Jump to content
City encyclopedia

Church buildings of the modern age - Catholic churches

Since the diocese was founded in 1827, all Catholic churches in Wiesbaden have belonged to the diocese of Limburg, with the exception of the Catholic churches in Amöneburg, Kastel and Kostheim. They still belong to the diocese of Mainz today. The church of St. Elisabeth and its outbuildings are located in the middle of the busy Zietenring. In 1921-82, pastoral care was in the hands of the Franciscans living there. The hall church, consecrated in 1936 and built in the formal language of functional objectivity of the 1920s, was the first Catholic church in Wiesbaden to translate the changed ideas of sacred building into spatial form. It was designed by government architect Alfred Ludwig Wahl in iron skeleton construction. A high tower leans against the nave. The church underwent a fundamental renovation in 1989/90 by Wiesbaden architect Klaus-Dieter Wolf. The redesign of the altar is the work of the Munich sculptor Hubert Elsässer.

St. Kilian's Church, designed by Frankfurt architect Martin Weber, was consecrated in 1937 and replaces two previous buildings from 1905 and 1921. Towards the end of the war, the latter had served as crew barracks 15 of Dulag Luft Wetzlar, an air force transit camp for Western Allied prisoners of war, and now forms the basic structure of the northern aisle. The baptistery, choir loft and organ loft are located one above the other in the tower. The asymmetrical room volume is topped by a Rabitz ceiling. Weber's church building concept was, as he put it in 1938, "to create human spaces for Christ". The redesign of the chancel in 1973 according to the designs of Wiesbaden architect Paul Johannbroer corresponded to this concern.

In 1938/39, the Catholic church of St. Birgid in Bierstadt was built as a simple hall church according to designs by the diocesan master builder Fritz Johannbroer. The church, which was reconsecrated in 1948 after war damage, was doubled in size in 1963 according to plans by Paul Johannbroer, brother of the aforementioned architect. The floor plan of the current church follows a square, the eastern rounded corner of which surrounds the chancel. This was given its current shape in 1987. The former north-west-facing choir apse is used as a chapel and the attached tower as an entrance hall. Quarry stone from Sonnenberg determines the outer skin of the church.

Like many other cities, Wiesbaden took in numerous refugees from the former German eastern territories in the post-war years. Due to the large number of immigrants and displaced persons, the need for Catholic church buildings grew. In addition to the reconstruction of destroyed churches such as St. Georg in Kastel and St. Kilian in Kostheim, the first new sacred buildings were erected as early as 1954. In 1954, the small Gothic hall church of St. Georg and Katharina in Frauenstein was given a new building designed by Paul Johannbroer with a wooden barrel vault ceiling, which was placed behind the old church like a transverse bar with a striking bell tower, which now serves as a parish hall. The newly built Maria Hilf church in Kostheim was also consecrated in 1954. Mainz architect Franz Mertes designed a modern church building in a more traditional style. An ogee-shaped hall church with a recessed, raised choir, a simple gabled façade with an entrance and a large window above it in the west and a tower in front of the south-west corner of the building were designed as masonry structures and fitted with flat pitched roofs. The prominent position of the altar is accentuated by the lighting and the furnishings.

In 1956, the Holy Family Church was handed over to the congregation as a newly built church. The unadorned design by Martin Braunstorfinger broke with the usual building forms. The concrete beams of this sacred architecture are exposed, the spaces in between are filled with brick panels and the bell tower is free-standing. Braunstorfinger's architecture aimed to clarify and simplify the architectural form. Since 1964, the chancel has been illuminated by a large window designed by Johannes Beeck, whose dominant colors of red and blue symbolize the connection between the divine and the human. The renovation work carried out between 1986-93 was under the direction of Frankfurt architect Franz-Josef Mühlenhoff.

In 1962-64, St. Michael's Church was built near the southern cemetery as a branch church of the Holy Family parish. Here too, a solitary bell tower towers above the church, which is built on a rhomboid ground plan. The architect was Paul Johannbroer. In 1987, the Marienkapelle was separated from the church, and two years later the chancel was extended. The Rambach Chapel Building Association, founded in 1954, was able to complete the construction of St. John's Church in 1963. The church, built from reinforced concrete and limestone, was completed two years later with a free-standing bell tower. St. Andrew's Church was consecrated in 1965. The red brick-clad ensemble of church building, community center and rectory was designed by the architect Hans Weber from Amöneburg near Marburg. On the south-east side of the church to the south, connected to it, is a tall bell tower and to the north the round, former baptistery. The pillarless hall embodies the idea of the modern church interior, the one-room concept developed since the end of the 1920s. An apse, which is only hinted at, emphasizes the altar area. The church was painted in pastel colors in 1996 by the painter Friedrich Ernst von Garnier. An intensely colored low window front designed by Josef (Jupp) Jost, which depicts the martyrdom of the church patron, opens up the entire eastern side wall of the church interior. Christ the King church in Nordenstadt was consecrated in 1965 after three years of construction. The reinforced concrete building with a monopitch roof and clad in gray granite was built according to designs by Paul Johannbroer. Johannes Beeck was once again responsible for the glazing; the work was carried out by Rudolf Maur from Ahrweiler.

