Chapel school Breitenbach-Ehringshausen
The former chapel school was built between 1817 and 1820 in the small village of Breitenbach, which belongs to the municipality of Ehringshausen in the Lahn-Dill district of central Hesse. The two-storey, half-timbered building was divided into a chapel and a teaching space. Once the school closed, the building was renovated. Since then, it has served as a local history museum, documenting village life in the 19th and 20th centuries including mining equipment, traditional dress, and religious writings.
Chapel school Breitenbach-Ehringshausen photograph
Breitenbach-Ehringshausen in: The Chapel Schools' Book
Chapel schools form a solitary architectural type for the Siegerland and its neighboring regions.
As stand-alone buildings and conspicuous in their surroundings, like the one in Breitenbach-Ehringshausen, they reveal the connection between religion and school education starting from the domain of Count William I of Nassau-Katzenelnbogen (1487-1559) and his son John VI of Nassau, Katzenelnbogen and Dietz (1536-1606). The hybrid used buildings existed until the end of the 19th century and in parts even until the 20th century.
Chapel Schools a solitary architectural type
The Siegen fine art photographer Thomas Kellner recognized the historical and cultural value of these buildings and set himself the task of preserving and recalling this typical regional cultural asset through a new medium. By means of photography he transfers the chapel schools into an artistic context and gives the historical topic a new dimension in the present (art).
Just as the chapel schools united in themselves two spheres of life, this publication also conveys different contemporary perspectives on the history and genesis of the chapel schools. While Kellner tries to rethink the type of building, which oscillates between profane and sacred, with his artistic realization, Chiara Manon Bohn, Isabell Eberling M. Sc. Dr. Andrea Gnam and Dr. Stefanie Siedek-Strunk provide an insight into the historical, architectural and religious classification of the chapel schools up to the pictures of Thomas Kellner in text contributions.
