Johanneskirche, Protestant church in Elberfeld district, Wuppertal, Germany.
The Johanneskirche is a Protestant church building in Wuppertal's Elberfeld district with a tent-like wooden structure and walls made from post-war rubble materials. The building holds about 450 visitors and features colored glass windows showing scenes from John's Gospel.
The church was built between 1948 and 1949 as Wuppertal's first Protestant religious building after the war, funded by donations from the American Lutheran World Federation. The structure followed an innovative design meant to quickly create a gathering place with limited resources available at the time.
The church is named after the apostle John, and its windows display scenes from his Gospel, creating a space for reflection and prayer. The congregation uses the building regularly for services and gatherings that shape the spiritual life of the neighborhood.
The church sits at the edge of von-der-Heydt Park near the Friedenshain area and is easy to reach on foot. A community center was added in 1967 and provides additional spaces for events and meetings.
The building is one of about 40 emergency churches designed by architect Otto Bartning, with prefabricated wooden elements manufactured in Forchheim. This series of churches served as a quick solution for destroyed communities across the country after the war.
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