Franz Xaver Kleinhans

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Franz (Xaver) Kleinhans (* 12. September 1699 in Unterpinswang ( Tyrol ), † 15 August 1776 ) was a court and pin builder of the Rococo in the Bishopric of Augsburg .

biography

Franz Xaver Kleinhans chose the profession of building craftsman and did an apprenticeship with master bricklayer Anton Scheidle in Elbigenalp in the upper Lech Valley . As a journeyman, he probably worked with those construction crews who annually went out with their masters to carry out large orders in the Alpine foothills , to Franconia and Württemberg .

In 1725 he married Maria Seelos, who also came from Unterpinswang. The couple had ten children, but seven of them died in infancy.

While building the church in his home parish in 1725, he came across the Baroque master builder Johann Georg Fischer from Füssen , who took on the talented Kleinhans as foreman , then called Parlier. From 1734 he worked as a builder . This emerges from a letter he wrote to the nurse von Wellenburg and signed with "Franz Kleinhanß Paumeister". In his seal he led a sun with rays; in the crest the monogram F K.

In 1736, Kleinhans separated from Fischer and, as an independent builder and architect, became the most sought-after and busiest builder in the Augsburg monastery . As his first independent work, either the "Field Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother of God" near Schwabmünchen (south of Augsburg), a central building from 1739, or the parish church of St. Georg in Westendorf (near Augsburg), also built in 1739, is regarded. Although court mason Balthasar Suiter had already worked out a cost estimate for the Westendorf church building that had been planned since around 1690, Vicar General Zeiler then proposed to Kleinhans, who at that time had already taken up residence in Augsburg.

His creative space extended to the area from Augsburg south to Füssen in Ostallgäu or the Tyrol near the border and west to the Bavarian and Württemberg Swabia and Upper Swabia to the Ulm area on the Danube. During his creative period, he was involved in a total of 86 works as a foreman or as an independent builder. In the diocese of Augsburg he worked as a planner and / or restorer at 22 churches and built nine churches as a builder.

Its sacred buildings are recognizable from the architectural style

  • the hall design of the nave with five columns (Kleinhans was a great admirer of Mary ; the name Maria consists of five letters, hence the five columns),
  • the double loft ,
  • the figural sculptures between the windows,
  • the high arched windows with heart-shaped window groups,
  • the surrounding cornice , which bends up over the windows , of the pilaster beams
  • the hipped roof with a crane dome at the rear of the nave.

He also created imaginative church towers , recognizable by the curly cornices, with pilasters or pilaster strips on the top and with helmet-like French roof hoods , such as B. in Pfronten and Nesselwang .

Not only sacred buildings were his profession. He also has numerous secular buildings, such as B. the episcopal palace in Augsburg, planned, built and renovated.

In 1747, Kleinhans was appointed as the successor to Johann Georg Fischer as master builder of the Princely Hochstift Augsburg, in 1761 master mason of the cathedral chapter of Augsburg and in spring 1762 appointed court architect of the Princely Hochstift Augsburg.

With the hall construction of the parish church of St. Michael in Denklingen in the years 1765/1766, as one of his last buildings, his creative circle closes.

In the last years of his life he held the post of community leader in his home village Unterpinswang. He died a wealthy and patronizing man. His professional and human qualities find their appreciation in the death register entry “vir aetate et virtute grandis” (as a man of great age and merit).

Honor

  • Franz-Kleinhans-Straße in Schwabmünchen
  • The Franz-Kleinhans-Weg in Denklingen
  • A memorial plaque is attached to the church in his home town of Unterpinswang.

Works (selection)

Unless otherwise stated, Kleinhans took over the planning and construction management , the execution was mostly carried out by local staff. As far as possible, the list is in chronological order.

Pilgrimage Church Oberostendorf
Nesselwang, tower of the parish church
Denklingen, hall of the parish church
Erbach an der Donau with the Church of St. Ulrich and Martin , view around 1920
Kißlegg, tower of St. Gallus and Ulrich
Wolfegg, tower of St. Katharina
Pfronten, tower and dome of the parish church of St. Nicholas

Further, as yet undated, works by Kleinhans:

literature

  • Adolf Layer:  Kleinhans, Franz Xaver. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 1 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Edith Luderschmidt: The Lechtal master builder Franz Kleinhans (1699–1776). Home Swabia; Volume 2. Kunstbuchverlag Weber, Munich 1978. At the same time: Dissertation, Institute for Art History, Philosophical Faculty I, University of Munich, 1975.
  • Adolf Layer : Franz Kleinhans (1699–1776), a master builder of the former bishopric of Augsburg. Yearbook of the Association for the History of the Augsburg Diocese, Volume 5, Augsburg 1971, pp. 197-214
  • Klaus Wankmiller: Franz Kleinhans (1699 - 1776) - "Master mason of Fießen" and prince-bishop's court architect from Unterpinswang , in: Alt Füssen - Yearbook of the Historical Association of Alt Füssen (2014), pp. 54–170.
  • Klaus Wankmiller: Franz Kleinhans (1699 - 1776). The last master builder of the "Füssen School" , in: Landsberger Geschichtsblätter 116 (2018), pp. 39–74.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Kleinhans, Franz Xaver
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kleinhans, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rococo builder in the Augsburg bishopric
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1699
PLACE OF BIRTH Unterpinswang
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1776
Place of death Unterpinswang