When Günther Schmid talks about the Reisach Monastery, resentment and melancholy mix in his voice. The wiry man, who has known the monastery since childhood, actually no longer feels like telling the tragedy of the past two years over and over again. He had phoned the authorities twenty times in the past few months. He wrote letters, even to the President of the State Parliament, Ilse Aigner. He is always concerned with one thing: How long will the citizens be locked out of the monastery? He doesn’t get any answers.
“It’s all just blah blah,” he says. Behind him the tower of the monastery church rises into the late summer sky. The ocher-colored plaster is crumbling from the tower, which is why a scaffolding with a wooden roof has been installed above the church entrance since 2007, with moss growing on it. For almost two years, nobody has been allowed to enter the monastery in the municipality of Oberaudorf (Rosenheim district). “Except for the film crews,” objected Schmid. Then the resentment comes through in his voice again.
Although the monastery is closed to the villagers, film teams were allowed to use the building as a backdrop in the summer. The BR filmed a Munich crime scene that is to be broadcast in winter. A little later, the ZDF moved in for the series “Die Chefin”. Schmid shows photos from the shoot. Refectory, dining room, library – film people were allowed in almost everywhere. Schmid speaks of arbitrariness because they were allowed to do what the local clubs are denied. And Franz Böhm is also seething. “We feel ripped off,” he says.
Franz Böhm and Günther Schmid (right) want to keep the monastery for the community.
(Photo: Sarah Höger)
The two men fight to ensure that the associations from the village can fill the rooms of the monastery with life again. Schmid is chairman of the Niederaudorf village community. For decades he was chairman of the men’s choir, which rehearsed in the refectory and sang at church services. Böhm is his successor as the choir director. The women’s community also used the rooms. In summer everyone celebrated monastery festivals and concerts together, to which the Austrians also came from across the Inn.
In November 2019, the monks moved out
The monastery is located in Niederaudorf, the idyll of the Inn Valley is only disturbed by the railway line running right next to the monastery walls and the nearby motorway. Until it was closed, Reisach was a cultural center, a meeting place. “The cohesion in the village is strong, and the monastery played a large part in that,” says Schmid, now with a sad voice. And Böhm also says: “A lot of heart and soul really went into it.”
This was possible because the Fathers maintained a close friendship with the village community. Brothers of the Discalced Carmelite Order lived in the monastery for almost 300 years, most recently Polish. “Everyone in the village liked the fathers, they never had to pay half a penny at the landlord,” says Böhm. In November 2019, the Order withdrew the last three men. The monastery has been empty since then – and nobody knows what will happen next.
The authorities keep silence and are referred from one point to the next when asked. The responsibilities are confused: the monastery is owned by the Free State, and the Ministry of Culture is responsible. This granted the order the right of use. In January 2020, the Carmelites returned this right of use to the Free State. Youth problems, like everywhere in the church. The Free State then offered the monastery to the Diocese of Munich and Freising.
This waived because of the “considerable costs” that would arise from the necessary renovation and renovation. The diocese doesn’t even want to take over the monastery church. The Rosenheim State Building Authority is now responsible for temporary use. That also decided that the film teams were allowed to shoot in the monastery – although according to the experts there were structural defects. Why BR and ZDF were allowed in, but not the local associations, the building authority did not want to answer even after several inquiries from SZ.
The Ministry of Culture decides how the monastery will be used in the long term. But there are still no prominent plans, it says there. The property managers of Immobilien Freistaat Bayern (IMBY) are also involved. Here you are currently checking whether the Free State itself has use for the monastery, as a spokesman for the building ministry announced.
The refectory is just as empty as all the other rooms in the monastery.
(Photo: Sarah Höger)
The municipality is also allowed to have a say. Oberaudorf’s mayor Matthias Bernhardt wants to keep the monastery open to citizens. The community is in talks with the building authority in Rosenheim so that the clubs can return to the monastery as soon as possible. “I currently see no reason that speaks against using the monastery rooms for the local associations,” says Bernhardt emphatically. However, the building authority does not go along with it, there is talk of a lack of fire protection in the building, traffic safety is not given. Therefore, no further use was approved. The safety concerns do not seem to have played a role in the case of the filming. “Human life is human life, isn’t it?” Asks Schmid.
The church is in danger of collapsing
For laypeople, the monastery, built in the first half of the 18th century, looks like everything else, apart from the western part, which is in need of renovation. The bedrooms in the main wing were only equipped with new wet cells a few years ago, and the surfaces of the new industrial kitchen equipment shine in the kitchen. The highlight is the library: around 20,000 books gather dust here on wall-high wooden shelves. The library is directly adjacent to the church – and according to experts, there is a “considerable risk of collapse”. Even the pastor is no longer allowed to go to church.
The building authority is currently preparing an emergency renovation of the church vault, the spokeswoman said. “The church is the crux of the whole thing,” says Mayor Bernhardt. The community wants the monastery – but without a church. “Renovating and maintaining a church is beyond our capabilities.” But they are in “very good” talks with the government and property management to find a solution.
The library has 20,000 books.
(Photo: Sarah Höger)
In the struggle for the future of the monastery, someone else intervened. Stefan Schirmer is an electrical engineer with his own company in Kiefersfelden. He has been deeply connected to the monastery for decades. He wants to buy it, renovate it and then reopen it for community citizens. In addition, a hospice should move in and a facility for assisted living. Even the Fathers would then return as pastors, he was already in talks with them. His company will also move into part of the monastery: He is currently applying for a tender from the Federal Ministry of Research (BMBF) for hydrogen technology. Research is to be carried out in the monastery, provided he is awarded the contract.
“The renovation of the monastery should cost around nine million euros,” he estimates. He could do that. The authorities know about Schirmer’s plans, but he has not received an answer for months. In June, the building authority informed him that the monastery complex would be put out to tender, provided the state does not have its own needs for the building – the usual procedure for real estate for which the Free State does not have its own use. “In plain language this means: it will be sold to the highest bidder,” says Schirmer. He fears that the monastery could then go to a buyer who wants to use it exclusively for private purposes and would lock out the citizens.
Together, the Niederaudorf-based hope that the tussle over usage will come to an end. You don’t want to give up hope just yet. In keeping with the title of the crime scene, which was filmed in the monastery: “There are always miracles.”