Had you been here in 1928 you would have found a wooden emergency church east of Siglstrasse. Today we are standing in front of Zu den heiligen zwölf Aposteln. This is its successor. Zu den heiligen zwölf Aposteln is a Catholic parish church in Munich. It is part of the Laim parish association in the Laim deanery of the Archdiocese of Munich.
The church is located between Schrobenhausener Straße and Siglstraße in the Laim district of Munich. Pfarrer-Endres-Weg borders the church property to the south. After a competition for a new building in 1936, the emergency church was to be replaced by a permanent sacred building. However, this was prevented by the building authorities during the Nazi era.
In 1945, 12 Apostles became a city parish. In 1951, there was another competition. The Munich architect Sep Ruf won with his design. On November 9, 1953, after two years of construction, the church was consecrated by Joseph Cardinal Wendel. Rainer Maria Schießler celebrated his first Mass in the church in 1987. He concelebrated with Elmar Gruber.
From the outside, the church appears as a simple, white-plastered brick building. Its form is simple and sparsely cubic. The interior corresponds to a hall church with a semicircular apse. There is a window strip on the entrance side. A bell tower stands north of the church building. To the south is a single-story rectory with a kindergarten. It is arranged around a rectangular inner courtyard.
In the apse is a large-format relief by Karl Knappe. There are also two monumental large-area paintings by Jakob Kuffner in graffito fresco technique. The church Zu den heiligen zwölf Aposteln is the first church that Sep Ruf designed. To the south is the elementary school on Schrobenhausener Straße, also a building by Sep Ruf. The building is a protected monument.
The organ was built in 1996 by the Karl Schuke Berlin organ workshop as Opus 500. It has 38 stops on two manuals and pedals. The tower houses three bells by Rudolf Perner. They are tuned to G1, B1, and C2. On Saturdays at 3 p.m., the bells ring in Sunday. The second bell rings for the Angelus and the end of the evening rosary. In the evening, the third bell rings in memory of the deceased. On Sunday, before Mass, all the bells ring for the final call.
The striking bell tower of Zu den heiligen zwölf Aposteln stands out. It has eye-catching blue and gold clock faces. The simple plastered building is a special structure. The building exemplifies Ruf’s interest in the interplay of liturgical reform and sacred architecture.
Sep Ruf received his first commissions for sacred buildings in Munich under Cardinal Faulhaber. The church was built in the early 1950s. This was many years before the 37th Eucharistic World Congress in 1960 and the Second Vatican Council in 1962.
In April 1952, Ruf’s design for Laim won a limited competition. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on November 30, 1952. The hall building is 40 meters long and 18 meters wide. It has a semicircular apse in the east of the Apostle Church. The church extends over a spacious property, surrounded by several small squares. White-plastered brickwork and few striking window openings give the building a modest yet elegant appearance. Ruf also paid attention to important references to the adjacent buildings. To the north, a tower building connects to the belfry. Inside is a deep weekday chapel. Above it is an organ loft. Opposite is a large, brightly glazed window with a passage to the rectory below. The sacristy is also located in the basement passage. In the floor plan, the suggestion of a cruciform layout can be seen. This is despite the closed nature and uniformity of the church space. The altar relief comes from Karl Knappe. Josef Hamberger designed the Stations of the Cross, the Easter candlestick, and a processional cross.