St. Ulrich (Amendingen)

St. Ulrich Church in Memmingen

View from the second gallery of the main nave and the high choir during Christmas mass 2009

The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Ulrich in the Memmingen district of Amendingen is a baroque church from the 18th century. The patron saint is the Augsburg Bishop Ulrich , whose patron saint is celebrated on July 4th . The hall church , completed in 1755, stands in the north of the district, in the so-called Altdorf, on a hill in the Memminger Achtal and is a station on the Oberschwäbische Barockstraße .

Location and surroundings

The church is in the northern part of the Amendingen district in the so-called Altdorf on a hill in the Memminger Achtal. It is surrounded by a retaining wall that merges into a churchyard wall in the west and south. Within this churchyard wall to the west of the church is the old morgue, which has been converted into a chapel and contains a statue of the scourged Savior . To the north and northeast, outside the parsonage wall, the parsonage and parsonage adjoin. Only a Swabian farm to the east has survived from the old development . The loose development in the west with other farms below the church was condensed in the 1980s in favor of a new development area with residential buildings. In the north the cemetery joins with a funeral hall.

history

Previous buildings

In Franconian times , around the year 800, the first church was built in Amendingen, probably as a simple structure made of wood. The parish was first mentioned in 1341 when Heinrich III. Schönegg , Bishop of Augsburg, with the approval of the anti-Pope Nicholas V in the the diocese of Constance belonging Monastery Rot an der Rot incorporated . Thus, the monastery Rot owned the half great tithe associated with the patronage right . In 1422, Bishop Anselm von Nenningen occupied the parish with an interdict , which was repealed for Pentecost at the request of the Duke of Teck . In 1477 the Buxheim Charterhouse bought the other half of the great tithe and thus half of the patronage right. Ortisei was first mentioned in 1484 as the patron saint of the church. A visitation report from 1575 describes that the sculptures of Ulrich, Our Lady and Saint Catherine were attached to the high altar .

During the Reformation , many Amendingers switched to the Protestant denomination . The members of the patrician Sättelin family , as owners of the Eisenburg estate and thus Amendingens, had become evangelicals as Memmingen citizens. The Neubronner , as their successor, had also accepted the new teaching as Ulm citizens. The church records show that out of 600 subjects in the rulership, 150 remained Catholic. The rule was Protestant, but the superior bailiwick was still Catholic. The resulting differences were resolved with a treaty in 1586, thirty years after the Peace of Augsburg . This established that the Lords of Eisenburg belonged to the Protestant denomination and for the subjects to the Catholic denomination. If the subjects had accepted the new denomination, they were allowed to practice it for another eight years. They then had to return to Catholicism under threat of punishment. Pastor Gallus Möslin, who was amending, excelled in persuading most of them to convert before the end of the eight years .

Consecration of a bell on August 5, 1900

At the end of the Thirty Years' War , on July 16, 1642, the Rot an der Rot monastery sold its part of the patronage right with a tithe to the Buxheim Charterhouse for 9,000 guilders , which thus exercised full patronage rights. It stayed there until secularization in 1803. The tower of the church collapsed in 1655 and destroyed large parts of the nave. A makeshift building was consecrated in 1661. The sources of the building history of today's church are very poor. The Amendinger Archive was moved to Augsburg during the Second World War , where most of it has been lost. It is certain that in 1740 the general visitator of the Buxheim Charterhouse checked the financial strength of the community for a new building, as the makeshift building was found to be "old, unworthy and too small". The decision to build was only taken ten years later.

Today's church

The substructures and foundations of the previous building on the eastern slope were used for the new building , as were those of the lower medieval tower floor. Due to the steep slope on the eastern side and the narrowness of the property due to the adjacent courtyards in the western direction, the planners had to distance themselves from the traditional east facing with the much larger building . The church is therefore oriented to the north and thus one of the few places of worship that deviates from the orientation to the east. On March 24, 1752, the demolition of the previous building was approved by the Vicar General . The Buxheim Charterhouse bore the costs. The cornerstone of today's church was laid on April 11, 1752. After three years of construction, it was consecrated on October 12, 1755 by Auxiliary Bishop Franz Xaver Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden . It exceeds the usual size of a Swabian village church, as the new building was a prestige project of the Catholic Church in Swabia . The architect and plasterer was probably Jakob Jehle from Obenhausen .

