St. Josef

St. Josef is a Roman Catholic parish church in the German city of Passau, serving the parish of Passau-Auerbach. It remains an active parish church, hosting services and community gatherings. Michael Kurz designed it, and the granite walls went up between 1927 and 1928. You see the Middle Ages in the style: the tower rises over the chancel, exactly where older churches kept theirs.

The bricks came from a brickworks set up for the Kachlet power plant, which was under construction at the same time. Most counted as rejects, so they cost the parish nothing. The Großer Brockhaus, in its fifteenth edition, featured it as an example of modern church architecture. Inside, the paintings and frescoes came from Albert Burkart in 1931, and Karl Baur's great altar cross followed in 1932. Wolf Hirtreiter designed the more modern furnishings, so several eras share the interior. Becker & Hiendl built the organ in 1936, fully pneumatic, which means air pressure moves the action instead of mechanical linkages. Woodworm forced a restoration in 1996, so the instrument remains both original and well maintained. The eight front pipes are dummies that make no sound, yet they give the organ its imposing look.

The Lorenz foundry in Passau cast the bells in bronze during 1929 and 1930. Each hangs on a wooden yoke in a steel frame. In Holy Week 1942 the three heaviest came down. The parish priest of the day, Josef Winkler, kept even the smallest bell silent at Easter in protest. After the war all three turned up in a Hamburg bell warehouse, and they came back to the church. Few bell ensembles from the years between the wars survive as completely as this one.