Community Center Stephanus

The parish district of the Stephanus congregation, which today has 4,200 members, belonged to Heilig-Geist until 1964. When the construction of the Detmerode district began in the early 1960s, a new housing development with approximately 5,000 apartments in the south of Wolfsburg, a separate community center proved necessary. The planned location, as envisioned by the urban planner Paul Baumgarten, was the shopping center. The support that Aalto's building received in the mother congregation prompted the new church to entrust its construction to the Finn as well. In 1962, Aalto delivered the first preliminary design, and on February 28, 1964, he was officially commissioned with the construction of the community center. A church with 250 permanent seats was to be created, which could be expanded to 600 on special occasions. Additionally, a community center with extensive functional and living spaces was to be built. Construction began on August 5, 1964, with extensive site work and raising the construction site by 4 meters. The first groundbreaking for the church construction therefore took place only on September 19, 1965, the foundation stone was laid on April 20, 1966, and the topping-out ceremony could already be celebrated on August 19. However, there was a construction halt due to a severe recession that set in. The construction site remained idle until February 1967. It was not until October 29, 1967, that the completed community center could be occupied, and the first service could be held in the unfinished church. However, construction work on the church was only resumed in late summer of 1968. The consecration of the new church therefore took place only after an unusually long construction period of more than four years, on the first Advent of 1968. The west wing of the community center, which was planned in the building program with parish apartments, was not realized. To this day, the tower is also unfinished; it still lacks the bells and the slatted wooden cladding of the bell chamber. In 1992/93, a renovation of the church tower took place, and in 1998, the renewal of the damaged marble facade was carried out. The fact that the Stephanus community center is still waiting for its completion in important details has surely contributed to the lack of due attention it has received among Aalto's sacred buildings. A second world-renowned architect, who was also a stylistic relative of Aalto, created the kindergarten of the Stephanus community on Robert-Schuman-Strasse. The building, designed by Hans Scharoun, was constructed from 1967 to 1970 and is the only example of this type of construction that the architect, acclaimed for his school designs, was able to realize.