St. Lamberti: A Historic Roman Catholic Parish Church in Gladbeck
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On this page18 sections
History
St. Lamberti is a Roman Catholic parish church in Gladbeck, Germany, rebuilt as a red-brick Neo-Gothic church between 1897 and 1899. It stands within the Diocese of Essen and developed from a medieval Christian foundation beside an agrarian settlement. The founder is unknown, but the church became the religious centre of a rural parish whose history reaches back to the Middle Ages.
Medieval foundations and parish development
Early references connect St. Lamberti with the Benedictine Abbey of Deutz, the Abding farm in Gladbeck-Zweckel, and rights to collect tithes in the surrounding area. These references include records dated around 1020, around 1160, 1147, 1161, and 1207. The document dated around 1020 is considered a falsification, while the other records preserve evidence of the church’s medieval institutional connections.
The parish of Gladbeck is documented from around 1240. Its provostry archive preserves records from 1385, 1391, and 1411, and Pastor Goswin is named in the record from 1385. A parish seal dating from no earlier than 1465 and another from 1529 provide further evidence of the institution. The later seal shows a bishop, a church, and a crozier, a staff carried by a bishop or abbot.
For centuries, one parish priest and usually two vicars served the community. Medieval branch churches associated with St. Lamberti included St. Urbanus in Gelsenkirchen-Buer and St. Hippolytus in Gelsenkirchen-Horst. The parish belonged to the Archdiocese of Cologne until 1821, then to the Diocese of Münster, and from 1958 to the Diocese of Essen.
Rebuilding and industrial expansion
The earlier church building was replaced in 1797 by a Baroque hall church. By the nineteenth century, however, Gladbeck was being transformed by industrialization. The Catholic population grew from about 2,300 members around 1800 to roughly 10,000 in 1897. Mining installations and immigration, including migration from Poland, further expanded the town and parish, making the 1797 church too small.
The present church was erected during the pastorate of Franz Nonn and consecrated on 26 October 1899 by Hermann Dingelstad, Bishop of Münster. Its construction marked the response of the parish to Gladbeck’s rapid growth and created the large Neo-Gothic building that continues to define the site.
War damage and reconstruction
Air raids on 27 September 1944 and 24 March 1945 severely damaged St. Lamberti and made it unusable. In the first attack, a bomb containing approximately 130 kilograms of trinitrotoluene penetrated the north roof and exploded between the second and third piers. During the second attack, nine bombs struck the north side. The pressure lifted the vaults, which collapsed and destroyed the church’s entire inventory.
Reconstruction took place from 1947 to 1953 under Pastor Ignaz Heiermann. Pastor Franz Effing had prepared the work by securing materials, including timber from the Soviet occupation zone, arranging 50,000 bricks, and ordering the window tracery. Four new bells were installed in 1953 alongside the older Mary bell. The windows were subsequently replaced in stages between 1949 and 2005, contributing to the building’s postwar form.
Liturgical change and present parish status
In 1972, Pastor Rudolf ten Hompel and the church council began a comprehensive interior renovation in response to the liturgical reforms associated with the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic council held from 1962 to 1965. While the work proceeded, services were held in the chapel of St. Barbara Hospital and in the Protestant Christ Church from Pentecost until the fourth Sunday of Advent.
The remodeling was controversial. Under Provost Karl Heinz Berger, much of the arrangement was later reversed, and the partition known as “The Wall” was demolished in 1995. During Berger’s leadership, St. Lamberti became a provostry, a church institution headed by a provost, and received its present interior arrangement. The church institution formally attained provostry rank and dignity on 1 September 2007.
The high altar was consecrated on 23 December 1972 by Franz Hengsbach, Bishop of Essen and a cardinal from 1987. It contains relics of Saint Lambert and the Roman Saint Florencia. Saint Lambert, also called Lambert of Liège, was a seventh- to early eighth-century bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht and a Christian martyr. His successor Hubert transferred his remains to Liège.
Patronal tradition and parish reorganization
The parish’s identity centres on the cult of Saint Lambert. His feast on 18 September remains associated with a traditional local celebration and a special hymn. This custom is linked to the Lambertus market privilege granted on 18 September 1403 and is regarded as older than that document. The patronal feast belongs to the documented religious traditions of Gladbeck’s rural community.
