"If you have something to ring the bell, then you now have the opportunity." With these words, Herrsching's pastor Simon Rapp called for donations on Easter night.
Because the clapper of the church bells had to be replaced.
And whoever wondered about the five-minute ringing on Friday now knows that this is exactly what happened.
Herrsching
- And if you listened carefully, you will have noticed that the beat sounds much softer.
The mayor, who has his office on the opposite side of the street, called right away and confirmed this, says Rapp with a laugh.
"Some of the construction work is going very quickly with us," says Pastor Rapp happily.
Because only shortly before Easter he was informed that the bells of the parish churches of St. Nicholas needed new clappers.
After 70 years, the old ones had reached the end of their lifespan.
The pastor, trying to find quick solutions, immediately asked for donations on Easter vigil.
Due to the pandemic, he could call for it twice, because there were two Easter nights.
Four donors signed up almost overnight for the bells with the names Leonhard, Josef and Maria as well as for the largest bell dedicated to the fallen. Rapp was able to announce the very next day that donations were still possible, but the matter of making a big splash was over. At the beginning of this week he received a call that the forged clappers were ready and could either be installed immediately or in three months, because the craftsman would be taking parental leave.
They were delivered on Friday and received by Rapp and the donors. Donors are Joseph Merkhoffer, who had to practice for years when he was an altar boy to turn the big bell on in time so that it rings exactly for the change. That connects him to this bell to this day, which is why he wanted to donate this clapper. Josef Merkhoffer donated the second largest bell, the Josefs-Glocke. The married couple Monika and Josef Schölderle for the third largest bell, the Maria bell and church musician Elisabeth Schmidt for the Leonhard bell. However, she dedicated the clapper to her mother Genovefa Sedlmaier, because in 1949 she was the bell girl for the then new little bell. How vividly she remembered this event, she proved with the poem,which she had learned by heart at the time and which she was still able to recite from the first to the last line to the applause of the technicians and everyone else present.
The clappers, which cost between 1000 and 4500 euros, now hang in their place and not only sound softer and more beautiful, as Pastor Rapp says, they also protect the church tower. On the one hand, they are heavier than their predecessors, and on the other, the stop angle has been optimized so that not only do the clappers no longer have to swing that far, but also the bells. And this in turn is gentle on the church tower, says Herrsching's pastor happily, who in times of tight budgets already has enough construction sites to look after in the parish community. grä
