Paul Dobberstein
Paul Matthias Dobberstein 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.
He raised a daughter who travelled to his parish on an orphan train. She is cited as his adopted daughter in the 1910 United States census.
Grottoes
Father Dobberstein is most known for designing and building The Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption, in West Bend, Iowa, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux City. This is actually a series of several connected grottoes. At the neighboring church of Saints Peter and Paul, he also created a fountain and, inside, a nativity scene.Other religious grottoes designed and built by Dobberstein include:
- Sacred Heart Church: Sioux City, Iowa
- Immaculate Conception Grotto: Carroll, Iowa
- Franciscan Convent: Dubuque, Iowa
- Shrine in the St. Rose of Viterbo Convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration: La Crosse, Wisconsin
- Catholic Cemetery: Wesley, Iowa
- John Brown Park: Humboldt, Iowa