Gemeindezentrum Paul Schneider, Weimar, Protestant community centre in Weimar-West, Weimar, Germany
Gemeindezentrum Paul Schneider is a religious community center in Weimar with church facilities and community spaces combined in one building. The interior layout can be reconfigured using movable walls to serve different purposes and group sizes.
Construction started in 1986 during the East German period under a special church building program that allowed religious facilities to be built in new residential areas. The bell tower was added later as a separate structure alongside the main complex.
The name recalls Paul Schneider, the Protestant pastor known as the "Preacher of Buchenwald," killed at Buchenwald on 18 July 1939. Four large wall paintings in the colours of the church year, an altar cross and a sculpture by woodcarver Elly-Viola Nahmmacher refer to his fate. A memorial stands in the garden, and since 2011 a youth school here has run a capoeira group.
The complex stands at Moskauer Straße 1a in Weimar-West, beside the Rabenwäldchen wood and the level crossing at the Weimar-West stop on the Weimar–Kranichfeld line. Church and community rooms share one roof, and movable walls let the space be rearranged for services or events. The bell tower, planned in GDR times but long unapproved, was only built next to the community house in 1998.
The free-standing bell tower beside the community house was already drawn up in GDR times but not approved; it was built only in 1998. Paul Schneider's words are inscribed on the bell tower. In the garden stands a memorial to the pastor, who died in Buchenwald on 18 July 1939.
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