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Church buildings of the modern age - Protestant churches

After the British occupying forces in Wiesbaden confiscated the Ringkirche as a garrison church in 1925, an external two-storey parish hall was built on Elsässer Platz by the architect Fritz Hildner in 1928-31, which was completely integrated into the apartment block development of the late 1920s and had neither a tower nor bells. On the first floor was the hall with a curved gallery, which also served as a church hall. The architecture and interior design were in keeping with the Neues Bauen style; the arrangement of the altar, pulpit and organ in the chancel, which was highlighted like a grandstand, followed the Wiesbaden program. A silver cross above the altar formed the spiritual center of the room. From 1931-65, this church hall served the Kreuzkirche parish, and from 1966 the Stephanus parish. In 2013, the latter merged with the Ringkirche congregation, and since then the Stephanuskirche has been used for secular purposes.

Cross church Walkmühltalanlage, around 1970
Cross church Walkmühltalanlage, around 1970

Amöneburg was given a Gustav Adolf Memorial Church in 1931/32. The defiant-looking brick building was the only Protestant church to be built in the 1930s. Architect Adolf Gelius, city building director in Mainz, created a representative three-nave, flat-roofed pillar basilica with a tower and attached lantern and a straight choir end. Two bright, polygonal columns frame the entrance portal. On the first floor of the tower, a decorative clinker inscription commemorates the Swedish king Gustav Adolf. In 1954, the new St. Mark's Church was built in Waldstraße, with a focus on simplicity and a complete lack of decorative additions. A tower was also deliberately omitted. A large steel cross on the façade facing Waldstrasse draws the eye to the church. Architect Stadtmüller-Boldt created an elongated hall church with a side entrance. From the vestibule, the view is straightforward to the sandstone-colored altar and pulpit. The Black Forest architect Wilhelm Hörr built the Kreuzkirche, a jewel of modern architecture, in 1958 in the Walkmühltal grounds using steel and concrete. This can be seen in the simplicity of the nave and the architecture of the tower in the form of a campanile. The wide three-aisled hall receives daylight mainly through the large south-facing window with antique glazing above the gallery

In Frauenstein, architect Körner built the small Gustav Adolf Church in 1959. The congregation has been called the Evangelische Dreikönigsgemeinde since 1982 and has three locations, in addition to Frauenstein Märchenland and Freudenberg. According to Wolf, the modest place of worship radiates the "intimacy of a living room".

In 1960/61, the Heilig-Geist-Kirche was built on the Adolfshöhe in Biebrich, "Hesse's boldest church building", as it was called in the daily press at the time. Architect Herbert Rimpl designed a tall, two-storey, parabolically vaulted building on the ground plan of a parabola. He also varied the basic design form of the parabola in the construction of the separate bell tower. The vault, structured by concrete ribs, tapers into the wider and higher, bowl-shaped chancel. Four window niches flank both sides of the nave. The sheet copper roof is pulled down to the ground. A wide flight of steps in front of the main façade leads to the worship area. The lighting is masterful. While the concrete-framed red and blue glass of the main façade and the side windows bathe the nave in colored twilight, the chancel is highlighted by bright daylight that enters through an invisible ribbon of windows connecting the nave and chancel.

The Erlöserkirche in Kastel, which was consecrated in 1963, was built by architect Rainer Schell as a square, closed cube, simple and straightforward. To the west is the free-standing, towering spire. The entrance façade to the south and the north façade are made of exposed concrete, while the west and east façades are clad with square slabs into which small natural stone slabs have been set like a mosaic. Instead of the former side entrances to the church, a central entrance was created in 2006 and the wall behind the altar was also broken through for a large artistically designed window. The southern gallery is for the congregation, while the western gallery is for the choir and organ. St. Thomas' Church, which was consecrated in 1964, is also the work of architect Schell. Alternating brick, exposed concrete and wood, he created a simple cubic church building, which is surrounded by a portico on the lower floor. A narrow, campanile-style tower rises next to the church building, visible from afar.

