In eight decades he has achieved a masterpiece with brushes and spatulas, with paints and gold leaf: church painter Konrad Kästle from Vogach.
He dealt with millionaires and church leaders.
But he never let himself be disturbed.
The 93-year-old still works on his pictures every day.
Vogach
- It was on a cold winter day in early 1941 when Konrad Kästle watched restoration work in a small church in his home town of Gundelfingen.
Fascinated, he watched how figures were prepared and altars repaired.
"Do you want to do something like that too?" Asked the craftsman boss of the boy.
In the same year, the then 13-year-old began an apprenticeship as a church painter.
That was 80 years ago.
Today Konrad Kästle is 93. He has worked in many churches, in monasteries and in the villas of the super-rich.
But he doesn't want to make a fuss about it.
“I'm nothing else than others,” he says modestly.
When he sits on the self-made terrace of his house in Vogach, looks into the lush greenery around the fish pond and talks about his career, you hear more fortunate coincidences than strategic planning.
His training was interrupted by military service.
At 16 he was drafted, a year later the madness was over.
Kästle finished his training as a church painter, barrel painter and gilder.
After a short time at his old company, he went to Munich as a journeyman, where there was more to do for him.
In a café on Lenbachplatz he met a young woman from Berlin named Gisela, who worked behind the counter there.
He has been married to her for 70 years.
She also celebrated her 93rd birthday this year.
“We have always been lucky,” says Gisela Kästle.
The two of them moved from their first shared room to an apartment near the Sendlinger Tor.
From the kitchen window they could see the Stachus.
Konrad Kästle went into business for himself and took on restoration work in many representative buildings.
In the Asamkirche, in the Bürgersaal, on the facade of the Residenz, in the Old Peter and in several other churches, he has left his mark.
The gilding
Its particular strength was gilding.
His old boss had taught him tricks that no one else knew.
Kästle also spent years developing a process for painting ceilings that made them look smoother than the bonnet of a new car.
Competitors tried to imitate him but never succeeded.
Kästle made friends, not clusters. A sculptor friend and an architect kept coming up with beautiful new orders. The father of two took on the artistic design of the beer parlors in Andechs Monastery, worked for the Swarovski family in Austria and decorated a villa of the Bavarian dairy millionaire Meggle with ceiling paintings and stucco moldings.
Who was easier to deal with - the church clients or the heavily wealthy private individuals?
“The private ones,” replies Kästle like a shot from a pistol.
“In the monasteries, they mostly disagreed.” Looking back, he attested his private customers to be incredibly patient.
He was occupied with the design of the Meggle villa in Wasserburg alone for six or seven years.
He did not allow himself to be rushed at work.
And if he wanted to take a week off in between, then that was it.
In 1971 Konrad and Gisela Kästle moved to the Mittelstetten district of Vogach.
That too came about through a friend.
He had an estate nearby and wanted to have them close by.
He helped the couple with the renovation and expansion of the former venue, which is part of the sacristan's property next to St. John's Church.
The couple still lives independently here, together with the dog Bella, two cats, four chickens and the fish in the pond.
Konrad Kästle still paints every day, his wife plays the piano.
The two have no grandchildren, but their daughter often comes to visit.
They already had to carry their son to his grave, he died at the age of 62 as a result of a stroke.
Konrad Kästle used to work with him a lot.
“He was a good painter,” says the senior, looking into the distance.
"Better than me."