Lioba Munz

Lioba Munz OSB (born April 15, 1913 in Bingen ; died September 24, 1997 in Fulda ) was a German Benedictine woman and artist . She was best known as a goldsmith who made numerous works of sacred art .

Life

The later nun was born Lotte Munz into a middle-class Protestant family. The father was an authorized signatory. She attended the municipal high school in Bingen until 1929, then she switched to a women's labor school, which she graduated as a kindergarten teacher and after- school care worker. At the same time, she attended evening courses at the Mainz School of Applied Arts .

Munz, who had already started playing the violin at the age of five, went to Dresden in the early 1930s to improve her violin playing. On a trip to Dresden she stopped in Fulda to hear the vigils in the abbey of St. Mary . She is said to have developed an interest in monastic life as a teenager, possibly through the Benedictine abbey opposite her home town of Bingen, which is visible from afar .

The young woman, who had expressed sympathy for the Communist Party of Germany during the Great Depression and who rejected National Socialism, converted to Catholicism on September 22, 1933 against the wishes of her parents with the aim of entering the Fulda monastery, which she did in 1934 . In December 1934 the clothing took place . She chose Lioba as the religious name after the Lioba von Tauberbischofsheim, who was particularly venerated in Fulda . In 1935 she took the triennial professorship , in the same year she began her artistic training in the workshops of the Abbey Herstelle , where she worked until 1937. In 1939 Sr. Lioba made her perpetual profession and began to set up the artistic workshop in her Fulda monastery, which she directed until her death and which became known as "fabrica fuldensis" ( Latin Fulda workshop ).

Starting in 1950, a lecturer from Fulda at an art academy made her familiar with the technique of enamelling , in which she quickly attained a high level of artistry. In addition, from 1953 to 1958 she attended the Cologne Werkkunstschule as a master student of Elisabeth Treskow's , the head of the goldsmith's class, and the painting class of Friedrich Vordemberge . This was made possible by privileges granted to the talented artist by the abbess of her monastery. The exam was only valid to a limited extent. Sr. Lioba, whose workshop was located outside the monastery walls, in a former school (Schulstrasse 1), had permission to leave the monastery in civilian clothes, which she used when traveling but also to attend concerts. She was allowed to travel long distances to study works of art or to keep a dog in the monastery. In return, she supported the abbess in negotiations with secular institutions and created numerous works of art for the glorification of God and as a source of income for her monastery.

Sr. Lioba Munz died on September 24, 1997 at the age of 84 and in the 62nd year of her profession in her home monastery.

Artistic work

After initially creating ceramics such as painted vases, from 1950 Lioba Munz and her employees mainly made sacred works of art and liturgical devices using goldsmith technology for numerous churches. To a lesser extent, she also worked as a draftsman. Munz was influenced by Art Nouveau and Romanesque art . Sales of her works were particularly boosted in the 1960s by the reform of the liturgy by the Second Vatican Council , which made new popular altars necessary in many churches, and also the church building boom of the 1950s and 1960s, when numerous churches were newly built and fully equipped had to.

Munz, who found inspiration and relaxation in music, made large crosses, often as hanging crosses, lecture and altar crosses, tabernacles , winged altars, ways of the cross, abbot and bishop's insignia such as pectoral crosses, rods and rings, chalices, monstrances, book covers for liturgical writings, however also the chain of rectors for the theological faculty of the University of Fulda.

The most outstanding works include the Way of the Cross for the Church of St. Anna in Friedberg-Dorheim (1953/1954), the tabernacle and altar cross in Hildesheim Cathedral (1960), the hanging cross for New St. Alban (1961) and St. Johann Baptist in Köln-Höhenhaus (1958–1960), winged altars for St. Crescentius (1970) in Naumburg and the Protestant Bismarck Memorial Church in Aumühle (1979), the binding of a Gospel book created for the visit of John Paul II in Fulda in Fulda Cathedral ( 1980) as well as the lid for the sarcophagus and the head reliquary of St. Lioba for St. Peter in Petersberg (1995).

In the church of the Abbey of St. Mary in Fulda, her home monastery, the interior is shaped by her conception of art. The glass windows are designed by her, the main and right side altars, the large hanging cross above the main altar, as well as Easter and altar candlesticks come from her.

Awards and honors

In 1986 Lioba Munz received the Fulda City Culture Prize.

In 2004 the city of Fulda named a street in a new development area after her.

literature

Kurt Schneider: The reflection of his glory. Lioba Munz OSB. Abbey of Saint Maria Fulda (ed.). Fulda 1984.
Michael Imhof : Lioba Munz (1913–1997). Life and work of the Benedictine woman and artist. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7319-0028-3 .
Conny Gies: Lioba Munz - artist in religious dress. In: Susanne Bohl et al. (Ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7319-0425-0 , pp. 82-85.

Web links

https://www.abtei-fulda.de/gemeinschaft/verbindungen/lioba-munz.html Website of your abbey for Sr. Lioba

Individual evidence

↑ Unless otherwise stated, all information in this article is based on Michael Imhof: Lioba Munz (1913–1997). Life and work of the Benedictine woman and artist.
^ Conny Gies: Lioba Munz - artist in religious dress. In: Susanne Bohl et al. (Ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, pp. 82–85, here p. 82.
^ Conny Gies: Lioba Munz - artist in religious dress. In: Susanne Bohl and others (ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, pp. 82–85, here p. 83.
↑ Conny Gies: Behind high monastery walls - Abbey of St. Mary. In: Susanne Bohl et al. (Ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, pp. 77–81. here p. 78.
^ Conny Gies: Lioba Munz - artist in religious dress. In: Susanne Bohl et al. (Ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, pp. 82–85, here p. 85.
↑ https://osthessen-news.de/n1111932/fulda-neue-lioba-munz-stra-e-ab-heute-im-bereich-der-fulda-galerie-.html Osthessen-News from November 2, 2004, accessed on September 26, 2018.

personal data
SURNAME	Munz, Lioba
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Munz, Lotte (maiden name); Sr. Lioba
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Benedictine and goldsmith
DATE OF BIRTH	April 15, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bingen
DATE OF DEATH	September 24, 1997
Place of death	Fulda

[1] Unless otherwise stated, all information in this article is based on Michael Imhof: Lioba Munz (1913–1997). Life and work of the Benedictine woman and artist.

[2] Conny Gies: Lioba Munz - artist in religious dress. In: Susanne Bohl et al. (Ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, pp. 82–85, here p. 82.

[3] Conny Gies: Lioba Munz - artist in religious dress. In: Susanne Bohl and others (ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, pp. 82–85, here p. 83.

[4] Conny Gies: Behind high monastery walls - Abbey of St. Mary. In: Susanne Bohl et al. (Ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, pp. 77–81. here p. 78.

[5] Conny Gies: Lioba Munz - artist in religious dress. In: Susanne Bohl et al. (Ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, pp. 82–85, here p. 85.

[6] ttps://osthessen-news.de/n1111932/fulda-neue-lioba-munz-stra-e-ab-heute-im-bereich-der-fulda-galerie-.html Osthessen-News from November 2, 2004, accessed on September 26, 2018.