The church seen from the east, around 1935

It is assumed that the interior design was based on the Buxheim parish church designed by the Zimmermann brothers . The three altars (high, Marien and Joseph altars) and the pulpit were built under the influence of Gabriel Weiß the Elder. Ä. from Bad Wurzach and his son of the same name. The sculptors and carvers probably belonged to the circle of Anton Sturm from Füssen and Dominikus Hermengild Herberger , who came from Upper Swabia . The name of the fresco painter has not been passed down. The church was renovated for the first time in the 19th century. In 1922 the shell and the frescoes were repaired. The large ceiling fresco, which was painted over during the first renovation, was renewed by Josef Albrecht. At about the same time, the door leading from the nave into the tower was walled up and the access from the sacristy to the lower part of the tower was created. In 1949 the altars, the pulpit and the figures received new versions. The last extensive restoration took place from 1989 to 1997. The entire church was renovated and the choir equipped with a new popular altar by Jörg Maxzin . In 2009, the retaining wall with the stairs, east of the church, had to be renovated for 135,000 euros, as the stability was no longer guaranteed.

Usage history

View from the first gallery into the main nave with the choir

The church used to be a house of worship of the Buxheim Charterhouse for the Catholic rural population of Amendingens and the surrounding area. After the secularization of the Charterhouse , it became an independent parish church with branches in Eisenburg and Trunkelsberg. Today the parish belongs to the Catholic deanery Memmingen in the diocese of Augsburg . Roman Catholic services are usually celebrated every Sunday and on Catholic holidays and solemn festivals. Rosary prayers are also held regularly. Protestant services, which used to be held in the church, have not been celebrated there since the completion of the so-called Amendinger Schlössle .

Building description

Floor plan of Ortisei

The St. Ulrich Church is a north-facing hall church . The rectangular nave extends over four window axes and is 20 meters long, ten meters high and 13 meters wide inside. The windows in the nave are arched. The adjoining choir has two window axes and a semicircular end. The inside is eleven meters high, nine meters wide and twelve meters long. To the west of the choir is the two-storey sacristy , to the west of the nave is the 30-meter-high tower . There is an extension to the east of the nave.

The facade of the southern face is structured by four pilasters , the flanks are concave swung back. Three large windows are let into the main floor, and below them are ornamentally curved ox eyes . In front of the portal there is a sign with a curved ornamental gable and a arched entrance lined with pilasters. A fresco of St. Ulrich can be seen above it. A sandstone coat of arms of the Reich Charterhouse Buxheim is attached to the facade above the sign .

The gable of the south facade stands out with a strongly profiled cornice , which continues around the nave and the choir. It has a large window in the middle and small, unadorned ox eyes on the sides. It is flanked by volutes on the sides . The flat top of the gable has a sundial and, as a crown, a golden eye of God with a halo.

The church tower connects to the west of the nave. The upper floor stands out from the rest with a cornice and is structured on all sides by pilasters. The arched window openings of the bell house are closed with wooden sheds. The fully electric church tower clock on the south side comes from Philipp Hölz from Ulm . The curved spire is clad with sheet metal and is crowned by a golden ball and a golden cross.

In the eastern extension there is a mount of olives scene with wooden figures from 1755. Below there are wooden statues of three poor souls in purgatory.

The sacristy in the basement is provided with a simple stucco frame. The room in the gable has a window opening with a hand-forged iron grille to the choir in 1755 and is called the little choir .

In the interior there are two galleries on the south side , of which the upper one is used as an organ gallery . The first gallery is built in at a height of three meters, the second is 2.7 meters above the first and is set back on the left and right, curved strongly forward in the middle. Under the gallery is the portal of the church, the wings of which are decorated with curved panels.

Furnishing

The high altar

Altars

There are three altars in the church, all of which were built around 1754. The high altar is on the north side of the choir. The side altars, dedicated to Our Lady on the left and St. Joseph on the right , stand on the north walls of the nave. They are simple altar structures with an indentation for statues and extracts.

