The parish church Christkönig

The unadorned parish church, christened in 1951, shows the development of a parish which came to life at the end of World War 2 and the post-war years.

Expellees and refugees from the Sudetenland, Silesia, East Prussia, Hungary and Yugoslavia found a new home in Roßtal and created a new spiritual centre for their lives by building a Catholic church.

This church, however, was not the first Catholic place of worship to be built about 400 years after the Reformation. In 1927, the few Catholic families living in Roßtal had already changed a former barn into a chapel, in which mass was held every four weeks.

The decisive person for a new church was the temporary priest Josef Zankl, who was transferred to Roßtal in 1946. His vigour and decidedness enabled the building of the new church, even though the parish suffered from financial problems and was often dependent on the labour of its parishioners. Only some years later, a sisterhood's department for social welfare work and a kindergarten were opened; besides, a daughter church was built in 1959 as well as parish rooms in the 1970s.

The Christkönig Church was built in a style which is typical for the post-war period. It is unadorned in shape and style and conveys the idea of God's moving people, having no home on Earth.

	Fresco above the altar

An outstanding attraction is the impressive fresco above the altar in the choir. It is based on a text of the St. Mattew's Gospel (25, 31-46). The depiction of Christ on the throne above the Earth dominates the fresco. On his right side, there are the seven deeds of mercy, on his left, seven angels with fiery swords and the seven major sins. Above Christ, trombones invite for the Last Judgement, witnessed by the four evangelists depicted in their symbols: an eagle for St. John, a bull for St. Luke, a lion for St. Mark and an angel for St. Matthew.

The right side altar is consecrated to St. Joseph, who is considered as the patron of all the Church, and thus holds a model of St. Peter's Church in Rome in his hands. The left side of the ceramic picture shows scenes of the Holy Family's life, whereas the right side refers to St. Joseph's role as patron for the church. The left side altar is similar to St. Joseph's. Virgin Mary with child is the centre of this work of art. The left third of the altar shows the expulsion from Paradise, Jesaja's prophesy and the Annunciation. On the right, there are historical scenes connected with Mary, for example the deliverance of Christianity from the Ottomans in the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571, and apparitions of Mary in Lourdes (1858) and in Fatima (1917).

Virgin Mary with child

A special sculpture stands on the left side of the main altar: It's a casting of the original figure of Virgin Mary with child from St. Laurentius Church (1320) that was given to the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. In 1991, a casting of the sculpture was made for St. Laurentius Church and two years later for Christkönig Church.

	The resurrected Christ

But as Christ's head of the original had been lost in the course of time, it was replaced in the second casting. Besides, hints of the original paint on the figure enabled the restaurationists to give it new colours, close to the original. At both sides of the nave you can follow the modern ceramic stations of the cross.

The small baptistery at the back of the church is only decorated by a baroque figure of the resurrected Christ, which was given to the church by a parish that had to relinquish its church for military reasons in 1951, and thus is a real contrast to the style of the church.

Simone Steinheimer