St. Johannes Baptist, Parish church in Rheine, Germany

St. Johannes Baptist is the Catholic parish church of Mesum, near Rheine, built in 1890 to a design by cathedral master builder Hilger Hertel the Elder. Hertel called his plan a "Kreuzkirche (Centralbau)": four equal cross arms radiate from a square crossing, with a choir apse to the east and lower diagonal chapels filling the corners. Because the plot left no room for the usual eastward orientation, the church runs north to south.

Pastor Pelle launched the project in 1879, but his death in 1881 halted work. Successor Johann August Bisping engaged Cologne cathedral master Hilger Hertel the Elder, whose designs were approved on 27 September 1885. The foundation stone was laid on 20 July 1887, and Bishop Dingelstad consecrated the church on 3 June 1890.

Since 2012 St. Johannes Baptist has been the parish church of the pastoral district St. Johannes der Täufer, uniting the formerly independent parishes of Elte (St. Ludgerus), Hauenhorst (St. Mariä Heimsuchung) and Mesum. The church is dedicated to John the Baptist, and its patronal feast is celebrated on 24 June.

The church is in Mesum, not Rheine's city center. Its north-south orientation results from the constrained building plot, so the altar is not east-facing as in traditional Westphalian village churches. The foundation stone lies just below ground in the eastern crossing pier and is not visible.

Hilger Hertel the Elder oriented the church north–south instead of the usual east-facing layout, because the available plot forced it. He modelled the central plan on the Liebfrauenkirche in Trier, the first High Gothic church in Germany. The foundation stone, laid on 20 July 1887, sits just below ground in the eastern crossing pier and is invisible today.