Hagen in Osnabrück / Hage / Hagen a.T.W. / Hagen am Teutoburger Wald / Haghen / Haghene (Osnabrück)

An article by Rainer Rottmann in the Heimatverein a.T.W.e.V. [www.heimatverein-hagen-atw.de/archiv/169-der-alte-taufstein] [accessed 15 February 2016] informs: this font was first documented in 1624 as being inside the church, partly (30 cm.) built into a wall; in the church expasion works of 1815 it was removed and was sent to Osnabrück to have it fitted with an inner lining of copper and a font cover with a lock; the metal anchorings of the cover may have later been the cause of some of the obvious damage to the upper rim; the old font was discarded in the renovation of the early-20th century and was scheduled to be broken up but a local farmer, Stefan Krützmann, acquired it for his farm where it was exposed to the elements until Hermann Witte-Krützmann had it restored to the now disused church in April 1985. The font is a plain tub-shaped basin the surfaces of which are badly eroded; it shows considerable damage to the upper rim, where at least one metal anchoring is still visible; the remains of the upper rim show a groove all around the inner side originally made to fit a round font cover. A communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 4 July 2022) includes an English version of two sources on this font: 1.- Former Pfarrkirche St. Martinus, profaned in 1973. https://www.heimatverein-hagen-atw.de/ehemalige-kirche At some point in the three centuries between the forced conversion to Christianity around AD 780 and the year 1097, the year the "Parrochia Hagen" was first mentioned, a church must have been built in Hagen as well. Furthermore, the ownership of the church and rectory, which can be proven from the Middle Ages, proves that at the time the Hagen Church was founded, the regulation decreed by Charlemagne was apparently still being applied, according to which a larger courtyard for the clergyman was to be furnished for every parish church in conquered Saxony itself and two farms next to it should belong to secure the subsistence of the priest / pastor. The patron saint of the church in Hagen has always been St. Martin (first mention of St. Martin's patron saint: 1341 "agrum beati Martini". Along with St. Remigius, St. Martin was the national saint of the Franks. 1492: A new single-nave church with a west tower was built in the late Gothic style". 2.- https://www.heimatverein-hagen-atw.de/informationen/archiv/164-der-alte-taufstein Steinerner Zeuge aus der Frühgeschichte der Hagener Kirche, vonn Rainer Rottmann. Since April 1985, in the southern aisle of the former church, there stands a rough, badly damaged sandstone basin. Why is such an object installed there at all? The answer is obvious when one considers that it is the ancient baptismal font of the Hagen parish church from the Romanesque period (1000-1250 AD), possibly even the oldest baptismal font in the diocese of Osnabrück. Perhaps its origins even go back to the time before the parish of Hagen was first mentioned in a document in 1097. Once carved out of a piece of sandstone by a stonemason, the baptismal font has had to withstand many hardships over the course of its history, which spans several centuries. The first written mention, however, dates back to 1624. Other records show that the baptismal font, which was originally set about 30 cm deep into the church wall, stood in the tower south of the portal until it was removed when the church was expanded in 1815. In 1824 it was refurbished in Osnabrück and fitted with a new copper kettle and a lid with a lock. The metal anchors embedded in the sandstone probably caused entire pieces of sandstone to flake off due to corrosion. Around the beginning of the 20th century, probably during the renovation of the Hagen Church after the Niedermark was ceded, a new baptismal font was finally purchased for the Hagen Church, and the idea of ​​breaking up the ancient stone was considered. It is thanks to the deceased farmer Stefan Krützmann that these considerations did not come to fruition, because he brought the heavy stone to his farm and placed it there in his garden, where it remained until April 1985. Exposed to wind and weather and almost completely forgotten, the old baptismal font unfortunately weathered more and more. It was only shortly before complete decay that it was freed from moss and algae growth after it had been kindly loaned by Mr. Hermann Witte-Krützmann and placed in the southern aisle of the former church - as a stone witness to the history of the Hagen church and our community."