Immediately next to the Bochum Town Hall lies one of the most versatile concert venues in the city. The Protestant Christ Church is indeed a house of worship without a congregation, but it is an outstanding cultural venue right in the city's center. It owes this to its pastor Thomas Wessel, who has created a cultural and spiritual hub with courage and ideas. According to Wessel, a church service is characterized by a congregation gathering to listen to the proclamation of a message. However, in his view, this message does not have to come from a pastor, but can also be shouted into the microphone with amplified guitars. Peter Murphy and Ray Wilson have performed here, as have the Slovenian art collective Laibach and the Mülheim horror jazz band "Bohren und der Club Of Gore." But also Ute Lemper, Konstantin Wecker, and Bugge Wesseltoft. The Bochum City Choir has a permanent venue here, and the internationally significant ensemble ChorwerkRuhr is regularly a guest. They all had to sign in the contract that the cross and the Bible are clearly visible on the altar. It is and remains a sacred space.
Also outside of concert activities, the Christ Church is worth a visit. It is located at the "Platz des europäischen Versprechens," where the artist Jochen Gerz had 63 basalt plates laid, into which the names of nearly 15,000 Bochumers are engraved. Each represents a promise to Europe that could be made online. The first plate was laid inside the tower, which houses a hall of honor for the fallen of World War I. Gerz critically refers to the listing of the "enemy states" in the wall mosaic here.
Moreover, the Christ Church is considered a masterpiece of architect Dieter Oesterlen, who decided in 1956 to preserve the neo-Gothic tower of the heavily damaged predecessor church but to complement it with a new church nave. The understated brick building on the outside surprises on the inside with a crystalline exposed concrete ceiling and a spectacular lighting design directed at the altar. The floor-to-ceiling windows are from the Darmstadt sculptor Helmut Lander. It is suspected that Oesterlen's concept was a model for Egon Eiermann, who also complemented the war-damaged tower with a modern church nave at the Berlin Memorial Church.
And another thing makes the Christ Church unique: Its bells only ring on one day of the year. Not on Christmas or Easter, they do not call to a service, but to remembrance. Every September 11th between 2:46 PM and 3:03 PM, they can be heard. At exactly the time when the airplanes struck the World Trade Center in New York in 2001. As a remembrance of the victims and a warning for every person to stand against terrorism.