Visitation of the Virgin Mary, Wiesbaden-Kohlheck, 1966
Visitation of the Virgin Mary, Wiesbaden-Kohlheck, 1966

Visible from afar, in the west of the city, on the Dotzheimer Höhe in Kohlheck, the striking silhouette of the Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary rises as a "finger pointing to God". In 1960, the Berlin architect Johannes Jackel was commissioned with the design. The church was built in 1963-66. The sacred space rises above a star-shaped ground plan in the form of two triangles that are shifted into each other in opposite directions. A 41-metre-high tower rises above the east-facing apex of the star, facing the city and impressively elevating the chancel. The northern and southern apexes house the chapel of the Virgin Mary and the sacristy. When visitors enter the church from the west, they are greeted by the voluminous power of the interior, which is largely designed in textured exposed concrete. As the floor level drops noticeably with every step, the soaring effect of the soaring chancel is further enhanced. Even the structure of the formwork of the rising concrete wall, which combines to form flat triangular shapes, reinforces the impression of an upward movement of the space. It receives its constant light from the west side of the tower, which is now completely glazed. Just as the floor plan of the church above the Star of David formed by two equilateral triangles embodies the idea of the Trinity, the elevation of the church can be read as a Marian "M". With this associative power of its sculpturally symbolic architectural form, the Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary sets a strong urban accent in the cityscape of Wiesbaden.

The Church of St. Peter and Paul in Schierstein was completed in 1967 to a design by Johannes A. Traut. It replaces a historicist predecessor building from 1891. The outer skin of the building allows light to flow into the interior thanks to its honeycomb structure. The ground plan of the church building follows a parabola with an arch surrounding the chancel. Slender windows in deep reveals direct the light onto the offering table.

The Gräselberg district was given its own Catholic parish, St. Hedwig, in 1964. The parish center was planned from 1967 by the brother of the then incumbent priest Norbert Weber, the Frankfurt architect Bernhard Weber, and consecrated in 1974. Seen from the outside, the church hall, also known as the banqueting hall, barely stands out from the rest of the building complex. Sliding walls, an invention by Martin Weber, allow the room to be designed flexibly: On the one hand, they separate a chapel and, on the other, when opened, they allow the room to be extended depending on the number of worshippers gathered. The tubular rods stretched under the ceiling symbolize the idea of a congregation on the move as a community of pilgrims. The St. Klara parish center in Klarenthal was consecrated in 1975. The multifunctional, spacious, north-east-facing building complex, which replaced a wooden emergency church, was also designed by Bernhard Weber. The concrete material determines not only the structural but also the visual appearance of the church, both inside and out.

The number of Catholics grew steadily, so that as early as 1971, Auxiliary Bishop Walther Kampe suggested the construction of a parish center in Delkenheim. In 1977, the St. Stephan parish center was consecrated according to plans by Frankfurt architect Walter Nicol and engineer Wolfram Nicol. The Maria Aufnahme church in Erbenheim was also built as a "multi-purpose center" according to plans by architects Ernst and Gottlieb Studer and Joachim Naef, Zurich, as part of a building ensemble with a wide range of uses. The community center was inaugurated in 1978. It is the third building on this site. The weathercock, which has now found its new place in front of the modern community center, is a reminder of the previous building. The exterior design in the form of surrounding colored bands picks up on the color tones of the surrounding secular buildings. The chapel was decorated by sculptor Robert Lienhard from Winterthur.

After the church of St. Josef in Dotzheim fell victim to the night of the bombing on February 2, 1945, its remains were extended under the direction of architect Paul Johannbroer to create a functional new building with a straight chancel. From 1951, the church was enlarged and a parish hall and a new tower were added. In 1975, the Board of Directors decided to build a new community center based on plans by Zurich architect Justus Dahinden. The church, which was consecrated in 1979, has a tent-like shape; a "tower" with a bell chamber is integrated into the church building. Direct incidence of light was deliberately avoided: All the larger glass surfaces are arranged in front of the concrete wall of the tower, which contributes to a subdued, meditative spatial effect. Inside and outside are connected. The floor coverings in both areas are the same, and colored glass was also avoided. The St. Elisabeth parish center in Auringen, designed by Frankfurt architect Franz-Josef Mühlenhoff, was consecrated on 25.08.1991. The "old church", built in 1963, now serves as a clubhouse.

Literature

Hollingshaus, Markus Frank: 100 years of the Catholic Church in Dotzheim (after the Reformation). 90 years of the St. Josef Catholic Church Choir, Wiesbaden 2002.

Walle, Heinrich: Community building from the altar table. The life and work of the church architect Martin Weber (1890-1941). In: Archiv für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, vol. 53, 2001 [pp. 365-390].

Wermelskirchen, Ludwig (ed.): Kirchengemeinde Mariä Heimsuchung Wiesbaden Dotzheim, Wiesbaden 1967.

Wittmann-Englert, Kerstin: Tent, nave and dwelling. 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.

watch list

Explanations and notes

Picture credits