GERMANY also followed i.e
Raincy's experiment with interest. In 1922 a group of architects, studying the principles of the requirements of the modern church. linked themselves with the liturgical developments at the abbey of Maria Leach.
Rudolf Schwarz was one of the leading architects in this group. They summed up their approach by these two principles: "First to start from a reality based on faith, not from one based on art, secondly, to be absolutely truthful in our artistic language by saying nothing more than we can say in our times and nothing which cannot he understood by our contemporaries. If what we have to say is not much, compared with the Middle Ages and antiquity it is still better to remain in our sphere and to renounce all sorts of mystical theories which will not be visualised or experienced by anybody."
Corpus Christi church at Aachen, designed by Schwarz and completed in 1930, is a perfect example of these theories in practice. It is a plain, rectangular hall without columns, without decoration, or distracting irrelevancies. All attention is concentrated on the altar which stands cool, austere and a little aloof, yet is in full, bright light, Everything is subordinate to mass and proportion and things not directly concerned with the Eucharist have been relegated to a subsidiary part of the building.
Iris Coniay