St. Ludwig Virtuel English
St. Ludwig Virtuel
Welcome to the tour of St. Ludwig Catholic Church – on site and virtually!
We are delighted that you are interested in this special place of worship.
A tour of the church with five information boards invites you to learn more about the history, architecture and significance of St. Ludwig. On site, the boards accompany you on your way around the church and offer exciting insights with short texts and QR codes for listening to audio recordings.
So that you can experience St. Ludwig not only during a visit, but also from the comfort of your own home, we have also made the content available online. In the virtual tour, you will find all the texts and audio recordings – allowing you to discover the church digitally, step by step.
St. Ludwig Catholic Church
The church was built with pre-manufactured concrete elements and consecrated in 1970. Originally, the concrete was visible in its natural color. After a few years, however, the interior was painted. Pastel shades of green, blue, red, and yellow, each with different color gradations, can now be found along the verticals of the concrete formwork. The shape of the church, an ellipse with an upwardly striving circle, is testimony to a new church building culture.
The patron of this church is Saint King Louis IX of France. The second of the two concrete glass windows, which were designed by the artist Emil Wachter, is themed around him.
The patron of St. Ludwig is always a motivation for us, the Friends of St. Ludwig, to seek and cultivate exchanges between people like we say here “hiwwe un driwwe” (e.g. on both sides) of the national border. In this way, this church, with its French patron saint, has become a special monument to Franco-German friendship.
St. Ludwig is a branch church of the community of Fischbach. Both are part of the parish of St. Peter, which covers the entire Dahner Felsenland region.
It is thanks to some families from Ludwigswinkel that this church was built here, even though there is already a large parish church in the municipality of Fischbach. They donated their land on condition that a church would be built here.
Since 2022, volunteers from the Friends of St. Ludwig are taking care of the church. They regularly organize concerts, readings, special religious services, and concerts for children, for example. The funds raised contribute to the maintenance of the church.
The “King David” window
The two concrete and glass windows, each measuring approximately 1,95 meters to 3,40 Meter, are located about six meters apart on the eastern exterior wall.
This is the side facing the altar. The first window is slightly lower than the second. This is since the height of the windows matches the rising height of the exterior wall.
Both windows were created between 1968 and 1970 by the artist Emil Wachter (1921–2012) from Neuburgweier, near Karlsruhe. The windows were renovated in 1988–1989.
Wachter studied theology and philosophy, then painting and sculpture at the art academies in Munich and Karlsruhe. He worked as a freelance artist from 1954 onwards. Over the years of his artistic career, he has received numerous public and private commissions throughout Germany and Europe. He has received many prizes and awards.
The topic of the window on a red background: “King David”.
The window is a concrete glass window. Numerous small areas of color are inserted in an uneven grid of black.
The upper part of the window is dominated by a large circle. Outside, both above and to the left of the circle, is the color red. At the top, the red stones suggest the battlements of the city of Jerusalem. Red traditionally stands for life, strength, and warmth. In the upper right corner and on the right edge, in the upper part, red mixes with orange and yellow. The light-flooded red surrounds the figure of King David from the outside as red-orange and yellow.
Inside, on the right-hand side, sits King David of Israel in white. He is shown in profile. In the crook of his arm, he holds the scepter, symbolizing his royal dignity and power, in orange. David is gripping a harp with both hands. David was a gifted singer and poet. He wrote at least thirty-seven of the 150 psalms in the Bible.
On top of the harp sits a crown set with green gemstones. In the left segment of the circle, at the top, is the plan for the construction of the temple in Jerusalem in blue, red, and white lines. Underneath, there are building blocks stacked in white and blue. This indicates that David had already prepared everything for the construction of the new temple, which his son Solomon was to conduct. In the lower part of the window, directly below the circle, there is a large square in the center, also with a black border. It contains a staircase with seven steps in white.
The number seven is an indication of the abundance in God's plan of salvation.
