A topping-out ceremony almost 100 years ago

Karl Reiter only worked as a pastor in Puchheim for around five years.

But in this short time he managed to build two churches.

In 1928 the new Maria Himmelfahrt church in Puchheim-Ort was completed.

Two years earlier, Puchheim-Bahnhof received its first church, St. Josef.

The construct was innovative.

Puchheim

- The construction of St. Josef took place in record time.

The church building association was founded in February 1926, the topping-out ceremony took place in June and Cardinal Faulhaber consecrated the finished church in September.

The Hausmull factory provided the reason.

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Pastor Karl Reiter: builder of the churches in the station and town.

© D`Buachhamer

The church was built as a self-supporting wooden structure on a solid foundation - a novelty in church construction at the time.

The walls were boarded and plastered inside and out.

A small turret housed two bells.

In 1928 a brick bell tower was added.

The building of the church was controversial in the parish council.

The committee was divided as to whether a school should not be built in Puchheim-Bahnhof first.

Ultimately, however, the church faction prevailed.

In return, she agreed to vote in favor of building the new school later.

But apparently two years later not all local councils felt bound by this promise.

The vote on the school building was so tight that a proponent was specially brought from the hospital so that the majority could be secured.

The church was actually intended as an emergency church with a limited useful life.

But the temporary solution lasted for almost 40 years.

It was not until the beginning of the 1960s that the population in Puchheim-Bahnhof grew considerably and the wooden building was slowly becoming dilapidated that the community decided to build a new church.

The foundation stone was laid in April 1965, and Bishop Neuhäusler consecrated the new church a year later.

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Last first communion in the old church in 1964. 

© D`Buachhamer

The architect Günther Eisele designed the church consistently according to the ideas of the Vatican Council.

The altar is in the center of the square interior; glass domes in the ceiling direct the light onto the altar island, which is framed on three sides by the pews.

A colored ribbon of windows gives the simple room a colorful accent.

The building was supplemented by the parish hall and a 29 meter high tower.

St. Josef was initially a branch church of the Assumption of Mary in Puchheim-Ort.

It was not until 1945 that it had its own clergyman and that it was largely independent in 1956.

In 1963 St. Joseph was raised to its own parish.

In 1981 the relationship between the two Puchheim churches turned around.

Since then, the pastor of St. Joseph has also administered the Assumption of Mary.

Since 2012 the two parishes have formed a parish association.

The series

In the Tagblatt, the cultural association d'Buachhamer looks back at the past.

The basis are the 22 stations of the history trail throughout the city.