Can you say “Piepenprüörker”? That means “pipe cleaner” in Low German. That’s what the people of Lette colloquially called their first church—because it had such a tall, pointed roof. Its actual name is St. John the Baptist.
Above the entrance was a sandstone tympanum featuring an image of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus Christ. The sandstone figures were part of the pulpit. The small Romanesque church was likely built around 1185 and stood in the center of Lette for about 735 years. You can see the original floor plan on a plaque.
During World War I, prisoners of war were temporarily housed in the church.
The church was expanded several times as the village continued to grow, but there wasn’t enough space, so the residents of Lette built a larger one in just a year and a half: today’s Catholic Church of St. John. It was consecrated in 1914, before World War I, and the old church was finally demolished in 1919.
But was Lette always Catholic?
In fact: Until the mid-20th century, Lette was almost exclusively Catholic. Lette belongs to the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, which—following the Reformation movement and the Anabaptist period in Münster in the 1530s—was very intent on establishing the Catholic faith.
To date, research has found no evidence of Jewish life in Lette—unlike in Coesfeld. However, the Jewish community there did not exist continuously either, as it was repeatedly subjected to severe restrictions, persecution, expulsion, and murderous pogroms.
There is a street in Lette called Jodenstraße. It was presumably given this name because it was used by Jewish merchants. There was likely no Jewish settlement there; it is probably a colloquial name.
Were there any Protestants? Yes, but probably only a few—until the postwar period. After World War II, many displaced persons from the former German eastern provinces came to the Coesfeld district, especially from Silesia. Many of them were Protestant. As a result, the proportion of Protestants rose so rapidly that a Protestant congregation was established in Lette. In 1962, it got its own church: Santa Maria Magdalena. In 2014, it was demolished due to a sharp decline in membership. Only the bell tower still stands in what is now the Magdalenen residential neighborhood.
And inside this bell tower, a bell was found that presents us with a great mystery in the next chapter. It is pictured here.