HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON St. PAULUS CHURCH

On this page you will find further information about St. Paul's Church from the Denkmal- und Geschichtsverein Bonn-Rechtsrheinisch e.V. (Monument and History Society Bonn-Rhine).

St Paul's Church

When the Rhenish jute spinning mill started operations in Beuel in 1868, the town expanded further and further to the east. Many foreigners, especially Italians, settled in this place, which was separated from old Beuel by the railway line. The faithful were served by St. Peter Vilich, then later, from 1924, by St. Josef Beuel.

In 1902, the Franciscan Sisters set up a kindergarten in the rooms of the former jute spinning mill. A room in the factory was prepared for church services, which were then held here regularly. The priests came over from St. Josef Beuel.

On 19 March 1957, the first sod was turned for the new church, which had been designed by the well-known Cologne architect Dominikus Böhm; the execution was taken over by his son Gottfried.

In June 1958, the parish was founded and the first Holy Mass took place on 7 September 1958. Now a kindergarten, a parish hall and a library were also built. On 1 January 2001, St. Paul's merged with St. Joseph's in Beuel to become 'St. Joseph and St. Paul's'. St Paul's was the home of the Spanish-speaking parish until 2005.

Unfortunately, since the feast of Christ the King in 2008, regular Sunday services can no longer be celebrated in the church, which was consecrated 53 years ago.
Since then, a Holy Mass has been celebrated with the senior citizens' group on the first Monday of each month at 2.30 pm. Every Wednesday, a group of prayers gathers at 6 p.m. for evening prayer.

The parish of St. Joseph and St. Paul would like to preserve St. Paul's Church. Therefore, under the title "Forum Pauluskirche" with events of all kinds, lectures and concerts, a place of prayer, conversation and discussion is offered. This can only succeed if interested people from the city of Beuel and the whole of Bonn find their way to this place of worship built by the famous church architect Gottfried Böhm.

Architecture
St Paul's appears as a block-like, closed building, which is only broken up by a few individual forms: the rectangular windows under the eaves, the windows of the vestibule and in the side aisle as well as the rose window on the south side. The rose window is a stylistic element of Gothic architecture.

The hall of the church is spanned by a slightly vaulted coffered ceiling. At the sides, the nave opens in full length to the lower side aisle. Characteristic is the stage-like raised choir, the one-sided illumination of the chancel through a high window and the large unstructured wall surfaces.

Equipment
The baptismal font stands in front of the pulpit in the nave and there is an altar to Mary in the side aisle. The stained glass windows in the narthex and in the side aisle depict saints according to designs by the architect. In 1998, the terracotta sculpture of the Crucified, created by Walter Prinz from Cologne, was placed on the altar wall.

Bells
Three bells hang in the tower.[2]

No. Name Casting year Founder Diameter
(mm)
Mass
(kg)
Beat tone
(HT-1/16)
1 Paul 1958 Mabilon Bell Foundry, Saarburg 980 580 as1 -4
2 Maria 1958 Mabilon Bell Foundry, Saarburg 880 400 b1 -4
3 Adelheid 1958 Mabilon Bell Foundry, Saarburg 740 240 of the2 -4

Organ
In 1960, St Paul's received a two-manual organ with 22 stops on electric slider chests. It was built by the organ building company Ernst Seifert from Bergisch Gladbach. The installation of three further stops was prepared. The instrument was dismantled in 1998 and the pipe material was reused by the Merten company in 2000 in a new technical building in the cathedral of Tashkent (Uzbekistan).

The present organ was built by Verschueren (Netherlands). This organ was originally built in 1966 as Opus 665 for the parish church of St. Petrus Canisius in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk (profaned in 1998, demolished in 1999). The instrument has mechanical slider chests with electric stop action.

Source: Dechant Dr Wilfried Evertz, Deacon Klaus Behne, Wikipedia