High altar

The high altar, consecrated to St. Ulrich , has two columns and is decorated with figures. It was probably designed by Gabriel Weiss the Elder and erected in 1754. The altarpiece shows an intercession by St. Ulrich to the Holy Trinity to save the people at his feet from the invading Hungarians. It refers to the battle on the Lechfeld in the year 955. In the lower third of the picture people of all classes implore St. Ulrich. The battle is raging in the background on the right. The saint kneels on a cloud bank and prays for the people. A putti carries the abbot's staff, another comes flying to St. Ulrich with the cross that, according to legend, saved the people back then. On the lower right edge of the picture several small putti hold Ulrich's symbol, the fish, in their hands. The top level of the picture is dominated by the Holy Trinity, on the right side God the Father, on the left Jesus. The Holy Spirit is represented above them in the form of a dove.

The elaborately carved frames of the high altar painting are adorned with rococo ornaments, as are the two side openwork decorations. They are attributed to the environment of the sculptor Anton Sturm . The side figures represent St. Narcissus and the Augsburg diocesan patron saint, St. Afra . This was to symbolize the close relationship with the episcopal city of Augsburg. The structure above the picture shows two large angels and smaller putti with the flaming heart of Christ, embedded in a wreath interspersed with winged putti heads.

Altar of Mary with the crescent Madonna

Mary Altar

In the carved bulge adorned with putti heads, the Marien altar has a valuable carved late Gothic crescent moon Madonna from the workshop of the artist Ivo Strigel . It was created around 1512 and depicts the virgin with the baby Jesus on her arm, who is holding the king's apple in her left hand. The finely crafted Pietà below the statue is also attributed to Strigel's workshop. The excerpt above the statues shows the donation of the rosary . The Virgin gives a rosary to Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena . The artist is unknown.

Joseph Altar

The altar in honor of Saint Joseph of Nazareth shows a statue of the saint from the middle of the 18th century in the carved bulge decorated with putti heads. The unknown artist depicted Joseph with a lily in his hand. Under the statue there is a silver cross in a small indentation. The name of the artist of the excerpt is also not known. It shows St. Sebastian tied to a tree and pierced by arrows. During the times of the plague, the faithful called on him for help. Presumably there was a brotherhood of Sebastian in Amendingen that contributed to the great veneration of the saint.

pulpit

The sound cover of the pulpit is crowned by Christ in the form of the good shepherd with a lamb on his shoulders. It is attributed to the environment of the artist Dominikus Hermengild Herberger and was made around 1755. The pulpit is decorated with putti and rocailles . A silver dove with a halo as the embodiment of the Holy Spirit is attached to the underside of the sound cover , the edge is a carved hem with cords. Access to the pulpit, which is no longer used for worship, is only possible via the church tower in the main nave.

Frescoes

The church is richly decorated with frescoes . The largest, the ceiling fresco in the nave, was painted by Josef Albrecht in 1923. It shows the canonization of Bishop Ulrich von Augsburg at the Lateran Council in 993 by Pope John XV.

Choir frescoes

Choir frescoes

The choir frescoes are painted in baroque colors. The ceiling fresco of the choir shows the adoration of the name of Jesus by the four continents on a staircase above the Teufelspfuhl. There the four continents known at the time pay homage to the name of Jesus in the form of women. On the left, the continent Africa is depicted in dark skin color with a loose cloak, with pearls and a head-feather ornament and carrying a quiver, next to it the continent Asia. Behind the woman on the left edge of the picture from Africa, the right half of the head of an elephant can be seen on an implied railing. Asia, the kneeling woman is wrapped in a red undergarment and a blue coat with ermine trimmings. She also wears pearl jewelry and a gold diadem with a crescent moon as a forehead ornament. Asia is followed by a white ball, in front of which the imperial insignia of crown, scepter and potato lie on a red pillow. The figure of Europa is shown as the only one with his head held high. She is dressed in a red coat with ermine trimmings and a light blue undergarment with a gold armor . She wears a diadem as a headdress. Associated with her is a white horse with a gold bridle. The figure of America, also depicted with dark skin and bowed head, follows on the right edge of the picture. She wears a loose, orange-colored robe, a feather-adorned bonnet and also feather headdress on her left arm. A brown horse can be seen behind the woman. A cloud with two angels flanked by two other angels hovers over the white ball. The left kneeling angel with folded hands and bowed head wears a yellow robe that can be thrown around. The one on the right with a golden robe turns his head towards the radiant sun. The radiant sun as the crowning glory of the picture bears the Christ monogram IHS and is flanked by several putti . In the middle of the H is a child with a wooden cross. Above, an angel with a trumpet and a red robe lies on a cloud and holds a laurel wreath in the direction of the child.