A blossoming branch grows from the third step from the bottom, in blue, red, and white. This blossoming branch refers to Jesus, who will come from the line of David. The third step can be interpreted as an indication that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.
Below the stairs, in the center of the picture, you can see three fruit-bearing trees in orange on a white background. These stand by the blue water, which appears as a line at the bottom of the picture. The three trees are, on the one hand, a reference to the Holy Trinity, which, according to Christian belief, is the foundation of everything. On the other hand, a reference to Psalm 1: “Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”
To the left and right of the central section with steps, railings, and trees, there is a flower with a long stem. The right one has a blue flower, the left one a green leaf. Both also originate in the blue water at the bottom of the window.
In the center of the image, at the bottom, in the blue water, there is a green circle that resembles a basket. Possibly a reference to Moses, the progenitor of the Israelites. He was found floating in a willow basket on the Nile 3,000 years ago and later led his people to the Promised Land.
When viewed as a whole, Wachter's window resembles a puzzle made up of differently shaped, differently sized, and differently colored puzzle pieces.
If you allow the individual details to blur and view the window from a greater distance, the circle dominates the upper part, and the square dominates the lower part. While white and blue are the main colors inside the shapes, the red around them seems to shine through everything and gives the picture depth.
The circle is placed directly on the square. The square as a symbol for the world—four cardinal directions, four seasons, four stages of human life.
The large circle, on the other hand, stands as a sign of completion, as a symbol of the divine, the all-encompassing.
Audio file: The King David Window
The organ
The organ was built in 1978 by Paul Zimniol in Kaiserslautern.
The light beech wood of the organ provides a very pleasant contrast to the otherwise rather austere interior of the church.
It has 420 organ pipes and seven timbres. The instrument offers many possibilities and is well suited to the church interior. You will not hear the organ roar in vain; the focus is more on the delicate and bright tones.
In 2023, the organ has been renovated by organ builder Werner Rohe for a little under 10,000 euros.
Thanks to the commitment of numerous helpers from the Friends of St. Ludwig, it was possible to reduce the originally estimated sum by half. The volunteers helped to disassemble, reassemble, and clean the organ pipes and fitted thermal insulation to the back wall of the organ.
The organ was returned to service in September 2023. To celebrate this, there was a concert, where the audience could immerse themselves in the world of sounds of the organ.
Here you can hear the organ. Organist Daniel Kugler from Lembach in Alsace will be playing for you. The musician lives in Munich for 35 years, where he studied improvisation with Andreas Hantke. He is well known in our region for his market concerts in Wissembourg (France). He regularly visits his former home and enjoys the opportunity to play the organ in St. Ludwig.
If you like, take a moment to enjoy the sounds of the organ. The first piece is: Johann Sebastian Bach: “Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring” BWV 147, followed by “Toccata alla celitca” by Hans-André Stamm.
We hope you enjoy it.
The interior
The elliptical design of St. Ludwig reflects the ideas of the Second Vatican Council:
Before the Council, the worshippers attended Mass as devout spectators. The priest stood at the front, elevated, with his back to those in attendance. The churches were aligned with the altar facing Jerusalem.
The Second Vatican Council changed this practice. Active, collaborative participation should be a priority: “Christ is no longer only present in the consecrated gifts and in the priest, but also in the assembled congregation”. This church pays tribute to this fact thanks to its architectural design. Priests and congregations form a single entity. The church is free of any spatial orientation; the front and back are dissolved; there is no centralization.
The building is free of right angles and lacks symmetry. The dynamically moving space aims to awaken a relationship of faith in people that goes beyond reason. The design dissolves any hierarchy; all are equal before God.
The architect, cathedral architect Alois Atzberger from Speyer, says: “This is a dynamically moving space, which, through its form resulting from the design concept, seeks to show that ultimately, substance is also an indication of the irrational and a thoroughly legitimate path to experiencing God and glorifying Him. This is also intended to appeal more strongly to the irrational side of human existence, which is largely obscured by rationalism, so that a new relationship with faith can be gained from this."