From 2009 onward, the parish was reorganized into a large parish. In 2016, it comprised the communities of Herz Jesu, St. Josef, St. Johannes, St. Lamberti, St. Marien, and Heilig Kreuz, with six communities and eight church locations. The central St. Lamberti parish counted 6,379 Catholics, while the wider parish had 26,605 members on 30 June 2018. The church is protected as a historic building.
Remains
St. Lamberti is a three-aisled hall church in red brick, with the nave and aisles of broadly similar height. The building is approximately 68 metres long and 29 metres wide. Its Neo-Gothic design includes a transept, a choir ending in five-eighths, and polygonal subsidiary choirs. The five-eighths ending forms a polygonal apse from five sides of an imagined octagon. Postwar rebuilding, later window replacement, and changes to the interior have shaped the surviving structure.
Earlier churches
Romanesque predecessor
The first predecessor was a three-aisled Romanesque hall church dating from the thirteenth century. It remained standing until 1797, when the building was replaced. The church’s earlier existence is also reflected in the medieval parish history and in the institutional records associated with St. Lamberti.
Baroque predecessor
The second predecessor was a single-aisled Baroque hall church built in 1797 under the direction of Kleinhans of Mülheim. It had four window bays, a choir bay that was rectangular across its width, and a tower crowned by a bulbous dome. Its limited size eventually proved inadequate for the expanding Catholic population of Gladbeck.
Neo-Gothic building and interior
Church structure
The present church’s red-brick walls, three-aisled plan, transept, and polygonal choir form a unified Neo-Gothic design. It was originally painted throughout and richly furnished. Bombing damaged the north roof and vaults, while the reconstruction between 1947 and 1953 restored the church to usable condition. The replacement of the windows continued in stages from 1949 to 2005.
Interior furnishings
Several furnishings preserve dates from different phases of the church’s history. They include a foundation stone dated 1897, a tabernacle safe from 1899, a baptismal font of Belgian granite from 1899, a Pietà dated 1907, and Stations of the Cross dated 1836. An altar cross dates from 1972. Since 2012, a polychrome altar retable dated 1516 has formed a principal visual feature. The oak retable contains limewood figures and measures 1.65 metres high by 3.85 metres wide.
Partition and altar
The 1972 remodeling introduced “The Wall,” a partition between the choir and transept made from serially produced sculptural elements. It did not create a completely sealed barrier, and its circular tabernacle could be seen from both sides. The partition was removed in 1995. The high altar contains the enclosed relics of Saint Lambert and Saint Florencia, linking the present liturgical space with the church’s patronal and devotional traditions.
Organ and bells
Organ
The organ was built by the Klais organ-building company of Bonn and consecrated on 11 December 1960. It has 36 stops distributed across three manual divisions and a pedal division. Its action is mechanical, while the stop action is electric. The couplers are II/I, III/I, III/II, I/P, II/P, and III/P.
Bell installation
The bell installation combines the older Mary Bell with four bells cast in 1953 by Petit & Edelbrock of Gescher in Westphalia. The Lambertus Bell, named for the parish patron, sounds h, weighs 3.067 tonnes, and measures 1.70 metres in diameter. The Mary Bell dates from 1535, sounds d’, weighs 1.750 tonnes, and has a diameter of 1.36 metres.
The 1953 group also includes the Ignatius Bell, sounding e’, weighing 1.2 tonnes, and measuring 1.24 metres in diameter; the Cecilia Bell, sounding fis’, weighing 810 kilograms, and measuring 1.10 metres; and the Gabriel Bell, sounding g’, weighing 688 kilograms, and measuring 1.03 metres. The Ignatius name refers both to Saint Ignatius of Loyola and to Pastor Ignaz Heiermann. Each of the 1953 bells bears a prayer invocation and a saying from the Te Deum. The Mary Bell is associated with the parish’s medieval Marian tradition and with the calling of the dead to heaven.
Saint Lambert representation
A figural representation of Saint Lambert stands inside the church near the central entrance on the west side. It shows the attributes historically associated with his Gladbeck representation, including a mitre, a crozier, and a model of a church. The high altar’s relics and the church’s annual organ concerts and elaborate masses with choir, soloists, and orchestra continue the building’s religious and musical use.