At the four corners of the ceiling fresco there are oval frescoes with the evangelists: below left Matthew with the winged man, above left Luke with an easel and the bull, below right Mark with the lion and above John with the eagle.

Nave frescoes

Saint Barbara with goblet and tower and sword

In the nave, only the medallions with biblical figures and their attributes on the vaulted church wall of the baroque fresco decorations from the time of construction are preserved. The four Latin Fathers of the Church are painted in the corners: Pope Gregory the Great with a tiara and shepherd's staff, St. Jerome with the trumpets announcing the Last Judgment, St. Augustine with a flaming heart and St. Ambrose with a miter and beehive. On the long sides there are pictures of saints in the hollow between the roof and the wall. On the western side of the nave, St. Bruno as the founder of the Carthusian order, Joseph with the baby Jesus, the apostle Peter with the cock as a sign of repentance, Catherine with the wheel and Martin with the division of the cloak are shown. On the eastern side, St. Hugo , Bishop of Grenoble, Anna with Joachim , the penitent Maria Magdalena , Barbara with a chalice and sword in her hands and the tower in the background and George fighting the dragon are shown. The main fresco of the nave was created in 1923 by Josef Albrecht from Munich . It shows the canonization of Bishop Ulrich von Augsburg at the Lateran Council in 993 by Pope John XV. sitting on the throne below a triumphal arch. Various bishops, monks and secular rulers are depicted on the stairs to the left and right of the Pope. At the request of the Augsburg Bishop Luitpold, Pope Ulrich canonized. Above this scene, the saint is carried to heaven by angels on a cloud. Ulrich is depicted with a white robe, a golden cloak, a miter, a bishop's staff and a halo with a halo. An angel hovers over a triangle with the eye of God. In the organ gallery, Saint Cecilia is shown playing the organ, painted in 1922 by an artist from the Haugg company.

Other equipment

St. Ottilie, created around 1500

A Way of the Cross with oil paintings from the second half of the 18th century is attached to the walls around the nave. The pictures that are attributed to Konrad Huber from Weißenhorn are crowned with small golden crosses. The lay stalls and part of the choir stalls have been preserved from the time the church was built. The simple stalls are decorated with Rocailles carvings. There are also some oil paintings on the walls in the nave and the choir room. One of them shows the archangel Michael as the conqueror of the fallen angel Lucifer . There are also pictures of Saints Francis of Assisi , Bonaventure and Catherine of Siena . All paintings are from the 18th century.

Ignaz Waibel created the sculpture of the Good Shepherd around 1700 , which is placed in the choir opposite the figure of St. Nepomuk from the 18th century. In the rear part of the nave there is a sculpture of St. Ottilie from around 1500 on one side , which used to be in the small Gothic Ottilie chapel on the outskirts, on the other a statue of St. Anthony of Padua .

On the right side of the nave is a carved crucifixion scene with Mary and Veronica from around 1730 . She came to church in 1944; where it was before and who created it is not known. The baptismal font with its bell-shaped basin from the 17th century, crowned by a small group of Christ and John carved from linden wood from the late 18th century, is considered a masterpiece . The hand-forged grille on the parapet of the oratorio in the choir, which with leaf tendrils is decorated, and the twelve decorated with leafy vines Apostle chandelier of 1755 are also works of art of high rank.

organ

The Sandtner organ

Gaming table

View inside the organ

The first organ in Ortisei was probably built in 1860 or 1882. The still existing church documents give contradicting information. What is certain is that it was made by the organ building company Behler in Memmingen at a price of 2500 marks. It was replaced in 1953 by an instrument from the Gebrüder Hindelang organ builder from Ebenhofen . This work comprised two manuals with 19  registers and 1244 pipes . Government architect Willi Hornung-Ottobeuren designed the organ prospectus. The organ cost about 20,000 marks.

