The probably most curious bell in Bochum will no longer be heard in the future! The beginnings of the Catholic community of Harpen after the Reformation began in 1896 with the construction of an emergency church in the missionary community of Bochum-Gerthe, to which Harpen belonged. In the Middle Ages it was the other way round. The first Harpen vicarage was established in 1914. While services initially took place in an emergency chapel in an empty butcher's shop, the foundation stone for the Holy Spirit Church was laid in 1921 and the consecration took place in 1923. The small, neo-baroque church stood until Epiphany in 1953. The area around Holy Spirit is known for the so-called Catholic Day Village. On the occasion of the Catholic Day in Bochum in 1949, the local committee decided to build a settler village for the needy as a social act of the event. Thanks to a large amount of donations, 76 settler houses with self-sufficient gardens and, as was common at the time, a stable for the domestic pigs were built around the old church. The settlement still exists today, albeit modified and modernized. The focal points are the Apostelplatz and the Holy Spirit Church. The village was inaugurated in 1953. The 75th settler festival was celebrated in the year the church was closed. The foundation stone for the new Holy Spirit Church was laid on May 3, 1953, and the first holy mass was celebrated at Christmas 1953 - at which the three new steel bells of the Bochum Association rang out on Holy Night. The church was consecrated on March 7, 1954. The building plans were provided by the Bochum architect Karl Hellrung. Initially very simply furnished, the church underwent several alterations, especially after the liturgical reform (1974/83/91 and 2002/03). Two new organs were even purchased. Unfortunately, there was no money or interest left for the bells. The bells were decommissioned at an unknown time. They have been struck from the outside with hammers for decades now. The statics of the 36-meter-high tower were certainly the deciding factor here. The church property would have been large enough for a bell house on the ground floor, for example. In 1976, the Maximilian Kolbe branch church was planned for the Kornharpen area, built in 1977/78 and used as an ecumenical community center. During the great wave of church closures in 2008, the center was abandoned, but was still used as a spiritual center by the residents of the newly built Beguinage there until 2020. The last parts of the building there were demolished in 2023. Hl. Geist was an independent parish from 1957 to 2008 and was then incorporated into the larger parish of Liebfrauen. On October 6, 2024, Hl. Geist will be closed with a "festive service" and the community center will be abandoned in the future. Ringing data: Holy Spirit bell dis' -4, ~1425 mm, 1095 kg Vincentius bell fis', ~1180 mm, 631 kg Mary bell gis', ~1045 mm, 435 kg All bells cast in V7 rib by the Bochum association in 1953. Photo taken: August 18, 2024 B/W photos outside/inside: taken from source 2 B/W photo of the old organ: taken from source 1 All other photos of our own provenance. Sources/literature used: Catholic parish of Hl. Geist (ed.): Catholic parish of Heilig-Geist Bochum-Harpen. Church chronicle, originally published in 1954, supplemented and expanded. No year, Bochum, before 1977. FRANZ PLEMPER: The Holy Spirit Church in Bochum-Harpen. In: Old and new art in the Archdiocese of Paderborn. 6th annual edition of the Association for Christian Art in the Archdiocese of Paderborn e. V. 1956. Bonifacius Printing House Paderborn, 1957. CHRISTEL DARMSTADT (ed.): RÜDIGER JORDAN: Sacred architecture in Bochum, Schürmann + Klagges publishing house, Bochum, 2003. GERHARD HOFFS: Bell catalogue of the diocese of Essen (precursor to the bell book), edited by S. SCHRITT, Trier, no year. Website of the Research Centre for Stained Glass of the 20th Century e. V. in Mönchengladbach, consulted on September 29, 2024: https://www.glasmalerei-ev-web.de/pag... Website of the Bochum Beguinage, consulted on September 29, 2024: https://beginenhof-bochum.de/