50 years ago St. Wilhelm became a parish in Oberschleißheim.
Someone who was a temporary messner at the time and was later only called "Mr. Messner" looks back.
Oberschleißheim
- St. Wilhelm in Oberschleißheim has been a parish for half a century.
Weihbischhof Rupert Graf zu Stolberg and Pastor Ulrich Kampe ask a, this Sunday for the anniversary service.
Contemporaries are Irmgard and Andreas Eichinger (both 79), the sacristan couple from the early years.
Kirchweih in 1971 and the laying of the foundation stone from the previous year stand for a time when the new Oberschleißheim began to be built.
The park settlement grew into the district that has largely been preserved to the present day.
The nucleus was the predecessor building by St. Wilhelm, the wooden barn on a field between Michaelianger and Feierabendstrasse, which was entered in the Schleißheim Chronicle as the “emergency church”, and, as it were, the delivery room of today's parish.
"That was a very young community"
In this respect, it seems appropriate to speak of the “founding years”.
A turbulent time in which a lot has changed.
A time when a parish saw itself as a solid unit.
Andreas Eichinger fondly thinks back to those early years when you could almost watch “how something lasted”, Eichinger recalled in a conversation with Münchner Merkur on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the emergency church in 2016. Something like that can be experienced granted to very few people.
"That was a very young community," said Eichinger, inspired by the idea of a lively community.
Benches for the wooden emergency church came from St. Clemens in Munich.
Residents of the Hans-Scherer-Haus made candlesticks and a cross out of clay.
The energy exuded by the young congregation could almost be grasped.
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Mr. and Mrs. Messner: Irmgard and Andreas Eichinger looked after the St. Wilhelm Church in Oberschleißheim during the founding years.
© Dieter Michalek
The “Gründerzeit” is actually understood to be the first two years after the founding of the empire.
Oberschleißheim, of course, has its own founding years.
In the absence of the sick Cardinal Julius Döpfner, Auxiliary Bishop Ernst Tewes consecrated the church and altar on November 28, 1971, the 1st Advent.
St. Wilhelm became a parish, curate Franz Engesser a pastor.
The Eichingers were there from the start, and the now 79-year-old Andreas will never forget how curate Engesser asked his wife to take over the office of sacristan.
In 1966, on December 11th, it was the first service in the emergency church.
Irmgard then worked as a sacristan for 25 years, eagerly supported by her husband.
“On Sundays she usually cooked and looked after the children.” He then stepped in.
More often than originally expected.
The Buchs incident
Even today they still call him "Mr. Mesner". All too often, however, that no longer happens. “There aren't many of those who live back then.” Sometimes that makes him think. Then he slips into memories. Eichinger now and then remembers how Auxiliary Bishop Tewes began to walk around the church. The evening before, Tewes had asked him for a holy water stem from Buchs. He found a box tree and tried hard. However, he left the finished frond in the sacristy overnight, quite close to the heating. So in the morning the auxiliary bishop swings the box soaked in holy water. "Once, twice, three times ...", Eichinger recounts: "The fifth strong blessing knocked his head off". The entourage following the auxiliary bishop looks embarrassed at the ground. Tewes himself, it is said, took the mishap with humor:"It starts well."
Eichinger sometimes misses this time.
You can tell that in him.
Eichinger and Irmgard, the wife of the founding era, attend the anniversary service on the 1st of Advent.
This will take place at 10.30 a.m. with the Weihbischhof Rupert Graf zu Stolberg and Pastor Ulrich Kampe.
Tomorrow exactly 50 years ago.
You can find more news from Oberschleißheim and the district of Munich here.
