On August 25, the Protestant parish became homeless in one fell swoop. In the fire of the Christ Church in Uttingen, the largely unique wooden building and its inventory were destroyed. In the meantime the ruins have been torn down, all that could be saved were candlesticks, collecting boxes, ladles and the portal. The cause of the fire is still unclear. According to Kripo information, everything is still open on this question. In any case, the fire detection dogs would not have hit the church ruins.
Pastor Alexandra Eberhardt is also concerned with the mystery of why the fire broke out at the end of August. With a certainty you would at least have a better feeling, says the clergy. She feels the support of the population – which is also shown by the fact that 81,000 euros in donations have already been received.
The plans for a replacement building have only just begun, but the believers have initially found accommodation with their Catholic fellow Christians for the cold season: After the Sunday services of the Protestants had been held outdoors in front of the fire ruins in Laibnerstrasse, they can now find in the Catholic rectory on Schulstrasse.
The premiere went “great”, says Pastor Eberhardt, and suitable rooms were also found there for the children’s church service. Together with her husband Jochen Eberhardt, she looks after around 4,000 Protestant Christians in the communities of Utting, Dießen, Schondorf, Eching and Windach. In general, the Catholic parishes on the west bank of the Ammersee are “very grateful for their warm hospitality,” says the pastor. She has already celebrated a funeral in the Leonhard Chapel in Uttingen and a baptism each in the Romanesque church of St. Jakob in Schondorf and in St. Peter and Paul in Eching.
Pastors Alexandra and Jochen Eberhardt (here in front of the ruin) hope for a new building soon.
(Photo: Georgine Treybal)
For larger celebrations such as Reformation Day on October 31, the Protestant community Ammersee-West will use the hall in the Schondorfer Landheim. In the meantime, all offers for community life continued, emphasizes Alexandra Eberhardt. To do this, they are moving to the rooms in the former VR bank on Bahnhofstrasse. In November, the community center at the Christ Church should be ready for occupancy again, the rooms of which were affected by the fire. The facades and insulation of the building are currently being renewed.
In the meantime, the planning for the reconstruction of the church has also started – “but we are still in the orientation phase,” says Alexandra Eberhardt. There is still a lot of information to be obtained, and the regional church architect Bernhard Heidberg is on hand to advise. “The church council has examined various options, and a passive building has also been considered,” says Eberhardt. However, relevant experiences in another evangelical congregation would rather speak against such massive thermal insulation, because otherwise it would be too hot in the church in summer. In any case, the aim is to achieve sustainable construction with low energy consumption.
What the fire left of the church …
Image: Utting fire brigade
… has now been demolished.
Image: Evang. Parish Ammersee-West
The aim is to integrate the entrance door of the burnt-out wooden club church into the new building. The portal was spared from the flames, it comes from the prayer house built almost 100 years ago, which became a church in 1931 with a belated bell tower. However, hopes that more parts or inventory could be taken over from them for the new building have been dashed. Even the three bells, which apparently only have small cracks, have to be replaced with new ones. This has just been determined by an expert, says Eberhardt.
After the reconstruction of the Christ Church in Uttingen, the old bells could be used to create a memorial place for the fire. The fragments of the broken baptismal font have been cleaned. Whether they will be built into the new church or given away to the parishioners is still open. For the organ pipes, which were mostly melted in the fire, the idea emerged of using them to form small crosses as pendants. But because of the lead content, models of the Christ Church are now to be cast from the pipes. In the meantime, a support association has also started work, which wants to collect with these and other actions for the reconstruction.