Peter Thumb (18 December 1681 – 4 March 1766) was an Austrian architect and master builder whose family came from Bezau, Vorarlberg, in the westernmost part of Austria. He was active in Baden, the Black Forest, Alsace, Upper Swabia, on and around Lake Constance, and in Switzerland. He is best known for his Rococo architecture, mainly in Southern Germany. Outstanding examples of his work include the

pilgrimage church A pilgrimage church () is a church to which Christian pilgrimage, pilgrimages are regularly made, or a church along a pilgrimage route, like the Way of St. James, that is visited by pilgrims. Pilgrimage churches are often located by the graves o ...

at Birnau on Lake Constance and the monastery library at the

Abbey of Saint Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall () is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot where Saint Gall had er ...

, Saint Gallen, Switzerland.

Life

Peter Thumb was born in Bezau on 18 December 1681, a son of the Vorarlberg master builder Michael Thumb. He first went to work for the stonemason Michael Berbig in Au (Vorarlberg), then worked for his later father-in-law, the master builder Franz Beer and was member of the ''Auer Zunft'' ( Vorarlberg School). His first major works were the St. Mauritius Abbey Church (Ebersmunster) in Alsace and the church and library of the St. Peter Monastery in the Black Forest. In 1725 he was granted citizenship in Constance, Germany, and in 1737 he became a member of the city's Grand Council. After St. Peter, Thumb abandoned the traditional Vorarlberg wall pier scheme of church construction. As in the pilgrimage church of Birnau, Thumb made use of two architectural devices in Mengen, Germany (1741-1744): 1. He added a continuous gallery connected to the organ gallery halfway up the wall. 2. He created space for two side altars with two arched cantilevers (conches) in the fourth nave axis. For the project "Mengen" in 2003 in the Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe numerous floor plans and elevations were made accessible, unknown up until then. The pilgrimage church Birnau, which he built in 1747-1750 for the Salem Monastery, is considered his masterpiece. Thumb created solid architecture, in combination with Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer's playful figurative decoration and Gottfried Bernhard Göz's ceiling frescoes. With its majestic, picturesque location on Lake Constance, Birnau is one of the main sights on the Upper Swabian Baroque Route (Oberschwäbische Barockstraße). Thumb’s Abbey Library of St. Gall is one of the most important Baroque libraries. Together with the entire monastery complex of the Fürstabtei St. Gallen, it enjoys the status of

World Cultural Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

site. The east facade and other parts of the monastery church in St. Gall were built by Johann Michael Beer von Bildstein, presumably according to designs by Peter Thumb. Thumb died in

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

on 4 March 1766.

Impact and acclaim

Streets have been named after Thumb in Freiburg im Breisgau, in St. Peter (Hochschwarzwald), in Friedenweiler, in Rust (Baden), in Waldkirch, in Cologne, Konstanz, Hilzingen, Singen (Hohentwiel), Waldshut-Tiengen, Weingarten (Württemberg), and Bregenz. The parish church in Schwerzen is said to have been built after his model. The steeple of the Assumption (Schuttern) Conventual Church, from 1722-23, is also attributed to him. Peter Thumb's works include: * Parish Church Lachen in Canton Schwyz, 1707-1711. * St. Mauritius Abbey Church (Ebersmunster) in Alsace, 1708-1712 (facade and towers) and 1719-1727. * Church of St. Martin in Erstein, 1715, later neo-Romanesque by Antoine Ringeisen. * Neuenburg Castle (Guebwiller), town residence of the Fürstabtei Murbach in Guebwiller, Gebweiler in Alsace, 1715-1718. * St. Trudpert's Abbey: the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

of the abbey church, circa 1715–22, and the conventual buildings, 1738–39. * Monastery of Ettenheimmünster monastery and church re-construction, from 1718. * Our Lady of Thierenbach Pilgrimage Church near Jungholtz in Alsace, 1719-1723. *

Königsbrück Abbey Koenigsbruck Abbey otherwise Königsbrück Abbey (; ) was a Cistercian nunnery in the Forest of Haguenau, near Leutenheim, Alsace, Bas-Rhin, France, on the River Sauer. History The abbey was founded in or around 1140 (or possibly in 1152) by ...

: the abbey church, 1721 (no longer extant) * St. Peter's Abbey in the Black Forest: the abbey church, 1724–1727, and the library, 1737–39 * Monastery Friedenweiler, from 1725. * Abbey Church of St. Cyriak in Altorf, 1725 (choir and transept), → Altdorf Monastery. * Ebersmunster Abbey: the

abbey church A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

, 1727 * Monastery Church of St. Mary in Frauenalb (municipality of Marxzell), 1727-1733 (preserved as a ruin). * Günterstal Monastery, 1728 to 1738, outer walls of the monastery buildings preserved. * Church Monastery St. Margarethen in Waldkirch, 1732-1734. * Church and priory of Sankt Ulrich im Schwarzwald, 1739-1744. * Church and priory Mengen, 1741-1744 (church burned down in 1810). * Pilgrimage Church at Birnau, 1746–50. * Rectory Bermatingen, 1746-1747. * St. Peter and Paul (Hilzingen) Parish Church, 1747-1749. * Pilgrimage church of St. Mary and priory Birnau, 1747-1750. * House to the Red Dragon Tiergarten pharmacy in Constance, c. 1750 * Catholic parish church in Mundelfingen, 1750-1751. * Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Tiengen) City Parish Church in Waldshut-Tiengen, Tiengen, 1753-1755 *

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

, 1757-67 See Hitchcock, 1968, 166-173 for discussion about Thumb's involvement with the abbey church Birnau 2004-02.jpg, pilgrimage church Birnau Frauenalb kloster west.jpg, Frauenalb monastery ruins. Exterior of Abbey Church, Ebersmunster 10.jpg, Klosterkirche Ebersmünster St-margarethen535.jpg, Church nave of St. Margarethen Waldkirch Kloster St. Peter auf dem Schwarzwald-Kirche-aussen.JPG, Convent church St. Peter on the Black Forest St. Maria Himmelfahrt, Tiengen.jpeg, City Parish Church of the Assumption of Mary BibliothekSG.jpg, Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen

Literature

* Hans-Martin Gubler: ''The Vorarlberg baroque master builder Peter Thumb. 1681-1766. a contribution to the history of southern German baroque architecture''. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1972 ISBN 3-7995-5016-X. * Adolf Hacker: ''Peter Thumb and the Vorarlberg Minster Scheme. Ein baugeschichtlicher Querschnitt'', in: ''Schriften des Vereins für Geschichte des Bodensees und seiner Umgebung'', 68th Jg. 1941/42, pp. 7-22
digitalisat
. * Hitchcock, Henry Russell. ''Rococo Architecture in Southern Germany.'' Phaidon 1968, Chapter IV, Peter II Thumb. * Norbert Lieb: ''The baroque master builders of Vorarlberg''. 3rd ed. Schnell und Steiner, Munich u. a. 1976 ISBN 3-7954-0410-X. * Christof Rieber: ''Monastery of Mengen''. In: Edwin Ernst Weber (ed.): Klöster im Landkreis Sigmaringen. Lindenberg 2005, pp. 261-280. * Rudolf Werneburg: ''Peter Thumb und seine Familie. Contributions to southern German church architecture''. (= Studies in German Art History; 182) Heitz, Strasbourg 1916 (at the same time dissertation of the University of Strasbourg under the title ''St. Peter auf dem Schwarzwald und Ebersmünster'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thumb, Peter 1681 births 1767 deaths People from Vorarlberg Austrian Baroque architects Abbey of Saint Gall