Dominikus Böhm 1880–1955

Dominikus Böhm is considered – along with Rudolf Schwarz – to be the most important German church builder of the 20th century. The impetus for his built work came from the liturgical reform movement in the Catholic Church, which sought to turn passive worshipers into active participants in the events. Four decades before the Second Vatican Council, Böhm created the architectural space for this: the emergency church in Offenbach (1919), formed from the simplest volumes, and the parish church in Dettingen near Hanau (1922) are regarded as the first modernist sacred buildings in Germany that refused to follow the prescribed historical architectural style. His design “Circumstantes” (1923) was the first of its kind that, with the altar, consistently placed the center of action of the Catholic rite, which had been removed from the congregation for centuries, back into the room and among the people.