German Visitors Enjoy Celestine's 175th Anniversary
Twenty visitors traveled from Wagshurst Germany for the 175th Anniversary of Celestine, Ind. Twenty-five years ago, in 1993, Celestine and Wagshurst established a Friendship-Partnership during Celestine’s 150th Anniversary celebration.
Among the Wagshurst guests attending were several band members who played for this year’s mass and in the afternoon parade. One hundred fifty years ago, about 40 families from Wagshurst emigrated to Dubois County. During WWII, one of the Wagshurst residents was taken as a German prisoner of war, from 1943 to 1947.
He was deported to Camp Breckenridge, Ky. His name was Herbert Jogerst. He was a professional sculptor and artist. He was drafted into the German army. Benedictine Father Peter Behrman from St. Meinrad Archabbey would visit the German prisoners of war, celebrating sacraments on weekends with them. Father Behrman met Jogerst and offered him a possible job at St. Meinrad Archabbey.
After the war, Jogerst returned home and found no work as a sculptor and artist. He agreed to come back to America and work at St. Meinrad. During his 10-year stay, he created the statues of St. Benedict, Maria Einsiedeln, and St. Scholastica that appear on the front of the Abbey Church. He created also the three stone altars of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Haubstadt in 1951. He was asked by a Dr. Nicholas James, who had a summer home called the “Villa Maria” overlooking the Ohio River at Troy, to create a statue. There, Jogerst created the famous statue “Christ over the Ohio” in 1956. In 1958, Jogerst also created the Christ the King statue that graces the front of St. Ferdinand Church in Ferdinand.
Jogerst’s last years were spent creating 12 statues for St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Ala. During those 10 years at his St.MeEinrad Archabbey studio, Jogerst also created statues and altars for the Archdioceses of Indianapolis and other stone carvings for Archdiocese of Louisville and the Diocese of Nashville. Jogerst returned to Wagshurst in 1962. The recent Wagshurst guests were given the opportunity to see and visit some of his local works.