The building material is lightweight concrete with expanded clay slate, without any further surface treatment. Pre-manufactured concrete elements were used in the construction.
In the 1980s, the interior of the church was painted, as already mentioned on panel one. Church painter Xaver Straßer from Schweighofen painted the walls in pastel colors.
The roof truss was built by Kilian Kimmle from Pirmasens. Twenty-nine load-bearing beams are visible in the church, thirteen in the sacristy and four in the vestibule. All the beams dynamically strive upward toward the highest point of the church, where the bell and a cross are located. There is no church tower.
The church has a diameter of approximately fourteen meters from north to south and approximately fifteen meters from east to west.
There are around 170 seats. The rows of benches follow the elliptical shape, which is why the curves of the benches are all different.
The altar and ambo are cast in concrete to match the construction material. A work by the company August Stephan & Söhne from Fischbach.
The stained-glass window in the choir tower was designed by the artist Helmut Schollenberger. It is an abstract composition of blue, red and yellow glass elements. From the lower right corner, which appears in shades of blue, red, white, and blue shapes strive upward to dissolve into a yellow and white round shape at the top. When looking at the window, one's perception is inevitably focused on the themes of crucifixion, death, and resurrection.
The bell was cast in 1969 by the Schilling bell foundry in Heidelberg. The striking tone is “ges”.
It has a diameter of 52 cm, a height of 56 cm, and weighs 98 kg. The melody harmonizes with that of the Protestant church bells, with the motif of the “Te Deum” – “Holy God, We Praise Your Name”.
The bell is dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, the holy martyr. She bears the attributes of the saint: the broken wheel and the sword, designed by Harry Mac Lean, Heidelberg, and the inscription: “Schilling cast me, my name is Katharina, wake up, I call.” The bell was consecrated during the laying of the foundation stone for the church on July 6, 1969, by Canon Joseph Schwarz from Speyer.
The church was consecrated on August 23, 1970, by Bishop Friedrich Wetter.
The window “St. King Louis IX of France”
The patron saint of the church, Saint Louis IX of France, lived from 1214 to 1270.
The design of Emil Wachter's window virtually compels the viewer to look at it from below.
The lower half is dominated by a large green circle, extending almost to the center. The glass pieces wind in a spiral shape in a black setting. They are not all uniform; in some places, a part seems to be missing. The circles are also uneven, and the spiral is incomplete, with the end located on the left, pointing downwards.
The spiral in green symbolizes our Earth, or our own lives—both incomplete, with breaks and gaps, but still hopeful.
On the left above the circle, the outline of St. King Louis is depicted in white. He wears armor and a helmet and can be recognized as a crusader. The artist has added his name in blue so that there is no doubt.
As a sign of royal dignity, a blue and red carpet lies before the king in the center of the picture, leading up to the destination of all crusaders: the Holy City of Jerusalem.
To the right of the carpet, which is depicted with a few blue and numerous large red elements, there is a flower in white, blue, and green. A symbol of the lily, emblem of the French kings.
At the top center, you can see the silhouette of a city with many towers: Jerusalem. To the left of it, a waving flag on a blue background is hinted at.
At the very top above the city, in the predominant colors of red and white, the crown of thorns that Louis is said to have brought to Paris on August 12, 1239, is clearly visible.
It was distinctive of Saint Louis IX that the crown of thorns was more important to him than his royal crown.
The finest virtues of the Middle Ages were embodied in this royal figure: Godliness, courage, mercy, justice, generosity, and wisdom.
At the top, a blue roof-shaped finish points to the “New Jerusalem” – the heavenly realm – as the fulfillment, endpoint, and destination of Christianity and the Church.
The Church celebrates the king’s memorial on August 25th.
Here in St. Ludwig, we also celebrate the patron saint's day every year.
Audio file: The ‘King Ludwig’ window