Pilgrimage Church Maria Hilf (Trutzhain)
The Roman Catholic pilgrimage church Maria Hilf in Trutzhain , a district of Schwalmstadt in the north Hessian Schwalm-Eder district , is a pilgrimage church . The Quinau pilgrimage , celebrated there once a year, is the central religious event of the Schwalm Catholics and the only church-recognized pilgrimage in Northern Hesse.
prehistory
In 1948, Christmas mass was celebrated as the first service at this location in a neglected barrack in the former prisoner of war camp StaLag IX A. Refugees and displaced persons from the Sudetenland , Silesia , Pomerania , East Prussia , West Prussia and other former "Eastern regions" who had been housed in this camp since 1948 founded the Roman Catholic parish Maria Hilf. On September 18, 1949, this barrack was officially inaugurated as a church. It was named "Maria Hilf" in reference to the pilgrimage church of the same name near Zuckmantel in the north Moravian Jeseníky Mountains .
As early as 1949/1950, the barrack church became a pilgrimage church and a meeting place for pilgrims from Quinau , in the Chomutov (Komotau) district in the Bohemian Ore Mountains . Expellees from this area had brought the tradition of the Quinau pilgrimage with them to Trutzhain. Since then, the Quinau pilgrimage has been celebrated in Trutzhain on the first Sunday in July. It goes back to the report of an apparition of the Virgin Mary in Quinau in 1342. The barrack church was expanded three times before the foundation stone for the new Maria-Hilf-Kirche was finally laid in 1964.
Tent church
With the construction of a tent church, the town of Trutzhain, which emerged from the former camp, received a new church center in 1964/65. Maria Hilf is the only pilgrimage church in Northern Hesse. It is barrier-free and offers space for over 200 visitors.
In the Marienkapelle you can see the Madonna figure of Mary from the founding phase of the place, commissioned by the expellees . In 1987 the parish received a second Madonna from woodcarver Anton Reinelt. This is executed as a "mater gravida", a pregnant Madonna, a very rare representation of Mary. It can only be seen on pilgrimage day. Both Trutzhainer Madonnas are based on the Madonna in Quinau and are similar to it. Another Madonna can be seen in the St. Mary's Grotto in the parish garden.
As the only Catholic church building of this size in the Schwalm region, the Maria-Hilf-Kirche was designed by the Kassel architect Josef Bieling based on the Second Vatican Council . The tent church is connected to the rectory by a Marienkapelle and by the rectory to the bell tower. The ensemble has been a cultural monument since 2012 .
The shape of the church should be reminiscent of the Trinity of God. The tent is a symbol of being on the move through life. It is reminiscent of the wandering people of Israel in the first covenant. The striking church in the area surrounding the former barracks is also intended to commemorate the fate of the community planters.
The foundation of a small monastery by the Order of the Oblates Maria Immaculata (OMI) from the Boniface Monastery in Hünfeld in 2009 in Schwalmstadt- Ziegenhain can be traced back to the pilgrimage in Trutzhain.
reconciliation
The first reconciliation meeting of former French prisoners of war with displaced Trutzhainern took place in 1970 with an ecumenical service in the Maria-Hilf-Kirche. At the invitation of the Kyffhäuserkommadschaft Trutzhain, former French prisoners of war visited Trutzhain for the first time after the war. Since then there have been many contacts between the two groups. More than 10 group visits to Trutzhain and France are documented. The “Museum for Peace” was created in 1983 through this collaboration. The driving forces behind the reconciliation process were the Roman Catholic clergyman Abbé Pierre Dentin and the Trutzhainer Horst Munk. Both were awarded the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for their efforts that lasted more than three decades .
Due to the displaced pilgrims, the contacts between the Trutzhain parish and pilgrims in the Komotau district were preserved. Since 1990 displaced people have been making pilgrimages to Quinau again. In 2005 a youth group from the Komotau district visited Trutzhain for the first time. In 2008 and 2009, pastor Mgr. Miroslav Dvouletý from Jirkov (Görkau) was the first Czech clergyman to take part in the Quinau pilgrimage in Trutzhain.
Pilgrimage vestments
In a project in 2007/2008, six unique vestments were created for the Quinau pilgrimage in Trutzhain. Students of the Kassel Werkakademie für Gestaltung, today the Werkakademie für Gestaltung Hessen, and the textile designer Henning Harms designed new chasubles especially for the pilgrimage. The Rudolf Egelkraut weaving mill in Trutzhain custom-made the fabrics based on their templates. The bespoke tailor Ingeborg Bechstedt from Lohfelden made the new clothes from the fabrics. The uniqueness of the work was also evident through participation in the 11th Hessian Design Prize, which was awarded on August 19, 2008 in Kassel. The project received special recognition through the inclusion of the work in the exhibition of special objects as part of the design prize, which was shown in Kassel, Wiesbaden and Wetzlar. The project is also included in the catalog published for the 11th design award.
Pilgrimage site
People have been making pilgrimages to the Quinau pilgrimage in Trutzhain since the church was inaugurated. Day and overnight guests also visit the church outside of the pilgrimage. Since 2007 she has been involved in the ecumenical pilgrimage, the Elisabethpfad . For pilgrims, the Elisabeth tent was built next to the church in 2008. From Easter to October 12-18 people can stay there. In 2009 the pilgrim wall at the Mariengrotte was built . Pilgrims can put a stone they have brought with them on the wall as a visible sign of their pilgrimage. Later this stone is walled in and thus contributes to the expansion of the pilgrimage wall.
literature
- Andreas Kossert : Kalte Heimat The history of the German expellees after 1945. Siedler Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-861-8 .
- Filz, Ley, Munk, Scholz, Steidl: Chronicle of Trutzhain 1951–2001. Ed .: City of Schwalmstadt 2001.
- Catholic parish curate Maria-Hilf: Quinauer pilgrimage in Trutzhain. Ed .: Catholic Parish Curate Maria-Hilf, 2003.
- old and new art , association for Christian art in the dioceses of the ecclesiastical province of Paderborn, Paderborn 2012, volume 47.
Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 14.4 " N , 9 ° 16 ′ 21.4" E