Parish church Neufufenhaus

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The Christ the King's Church in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus

The Christkönigskirche , also known as Seipel-Dollfuss Memorial Church , is a Roman Catholic branch church in the 15th Viennese district of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus . The project to build the Christ the King's Church on the Schmelz dates back to 1933. In contrast to the monumentally planned houses of worship on this building site, the completed church is a modest building. On January 1st, 2017, the parish of Neuffunghaus was merged with the parishes of Rudolfsheim and Schönbrunn-Vorpark to form the parish of Hildegard Burjan. Since then, the parish church of Neuffunghaus has been a branch church of the parish of Hildegard Burjan.

occasion

The Christ the King's Church was initiated as a Dr. Seipel memorial building for the former Chancellor Prelate Ignaz Seipel, who died in August 1932, by the founder of Caritas Socialis and Christian Socialist member Hildegard Burjan . Under the patronage of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß , Federal President Wilhelm Miklas and numerous bishops, a committee was founded to which Ms. Burjan belonged as well as the architect Clemens Holzmeister . The developer was Burjan's Social Aid Association . The financing was fixed in February 1933 and the construction site was already fixed. The Schmelz was chosen because Ignaz Seipel was born nearby. However, as happened a little later in the dictatorial “corporate state” , the Christian social project operators wanted to open up the “pastoral undersupplied areas” of the workers' districts. The tender documents drawn up by the architect Holzmeister for the architectural competition provided for a church with a memorial tower and crypt , to which a “People's Welfare House” should be attached. The complex should be surrounded by a park.

drafts

In the spring of 1933 an invited competition was announced. Besides Clemens Holzmeister, Alexander Popp, Robert Kramreiter and Karl Holey were also invited to participate. However, a jury to decide on the winner of the competition was not used.

Designed by Clemens Holzmeister

A first draft of the Christ the King's Church, which, according to Clemens Holzmeister, was from the time before the competition and which he rejected because of numerous critical voices, shows a nested building with a high tower. Like the vestibule, it is designed with perforated concrete modular stones to create a decorative exterior, four stones arranged in a square, but also the cross as a Christian symbol of faith. The high tower, however, triggered a violent press and was called the "Paternoster Garage". The side walls of the nave were also to be built from openwork concrete bricks, thus illuminating the interior. The only ornament on the nave was to be a crucifixion group at the rear of the choir . The crypt should have niches in two opposite walls and be illuminated by indirect light. There should be sarcophagi in these niches, but Doctor Seipel's one in the middle of the room. It is conceivable whether Clemens Holzmeister tacitly wanted to erect a burial site for other representatives of the corporate state because of the monumental tower.

Designed by Rudolf Perco

Rudolf Perco was not one of the invited architects, but wanted to work on this prestigious project as well. So he prepared a study, which he handed over to Karl Holey - at that time master builder of the cathedral and also invited participant in the architectural competition. Although he was positive about the design, Rudolf Perco did not achieve his goal. The design shows the church as a lying cuboid with smooth outer walls, structured only by a few flat pilasters . Only the front is more heavily decorated, with the number three defining it. One third of the total height of the church building results in the height of the vestibule. There are three by three porthole-shaped windows above. In the interior of the church, a separate space for the installation of the sarcophagus was to be created by columns. Rudolf Perco's design is dated "Easter 1933", but since he did not follow Clemens Holzmeister's specifications - creation of a parish center - it can be assumed that an earlier design of a monumental church was used to attract attention . It is currently not known what the plans presented by the architects invited to the competition looked like.

Christ the King Church

Church interior with mosaic

The Christkönigskirche or "Neuffunghauser Pfarr- und Gedächtniskirche Christ the King" is located on Vogelweidplatz or Burjanplatz at the rear of the Wiener Stadthalle in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus. In May 1933, Clemens Holzmeister was entrusted with the implementation of his project under the direction of master builder Ernst Dirmoser, on July 30, 1933 the foundation stone was laid by Engelbert Dollfuss, and the keystone was laid on September 17, 1934 by Fritz Stockinger . Since Dollfuss had meanwhile been murdered in a National Socialist coup attempt , the building committee decided to change the purpose of the church so that, as the Dr. Seipel-Dr. Dollfuss memorial building, it would also serve the memory of Dollfuss. On September 29, 1934 the church was consecrated as the Christ the King Church. The square on which the church stands has been renamed Kanzlerplatz. The Christ the King's Church has been a parish church since 1935 . The simple and towerless church and the former welfare house (today: parish kindergarten and after-school care center) were built around a courtyard. To the east of it is the detached rectory. The interior of the church is a rectangular hall with the exit to the crypt. Many artists from the building period were involved in the establishment and decoration of the church, for example:

From the consecration of the church in 1934 until its transfer and final burial in 1939 by the National Socialist rulers Ignaz Seipel ( Vienna Central Cemetery ) and Engelbert Dollfuss ( Hietzinger Friedhof ) who was murdered on July 25, 1934, were buried in the crypt . Hildegard Burjan did not see the completion of the church either. Today the crypt is used for the masses on weekdays. Outside the church there are some grave monuments from the former Schmelzer cemetery in a small park .

At the entrance there is a bronze sculpture on a pedestal. An inscription on it originally commemorated the two Federal Chancellors. Since summer 2019, the inscription has been covered by a plaque on which the religious concerns of Hildegard Burjan are the focus.

The pneumatic organ of the parish church Neufufenhaus comes from the Viennese organ builder Johann M. Kauffmann and has two manuals and a pedal .

literature

  • Wolfgang Czerny, Peter Adam: Vienna . Volume: X. to XIX. and XXI. to XXIII. District . Dehio-Handbuch , Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs. Berger, Horn / Wien 1996, ISBN 3-7031-0693-X , p. 337 ff.
  • Renata Kassal-Mikula, Christian Benedik (among others): The Unbuilt Vienna, 1800 to 2000. Projects for the metropolis. Historical Museum of the City of Vienna, December 10, 1999 to February 20, 2000 . Special exhibition of the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna, Volume 255, ZDB -ID 881004-7 . Self-published by the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna, Vienna 1999.
  • Luigi Monzo: Building churches in the Third Reich. The inversion of the church's renewal dynamics using the example of the St. Canisius Church in Augsburg designed by Fritz Kempf. In: Das Münster - magazine for Christian art and art history, 68. 2015/1 (April), pp. 74–82.
  • Verena Pawlowsky: State monument of short duration: On the contexts of meaning of a Viennese suburban church of the 1930s. In: contemporary history . Volume 29, issue January 1 / February 2002, pp. 3–24, online at ANNO .
  • Matthew Rampley: The Seipel-Dollfuss Memorial Church by Clemens Holzmeister. In: Continuity / Rupture: Art and Architecture in Central Europe 1918-1938 , online at craace.com (English).

Web links

Commons : Christkönigskirche (Vienna)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Roman Catholic parish Hildegard Burjan. In: Diocesan Gazette of the Archdiocese of Vienna. Volume 155, No. 1., January 2017, pp. 3–4 (PDF; 179 kB).
  2. ↑ Laying of the keystone for the Seipel-Dollfuß memorial building. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 25150/1944, September 18, 1934, p. 5 middle. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  3. ↑ Change to the plaque in front of the Neuffunghaus church. In: pfarreburjan.at . July 8, 2019, accessed August 19, 2019.

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 9.1 ″  N , 16 ° 19 ′ 50.6 ″  E