Status: 15.01.2024, 18:00 PM
By: Clarissa Höschel
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The tabernacle at the high altar of St. Peter Wörth is flanked by two Jorhan angels. Above it, on the central building, are two cherubs (also by Jorhan the Elder) © Clarissa Höschel
Wörth- Two streets in the Wörth settlement commemorate the great designers of St. Peter's
Wörth – First the baroque new building, then the valuable figures inside: Johann Baptist Lethner and Christian Jorhan the Elder turned the Wörth church into a jewel of church architecture. Two streets in the Bergfeld settlement are dedicated to them: Jorhanstraße and Lethnerweg.
They certainly knew each other, but they didn't work together. This is not primarily due to the age difference of 27 years, but to their respective design focuses: Johann Baptist Lethner (ca. 1700-1782) was a church builder of the Baroque period, Christian Jorhan the Elder (1727-1804) a sculptor and sculpture expert of the Rococo. United in one church, their works bear witness to the development of sacred art in general and the history of St. Peter Wörth in particular.
When Johann Baptist Lethner married into the Kogler family of master builders in Erdingen in 1729, the footsteps he followed were great: Kaspar Kogler, a master mason from Schliersee, was the father of Hans Kogler (1642-1702), to whom the Erdinger Land owes almost 20 churches. Hans, in turn, was the father of Anton Kogler (1676-1729), who immortalized himself in the district with around 30 churches, including the pilgrimage church of St. Koloman (1718).
Lethner married Kogler's widow Ursula in September 1730 and immediately set to work: after Hinterholzhausen (1730), Kögning (1733) and Unterschwillach (1735), St. Peter Wörth was his fourth new church building. Pastor Ostermayr had been vehemently committed to this since the beginning of his term of office (1711). But it would be a good 20 years before those responsible were convinced of the necessity, the permits were granted and the costs were covered by interest-free foundation loans.
Lethner was to build a new nave. When the tower also collapsed after the demolition of the old building, he planned to add a tower, but on the west side of the nave. After five years of construction, St. Peter's was provisionally completed in 1739. At that time, it was still customary to separate the choir room, which was reserved exclusively for the clergy, from the church pews, i.e. the room for the faithful, by means of a "communion bench". And this area was also divided: the men sat on the right, the women on the left. They looked at the high altar taken over from the old church, including the main image and tabernacle.
The dilapidated high altar was replaced by a new one in 1747; In 1754, St. Peter Wörth was officially consecrated under Pastor Kaspar Egger (1748-1773). A year later, the altar was given a new main image. Thus, the only relic of the old church left was the tabernacle.
However, this no longer corresponded to the baroque idea of a contemporary tabernacle with an exposition niche for altar cross or monstrance. Shortly after taking office, Pastor Egger's successor Sebastian Pranger (1773-1791) applied for the construction of a modern tabernacle, which was approved in 1776.
In the meantime, Christian Jorhan the Elder had long since made a name for himself beyond his home town of Landshut; In Erdinger Land alone, he received almost all commissions for church sculptures in the district court. As a result, he knew the best carpenters, carvers and painters. Jorhan's task was to create two angel figures to the left and right of the new tabernacle and two cherubs in front of the pelican group of the central building. With these four figures, he has created the most valuable thing that sacred art from St. Peter Wörth has to offer to this day.
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Externally, St. Peter Wörth still stands almost as it was built by Lethner. The interior has already changed markedly through the abolition of the separation between the clergy and the world, as well as between the sexes. What remains are the Jorhan figures, which stand at the end of a contemporary modernization process and herald the heyday of Erding's church sculptures.
In the district, streets in Aufkirchen, Langenpreising, Reichenkirchen and Oberding are named after Jorhan. There is only one Lethnerstraße in Erding. On the other hand, one looks in vain for a grave or memorial that commemorates the Kogler-Lethner dynasty of master builders.
Sources
Archive of the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising (AEM); Lethner, Johann Baptist, Index entry: German Biography, www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd136012426.html; Woeckel, Gerhard, "Jorhan, Christian" in: New German Biography 10 (1974); Chronicle of the municipality of Wörth