St. Peter's Church and Petersbergl Hill

At the edge of a natural city terrace stands the parish church, and the ascent to it is more noticeable from the Viktualienmarkt side than from Marienplatz (formerly Schrannenplatz). The first confirmed church on this hill existed before eleven eighty; archaeology does not confirm the story of monks living here before the city itself. Deep inside the altar sits the medieval figure of Saint Peter, and the keys and papal tiara at his feet recall why he is considered the first pope. The church received its name from this patron saint, and the small hill came to be called Peter's.

By the spring of nineteen forty-five, holes for explosives had already been drilled in the surviving walls of the church's nave. Several air raids had destroyed the roof, the vaults, and the top of the tower. After the final direct hit, a charred tower shaft and part of the altar walls remained standing. The financial administration of the archdiocese and the monument protection authorities considered a complete restoration too expensive: the plan was to preserve the tower and a small chancel for worship and dismantle the rest of the ruin.

Max Stritter, parish priest of St. Peter's city parish, fought to preserve the entire building. His parishioners had lost their church, and he risked leaving nothing to discuss after the blasting. Stritter stopped the demolition and began reinforcing the walls in nineteen forty-six. Three years later, he died suddenly, without ever seeing the church restored.

The work was continued by the new parish priest, Max Zistl. He wanted to restore the parish church in its entirety and in its former appearance. When the financial administration of the archdiocese agreed to provide money only on condition that the chancel be separated from the rest of the space by a wall, Zistl found a state subsidy through Education Minister Josef Schwalber and city support through Mayor Thomas Wimmer. Bavarian Radio collected donations, and Munich residents of different denominations sent money. By the spring of nineteen fifty-one, the builders were already celebrating the completion of the new roof framework.

The most difficult work awaited inside. The main altar had been destroyed, but its central figure had been moved out of Munich in time. It is the seated Saint Peter, carved by Erasmus Grasser as early as the late fifteenth century. Before meeting Christ, Peter was a fisherman; the Catholic Church considers him the first pope. That is why the statue has keys and a papal tiara, why the church bears his name, and why, after the church, Petersbergl came to be called little Peter's Hill. Written sources do not explain why the first builders chose this particular saint.

During the war, the figure of Peter was hidden in Reit im Winkl, while the four Church Fathers standing at his feet were hidden in Marquartstein. On December seventeenth, nineteen forty-four, a shock wave brought down the vault above the altar. The entire wooden column structure remained beneath the rubble; only its base projected above the stones. The evacuated statues survived, but there was nowhere to return them to.

Architect Erwin Schleich reconstructed the altar's dimensions from photographs. Pictures taken by a man named Wallrab proved especially useful. He earned his living as a stagehand at the Residenztheater and, in his spare time, photographed Baroque churches in detail. His hobby gave the builders clear views of an interior that no longer existed.

Using the photographs and the surviving base, Schleich calculated that the four columns beneath the canopy had to be four meters thirty-five centimeters high. An old column was then found in a warehouse of church fragments in Westerham. It was four meters thirty-two and a half centimeters long. The difference was two and a half centimeters. After that, they began searching various storage facilities for the remaining fragments and assembling the altar around the rescued figures.

On June twenty-seventh, nineteen fifty-four, the restored altar was consecrated. Max Zistl remained parish priest until nineteen eighty-three and saw the return of the church for which his predecessor had begun to fight.

Today, St. Peter's Church again serves as a parish church, and Munich residents call its tower Alter Peter. It stands on a natural projection of the city terrace—the ascent is more noticeable from the Viktualienmarkt side than from Marienplatz (formerly Schrannenplatz). The first attested church appeared here before eleven eighty; archaeologists do not confirm the story that monks supposedly lived on the hill even before the city was founded. At the center of the present altar sits the original medieval Peter, moved away before the bombings. The columns, the canopy, and a substantial part of the space around it were created anew thanks to two parish priests, someone else's passion for photography, and fragments found before they were thrown away.