Cribs that are built with a believing heart: Josef Priller from Freising guards treasures from all over the world
Created: 12/24/2022, 5:00 p.m
Josef Piller from the Freisinger Krippenfreunde can come up with self-carved nativity figures.
Around two dozen cribs are set up in his basement.
Piller takes the legendary crib builder Osterrieder as a role model.
© Lehmann
Josef "Joschi" Piller celebrates the birth of Jesus in a special way: from the living area to the kitchen to the cellar, there are cribs on display in his home at Christmas time.
Freising
– Josef “Joschi” Piller even has the Christmas story in a rootstock.
The Vöttinger once found this along the southern slope on the Weihenstephaner Berg.
In the mighty piece of wood the shepherds are already waiting with their sheep for the arrival of the Messiah.
He'll be there on time for Christmas Eve, my Piller and smiles.
Then the two sons and their families would be guests in their parents' house.
Traditionally, they would then fill the root crib with their own figures: Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, the ox and the donkey.
The nativity scene museum in the Piller house opens up next door.
The different traditions
From the ceiling to the floor, the various traditions of Christ Child worship are shown behind a glass front.
Cribs from Spain, Sicily and South America alternate with traditional Alpine cribs from Austria and northern Italy.
Masterpieces of woodcarving from Val Gardena are also among them.
"Mostly made of cedar wood," informs the pensioner.
From the flight from Egypt to the search for a place to stay to the birth in the stable in Bethlehem: the Holy Family is depicted in the most varied of ways.
Piller says there was an alpine snow nativity scene from the time when he was still active in the Freising nativity scene building association.
Pieces of glass were turned with a Bunsen burner until they looked confusingly like icicles.
The snow-covered landscape around the Annunciation scene was modeled with powdered sugar.
The crooked roof over the newborn was also worked on with great attention to detail.
Freising reference
Even a nativity scene depicting the Calvary scene can be found between the Christmas cribs.
What is special about this work: the crucified group was built into a rondel that looks confusingly similar to the remains of the wall on the Korbiniansbrünnerl in Weihenstephan.
Artistic nativity figures made of corn leaves are also in Joschi Piller's collection.
In the past, the senior traveled along the west coast of the USA – always looking for depictions of the Holy Family there, too, Piller recalls.
On the Way of St. James in Spain he was still on the road even when he was of retirement age.
(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)
In Puente la Reina, a village in the northern Basque country, he found a particularly harmonious depiction of the holy couple, the senior remembers.
He didn't hesitate and packed them in his backpack.
He carried the plastic figure with his normal luggage for several hundred kilometers until he sent it to a train station in the direction of Germany.
Unresting imagination
"The love of the thing, the never resting imagination, the unwavering patience summarized in a believing heart": These are the characteristics that distinguish nativity scene lovers, Piller quotes the meaningful words of a Munich scientist.
In his opinion, young families in particular should think more about the value of a nativity scene.
After all, this is a valuable symbol of the Christian faith.
Mary Martin
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