Emil Wachter was an unusual artist, as he had not only trained as a painter and sculptor at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts, but had also, from 1939 onwards – with interruptions due to military service and captivity – studied theology and philosophy at the University of Freiburg. The artist was firmly rooted in the Christian-Jewish tradition, so that from the 1950s onwards, although he was repeatedly met with hostility, ‘the German Chagall’ created countless works of art, particularly for the Catholic Church, including the complete design and decoration of large sacred spaces. As the scope of his commissions grew, Wachter tirelessly familiarised himself with new materials, media and techniques in order to realise both his independent and commissioned works in a manner that appropriately reconciled tradition and modernity. Alongside this, there is an immense body of ‘secular’ work – including countless paintings of Lake Constance, which the artist visited frequently and with great pleasure.
The liturgical reform brought about by the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) and an earthquake in 1969 also led to alterations and refurbishment of the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Singen, which had been built in the Neo-Romanesque style between 1909 and 1911. Alongside Klaus Ringwald, who created the main liturgical pieces in bronze, Emil Wachter designed, in addition to several stained-glass windows, twelve large-format tapestries for the chancel and for the two side aisles in the transept. From 1978 to 1981, under the artist’s guidance, numerous parishioners transformed these designs into embroidered tapestries. Above the side altars, fitted into the existing wall niches, these tapestries replace the altarpieces.
