Stained Glass Story Tellers

With all the historic churches in Munich, there’s no shortage of stained glass. This example is from Saint Johannis Church in Haidhausen. Although stained glass has origins centuries back starting with the Egyptians and Romans, it started to be used in churches around the 4th and 5th centuries. And no surprise, Munich has a bit of history (albeit short) in making stained glass. The Royal Bavarian Stained Glass Manufactory started making stained glass in 1827, and continued into the 20th century. Along with its major competitor, Franz Mayer, both students from the Royal Art Institute in Munich, they developed what is called the “Munich Style” of painting on relatively large glass panels. As the story goes, Franz Mayer ran a school of crippled children. When they graduated at 15, there were no job opportunities for these children. So Mayer founded his studio to provide work for these young people and at times had more than 100 working on church windows. That glass went on to churches all over the world, and Munich as well.