Timofej "Munich's City Saint" Memorial at the Olympic Park
Munich's City Saint: Father Timofej and his memorial at the Olympic Park
A garden paradise in Munich-Oberwiesenfeld - a Munich landmark (Deutsch)
Munich. It was once a small garden paradise in the Olympic Park and the unofficial memorial for Father Timofej, the Methuselah of Munich, who died here at the age of 110. Timofej is as legendary for Munich as the towers of the Frauenkirche. As the photo and letter documentation on site shows, it was none other than former mayor Christian Ude who called this strange Russian emigrant the "City Saint of Munich" in a eulogy on his 100th birthday. In 2023, Timofej's "Peace Church" burned down. Who was this hermit who officially built a house and a small church in the Olympic Park and lived there?
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| Munich Marienplatz, City Hall and the towers of St. Mary's Church, Photo: Helga Waess |
Father Timofej / Daddy Timofej: Individualist, Philosopher of Life, Creative, and Lateral Thinker
Father Timofej joins a group of individuals who embody the city of Munich, consisting of individualists, creatives, and lateral thinkers who unconditionally lived out their philosophy of life.
They are all united by an extroverted, charismatic appearance and the unconditional, unyielding will to be themselves and to assert their inner drive for meaning in life. They identify more than any other group of people with Munich as a city and way of life.
Munich Originals Shape the City
When these Munich residents are mentioned, whether on TV, radio, or in official speeches, their iconic status for the city becomes clear. Munich residents have an inexplicably strong connection with many prominent names. This refers to personalities such as the
- comedy duo Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt,
- the writer, journalist, and Munich walker Sigi Sommer,
- the Munich native Monaco Franze, aka actor Helmut Fischer,
- the eccentric fashion tycoon Rudolph Moshammer,
- or the eccentric Russian from Oberwiesenfeld, Father Timofej, who became famous as the city's patron saint.
This also includes the dancing market women from the Viktualienmarkt, who make Munich's history every year during the Munich Carnival and are known as far away as Japan.
It is precisely these personalities who shape the life of this metropolis on the edge of the Alps, embody it, and remain ever-present in the city's traditional memory. For us, this is a reason to visit Father Timofei's fenced garden with its illegal buildings in the Olympic Park, which have not yet been approved but are apparently tolerated by the city.
Father Timofei's cottages are illegal buildings in the Olympic Park
Munich-Oberwiesenfeld Airport was located here until 1938. After 1945, this site lay unused and was used to store ten million cubic meters of rubble from the bombed-out city.
The Olympic Park welcomes many visitors every year, but if you ask around here and there on the grounds, it turns out that hardly anyone knows that very close to the Olympic Hill there is a small garden area with buildings that the city planning commission never approved. People have heard of it, but whether it still exists is unknown.
There were never any building permits for the construction of a church, a chapel and other low-rise buildings on the war rubble mountain on the Oberwiesenfeld.
Yet it still exists, a Russian enclave on the site of the Tollwood Summer Festival, the grounds of Timofei Vasilyevich Prokhorov
Here, in the memorial, newspaper articles are displayed, or more precisely, in the "Timofei Museum," which, we read on site, even Vladimir Putin knows.
The Methuselah of Munich has landscaped, cultivated, and built this area since 1951 together with his partner Natascha. Timofei Vasilyevich Prokhorov went down in the city's history as Father Timofei. Over the years, the garden paradise became an unofficial memorial to the Russian emigrant who has long been considered one of Munich's originals.
Memorial to Father Timofej
The Russian émigré came to Munich almost six years after the Second World War. He settled here with Natascha and, as he claimed, built an East-West Peace Church on the present-day Olympic grounds, commissioned by a vision of the Virgin Mary. A church for everyone, regardless of denomination.
Presumably, the men who allowed the Russian to build a hut in the early 1950s where rubble from bombed-out Munich was being collected never dreamed of the indomitable spirit that would build here.
With his unusual lifestyle, the Russian émigré with the full beard attracted the attention of politicians and the public from the very beginning. He, his buildings, his philosophy of life, and his lifestyle were vigorously defended by him and his followers in the 1960s and 1970s.
The buildings were the subject of disputes and demonstrations. And its preservation to this day is largely thanks to former mayor Christian Ude, who frequently visited Father Timofej's garden.
An idyll, even today.
In his small house, which now serves as a museum, photographer Camilla Kraus chronicles Timofei's life in pictures
One of them, from 1972, shows Timofei and Natascha as a married couple. When his wife died five years later at the age of 78, Timofei erected a symbolic grave for her in the garden next to the church – for his private remembrance.
The Hermit of Munich met Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Silvia Sommerlath, the current Queen of Sweden, who visited him again in her capacity as such, and many others. Frequent guests in Munich's most charming illegal building were Christian Ude and his wife Edith von Welser-Ude.
Over the years, the eccentric old man became a "landmark of Munich." When asked how old he was, he always replied: "2,000 years!"
The story of Timofej can be found at this link - Part II:
Timofej "Saint of Munich" - Part II: The Story of the "Olympia Hermit" / "Hermit of Oberwiesenfeld" -
- TEIL 2: Timofej. Die Geschichte des Stadtheiligen - München: "Der Einsiedler vom Oberwiesenfeld". Der lange Weg von Russland nach München
LOCATION: East-West Church Foundation
Spiridon-Louis Ring 100
80809 Munich
Opening hours: Generally daily from approximately 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; usually longer in summer
TAGS: #Memorial, #Legend, #Munich, #Russia, #Christian Ude, #Collectart, #Oberwiesenfeld, #War Rubble, #Olympic Grounds, #Olympic Park
LOCATION: Stiftung Ost-West-Kirche e. V.
Spiridon-Louis Ring 10080809 München
Öffnungszeiten: In der Regel täglich von ca. 11 bis 17 Uhr; im Sommer meist länger
TAGS: Gedenkstätte, Legende, München, Russland, Christian Ude, Collectart, Oberwiesenfeld, Kriegsschutt, Olympiagelände, Olypark