Due to constant risk of flooding, the parish church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf was declared a ruin and demolished in 1906. 

The parish's dusty old nativity scene – the Silent Night nativity scene – was given to the Reverend Sisters of Oberndorf. For many years it stood forgotten in the attic, until it was put up for sale. 

The nativity scene was acquired by a junk dealer in Salzburg. 

It was then bought by watchmaker Georg Muckenhammer from Ernsting in the municipality of Ostermiething. 

Muckenhammer presented the crib to his schoolfriend Priest Johann Veichtlbauer in 1926.

The nativity scene’s odyssey thus came to an end. The St. Pantaleon priest included it in his great collection of folklore items. He described the Silent Night nativity scene as the “collection’s greatest treasure”. When the “home country priest” wanted to retire, he looked for a place he and his large collection could call home. He found one in Ried im Innkreis, where the rectory’s former estate building was refurbished to accommodate “Priest Johann Veichtlbauer’s museum of folklore in the town of Ried”. The opening ceremony was held on 8 September 1933. The Silent Night nativity scene came to Ried along with Veichtlbauer's collection. 

Silent Night was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber. 127 years earlier, he had put off his teaching examination in order to teach at the elementary school in Ried.

The Silent Night nativity scene was restored and re-exhibited in the Innviertel Museum of Folklore in 2018.