god's houses in germany

after first pursuing my theme in saxony-anhalt with growing enthusiasm, I expanded it to the whole of germany with funding from the stiftung kunstfonds. I have left the search and visits to chance, because my motifs are not listed in any art or architectural guide. in my experience, there is even a reciprocal relationship: the more culturally significant and thus touristically attractive a sacred building is regarded, the more it remains a monument, and the more invisible at the same time become the witnesses of active community work, which, on the other hand, is often at home in the most unspectacular buildings. so it is not surprising that I tend to find what i am looking for off the beaten track and in smaller churches.

after my work in the once reformed and later marginalised saxony-anhalt, on the other hand, it was all the more surprising for me to find completely different conditions in countries with more continuous church work and even more so in predominantly catholic ones like bavaria: who would expect to find whole areas with only very few churches there, while in saxony-anhalt there is hardly a secluded little village without one? the continuity enjoyed in the old federal states made for a generally better state of preservation of the buildings, but also often led to museum-like rigidity. in such places, I sometimes had the impression of coldness, which was hardly alleviated by signs of life. but each congregation finds its own balance of order and freedom in its house of worship and thus makes it more or less one of the people as well. here are some of the pictures of my search for these efforts: