Right next to Interstate 94 in Collegeville, Minnesota, there is an impressive architectural wonder brought to life by renowned architect Marcel Brewer.
“He was originally from Hungary and studied at the Bauhaus in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. And when Hitler took over the Bauhaus, he moved to London,” said Abby Monk’s brother Alan Reid. “In the end, he moved to the United States.”
Oscar Award Winner film “Brutal” – The fictional story about Holocaust survivors and immigrant architects was inspired by the church of the monastery thanks to a book written by a monk who worked with Brewer.
“The link is that the film director read a small book while thinking about the project,” Reed said.
Inside the book were memories of the monks from the minutes of which he continued his meeting with the architect.
Built between 1958 and 1961, the church was part of a larger vision of a growing monastery that guaranteed Reid would remain true for nearly sixty years.
“It was conceived after World War II, so both the university and the monastery grew quite a bit, and it grew quite a bit that year,” he said. “Finally, it was decided that we needed an architect to help us plan it.”
Unlike the film, he was not in Germany during the Holocaust, but he did not practice Judaism at the time, but is loosely based on Bluer.
For a monk like Reed, bringing the Hollywood spotlight to his Midwest university shines is exciting.
“If it helps people understand that this is a sacred space, I love it,” Reid said.
