Münchner Straße

Münchner Straße 1, the Saint Sebastian Chapel.

Originally built in 1637 — almost 400 years ago — the oldest surviving church in the parish, the history of this particular chapel stretches back even farther, beginning in the 8th Century.

In the 8th Century, Saint Corbinian (724–730) founded a Benedictine abbey in Freising, a town just outside of modern-day Munich. Not long after, in 739, Saint Boniface established the Catholic diocese of Freising.

A diocese is a territorial district under the jurisdiction of a bishop and divided into a number of parishes whose care is given to priests.

In 1294, bishops from the Freising diocese carved a secular swathe of territory out of the Holy Roman Empire here by acquiring aristocratic titles and the possession of land. These Bishops-who-were-also-Princes ruled this particular Prince-Bishopric of Freising, called the County of Werdenfels, from the eponymous Werdenfels Castle overlooking what is now Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The county was divided into three administrative areas: Garmisch, Partenkirchen, and Mittenwald.

After 500 years of semi-autonomy, in 1802, Bavarian troops arrived and the territory of the prince-bishopric was annexed to the new Kingdom of Bavaria.

The western tower wall is decorated with the coat of arms of Cardinal Franziskus von Bettinger (1850 – 1917), Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1909 until 1917.

Cardinals’ coats of arms are identified by the flat red cardinal’s hat at the top, and the 15 red tassels on each side. (Archbishops’ have ten, and bishops’ only six.)

The coat of arms for the Archbishopric of Munich and Freising has always incorporated the black Moor’s Head with a red crown, and, as painted here, the shield is traditionally topped by a silver and gold miter from which hang two silver ribbons with golden fringes, diagonally crossed behind by an Archbishop’s Cross and a golden crozier.

Beneath, the blue and white banner of Bavaria and the coat of arms for Partenkirchen.

At eye level, the most important dates of the chapel can be deciphered on a stone slab embedded there.

The Thirty Years’ War raged through Central Europe from 1618 until 1648. One of the most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in eight million fatalities –not just from direct military conflict, but also from the subsequent violence, famine, and plague.

Here in 1632, when this area was still the Werdenfels County Swedish and Spanish forces invaded, plundering and pillaging throughout the region. In the wake of that destruction, Werdenfelser communities in the years 1632-1634 were visited by the plague.

The tower and the sacristy were added in 1740. The plague cemetery was used as a community cemetery after 1775 until it closed in 1914.

In 1925, a World War I memorial was erected on the northern edge of the cemetery. That same year, this chapel also received a new look.

A photo of how the church and cemetery looked before the renovation can be found online at the Marsburg Photo Archive.

On the front, the coat of arms of the former lords of the Werdenfels, the Prince-Bishopric of Freising. Within the Holy Roman Empire, a “prince-bishop” was a Catholic bishop who was also the ruler of some secular principality. With regard to heraldic ornaments, these dignitaries displayed all insignia of their ecclesiastical rank with the addition of the heraldic ornaments due to a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Sometimes a sword (signifying temporal jurisdiction) was also added.

On the north wall, Joseph Wackerle (1880-1959) painted the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Plague, War, Famine, and Death) above Saint Sebastian.

In 1632, prostestastic, Swedish and also Catholic mercenaries from Spain invaded the Ammertal via Murnau, plundering and pillaging throughout the region. Who of these has brought the plague, is unclear. It is certain that all Werdenfelser communities in the years 1632-1634 were visited by the plague.

In Oberammergau 86 people died until dying according to legend was ended by the Passion Play vows; Every Sunday at 4 pm in Partenkirchen the ringing of the bell reminds of the last pestilence, a shepherd boy who died at this time above Florian’s Fountain.

In 1776, the small plague cemetery was converted into the general burial ground of the parish.

At the four corners of the chapel, Josef Wackerle also painted depictions of the angels John saw standing at the four corners of the Earth holding back the winds of destruction when the Four Horsemen were set upon the world from Revelations 7:1.

As ancient and tiny as it is, this church still holds services in Latin every Sunday.

On the side of Münchner Straße 9, a sundial.

On a banner above the Roman numerals, a line from the poem “Weltlauf” by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788-1857):

Der Herr hat nichts vergessen,
was geschehen, wird er messen
nach Dem Maß der Ewigkeit.
O wie klein ist doch die Zeit.

Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff

Or:

“The Lord has not forgotten anything, what will happen, he will measure by the measure of eternity. Oh how small is time.”

Münchner Straße 10.

Münchner Straße 12, Hause Terne/Wacker, originally built in 1866.

An inscription above the door says: “Gott segne dich ß Bäyerland die Jungfrau gibt Dir Gott zum Pfand Michael und Dein heiligs heer beschützen Dich wen fürchst Du mehr,” which translates, roughly, to “God bless you, O Bavaria, pray the Virgin, God, Michael, and His holy army protect you who from who you most fear.”

Facing the street, lüftlmalerei of Saint Michael, the Patrona Bavariae, and the family crests for “Terne” and “Wacker,” all painted by Heinrich Bickel in 1954.

Although there is no lüftlmalerei at Münchner Straße 23 now, at the Bavarian State Archives online, you can see a photo taken by Franz Kölbl in 1970 of the mural that used to be there.

On the wall of Münchner Straße 28, Partenkirchen’s volunteer fire department, there is a lüftlmalerei of Saint Florian, the patron saint of firefighters, painted by Stephan Pfeffer in 2006.

Prior to Pfeffer’s mural, as you can see in this photo from the Bavarian State Archives, there was a completely different lüftlmalerei of the patron saint here, signed “H. Hag” for Hanns Hagenauer (1896-1975).

Münchner Straße 31.

Lüftlmalerei above the door by Sepp Guggemoos, 1992.

Münchner Straße 32.

Münchner Straße 34.

Münchner Straße 36, lüftlmalerei by architect Sigmund Weidenschlager, 1909/10.

Münchner Straße 37.

At Münchner Straße 38, “Landhaus Novis” or “Noris,” located far back from the road and hard to see behind the fence, a narrative fresco wrapping around the oriel window painted by Heinrich Bickel in 1929 when the house was first built by Josef Zwerger.

It shows a cart from Nuremberg passing through on its way to Italy around 1800, (“Der Nürnberger Fuhrman…”) and stopping in order to change of horses in Partenkirchen.

At the Bavarian State Archives online, you can see a photo by August Beckert taken soon after this lüftlmalerei was first painted.