St. Josef (Memmingen)

City parish church St. Josef in Memmingen

St. Josef is a catholic town parish church in Memmingen in Upper Swabia . It was built between 1927 and 1929. St. Josef is the main church of the Memmingen deanery . Their patronage is the feast of St. Joseph on March 19th.

location

The church with the address St.-Josefs-Kirchplatz 5 is about 100 meters west of the old town of Memmingen. To the north the church is bordered by St.-Josefs-Kirchplatz, to the west the Hopfenstraße connects. The Elsbethen and Bismarck Schools are to the east, and the Kirchgarten is to the south of the church.

history

After the Reformation in the 16th century, with the exception of the monastery brothers and sisters, almost no Catholics lived in the imperial city of Memmingen. This only changed when the city became Bavarian in 1803 when people moved in from outside. About 500 Catholics lived in the city in 1803. By 1871 the number had risen to 1,487 and 19 years later had almost doubled to around 2,800. In 1900 there were 4,200 Catholics in the city and in 1910 5,500. This meant that the parish church of St. John the Baptist had become too small and a larger church building was considered. In 1907, 25 men founded an association to build a new Catholic church in Memmingen, which was chaired by the parish priest at the time, Max Rippler. Just two years later, a competition was announced for the new building. In 1916 the community had 4.5 days of building land and 100,000 gold marks . The number of Catholics in the city also increased during this time, which is why the design by the architect Heinrich Hauberrisser from Regensburg , who had been shortlisted, was rejected again because the planned new building would have been too small. During the inflation period , only the building site could be preserved. Josef Schmid, parish priest since 1921, revived the plans for a new church in 1925. The arbitration tribunal for the new architectural competition consisted of Heinrich von Schmidt , Theodor Fischer , Hans Grässel and Richard Hoffmann . The first two places were taken by the architect Max Wiederanders from Munich and the architects Michael Kurz and Thomas Wechs from Augsburg . On April 14, 1926, the plans for the latter two were chosen. The first groundbreaking ceremony for the new building took place on August 9, 1927. The Memmingen construction company Josef Hebel took over the construction work; Konrad Mayer from Augsburg was in charge of the construction . The church was built from concrete with brick cladding.

The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on May 7, 1928. In 1929 the floor was laid from Solnhofen slabs and the chairs were put up. The consecration of the five new bells took place on October 12, 1929. On October 20, the church was consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Karl Reth . The preacher was the former cathedral preacher Franz Xaver Hartmann. The organ consecration took place on Christmas 1929 before midnight mass. Despite its size, St. Josef is the largest new church in Germany between the First and Second World War, St. Johann in the old town remained the parish church. It was not until December 1, 1956, that the previous branch church of St. Josef was elevated to a parish church and city parish church. The confessionals and the high altar were erected in 1930. The pulpit was installed two years later. A memorial was erected in the war memorial chapel in 1960. The parish hall, which opened on May 7, 1970, was created in 1969 from the vacant space around the choir on the north and east sides. The crypt of the church was rebuilt as a parish center in 1975 and connected to the parish hall by a staircase. The sculptor Johannes Dumanski from Tannberg took on the design of the crypt. Reinhold Grübl planned the furnishings for the Josefstüble. Government architect Karl Heinz Pasman from Memmingen was the architect for these measures. In 1973, the Church Foundation and the City of Memmingen signed a contract with which the City of Memmingen undertook to open up the spaces on the east, north and west sides of the church for public transport and to take over the design, maintenance and care of the green spaces. At the same time a plastic mother and child by Diether Kunerth was placed in front of the church in the west . Between 1978 and 1980 the church was restored, an altar island with a folk altar was integrated into the nave and a new organ was installed. The heating system and the electrical systems were renewed. The latter were improved in 1987. In the same year a new loudspeaker system was put into operation. Reinhold Grübl converted the Marienkapelle in the west of the church as a prayer and meditation room.

Building description

View through the church to the altar

View through the church; in the background the large Jann organ

The church consists of a closed, long, rectangular room with twelve bays. The central nave is flanked by a side aisle. The openings from the central to the side aisles are trapezoidal. The 73 meter long nave has a total of seven entrances. A triangular sign is built in front of each input . The central nave is 16 meters, the side aisles are each 3.8 meters wide. The retracted choir in the east is 24 meters long and 11 meters wide. The parish hall and the sacristy are built in front of it. The choir is flanked by two church towers with a star shape. In the west there is a transept at the same height as the main nave. It serves as an abutment . The entrance hall and a chapel on each side are built into it. There are ancillary rooms on the upper floor. The west gallery is in front of the transept and serves as an organ stage. The circular baptistery is on the left, the spiral staircase that leads to the gallery and the side rooms of the transept is on the right.

The facade of the church consists of exposed bricks , inside the exposed concrete walls create a sober impression. The ceilings are clad with wood.

