Qualla: Wendish-German double church

Wendish-German double church: Introduction

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Helmtiger, Public domain. The writer Ehm Welk recorded a story his father told him, set in this building in 1866. The village boys used to sit on the white benches outside the Wendish pastor's door, sometimes with girls, decent ones mind you, and the pastor kept chasing them off. You would do better on a bench in church, he said, though I never see you there. So the boy asked him which of the two churches he ought to sit in - because there were two of them, right there, sharing a wall. The pastor was taken aback, then answered that the Lord God did not care. Well then, said the boy, if the Lord God doesn't care, why do we have two? At which point the pastor swore about cheeky rascals and gave chase. Nobody in Vetschau has ever had a better answer than that one.

Image: User:Helmtiger | Public domain

Wendish-German double church: One Roof, One Tower, Two Naves

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dguendel, CC BY 4.0. What stands in the middle of Vetschau - Wětošow in Lower Sorbian - is a single Protestant church with two complete naves lying against each other, sharing a bell tower at the west end and a vestry at the east. The first church here probably went up late in the thirteenth century,...

Image: Dguendel | CC BY 4.0

Wendish-German double church: The Principal Church

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. After the Thirty Years' War a new brick church was raised on the old foundations - flat ceiling, exposed crossbeams, tall lancet windows, no tower for the moment. On the north side a chapel was added for the local German lords, and services in German were held in it as required. ...

Image: A.Savin | FAL

Wendish-German double church: A Church for the Other Half

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0. So they built their own. The German share of the town's population was rising while the countryside stayed Sorbian, and the townspeople wanted the distinction made visible, in religion as elsewhere. The chapel was pulled down in 1689; foundations for a proper German church were l...

Image: Unknown | CC BY-SA 3.0

Wendish-German double church: The Last Service in Wendish

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. In 1910 the two congregations were merged into one parish, at a time when the German authorities were working steadily to push Sorbian out of public life. Schooling in the language had already been discontinued. Attendance at the Wendish services fell away, and the last one was h...

Image: A.Savin | FAL

Wendish-German double church: The Room That Was Not Torn Down

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Molgreen, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 10 October 1995 a society called Wendische Kirche was founded to give the empty nave a purpose, and both churches were restored across 2000 and 2001. The German side still holds regular services. The Sorbian side belongs to the town now, and is used for concerts and exhibition...

Image: Molgreen | CC BY-SA 4.0