Atheists will save historic wooden plank of a German church by plank

STIEGE: Ask Hans Powalla if he is a believer and the immediate answer is a firm “no.”

However, he and other villagers in and around the German town of Stiege have embarked on the Herculean task of saving a picturesque church by moving it from the middle of a forest to the city center.

Former electrician Powalla, 74, said they were driven by the “unique architecture of the building” and the “meaning it gives to the region” in the Harz Mountains.

The object in question is a wooden church, complete with dragon ornaments on the ceiling, built in the Nordic style in 1905.

It is one of only three churches from that era that are still preserved in Germany and is classified as a monument of national importance.

Unlike most churches that have prominent locations in city centers, this place of worship was built as a private sanctuary for patients recovering from lung disease in a sanitarium located in the forest.

But the sanitarium was closed, and in 2009 the church stopped being used.

Its isolated location makes it a target for vandals.

In 2013, a fire broke out in the old lung clinic a few meters from the church, damaging its structure.

“From the village, we looked at the plumes of black smoke and thought ‘oh no, there goes the church,'” said Regina Nowolski, 69, a member of the Stiege Stave Church Association, co-founded by Powalla.

But it turned out that the church was undamaged.

“And the idea came up that something must be done now or the church will one day collapse,” said Regina Bierwisch, a spokeswoman for the association.

“The only solution to save the church was to remove it.”

LIKE LEGO

While the idea was clear, it was much easier said than done.

The challenges were plentiful: obtaining permission to move the structure, finding a new home, and figuring out how to get there.

At one point, it was thought to lift the entire building with a military helicopter from the Bundeswehr.

Linked to all these issues is the million euro question on how to finance the project.

Undeterred, members of the association took the matter to the mayor, wrote to federal authorities about conservation, and made public calls for fundraising.

“At first it seemed like a fun idea. But I quickly realized that they are not giving up, they are there to carry it out,” Ronald Fiebelkorn, mayor of the Oberharz am Brocken region, told AFP.

Encouraged by the wave of enthusiasm, Fiebelkorn took him to state and federal authorities whose initial reaction had been “you’re crazy.”

But soon, officials also relented.

With backing and funding secured, the € 1.1 million project to move the church is now in its final stage.

A piece of land in the town of Stiege has been secured, offered by the regional authorities to the association at a symbolic price of 1 euro.

The association also bought the private church from the current owners, a real estate company in Berlin, for just one euro.

Ground breaking on the new site began in November and once the concrete foundation is laid, beginning in March, the church will be dismantled from top to bottom, board by board.

“Just like a Lego house,” Bierwisch said, noting that the wood needs to be rebuilt quickly on its new plot some 5 km away, with completion scheduled for September.

There is already a community church in Stiege, and Bierwisch made it clear that the intention is to “not compete” for believers.

Rather, in its new home, the association hopes that the stave church will become an open space for community events and serve as a new attraction for visitors to the region.

Noting that Germany’s largest stave church is about 60 km away in the town of Hahnenklee, also in the Harz Mountains region, Bierwisch said: “That can become a tourist route, with churches like featured places.

“The preservation of what people could do 100 years ago must be shown and seen, respected in this beautiful tourist area.”