St. Thomas More (Munich)
St. Thomas More is a modern church building in Munich district Sendling-Westpark . It is entered in the list of monuments as an architectural monument.
history
The parish of St. Thomas More was initially established as a parish curatio in 1964 as a separation from the parish of St. Heinrich , which had grown rapidly since the end of the Second World War . Other areas originally belonged to St. Achaz and, like the building site, belonged to St. Margaret . The first pastor was Erwin Hausladen, previously a chaplain in St. Heinrich, who remained as pastor in St. Thomas More until 1993.
The parish of St. Thomas More, which has been a parish since 1968, stretches from Albert-Roßhaupter-Strasse in the north to Zielstattstrasse and from Luise-Kiesselbach-Platz in the west to Passauerstrasse.
Before the construction of the new church, services were held from December 1964 near the building site in a tent that came from the 37th World Eucharistic Congress that had taken place in Munich four years earlier. Construction of today's church began in spring 1965, and in October of the same year the foundation stone was laid in the pillar to the left of the main entrance, which includes a stone from St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury , the resting place of the head of St. Thomas More . On December 4th, the second Advent in 1966, the new church was consecrated.
The first pastor and founder of the church, Monsignore Erwin Hausladen, died on June 6, 2015 at the age of 90. The founding pastor of St. Thomas More was active in the community for over 45 years. Many parishioners knew him from childhood as their pastor.
building
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The St. Thomas More Church Center on the corner of Heckenstallerstraße and Friedrich-Hebbel-Straße was planned by Karl Jantsch , who was a parishioner himself. The actual church building, together with the sacristy , the parsonage with youth ward and the parsonage with kindergarten, form an urban unit. The tower stands as a campanile at the southeast corner of the fenced-in church grounds, it is 44 meters high and carries a 5-meter concrete cross. The church bell, donated by the architect, weighs 600 kg, measures 102 centimeters in diameter and sounds as G.
The nave has a bell-shaped floor plan; Starting from 32 meters wide on the south side, it initially widens slightly to the north, then tapers to 17 meters on the slightly curved wall behind the altar in the north. The roof is curved so that the church interior rises towards the altar wall, where it reaches a height of 22 meters. The building is constructed from prefabricated concrete columns reaching up to the roof, with exposed brickwork between them. The roof was built as a combination of concrete beams, a concrete ceiling, and a wooden structure and is covered with copper.
The church building including the stained glass window, the rectory and the kindergarten are in great need of renovation. In winter, church services sometimes take place at temperatures around zero degrees. The parish hall has been closed since 2016, the kindergarten had to leave the building. The Archbishop's Ordinariate blocked the reconstruction plans for the church premises in 2017 because the costs of the project were too high.
Interior and equipment
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In the interior, the walls are grouted. The floor is covered with Solnhofen tiles , in the chancel with travertine from Tivoli . The north wall behind the altar is clad with Nagelfluh plates from the Bavarian Alps. The church window on the south side extends over the entire height and, with 131 square meters of pure glass, spread over 252 fields, is one of the largest in Germany. It is the work of Christian Wolf, a member of the congregation, and its theme is the return of Christ. Another large window is in the chancel on the east wall.
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The main altar is made of Michelnau tuff . The wall behind the altar is adorned with a metal cross measuring almost five meters; as well as the large church window and the altar cross, it was designed by Christian Wolf. The 1.5-meter-high sculpture of a Madonna is made of stone pine and offers shelter to a family and people of different races under her cloak, among them a priest with the features of the first pastor of St. Thomas More, Erwin Hausladen. The Madonna is the work of Pius Malsiner and bears the features of his wife Linele. Other pieces of equipment in the main room include a five-armed candlestick from parishioner Hans Bichler, the Holy Grave with a real bier from Aufkirchen am Starnberger See, figures of Saints Joseph, Antonius of Padua and Christophorus and a relief sculpture with Jesus on the cross as the victor death, created by Stefan Malsiner. The Way of the Cross on the east wall is a batik work from Indonesia.
The everyday chapel is to the west of the main altar, near the passage to the sacristy. The altar here is like the main altar made of Michelnau tuff. The tabernacle, designed by Rudi Seitz, is embedded in a five-ton granite rock from the Ötztal Alps. Also in the everyday chapel is the Gardena Cross, a copy of the cross that the sculptors Vinzenz Peristi and Johann Baptist Walpoth created in the 1930s for the Sëurasass above the Val Gardena. Two other chapels are located under the organ gallery on the south side of the church; on the left the baptistery, on the right the Thomas-More-Chapel with a sculpture of the saint. Finally, a Sacred Heart Chapel can be found halfway up the tower; the carvings here are by Hermann Kofler from South Tyrol.
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The organ from 1969 comes from the Carl Schuster workshop in Munich. It has 744 pipes, eleven registers and two manuals.
literature
- Erwin Hausladen: St. Thomas More Munich. A piece of home . Catholic parish of St. Thomas More, Munich 2001
- Birgit-Verena Karnapp: Churches in Munich and the surrounding area after 1945 . Koehler & Amelang, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7338-0202-0
- Church tour with Pastor Msgr. Erwin Hausladen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDABBUukcY4
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 6 ′ 38 ″ N , 11 ° 31 ′ 32 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Birgit Lotze: God's mills grind slowly. In: www.sueddeutsche.de. May 3, 2018, accessed June 9, 2018 .