The monumental choir fresco (1943) by Albert Burkart shows Christ as the ruler of the world in glory / mandorla , alongside scenes from the youth, the work and the passion of Jesus.

organ

The organ was built in 1980 by the organ builder Georg Jann (Laberweinting-Allkofen) as Opus 47. It cannot be assigned to any particular style, but with its baroque and romantic-symphonic registers is designed as a "universal organ", which enables the representation of practically the entire repertoire from all epochs of organ music. Several sound carriers, recorded by Gerhard Weinberger , Winfried Bönig and Christian Weiherer , document the sound of the organ.

In 2000 the organ was revised by the organ builder Josef Maier ( Hergensweiler ). The original sound concept remained largely untouched, the disposition changed slightly: Maier replaced a Zimbel III ² ⁄ ₃ ′ with a Salicional 8 ′, which was previously in the swell; in its place he added a new 8 ′ viol to give the swell more volume. Maier also equipped the instrument with sub and super octave couplers. The slider chest instrument has 53 stops, which are distributed over four manual works and pedal . The individual works are housed in simple wooden boxes that are open to the front and are not decorated with any decorations; The Chamadenwerk protrudes into the church under the main plant. The action mechanism is mechanical, the links are electrical; the stop action is electro-mechanical. The organ has a 32 × 8 setting system for four groups, as well as a crescendo roller with two crescendo programs.

I Rückpositiv C – a ³
1.	Praestant	8th'
2.	Reed flute	8th'
3.	octave	4 ′
4th	Pointed	4 ′
5.	Field whistle	2 ′
6th	Fifth	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
7th	Sesquialtera II	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
8th.	Scharff V	1'
9.	Dulcian	16 ′
10.	Schalmey	8th'
11.	Vox humana	8th'
	Tremulant

II main work C – a ³
12.	Praestant	16 ′
13.	octave	8th'
14th	Copula	8th'
15th	Salizional	8th'
16.	octave	4 ′
17th	recorder	4 ′
18th	Fifth	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
19th	octave	2 ′
20th	Mixture VI	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
21st	Trumpet	8th'

III Swell C – a ³
22nd	Bourdon	16 ′
23.	Wooden principal	8th'
24.	Gamba	8th'
25th	Beat	8th'
26th	Principal	4 ′
27.	Coupling flute	4 ′
28.	viola	4 ′
29	Nasat	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
30th	Night horn	2 ′
31.	third	1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
32.	None	⁸ ⁄ ₉ ′
33.	Fittings VI	2 ′
34.	bassoon	16 ′
35.	Trompette harmonique	8th'
36.	oboe	8th'
	Tremulant

IV Chamadewerk C – a ³
37.	Cornet V (from g ⁰ )	8th'
38.	Chamade	16 ′
39.	Chamade	8th'
40.	Chamade	4 ′

Pedal C – f ¹
41.	Sub bass	32 ′
42.	Principal	16 ′
43.	Sub bass	16 ′
44.	Fifth	10 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
45.	Octavbass	8th'
46.	Reed bass	8th'
47.	octave	4 ′
48.	Peasant flute	4 ′
49.	Backset V	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
50.	Bombard	16 ′
51.	trombone	8th'
52.	Field trumpet	4 ′
53.	Cornett	2 ′

Couple
- Normal coupling: I / II, III / I, III / II, IV / II, IV / P, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Sub-octave coupling: III / I, III / III
- Super octave coupling: III / II, III / III
Playing aids : 32 × 8-foldsetting system , crescendo roller , tutti step.
Remarks

↑ with 1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
^ Change by Josef Maier in 2000; from SW, as a replacement for Zimbel III ² ⁄ ₃ ′
↑ 2000 added by Josef Maier, as a replacement for Salicional 8 ′

Bells

The bells of St. Josef were cast in 1988 by the bell founder Rudolf Perner (Passau).

No.	Casting year	Caster	Mass (kg, approx.)	Diameter (mm)	Percussive ( HT -¹ /₁₆ )
1	1988	Rudolf Perner, Passau	5,080	2,080	g ⁰
2					b ⁰
3					d ¹
4th					f ¹
5					g ¹
6th					b ¹

local community

Until 1975 the parish of St. Josef was made up of the entire western town of Memmingen. The area covered the city center up to the city limits, including the communities in the districts of Dickenreishausen and Ferthofen . In 1975 the parish of Christ Resurrection was founded, whereby about 4,000 believers switched to it. From 1986, when the St. Anton branch was incorporated into Ferthofen, the area includes the western part of the city, with the exception of the western part around Berliner Freiheit , and the districts of Hart , Dickenreishausen, Ferthofen and Volkratshofen. In 2012 the parish of St. Josef became a member of the parish community of St. Joseph-Christ's Resurrection.