Whether for prayer, at noon, during the conversion or in the event of death: three bells ring in Mittelstetten - mostly all together.
If only one sounds, it announces a death - and in a very specific way.
Mittelstetten -
Leonhard Bachmeir still has the "Riesen-Schepperer" in his ear today.
He was just getting ready for his altar service when the clapper of one of the bells in St. New Year's Church fell and crashed on the roof of the sacristy.
Everyone present was shocked, but luckily nothing worse happened.
Today, around 45 years later, as a church caretaker and organist, Bachmeir is still closely associated with the church and its bells.
There are three who regularly ring the bell in the tower of St. Silvester.
They are named after Maria, Joseph and the namesake of the church - the name is engraved on the bell as "New Year's Eve", while the parish is written with an "i".
Manufactured in 1949 and 1950, all three are comparatively young.
The previous copies had to be handed in during the Second World War - they came to Hamburg and were melted down.
During the period of departure after the war, it was decided to add a third to the originally two bells.
“Because of the better sound,” explains Bachmeir.
There are still contemporary witnesses in Mittelstetten who remember the day of the consecration of bells.
The bronze colossi, which weighed between 130 and 416 kilos, were festively decorated and handed over to their destination.
All three come from a foundry in Erding.
While church services are only held at longer intervals in the surrounding branch churches, believers gather twice a week for mass and the rosary in St. New Year's Eve.
The bells come into action accordingly often.
At fixed time intervals and combinations, they call for prayer, at noon, announce the change and deaths in the place.
The latter, the so-called arbitration ringing, is initially played by all three bells together.
Then the Joseph bell sounds if the deceased was a woman.
The Marienglocke sounds when it is a question of a man.
Another bell is added in summer - it accompanies the weather blessing that Pastor Anton Brandstetter speaks during the Sunday masses.
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The largest of the three is the Marienglocke.
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Mesner Bettina Zink is responsible for the correct timing of the bell.
Speaking of timing - the time also sounds every 15 minutes from the church tower.
The bells do not move, but are struck by a hammer connected to the tower clock.
This has not always worked without any problems in the past.
It happened that the clock would go too fast in winter during longer cold spells.
Once a striking mechanism failed because the bearings were worn out - suddenly individual notes were missing at the strike of the hour.
In 2014 the deficiencies were remedied.
Since then, the bells have sounded nicer than ever, because in the course of the repair work, the old steel yokes were exchanged for examples made of oak and new round bale clappers were used.
The work was carried out by the renowned Austrian company Grassmayr, which a few years ago manufactured the largest free-swinging bell in the world - a 25-ton example for a cathedral in Bucharest.
The church caretaker Bachmeir followed the work in the bell chamber of St. Silvester at close range and also helped himself.
“That was very interesting,” says the 56-year-old.
To replace the yokes, the bells had to be lifted to the ceiling with cables and then attached again.
Since then, master carpenter Bachmeir has been regularly in the bell room to tighten the brackets, as the wood "shrinks".
Pastor Michael Würth, who died in 2018, wanted to make the bells sound better.
He has thus left an acoustic legacy to his Mittelstetten residents.
The series
At “The Bells of Mittelstetten”, the daily newspaper and the Mittelstetten Village Revitalization Association present the bells of all six places of worship and their history.
The association will soon publish its research as a brochure.