Huguenot immigrants bring about Offenbach's economic miracle
At the end of the 17th century, Offenbach was a farming and fishing village suffering from the consequences of the Thirty Years' War. Offenbach's history in the 18th century is therefore based on immigration. The liberal immigration policy of Johann Philipp, Count of Isenburg, led to a cultural and economic boom.
In 1698/99, Count Johann Philipp, himself an avowed Calvinist, takes in Huguenot religious refugees. The French Reformed congregation is founded and its church in Herrnstraße is completed in 1718.
As early as 1705, the Huguenots were granted far-reaching privileges, including freedom of trade and exemption from taxes for a period of ten years. Until 1824, the so-called "old parish", the village center around Isenburg Castle, and the new parish, the new bourgeois settlements on the outskirts of the village, formed separate administrative units.
The Huguenots brought new trades to Offenbach. The Isenburgers promote the establishment of manufactories, the basis for rapid industrialization in the 19th century.
46 families found the French Reformed congregation
The Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) was the cause of the flood of Huguenot refugees at the end of the 17th century. The French Catholic government opened a cruel hunt for all Protestant subjects who professed Calvin's teachings. They were called Huguenots, which probably goes back to the term "eyguenet" (confederate).
Calvin's Reformation movement began in Geneva. According to estimates, up to 500,000 Huguenots were expelled from France. They found refuge in many areas of Germany, including the county of Isenburg in 1698/99.
The French Reformed community was founded in 1699. The first known parish list names 46 families. In 1703, more Huguenots arrive in Offenbach, all of them skilled craftsmen: Wool manufacturers, hosiery weavers, silk weavers, linen weavers, hat makers, wig makers, button makers, tanners, foundrymen, gold knitters, gold workers and dyers.
Count Johann Philipp von Isenburg, who also facilitated the founding of the Jewish community at the time, granted the French Reformed community extensive privileges on May 28, 1705.
The aim of these privileges was to encourage the new inhabitants to become industrious. In their faith, laziness was considered a sin, while all work was done for the glory of God. In the 18th century, Offenbach's textile production and processing in particular was a Huguenot profession.
The André family, for example, is outstanding, whose members are active in dyeing and silk weaving in addition to founding the famous music publishing house with music printing (1774).
It was only during the Napoleonic Wars that the Huguenot textile industry experienced a decline. Families such as the Andrés and the d'Orvilles, who together with the Bernards were partners in a flourishing tobacco factory, shaped the economic and cultural life of Offenbach in Goethe's time.
The municipality's coat of arms commemorates a dramatic escape
With the second wave of settlement, the continued existence of the community is secured. In 1717, the foundation stone was laid for a church of their own, the French Reformed Church in lower Herrnstrasse, which opened on May 1, 1718. It served as a meeting place to hear God's word, pray and celebrate communion. Its interior is kept extremely simple. The once equally simple façade was not given its more elaborate neo-baroque design until 1874/75.
The vicarage in Herrnstraße came into the possession of the parish in 1775 as a legacy from the vicar's widow Anna Maria Romagnac. With the immigration of the Huguenots, an old and a new parish emerged in Offenbach, similar to Hanau.
It was not until January 1, 1824 that both parts were legally united into a single municipal administration. Peter Georg d'Orville, the descendant of a Huguenot immigrant family, becomes the first, at that time still honorary, mayor.
By this time, the Huguenots had long since been absorbed into the local population. The last French-language church service is celebrated in 1828. In 1830, the municipal administration introduces the general elementary school system. At almost the same time, the parish's denominational school, founded in 1750, ceased to exist.
Since then, the emphasis of the French Reformed community has been less on being understood as French and more on being a Reformed community. Nevertheless, many Huguenot traditions have been preserved in church life, particularly in the singing of psalms, the communion customs and the lack of images in the church, as well as in the administration of the congregation by a presbytery (church council).
The Bible is at the center
The central position of the pulpit makes it clear that the Bible is at the heart of the service and congregational life.
The modern congregation has around 230 members, although their number has always been in the hundreds since the congregation was founded. There are still four or five French names among the members.
The coat of arms in the church - a copy of the original that was burnt during the Second World War - illustrates the state of mind of the former religious refugees: "Domine serva nos perimus" (Lord, save us, we perish). In contrast to others, the French Reformed congregation is not a residential congregation, but a confessional congregation with a catchment area that extends beyond Offenbach's city limits. Today, the little church stands its ground in a central location together with the vicarage, which was extensively renovated in 2009, against the modern office architecture in its surroundings.