Consecrated in 1965, St. Matthew's Church was built according to plans by Wiesbaden architect Wilhelm Neuser as a single-nave church in a deliberately low-rise design. White exposed concrete gives the wall structure. An open bell tower was erected separately. In Kostheim, another church with a high, free-standing tower was built in 1963-65 for the Stephanus parish according to plans by architect Schell. The narrow sides of the simple cube are left in exposed concrete, while the long sides are faced with bricks between reinforced concrete columns.

The Christ Church of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK), consecrated in 1967, is unusual. Architect Siegfried Schmeling from Kassel erected a red brick building on the ground plan of a wide-open parabola, the street front of which is shaped like the prow of a ship and topped with a mighty cross. The church is accessed via a staircase and a communication room created in 2009. The Johanneskirche, built in 1967 by architect Friedrich Gottlieb Winter, director of the Werkkunstschule Krefeld, was demolished in 2012 due to the risk of collapse. Only the slender church tower with its five bells remained standing. Wiesbaden-based architects Hupfauf-Thiels replaced the building with a cube that accommodates the church interior. The cube has a gold-colored cladding made of honeycomb-shaped expanded metal that covers the window areas like walls.

The church of the Paul-Gerhardt-Gemeinde has stood in Kohlheck since 1969. The Wiesbaden architect and government architect Rudolf Dörr built it as a so-called single room on the floor plan of an elongated hexagon that widens towards the choir. The south façade with its prominent main entrance resembles the prow of a ship. The steeply pitched gabled roof, covered with Kauber slate, is reminiscent of a tent. The reinforced concrete construction is faced with quarry stone on the outside. In 1984, a bell tower in the shape of a pyramid was erected on the church square instead of the originally planned campanile. In 1971, the Petrus parish in Erbenheim received a parish hall built from exposed concrete according to plans by architect Hans-Georg Möller, Wiesbaden. A later division of the parish hall made it possible to create a simple chapel room. In 1971, St. Luke's Church, built according to plans by Darmstadt architect Fritz Soeder, was consecrated in the Gräselberg housing estate. The modest, pointed gabled brick building in the shape of a tent is a reminder of the numerous brickworks that used to be located in the area. The roof of gray Eternit is pulled down low. A community center was built in the Klarenthal housing estate in 1972 according to plans by Prof. Herbert von Wehrden. In 1986, it was given its actual worship room in the form of an additional round building. The glazed chapel can be reached via a wide staircase and through the vestibule.

In 1974, architect Schell created a multifunctional building with a multi-purpose hall as a church hall for the reconciliation congregation in Aukammtal. The entire church complex is covered by a slate roof landscape. A light-colored wooden ceiling descends over the rows of seats towards the altar. A triangular dormer window provides light and symbolizes the "eye of God". The Schelmengraben housing estate in Dotzheim received a parish hall consecrated in 1975. Architect Udo Nieper, Darmstadt, was responsible for the building design. The result was a ground-floor church made of brick, concrete and glass. The building has neither a tower nor bells. In 1975, Hanno Siepmann built the community center for the Auferstehungsgemeinde in Schierstein in exposed concrete on a slope with an integrated church hall. The community center of the Albert Schweitzer congregation in Biebrich's Parkfeld housing estate by architect Fritz Soeder, inaugurated in 1980, is a simple low-rise building in exposed concrete with an equally simple church hall. Large windows provide a view of the greenery. The community center of the Erlösergemeinde in the Sauerland estate, designed by architect Wolfgang Thrun and his son Thomas, was inaugurated in 1997. A wide, curved façade encloses the multifunctional, simple church interior, which can be variably arranged using sliding walls. The metal and glass canopy appears to float; a small bell hangs from the ridge.

The first highway church in Hesse was built in 2000/01 on the site of the Medenbach-West service station according to plans by architect Prof. Hans Waechter. The sloping glass roof of the church, which rises at an angle of 45 degrees and can be entered from the north and south, is significant. In an atrium surrounded by a cloister, from which you can look into the interior of the church through glass doors, there are nine water bubblers in the floor that dampen the traffic noise.

Literature

Wittmann-Englert, Kerstin: Zelt, Schiff und Wohnung. Church buildings of post-war modernism, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2006.

Wolf, Stefan G.: Churches in Wiesbaden. Places of worship and religious life in the past and present, Wiesbaden 1997.

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