The oldest kindergarten in Oberschleißheim was once built here on the outskirts, a pioneering act in the wider area. A more modern kindergarten was later built on the spacious plot of land behind it, which generations of Schleissheimers have attended over the past 50 years. Now both are looped. The church foundation Maria Patrona Bavariae is reorganizing its properties and wants to build apartments on the site on Freisinger Straße. Around 40 apartments are to be built, which, according to the Catholic Parish Association, are to be rented out in a “socially fair manner”.
According to analyzes by the parish association, the “Maria Patrona Bavariae” kindergarten can no longer be renovated with reasonable effort. The building is to be demolished and the kindergarten is to be moved from the periphery to the center of Alt-Schleissheim, in a new building in the context of the church and parish hall. According to the parish association, the so-called Pfarrer-Kranz-Haus, once the first kindergarten and later the dormitory of the Niederbronn nuns, is too dilapidated to be maintained.
Instead, the long plot between Freisinger and Holzhackerstraße is to be built on with two rows of residential buildings in a north-south direction. Another crossbar like the current Pfarrer-Kranz-Haus will be built on Freisinger Straße. Shops or offices are to be built on the ground floor and student apartments above. The rows of living behind are to use the natural depression in the property for a kind of above-ground underground car park; the parking spaces form the first level of the development, the apartments are arranged on up to four floors above.
However, the local council stopped the plans for the time being. The building committee rejected it with seven to six votes to draw up a development plan for the project. First, a legally valid permit should secure the new construction of the kindergarten in the parish center in order to be able to carry out this transition safely. This relocation has been planned for eight years. The municipal council had already approved a preliminary inquiry. The town hall and the Archbishop’s Ordinariate are currently negotiating the apportionment of costs. A coordinated draft has left the ordinariate these days and could now be presented to the municipal council.
In any case, the construction plans would already be ready. The primary goal on Freisinger Straße is to create apartments for their own employees, says Pastor Uli Kampe, i.e. primarily for employees in the parish association’s two day-care centers. Through the concept of “social land use”, the municipality would also receive access rights to around a third of the apartments, which would then also be given at discounted rental prices.
Another project that is at least mentally attached to the plans is the aim of the sick and elderly care association to install a residential group for dementia in Oberschleißheim. The current intention would be to include this facility in the large settlement project of the Catholic Men’s Welfare Association in Mittenheim, explains Kampe. Should this fail, such a facility could be included in the new building on Freisinger Strasse.
Children were looked after here as early as 1902
The pastor’s wreath house has to fall for the project. In 1902 it was opened in the presence of a Wittelsbach princess as the first kindergarten far and wide. This pioneering act was acute in Oberschleißheim because since the mid-1860s the art agent and painter Wladimir Swertschkoff had set up a privately financed “child storage facility” in his villa on Freisinger Strasse. After they ceased to exist, the need was aroused and the benefits were evident, so that a “day care club” was established, which initiated a successor solution with the new building not far from the villa.
When the Niederbronn nuns were called in in 1926 for childcare, nursing and care for the elderly, they were assigned apartments in the day care center. At the time of National Socialism, the sisters were banned from working, their dormitory was added to the “NS-Volkswohlfahrt” and given out as apartments. After the end of World War II, the sisters returned. The kindergarten, which children from Lohhof, Hochbrück and Großnöbach also attended, was now too small. In 1957 an extension was added, which now also provided two different entrances for the kindergarten and the nurses’ home.
In 1968, with the construction of the park settlement, the St. Wilhelm kindergarten was opened as a second kindergarten in Oberschleißheim. Nevertheless, the space requirement in the old kindergarten on Freisinger Straße also increased, so that in 1973 a new building was opened in the spacious garden. In 1985 the Niederbronn sisters also left the place and with it the building. In honor of the honored local pastor, who worked in Oberschleißheim from 1919 to 1961, it was called the Pfarrer-Kranz-Haus.
As a result, it was used for a wide variety of uses that were currently in demand in the area around the church. Among other things, it has housed Caritas short-term care for the elderly, a day care center for mental health, and a mobile Caritas workshop in recent years; It is currently rented to a company that maintains workers’ apartments there.
Pastor Kampe confirms that the historic building has an “emotional value”, which is why the demolition was also “well discussed”. Two reports had shown that maintaining it with renovation, especially for the dementia shared apartment, would cost millions and would therefore not pay off. However, it is absolutely necessary to dedicate another dedication in honor of Pastor Kranz immediately in order to honor his memory.