As of: March 2, 2024, 9:00 a.m
By: Barbara Schlotterer-Fuchs
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Schongau's town priest Norbert Marxer is leaving Schongau at the end of August - but he is not changing parishes, but is retiring.
'Some construction sites were very stressful' © Hans-Helmut Herold
He was a pastor in Schongau for eleven years, but due to “total overwork,” Norbert Marxer retired in the summer.
Schongau – The fact that parish priest Marxer is leaving the Schongau parish community at the end of August may come as little surprise to some church members.
However, the 66-year-old is not moving to another parish.
Because of “total overload” and internal quarrels, the pastor asked the bishop to retire - with success.
Marxer will say goodbye to his active professional life as a pastor in September.
However, he remains a priest.
When Marxer looks back on his time in Schongau, he speaks of a “perpetual show of strength”: one year after he took over the parish of Mariae Himmelfahrt as Schongau's parish priest in 2013, the parish network with the parish of Transfiguration of Christ was created.
From the beginning he would not have had an easy time of it as the one who has to explain himself because the offerings in the worship service area have to be merged.
Between the many appointments he has every day, Marxer tells us that he has been doing “for ten years in the parish community” what two pastors and two chaplains had previously done.
Friction is making the rounds in Schongau and is putting a strain on the priest
In 2015, parish representative Heidi Hentschke left the parish and her position remains permanently vacant to this day.
The same problem with priests who are supposed to help out: They come and go, no one stays.
Deacon Hans Steinhilber also recently left the parish community after a grudge-filled rift.
“That was the next blow,” Marxer says today.
After his only pastoral worker leaves, he has to run the place on his own.
He has been in poor health for a long time: last year he was out for several weeks due to constant dizziness.
“I knew then: This was a shot across the bow.”
The fact that a temporary priest arrived in Schongau yesterday afternoon, shortly before the conversation with the SN: pure coincidence.
“I didn’t believe in it anymore,” says Marxer.
After all, he has been waiting for support since October: But how long will he have it now?
In addition, there are frictions that keep making the rounds in town.
Marxer is said to have reprimanded a whining child in the service, and there was trouble with the city band: “There were some construction sites that put a lot of strain on me,” he admits, but looking back he still feels misunderstood.
“These were misrepresentations and rumors,” he says, speaking of “unfortunate communication to the outside world” that ultimately led to public discord.
“And at some point you get into certain frustrations,” he says, indicating that the public talk in town has by no means left him unmoved.
“But that’s not why I run away or run away,” he emphasizes and speaks of a “conglomerate of bad things and overload.
It takes energy when you have to deal with things like this.
And this strength is then missing somewhere else.”
Norbert Marxer emphasizes that it was always important to him to celebrate the services with dignity.
It was always important to him to listen to people's needs.
However, the great stress has pushed these central tasks of a pastor more and more into the background.
Marxer doesn't yet know what will happen next
He explained in an interview with the local newspaper that he first had to bring himself to take this far-reaching step.
Where is the journey going?
“To be honest, I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t have a place to stay yet.” When he moved to another parish, after 40 years as a pastor, he says: He always knew where he was going.
“Now I’m in a different situation.
I have to manage all of this while all business here continues.”
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Marxer had already informed the parish council of his move at a meeting on the Wednesday before last - three hours before he found out that the bishop had approved his retirement.
The clergyman informed his “sheep” during church services at the weekend.