by current social developments, but always remained predominantly bourgeois. The 1968 movement, pacifism, anti-colonialism and feminism were reflected again and again in the discussions within the community. Church base activities became defining elements of community life.

In 1963 the community built a branch church with the Rogate Church in the eastern part of Meiendorf , which later became an independent community. From the year 2000, however, parishes were again amalgamated in the Rahlstedt area. First, the two Meiendorfer parishes of the Thomas and Rogate Churches merged into one parish, as did the Oldenfeld parishes of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Matthias Claudius Churches. In 2009 there was the last amalgamation to form today's municipality of Meiendorf-Oldenfelde with now four church buildings. With almost 14,000 members in 2012, the congregation was the second largest congregation in Hamburg.

In 2012 the decision was made to no longer use the church as a traditional parish church, but to convert it into Hamburg's second youth church . The transfer to the new use took place on September 2, 2012. Nine communities (Alt-Rahlstedt, Hohenhorst / Rahlstedt-Ost, Meiendorf-Oldenfelde, Farmsen-Berne, Sasel, Volksdorf, Bergstedt, Bargteheide and Eichede) bundled here together with the church district Hamburg-Ost their church youth work and developed possibilities for a form of central confirmation lessons. The model project was named "Jugendkirche & KonfiCamp Hamburg-Ost" and ended at the end of 2016 because it did not show the development that was hoped for. According to Theo Christiansen, commissioned by the Hamburg-Ost church district with the mandate for the youth church / Thomaskirche, the more distant sponsoring communities withdrew from the project because their young people did not participate enough and they wanted to invest contributions in their own youth work. The church district saw itself not in a position to take on the financial responsibility and the financing of the youth church project collapsed. Another use of the church building, now again called Thomaskirche, until the end of July 2017 was made possible for the preparation of the 2017 Konficamp.

occupation

Banners during the squatting.

On June 4th the church was occupied by young activists. As a prelude, an “Anarchist Summer Festival” took place on the church grounds. On June 7th, the Hamburg-Ost church district and the squatters agreed on tolerated use until the end of July 2017. At a meeting of church representatives, squatters and residents on July 31, 2017, it was discussed that the squatters should be allowed until autumn of that year an association should be founded, which should then become a partner for user agreements with the church. The founding meeting of the association for the promotion of political culture took place in Rahlstedt on October 25, 2017, and the entry in the register of associations took place on December 14, 2017. The negotiations now took place between the association and representatives of the church. On April 27, 2018, the former squatters and on May 3, the public were informed via a press release that the tolerated use had ended. The reasons given were not kept promises, including the fact that the building could not be used for regular overnight stays. On May 10, 2018, the former squatters informed via a press release (in June 2018 via Indymedia.org) that they themselves had terminated their usage relationship with the church on April 26, 2018. The reason given there was also the incompatibility of views on what they consider to be an important overnight stay issue.

The church was used for various activities by the group called "Barco Liberado". For example, a lecture on post-anarchism took place, a library , tape rehearsal rooms and a vegetable garden were set up. The group also planned a conversation round for refugees . For the G20 summit in Hamburg 2017 , the area of ​​the church was used by demonstrators as an alternative to the protest camps for camping.

literature

  • Kerstin Steen: 75th anniversary of the Thomas Church in Meiendorf . In: Rahlstedter Yearbook for History & Culture . No. 13 . Rahlstedter Kulturverein, 2011, p. 42-53 .
  • Gertrud Schiller : Hamburg's new churches 1951–1961 . Ed .: Evangelical Lutheran Church Hamburg. Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1961, p. 85 .
  • Alfred Colditz: Chronicle of the Thomas parish Hamburg-Meiendorf . Self-published by the parish, Hamburg (after 1976).
  • Reinhard Meyer: The Thomaskirche / Youth Church from 2012-2018 - a contemporary historical representation . In: Rahlstedter Yearbook for History & Culture . Rahlstedter Kulturverein, 2018, p. 70-76 .

Web links

Commons : Thomaskirche Meiendorf (Hamburg-Rahlstedt)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the organ database orgbase.nl . Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  2. ^ Helmuth Fricke, Michael Pommerening, Richard Hölck: The churches on the Wandsbeker market . Mühlenbek-Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-9807460-2-X , p. 68-70 .
  3. ↑ Message from the Hamburg-Ost church district ( Memento from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ^ Report on the handover ( memento of March 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on the community's homepage.
  5. ↑ Article ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the Hamburger Wochenblatt for Wandsbek on October 12, 2016. Retrieved on February 20, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hamburger-wochenblatt.de
  6. ↑ Rahlstedter Jahrbuch für Geschichte & Kultur 2018 , Reinhard Meyer: Die Thomaskirche / Jugendkirche from 2012-2018 - a contemporary historical presentation p. 72 f.
  7. ↑ Talika Oeztuerk: Rahlstedt: Activists occupy church. In: FINK.HAMBURG. June 6, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
  8. ^ Sabine Henning: Church occupation: The short summer of anarchy in Rahlstedt. (No longer available online.) In: www.kirche-hamburg.de. June 8, 2017, archived from the original on August 1, 2017 ; accessed on June 11, 2017 .
  9. ↑ The future of the Thomaskirche. (No longer available online.) In: Hamburger Wochenblatt. August 9, 2017, archived from the original on August 11, 2017 ; accessed on August 11, 2017 .
  10. ↑ a b Barco liberado: Departure of Barco liberado. In: de.indymedia.org . June 21, 2018, accessed September 2, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Rahlstedter Jahrbuch für Geschichte & Kultur 2018, Reinhard Meyer: Die Thomaskirche / Jugendkirche from 2012–2018 - a contemporary historical presentation p. 74 ff.
  12. ↑ Philipp Steffens: The hijacked church. In: The daily newspaper. July 4, 2017. Retrieved August 11, 2017 .
  13. ^ Adèle Cailleteau: Peaceful Church Occupation in Hamburg: Anarchists instead of Christians. In: The daily newspaper . June 6, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Churches tolerate tents of G20 opponents in their gardens. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . July 5, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 37 ′ 9 ″  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 30.9 ″  E