SURRHUSEN, OSTFRIESLAND

Here is a model of the village of Suurhusen - how it looked back in 1450. The main church building was built in 1250, but the clock tower was added in 1450.     

 My great grandmother was born and lived in a tiny house just across the street from the church.

Three leaning towers

The sanctuary

The pulpit

From Gene Straatmeyer: The man showing us around told a funny story:

In 1927, Pastor D. Kruger, was preaching a sermon from the high pulpit on the right side of the sanctuary when it collapsed and fell down to the floor. Although Pastor Kruger went down with the pulpit, he never stopped preaching. He just picked himself up and kept on with the sermon. However, right below the pulpit a farmer had fallen asleep. When the pulpit fell, it frightened him very much, but Pastor Kruger didn’t stop speaking. The old gentleman telling the story was laughing so hard and speaking so fast in Low-German that I didn’t catch why the pulpit fell. Since already in 1927 it was a very old church, I think the pulpit probably died of old age.

Back in the old days, there was no heat in the church, so folks would bring their hot coals from home, put them in the foot warmer, close it up and worship in comfort with warm feet.

A WORLD RECORD CHURCH

Yes - a world record!

The tilting tower

I had a very hard time getting my camera to catch the tilt. Here, it looks like the entire church is tilting - and it's only me!

This is the actual key to the church. He took us in and showed us around.

Sadly, the old church is only used as a museum for tourists now (look for interior pictures to come). This new church is very functional, but . . . I am a romantic. However, I rejoice with the people who now have a new church that focuses on worship and this congregation.

LUTHERAN CHURCH AT VICTORBUR, OSTFRIESLAND

The Victorbur Evangelical Lutheran Church is old – very old. The first and largest part of the church was built in the 11^th century, well before the people of East Friesland, Germany even thought of building the dikes that hold the sea at bay. It naturally began its life as a Roman Catholic Church and was under the rule of several Earls, government officials and royal families. The second part of the church was built only about three or four hundred years ago.

Chancel artwork

The organ in the balcony

The building of the churches in the Ostfriesland area may all have been accomplished using the same method as was described to me by Jurgen Hoogstraat on May 2, 2011. Jurgen has been pastor of the Victorbur church for 20 years. He said that a hill (sometimes man-made) was chosen as the church site. Teams of horse-drawn wagons would go to the sea shore at low tide and gather wagon loads of sea shells. When they brought them back to the church site, a fire was used to burn the shells until all that was left was chalky dust. This dust was then mixed with water and used as mortar. On close inspection of the exterior brick work, one can see evidence of tiny pieces of sea shells mixed in with the mortar.

The door in the wall

The walls of these old churches are about four feet thick. Pastor Hoogsgraat said the walls are filled with rocks and covered with bricks and this mortar. That was made clear to us when we were shown a door about 10-12 feet up on the wall where a steep, narrow set of stairs was carved into and up the wall. These stairs lead to a space above the relatively new wooden ceiling so that the actual roof of the church can be inspected. I estimate the height of the church at about 60-75 feet.

 Several years ago 54 people – some elderly, some younger – from the Victorbur Church went on a tour of The Black Forest in South Germany. They were in the mountains when the brakes went out on their bus and the bus landed on its side. The driver couldn’t get the side door open. However, the back door could be opened but it was a long ways to the ground and probably people would have had broken limbs had they jumped. Suddenly a man in a red car appeared. He got the side door open, helped all of the people out of the bus, told them to find shelter in the forest and then drove off. Moments later the bus exploded since gas was leaking out – lots of it – because the tanks had just been refilled.

Gott hat geholfen

They were so excited they forgot to thank the man so they put out advertisements in papers far and near. They even described the red car.  But no one ever responded either for the man or his car. Some thought an angel had passed by and rescued them.  They had an artist carve a cross and put the words on it, “God Helped Us!”  It will remain in the sanctuary now for hundreds of years as a testimony to the incident where they believe God intervened and saved their lives.

Thanks to Gene Straatmeyer

 for his words about

the bus accident.

JES

THE DIKES OF OSTFRIESLAND, GERMANY

A tragic thing happened in Ostfriesland on Christmas Day in 1717. A gigantic flood inundated the low-lying farmland from Denmark to The Netherlands. Many were killed and the plan was made to raise the dikes that were already in place for 700 years - to keep back the sea.

Historically, not everything was flooded in high water.  Warfels were built at a town site. The church, then, was built in the very center (highest part) of the warfel. Houses would be clustered around the church. There was safety in being close to the church.This can readily be seen in all of the small towns close to the coast of Ostfriesland. Most of them now have a narrow road around the church and streets built outward from there like the spokes of a wagon wheel.

Starting in 1825, the dikes were maintained and enlarged on a regular basis. A siel (pronounced zeal) is a spot in the dike where a river or a canal runs out at low tide; at high tide you shut the gate, and the North Sea doesn’t come in. The North Sea coast is lined with dikes; the dikes are all perforated regularly with siels, to let all these little streams (or tiefs) flow out.  Nowadays, pumps are used to move unneeded rainwater back into the sea. They are likely powered by huge, modern electricity-producing windmills.

These gates remain to this day - bigger and better, of course, but they still have the job of blocking the sea and when the tide is out, allowing rivers and canals access to the sea for drainage. Pumps were fashioned like a water wheel, powered by huge windmills. In this way, the low lands were claimed for additional farm land.

Today, all around the coastline of Ostfriesland, dikes are there - providing safety, pasture, recreation trails and beauty.

Above, the dike near Emden has a rock face "seawalll" that will be familiar to folks from Galveston.

Below is a list showing the increasing height of the dike in the last 100 years. Global warming has prompted officials in Germany to consider even higher levels.

1906:                4.96 meters high

1973:                5.35
1976:                6.30
 ?                      6.70
2008:                8.00
Planned:           9.00 meters

The following website has even more information:
http://www.mrjumbo.com/contents/ostfriesland/maps/wasserflutt.html

THE STEEPLE TELLS THE TALE - MAYBE

We visited our "homeland" in Germany (Ostfriesland) recently and were told that what you see on the very top of most steeples there tells the tale as to what type of church it is.

Back in the 1500's when the Reformation came about, most of the churches in "our" part of Germany became either Evangelical Reformed or Evangelical Lutheran churches.

The people wanted everyone to know just which type of church was theirs, so the decision was made that all Lutheran churches had swans put on their steeples and all Reformed churches had roosters put on theirs

I have no idea where the goose came from, but everywhere we went, we could see one or the other of the specific birds up on their perches.

There are exceptions to the rule: One church that already had a swan, wanted to keep that swan, so they did. But everyone knows that, so it's OK.

The most remarkable thing for me is that my home church (Germantown Presbyterian Church) in South Dakota, had a rooster perched atop its steeple when I was a little girl. Of course, they built a new church in the 1950's I think and the rooster got lost in the shuffle.

It is a neat little detail - in Germany.