Achim

Drake (2002) mentions a group sandstone font in Westphalia, "in the area south and slightly east of Bremen", which includes the fonts at Achim, Heiligenfelde, Riede and Verden cathedral, as well. The entry for this church in the German Wikipedia [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Laurentius_(Achim)#Taufbecken] [accessed 9 January 2024] reports a late-Romanesque baptismal font similar to the one at Verden cathedral; it had for a time served as water trough outside the sexton's house, then moved to Oyten church and finally returned to Achim in 1939 [basin only]; it received a bronze cover decorated with biblical scenes in 1955 ["Das spätromanische steinerne Taufbecken aus dem 13. Jahrhundert ist das älteste Stück der Innenausstattung. Es ähnelt in seiner Ornamentik und Formgebung dem Taufbecken im Verdener Dom. Auf dem Bronzedeckel des Steines ist die Schöpfungsgeschichte dargestellt. Der Taufstein diente zwischenzeitlich vor dem Küsterhaus als profanes Wasserbecken, wurde dann 1861 an die Oyter Kirche verschenkt, und kehrte erst 1939 wieder nach Achim zurück. 1955 hat das Taufbecken einen Bronzedeckel mit Darstellung der Schöpfungsgeschichte und Taufschale aus Emaille bekommen"].
A communication from Pol Herman (e-mail of 27 June 2025) summarises information from several web sources to note the details of the eventful life of the 13th-century font at Achim which, as stated below, ended up with the basin in Achim and the original base at Oyten: "The Achim church was first documented in 1257 by Gerhard II, Bishop of Bremen. However, there are indications that the church is older. A dedication inscription in the tower, difficult to decipher, could indicate the year of construction in 1091. The late Romanesque baptismal font from the 13th century is the oldest piece of the interior furnishings. In the years around 1850, baptisms increasingly took place in the Achim parish hall or in families' homes, and it was considered that the font in the church was superfluous. It was auctioned to the highest bidder and purchased by the then sexton, Heinrich Rosenbrock (1830-1865), who placed it in his garden as a birdbath. After the church was built in Oyten, Rosenbrock donated the stone to the Oyten parish in 1861. In 1939, Achim reclaimed the font. The parishes agreed: the old base remained in Oyten. Gustav Ulrich from Bremen designed a new font in the form of a square cover plate with the inscription: "Let the little children come to me." The historic font was sold back to Achim, where it rests on a new base. The Achim baptismal font is similar in its ornamentation and design to the baptismal fonts in neighboring churches in Verden, Heiligenfelde, Riede, and Kirchtimke. Together, they form an isolated local group of similar objects."