Paul Matthias Dobberstein (September 21, 1872 – July 24, 1954) was a German American priest and architect.
Dobberstein was born in Rosenfeld, Germany to Francis "Frank" Dobberstein and Julia Froehlich.
Father Dobberstein was educated at the University of Deutsch-Krone in Germany and at the St. Francis Seminary, in St. Francis, Wisconsin. He was ordained on June 30, 1897.[1]
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He is known for designing and building a series of religious grottoes:
His most famous work, however, is the Grotto of the Redemption, in West Bend, Iowa,[2] in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux City. This is actually a series of several connected grottoes.[3] At the neighboring church of Saints Peter and Paul, he also created a fountain and, inside, a majestic nativity scene.
Father Dobberstein's works inspired Mathias Wernerus (who also attended St. Francis Seminary) to build the Dickeyville Grotto in Dickeyville, Wisconsin in 1930,[4][5] thus starting the grotto building movement in America.[6]
In addition to his prolific works of art and stone, he led a busy life as the pastor of Saints Peter and Paul there in West Bend for more than 57 years. His signature appears on over a thousand baptism records from his time in the parish.