In early August, the Brockhagen Archive received an extraordinary donation—an altar and part of an organ facade from the historic New Apostolic Church in Reutlingen-Süd (Alexanderstraße). The pieces can be traced back to the construction of the large church there in 1913 and were in use until the 1980s. When the church was decommissioned, they became surplus. Effective immediately, the Archive is displaying this unique and richly decorated ensemble in its permanent exhibition.
The handover was preceded by planning and discussions initiated by our network coordinator, Andreas Ostheimer, during which the network coordinated with the construction department of the New Apostolic Church of Southern Germany. The kind and generous authorization from the New Apostolic Church (NAK Süd) to accept the items made it possible to organize suitable freight transport. On site in Reutlingen and Brockhagen, groups of volunteers were on hand to handle the logistics.
The contracted freight company handled the actual delivery of the objects to the archive. Since the street in front of the archive appeared too narrow for the large freight truck, unloading and transport to the building were carried out using a forklift that had been brought on site. The altar being transported on the forklift certainly piqued the interest of the neighborhood on Uhlandstraße.
The Brockhagen volunteer group then first moved the altar—which had been on display in a central location in the archive building since 2013—to a different spot. This altar had been reconstructed in 2013 for the NAK Central Germany Youth Day in Glauchau as a replica of the first altar of the Leipzig Central Church and had been a defining feature of the seminar room in the archive ever since. After approximately 13 years (with a few interruptions), the Network’s board decided to move this altar to an adjacent room in order to properly display the Reutlingen altar. This relocation was carried out by the volunteer group. Subsequently, the Reutlingen altar and the organ wall were set up and installed in the seminar room.
We are delighted with this valuable addition to our exhibition! At the same time, we invite you to help cover the costs of the shipping by making a donation to the Network. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped and pitched in!
