2024-09-25 10:03:31
Henry Ferchland was waiting at the altar. His eyes are on the woman he will love that day. He, Henry Ferchland, 62 years old, with glasses and a beard, a bow tie and a vest that fits his body as if it were made. Mrs. Cornelia Ferchland, also 62. The two have known each other all their lives. They were married in a civil ceremony 41 years ago. Now they want to get married again, this time before God. They said: “That is what we do not see.” As the music began, Cornelia Ferchland put her arms around her son and walked to the altar.
In the city church in Friedberg, this scene will be repeated eighteen more times that day. Eighteen times he walked to the altar. Eighteen times double “yes”. Exchange rings eighteen times. And blood marriages eighteen times. And more or less by accident. Because the eighteen couples who got married that Saturday in Friedberg took advantage of the opportunity to do so “easily and spontaneously”.
The Protestant Church has been saying “blessings to go” for some time now. The issue: Couples can easily get married. You don’t have to register or worry about anything. Music, decorations and a champagne reception were provided by the certificate candidates and volunteers from the Protestant church. However, there is only an entry in the family register if there is a civil marriage certificate.
It continued this Saturday morning. Next is Oliver and Iris Langsdorf. “This is exactly what is right for us,” said the 41-year-old. The couple left the town’s church, followed by a large crowd. The bride and groom received a surprise on the church forecourt. The master sewing ladies have organized their own champagne reception. “I didn’t expect that at all,” Langsdorf said, and greeted him warmly.
Although they did not send invitations, many came. Iris Langsdorf has nothing to gain from all the wedding hoopla: “I noticed it from my work colleague.” She planned the wedding down to the smallest detail. It was clear to Langsdorf: We don’t want that. “I always say: If I get married, it will be during the lunch break in Römer,” said the wife.
Such a thing happened: not on Frankfurt’s Römerberg, but during the breakfast break at the registry office in Bad Nauheim. But somehow it was still missing something. When he found out about this opportunity, he signed up immediately. Coincidentally, their wedding day also fell at lunchtime that Saturday. “It’s a godsend,” he laughs. And marriage? “It’s short, sweet and yet personal,” he sums up. Despite the ups and downs of the past ten years at her husband’s side Oliver found space in her.
Personal moments in a short ceremony
And that was the challenge the five pastors faced: to make the twenty-minute celebration as personal as possible. Pastor Sophie-Lotte Immanuel said: “Sometimes, a short time is enough to get to know a couple. He helped organize this wedding marathon. Fortunately, there are a number of popular words. And experience shows that these often suit couples well.
What the Pastor found most important about this format: During the blessing, we do not ask for church relationship. Every couple is blessed. He said: “We are breaking some problems.
In contrast to the couples who had registered before, Alexandra Hess and Helge Rübsam used to go to church in the morning. They came to Friedberg by chance to get married. The newly married couple said: “We are the only ones doing this today. And your family? “We will surprise them later with a picture in the family group.” They both wore their clothes from the civil wedding. She wears a black dress with white sneakers and she wears a white summer dress with a denim jacket. Fast but casual.
We got married four years after meeting each other
During the short training discussion, the pastor listed the most important points. For the 55-year-old from Frankfurt and the woman from Friedberg, who is one year old, this is not the first marriage, “but the last hope”. They met through a dating platform. “My daughter signed me up on Wednesday,” Hess said. Rübsam wants to leave and delete his profile.
“We wrote on Fridays, talked on the phone on Saturdays, and met for the first time on Sundays,” Hess recalls. And married four years later to date, her husband adds. After the ceremony, they go directly: pack their backpacks and then go on a pilgrimage. You start in Nieder-Erlenbach and walk the Bonifatiusweg to Fulda.
Before things started, Pastor Immanuel welcomed the bride and groom at the pavilion in front of the church. It is decorated with lamps and a large flower cross. “Where you go, I want to go too,” the priest passionately said the wedding motto. “How appropriate,” he said.
Say “yes” one more time
Meanwhile, Hannelore and Manfred Schlüppmann renew their vows in church. They exchanged vows 59 years ago in the great walls of the city’s church. Now they want to try again. “We are in an age where we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. So I signed up for us,” Hannelore said.
The first time he was 19 and she was 23. The woman from Friedberg came with something special for this wedding. She was wearing her old wedding dress. She remembers: “My mother sewed the clothes for me because I was too tired. Now it’s a little shorter. Two photos from the back then proudly displayed.
What is the secret of their long marriage? “Contracts,” said the Schlüppmanns. “We are two different characters. “You can’t just say yes,” he added. They always pull themselves together, even when times get tough. They built their life together from the beginning and had two sons.
“It’s love at first sight”
Their love even started with a small insult. Both are already accepted. “But it was love at first sight,” Hannelore said. He can remember every detail when Manfred got out of his Fiat 600 to pick him up. And their exes? “They became sad for a long time.”
Back to Cornelia and Henry Ferchland. A dream came true for him that Saturday in Friedberg. Church marriages were not common in the GDR at that time. The change was also a time of change for the couple. “Two children, two adults, four boxes,” Pastor Immanuel summarized in his speech.
So the citizens of Magdeburg came to Kassel when the border opened in 1989, started again and found their way to God. “We grew up in the science that inspired us. And suddenly that was gone. Henry Ferchland said: “In a way, you have a void inside you. They filled this void with their faith in God.
They quickly found a connection in the Protestant community in Kassel and were able to build a new life for themselves. Nevertheless, in all this time they did not have the opportunity to enter into marriage before God. She said: “My husband also wants to sleep on the bed with me on my birthday. You can say yes one more time. “We have three children, so there are always many activities at home. Now we are left. This is the beginning of our life as a couple,” said Henry Ferchland.
They think of something important for their honeymoon. The couple said: “We want to live in our trailer and travel the world. They want to explore what they could not do in their childhood in the GDR. “Freedom to travel is not there. And we just want to make amends for now – and hope we’re healthy. “
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