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Bells from 1950 and 1953

This bell dates from 1953. And it is not the bell that people had assumed it to be. Here’s why:

From 1946 to 1960, the elderly displaced persons were housed in Lette in the so-called barracks camp, a former SA sports school from the Nazi era. As a retirement home, it was called Heidehof.

It was important for the displaced persons to be able to practice their religion. However, the church in Lette was too far away. So in 1950, with the bishop’s permission, a room was partitioned off from one of the barracks and set up as a small chapel. Both Protestant and Catholic services were held there alternately.

A bell frame was built in front of the barracks’ gable. The Petit and Edelbrock foundry in Gescher cast a bell specifically for this chapel, and its consecration was a significant celebration for the residents. The local newspaper reported on it. The nursing home was closed and sold in 1960. Everything was meticulously inventoried for the sale, including the contents of the chapel. But the bell has disappeared. It’s simply gone.

It remains missing to this day. Where could it be? At least officially, no one knows.

But then, unexpectedly, another bell turned up: the one you see here. It dates from 1953 and was cast for the new Protestant parish hall in Coesfeld, also by the foundry in Gescher. It weighs about 140 kilograms and was too heavy for the belfry. So it had to be taken down again. Apparently, it was stored somewhere—there was simply no other place for it.

A contemporary witness once recounted that he had brought a bell from the barracks camp to the new Protestant Magdalene Church in Lette in 1960, when the church was being built. It’s said there was an “exchange.” But the Magdalenen Church didn’t get its own bell until 1963; before that, it had a borrowed bell. Was it the one from 1953? No one knows.

In any case, the bell expert found this bell here in the tower and examined it. The church was decommissioned in 2014. The bell was returned to the Protestant parish hall.

Since it was first used in 1953, it has apparently never rung again. Yet it is of great significance to the history of the Protestant congregation.

And this isn’t the only curious case for local history research in Lette. The Christ corpus across the street is downright legendary.

The Christ figure from the mission cross

This Christ figure comes from the Mission Cross at the first church in Lette. A moving story surrounds it: It is said that a devout farmer wanted to protect it from the Nazis during World War II. He took the Christ figure to his farm. Buried it. And thus saved it from destruction.

But the truth is simpler:

The weathered corpus was one day discarded from the church, stored in the attic of the new parish church, forgotten, and only rediscovered in 1991. The church had no use for it. But Willi Vennebörger—who lived from 1930 to 2025 —a member of the parish council—made a makeshift repair to the corpus, painted a cross on a stable wall on his farm, hung it there, and decorated it every year with consecrated boxwood—for 35 years.

After Willi Vennebörger’s death in 2025, the family donated the corpus to the local heritage association for safekeeping. There, it is affectionately called the “Vennebörger Christ.”

It is a testament to piety. This piety is evident not only in the former mission cross but also in wayside shrines, wayside crosses, small country chapels, and in rituals such as the former popular mission or the festive Corpus Christi procession.

A personal story can thus also mark the beginning of a research project. Such stories bring historical research to life: they can show how major political events have an impact on the small scale—just as in the life of Heinrich Brinkschulte from Letter Berg. And that is the next chapter.