Heimkehrer-Dankeskirche, Filial church in Weitmar, Bochum, Germany.

Heimkehrer-Dankeskirche is a filial church in Weitmar with a large interior hall, a flat gabled roof, and stained glass windows depicting themes related to war and imprisonment. The building includes a crypt with a memorial site and museum displaying items from prisoner of war camps alongside various artistic works.

Vicar August Halbe, a priest held prisoner in the Urals for five years, launched the initiative, backed by Adolf Ostendorf, parish priest of St. Franziskus in Weitmar. The plan was presented publicly in 1955, and the church building association founded in 1956 enabled twenty returnees to cut the first turf two years later. Bishop Franz Hengsbach consecrated the church on 12 December 1959; from 1960 to 2009 former prisoners of war gathered here on the Sunday after Pentecost.

The church is dedicated to the Holy Family, recalling the return of Jesus' family from Egypt. From 1960 to 2009, thousands of former prisoners of war gathered here from across Germany on the Sunday after Pentecost for their "Heimkehrer-Danktag". In 2010, during the Ruhr European Capital of Culture year, it was one of 52 "spiritual cultural filling stations" in the Diocese of Essen.

The church hosts regular religious services and special commemorative gatherings, particularly on the Sunday following Pentecost. Visitors should check opening times in advance, as it remains an active place of worship with set schedules.

The church was designed to resemble a camp barracks, and its crypt holds a memorial museum with objects made in prisoner-of-war camps, drawings of camp daily life and a reproduction of the Stalingrad Madonna. In 1967, panels listing prisoner-of-war camps in East and West were mounted on the crypt walls.