St. Joseph (Braunsfeld)

Braunsfeld grew up in the second half of the 19th century and was incorporated into Cologne in 1888. A church-building association founded as early as 1897 pushed for the construction of its own parish church, which was built in 1906 as a three-aisled basilica for around 100 worshippers; from 1915 onwards Braunsfeld formed an independent parish. From 1924 to 1937 the later Cardinal Josef Frings served here as parish priest. This first building fell victim to the air raids of the Second World War in 1944.

The south-facing church stands on a site open on three sides between several streets. It is a longitudinal rectangular concrete-frame building with a sixfold jagged gable roof, whose gables are filled with hexagonal window surfaces and supported by Y-shaped concrete piers. The slightly recessed brickwork forms small masonry crosses across the surfaces. On the west side, a single-storey extension reminiscent of a cloister adjoins around an inner courtyard, housing the sacristy as well as the confession and baptismal chapels. The separate campanile is a 25-metre-high "bell frame" of four concrete piers held together by five concrete discs, which at the same time carry the four bells.

The furnishings come from various periods: among the items preserved from the destroyed predecessor church are the tabernacle doors, the baptismal font cover by Hans Hoffmann dates from 1935, and two sculptures were created in the 1940s. From the construction period come the altar table and font by Paul Nagel as well as a stone figure of the Mother of God by Kurt Zimmermann (1954). The tabernacle was created by the goldsmith Elisabeth Treskow; Heribert Calleen added an ambo and the Easter candlestick in 1974 and the altar cross in 1978. The coloured Meistermann windows, with their wave forms, take up the movement of the roof and window shapes.