Schwaben

Ballrooms for Angels
Southern German Baroque Churches

Bavarian Schwaben and Baden-Württemberg

Obermarchtal Klosterkirche 1686-1701

Church St. Peter and Paul of the Premonstratensian Abbey Obermarchtal

The early 17th-cent Baroque interior of the church showing the “Vorarlberger wall-pilasters schema” and the choir of the monks

From the art-historical point of view this is an example of “true” Southern German Baroque, what follows is usually termed “Rococo”. I am inclined to consider the style of the southern German churches Baroque and only the palais, and Schlösser Rococo.

Pilgrimage Church Steinhausen 1728-1733
Dominikus Zimmermann

The Pilgrimage Church of “Unserer Lieben Frau” lies in a tiny village near Schussenried on the Swabian branch of the Camino de Santiago to Compostela. When in 1726 the number of pilgrims to the small Marienkirche at Steinhausen became too large, the abbot of Schussenried commissioned the young Dominikus Zimmermann to build a new Baroque church. His third commission. He designed a free-standing building. In Germany it is considered the most beautiful village church.

The interior is a single space with an oval floor plan. Six sturdy, free-standing pillars support the ceiling. Domenikus Zimmerman would use this layout again in his last church on the Wies. The black Renaissance altars came from the previous church. Johann Baptist Zimmermann, Dominikus' brother, painted the interior and the ceiling frescoes.

The ceiling depicts Mary's Ascension surrounded by the four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, and America - the news from Australia had not reached Schwaben yet. The Spring of Life, an old symbol for the Virgin Mary appears on the eastern side, Paradise in the West. This Johann Baptist fresco became so influential that Anton Enderle copied it for the Zimmermann church in Günzburg.

Klosterkirche Günzburg on the Danube 1736-80
Dominikus Zimmermann

Church of the Brigiitten Convent Günzburg an der Donau
Church of Our Lady by Dominikus Zimmermann. Built (1736-80) between Zimmermann's work at Steinhausen and the Wies.

In Günzburg Zimmerman adhered to a less imaginative architecture, instead of plant-like columns as in the other two churches, he used rectangular wall pilasters and nonbearing columns, presumably to satisfy the conservative tastes of the client. Similarly the interior decorations, stucco and frescoes, although more elaborate than in Steihausen, are subordinated to the relatively sober architecture. The frescoes are by Anton Enderle (1741)

The closed box of the Habsburgian Margraves and the organ

The Enderle copy of the Steinhausen fresco of Johann Baptist Zimmermann.

Kloster Zwiefalten 1741-1760
Johann Michael Fischer

Former Benedictine Abbey und “Church of Our Lady" from the East

The western entry facade

Interior: The roccailles and stucco is by Johann Michael Feichtmayr (1748-1760), the ceiling paintings by Franz Joseph Spiegler and Andreas (Meinrad) von Aw (or Ow).

Built nearly simultaneously, Zwiefaltern and Ottobeuren are the culminations of Johann Michael Fischer's architecture. He finally solved the architectural problem of a "Langhaus" (nave) not dominated by wall-pilasters. At Osterhofen he had invented the ondulating balconies to enliven the nave. Here he polished this concept to perfection by introducing two non-bearing columns before each pilaster: The flowing walls and stucco of the interior of Zwiefalten form a superb symphony of color and space describing the conquest of Death by Faith, Love, and Hope, the theme of Christian Feichtmayr's sculptures on top of the chancel.
Listen to Mozart's Reqiem it reflects the themes of death and salvation dramatically evoked by the figures on the chancel.

Choir and Altar

Chancel

Pilgrimage Church St. Maria Steinbach 1746-64
Architect unknown.

The church is in a small village near Lautrach, thirty-five kilometers south-west of Ottobeuren.

Maria Steinbach is one of the secrets of the Swabian Baroque. A virtually unknown parish and pilgrimage church (1746-64). A superb example of upper-Swabian architecture - by Johann Georg Fischer and/or Dominikus Zimmermann? .... There is no record.

The stucco is for sure by Johann Georg Ueblherr (1763), the frescoes by Franz Xavier Feichtmayr.
The church has a unique collection of votive paintings in its ante room. They are by themselves worth a detour.

Kloster Ottobeuren 1748-1766
Johann Michael Fischer

Kloster Ottobeuren Benedictine Monastery by Joh. Michael Fischer
Church (1748-1766). Johann Michael Fischer's most magnificent building.

Fischer solved the challenge of his life, the intersection of the cross-nave, by a "Vierung" (quadratur) under a huge 35-meter high dome. Sufficient building space and two ambitious abbots permitted Fischer to build this design, first attempted unsuccessfully by Dominikus Zimmerman. The stucco is by Johann Michael Feichtmayr and others, The High-Altar by Johann Joseph Christian.
The netting was inserted in the 1990s to catch the droppings of pigeons nesting in the stucco!

The sequence of cupolas over the nave

The “Holy Ghost Organ” behind the elaborate choir stalls. - The church has 3 large organs, two in the choir, which can be played from the main console separately on five manuals. The main organ and this instrument are Baroque instruments by Karl Joseph Riep from the Alsace (1710-75). The third instument was added in 1967, making Ottobeuren one of the greatest venues for organ music in Europe

In 1972 we used to drive all the way from Munich to attend concerts in Ottobeuren. Since then I associate Mozart's Mass in C-major with Ottobeuren, Mozart's Requiem with Zwiefalten, and Rott-am-Inn with his Quartett No. 16 in Es-Dur, KV 428. Bach belongs to Northern German Protestantism, he does not fill the mood. - Keith Jarrett's Hymns andSpheres played on the Ottobeuren organ nearly destroy the instrument, but they are most revealing.

The Monastery buildings contain beautiful Baroque spaces which now house a museum displaying the history of the seven designs for the church. A breathtaking 40-year-long competition to which nearly every architect of renown at the time had submitted a different floor plan. Among them Dominikus Zimmermann whose plan was so grandiose, that he would not have been able to build it (including a wooden copula!). It goes to the credit of Abbot Anselm Erb that Fischer was chosen to raise his building on foundations and walls which had already been erected by Simpert Kramer and Joseph Effner (1744). - The stucco in the monastry tracts is an early work of Johann Baptist Zimmermann (1714)