Today's organ work was built in 1997 by the organ building company Sandtner from Dillingen an der Donau . The slider chests -instrument has 21 stops on two manuals and pedal and Sandtners Opus 250 .

I Hauptwerk C – g 3 1. Principal 8th' 2. Copel 8th' 3. Amorosa 8th' 4th Octave 4 ′ 5. Pointed flute 4 ′ 6th Nazard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 7th Forest flute 2 ′ 8th. third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ 9. Mixture IV 2 ′ 10. Trumpet 8th' Tremulant

II Positive C-g 3 11. Reed flute 8th' 12. Salicional 8th' 13. Hollow flute 4 ′ 14th Duplicate 2 ′ 15th Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ 16. Cromorne 8th' Tremulant

Pedal C – f 1 17th Sub bass 16 ′ 18th Octavbass 8th' 19th Bourdon 8th' 20th Chorale bass 4 ′ 21st bassoon 16 ′

• Coupling: II / I, II / P, I / P.

Bells

The clapper of the old bells from 1922 on the churchyard wall

The consecration of bells in 1949

The church patron St. Ulrich on the Ulrich bell

It is not known when the first bells were hung in the church tower. On August 5, 1900, the bells were consecrated. During the First World War , these bells had to be delivered for armament purposes in 1916. On July 2nd, 1922, the bells cast by the Georg Wolfart company from Lauingen were consecrated . They cost 243,328 marks:

Surname	volume	Weight	text
1st bell	it	1124 kg	by the men
2nd bell	G	538 kg	by the youths
3rd bell	b	343 kg	through the virgins / women
4th bell	c	254 kg	by the children

These bells had to be delivered again in the Second World War and were melted down. Only the four clappers have been preserved and are reminiscent of the bells on the west side of the churchyard wall. In 1949, four new bells from Engelbert Gebhard from Kempten were consecrated by Abbot Vitalis Maier from Ottobeur :

Surname	image	volume	text
Hosanna		e	HOSANNA IS RING. FROM NEAR AND FAR COMES AND HOLDS THE DAY OF THE LORD MASTER GEBHART GOSS IN KEMPTEN THE FOUR OF US HANG HERE SINCE 1949
Ulrich Bell		G	EVERYTHING IS LOCATED IN GOD'S GOD ST. ULRICH ASKS FOR HEAVEN'S BLESSINGS! MY BELLING BRING THE LORD'S PEACE. KEEP WEATHER AND WAR AWAY FROM HOME.
Aveglock		b	MARIA D. MOTHER D. DEDICATED THE LORD CALL TO PRAYER I ALWAYS RELIGIOUSLY FOLD THE HANDS UNDER THIS WEEK ALSO COME TO ST. MEAS.
Soul bells		c	FOUNDED 1922 V. STETTER-DIRR. NEWLY MOLDED IN 1949 AS A CHAPTERIFICATION AND DEATH BELL - I ADMIT THE FORGETTABLE WORLD. ON EARTH EVERYTHING LASTES FOR A SHORT TIME O MAN, THINK OF ETERNITY!

graveyard

View of the cemetery north of the church

The deceased were traditionally buried around the church. In 1870, the community decided to build a new cemetery north of the church on a meadow donated by the owner of the adjacent farm. Only after the First World War did the last graves disappear from the church. Some epitaphs embedded in the western churchyard wall are reminiscent of the former churchyard . A war memorial was erected between them . By 1989, four grave slabs were attached to the eastern outer wall of the church:

• Anna Reichlin von Meldegg, died 1575, sandstone slab with the coat of arms of those of Meldegg.
• Sebastian von Berwang zu Ysenburg ( Eisenburg ), died in 1536. The sandstone relief carried a cross with St. Mary Magdalene . ( Drawing )
• Amalia Pflimmern auf Eisenburg, died 1829.
• Christoph Sättelin von Eisenburg, sandstone slab with a coat of arms relief. ( Drawing )

In the course of the external renovation, these were removed from the church's outer wall and stored next to the old morgue. They all show some serious weathering damage.

