The photoproduction of neutral pions on 12C has been investigated between threshold and 450MeV photon energy using the tagged photon beam at the Bonn 500MeV synchrotron and a large acceptance detector. The rc ~ detector consists of cylindrical wire chambers covering a solid angle of nearly 4m Using a scintillation counter as an active 12C target an attempt was made to separate coherent and incoherent n ~ photoproduction. The measured total and differential cross sections are compared to corresponding theoretical calculations.