St. Paulus Church

About this place

St. Paulus Church in Backnang is a contemporary religious building by KLUMPP + KLUMPP Architekten, a Stuttgart-based practice known for rigorous, material-led work in the German southwest. The project is an example of the ongoing renewal of Catholic church architecture in Germany — a tradition that has produced some of the most serious contemporary religious buildings in Europe, from Gottfried Böhm's pilgrimage churches to the later work of Heneghan Peng and others. KLUMPP + KLUMPP's approach is disciplined and unsentimental. The building avoids the twin pitfalls of contemporary church architecture — neither retreating into historicism nor reaching for conspicuous formal novelty — in favour of a considered relationship between structure, material, and light. The handling of natural light within the nave is the central architectural gesture: daylight enters in a way that changes the mood of the space through the day and marks the passage of the liturgical hours. The exterior is compact and grounded, situated within the existing urban fabric of Backnang rather than set apart as an isolated monument. This integration with the town is characteristic of the project's overall modesty — the building makes its contribution through quality rather than spectacle. The church is a destination for visitors interested in contemporary sacred architecture in Germany, a field that continues to produce buildings of unusual seriousness and commitment compared to religious construction in most other countries.