The still existing old morgue was built in 1922. The first expansion of the new cemetery took place in 1954 and was completed on All Saints' Day in 1955 with the consecration of the large cross in the middle. Since the old morgue had become too small for the rapidly growing site, planning for a new funeral hall began in the early 1970s. The project was postponed due to the incorporation of Amendingens into Memmingen. It was not until 1977, after long negotiations with the city of Memmingen, that the new morgue was built at the cemetery for 300,000 German marks and inaugurated on February 19, 1978. The money was donated by the land consolidation cooperative Amendingen.

literature

• Carmen Röll: Catholic parish church St. Ulrich in Amendingen . Ed .: Catholic Parish Office St. Ulrich Memmingen-Amendingen. Memmingen 2000.
• Tilmann Breuer: City and District of Memmingen . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959, p. 61-68 .
• Stefan Binzer: Amendingen in the past and present - a concise local history. Amendingen 1957.
• Stefan Binzer: Amendinger Chronicle . History of Amendingens - Over 30 years of war and peace - From World War I to 1964. 1964.
• Ludwig Mayr: The rule of Eisenburg . Steinbach 1918 ( digitized on Wikisource).

Web links

Commons : Ortisei  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Technical information from the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
• St. Ulrich, Amendingen
• The organ of St. Ulrich in the archive of the organ building company Sandtner

Individual evidence

1. ^ Diocese of Augsburg
2. ↑ Stefan Binzer: Amendingen in the past and present - a brief local history . Amendingen 1957, p. 1 .
3. ^ Ferdinand Eggmann : History of the Illerthales - A contribution to the history of Oberschwabens . Ulm 1862, pp. 458-460
4. ^ ^{A b} Carmen Roll: Church leader St. Ulrich, Memmingen-Amendingen , page 4
5. ↑ Stefan Binzer: Amendingen in the past and present - a brief local history . Amendingen 1957, p. 14 .
6. ↑ The district of Memmingen . Maximilian Dietrich Verlag, Memmingen 1971, ISBN 3-87164-059-X , page 136
7. ↑ The district of Memmingen . Maximilian Dietrich Verlag, Memmingen 1971, ISBN 3-87164-059-X , page 135
8. ^ Report of the General Visitor from 1740
9. ↑ Carmen Roll: Church Leader St. Ulrich, Memmingen-Amendingen , page 5
10. ↑ Horst Gaiser: Jakob Jehle - a Swabian master builder . In: Der Heimatfreund , supplement of the Illertisser Zeitung for home life, 10th year, No. 1, 1959, p. 1
11. ^ Rosemarie Brandl: Anton Sturm (1690-1757). A contribution to the history of South German baroque sculpture . Diss. Munich 1957
12. ^ Adolf Schahl: Dominikus Hermengild Herberger 1694–1760: A Rococo sculptor in Upper Swabia and on Lake Constance . Weissenhorn 1980
13. ↑ Memminger Geschichtsblätter 20, 1935, pp. 1-6
14. ↑ Uli and Walter Braun: One hour for Memmingen ...: not to mention the surrounding area . Verlag der Memminger Zeitung, 1982, page 71
15. ↑ City and District of Memmingen, page 66
16. ↑ Alfons Kasper: Das Münster 4. 1951, S. 115–122, chapter: Christoph Heinrich Dittmar in Memmingen and Ignaz Waibel, the master of the Buxheimer choir stalls
17. ↑ City and District of Memmingen, page 66
18. ↑ City and District of Memmingen, page 67
19. ↑ Inventory list, Parish Office St. Ulrich, 1997
20. ↑ Information about the organ on the website of the builder company
21. ^ Church inventory list, 1997
22. ^ Amendingen needs morgue . In: Memminger Zeitung , February 1, 1973.
23. ↑ The new morgue was inaugurated in Memmingen's north cemetery . In: Memminger Zeitung , February 20, 1978

Coordinates: 48 ° 0 ′ 20.4 ″  N , 10 ° 10 ′ 42.1 ″  E

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on December 27, 2009 in this version .