Tegernsee: Paintings should bring the psallier choir back to life

Created: 06/23/2022, 07:00

By: Christina Jachert-Maier, Christian Masengarb

The walls of the psallier's choir of the former Tegernsee monastery offer plenty of space for the four abbot pictures donated by the duke.

The district savings bank has now dismantled the bookshelves and sold the books.

© Archive TP

The District Committee accepted the donation of eight paintings by Duke Max in Bavaria.

Four are to be shown in the Tegernsee Psallier Choir.

Tegernsee – At the most recent district committee meeting, Christian Boiger received a lot of praise for his plan to restore and exhibit the eight paintings that Duke Max in Bavaria offered the district for donation (we reported).

The monument protection chief of the district office explained to the committee that these paintings are part of a larger project that is also reviving the psallier choir.

The latter then accepted the donation unanimously.

"We would be stupid if we didn't support that," said Kreuth's Mayor Josef Bierschneider (CSU).

More on the topic:

Finally a use in sight?

Psallierchor should come to life

The most important part of Boiger's plan concerns four life-size paintings of important abbots of the Tegernsee monastery.

They are to be restored, funded by donations, and then hung up in the Psallierchor, where they are publicly accessible.

Boiger's plan received so much praise because it solves several long-standing problems at once without costing the county anything.

The first is the use of the psallial choir.

As previously reported, the use of the monumental room with the high windows had failed due to the lack of a second escape route.

The choir can only be reached via the Tegernsee high school - not enough for fire protection.

Boiger now reported that Martin Mihalovits, CEO of the Kreissparkasse Miesbach-Tegernsee, which acquired the perpetual right of use of the psallier choir (see box), had assured him that he would pay for the second escape route and act as a contractor: through a new door in the wooden wall the way to the adjoining upper Gothic sacristy of the Church of St. Quirinus was to lead via an existing staircase into the inner courtyard of the castle.

Monument protection, duke and duchess would have agreed.

A meeting with the archdiocese is scheduled for next week.

As long as this plan doesn't cost anything - which he doesn't - according to Boiger she should also agree.

Once the second escape route has been set up, the hall should be accessible to the public at events.

In addition, the plan resolves difficulties in restoring the Abbot's paintings.

According to Boiger, two of them have been with a restorer in Munich for 40 years.

He preserved them after they were found in the attic and almost ended up in the trash can after Duke Max in Bavaria handed over the Tegernsee Gymnasium to the public sector in 1978 as part of the Tegernsee Castle.

The restorer could sell the paintings after the long time.

Boiger organized a sponsorship of 25,000 euros to bring them back to Tegernsee.

So that the pictures are freed from the white spots of peeling paint, Boiger wants to initially exhibit the contemporary from Munich unrestored together with the two who are currently hanging in the library of the Tegernsee high school and call for donations.

He needs around 80,000 euros for it;

he already has most of it.

"I have no qualms about covering the rest." That's the plan.

Boiger also gave insight into the reasons why he considers the pictures worth preserving: They showed four of the five abbots who, starting in 1678, rebuilt the Tegernsee monastery within around 100 years, in front of the components they looked after.

As important furnishings, they are part of the monument and "belong to be restored".

The painting of the fifth abbot has been lost.

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Also included in the donation are four smaller paintings by well-known master printers, including the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg.

These hang in the baroque hall.

“They hang well there;

they have no damage;

that fits,” said Boiger.

Apart from the owner, nothing changes for them as a result of the donation.

As reported, the donation came about because movable objects remained in the duke's possession when ownership of the grammar school was transferred.

Among them were those eight paintings.

From the singing of the monks to the Sparkasse affair: how the psallier choir made the headlines

The psallier's choir, built in 1425, once belonged to the monastery church of St. Quirinus.

Here, in the room behind the altar, Benedictine monks sang their psalms.

In 1825, Bavaria's first king, Max I Joseph, had the 150 square meter room partitioned off with a wall of boards.

The ducal family later used it as a library.

Time seemed to stand still there.

That's why the ex-district savings bank manager Georg Bromme believed in 2010 that he had found a suitable gift for the district population with the psallier choir.

On the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the financial institution, he acquired a “perpetual right of use” for the psallier choir from Duke Max in Bavaria for 1.5 million euros, which from then on was to serve as a venue for special events.

The room breathes history, the ambience with the high windows is unique.

The catch: Because there was no second escape route, the room could not be used for events.

There is no electricity or water supply.

The bad buy made headlines as part of the Sparkasse and district sponsorship affair.

The current district savings bank chairman Martin Mihalovits negotiated with the church as the only possible buyer.

It quickly became clear that the church would not pay 1.5 million euros, especially since it is only about the right of use, not about ownership.

The roof, for example, belongs to the ducal family.

In April 2021, Mihalovits explained that the Sparkasse was keen “that we can use it sensibly”.

This is also important to the Tegernsee pastor Walter Waldschütz, who would like to use the room as a pastoral office for the grammar school.

However, all considerations have so far failed due to the problem of creating an escape route in the listed ensemble.

This is also important to the Tegernsee pastor Walter Waldschütz, who would like to use the room as a pastoral office for the grammar school.

However, all considerations have so far failed due to the problem of creating an escape route in the listed ensemble.

This is also important to the Tegernsee pastor Walter Waldschütz, who would like to use the room as a pastoral office for the grammar school.

However, all considerations have so far failed due to the problem of creating an escape route in the listed ensemble.