The weapons and everyday objects found in the Bavarian state parliament in September probably date back to 1918. But they were probably hidden there much later, as a restorer has now found out.
Crumpled up newspaper remnants shed light on a recent accidental find of weapons and ammunition in the Bavarian state parliament. They dated back to 1918, but were not buried until 1933, the State Office for Monument Protection announced on Friday in Munich. Archaeologists and experts from the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt would have reconstructed that.
During construction work near the southern courtyard at the end of September, around 600 kilograms of ammunition, around 40 rifles and carabiners and everyday objects – from candlesticks to bottles and office equipment – were uncovered. An excavator had pushed through a concrete slab under which ammunition boxes were located. According to this, a restorer was able to make a badly damaged piece of paper from an ammunition pouch legible again. It is the issue of the NSDAP party organ National observer from April 5, 1933. The newspaper page was probably used to dry a bag that had gotten wet, said General Curator Mathias Pfeil.
As far as we know, the “Bayernwacht” stayed in the building from July 1932 to April 1933, until they were pushed out by the Nazi thugs SA. “It is possible that the Bayernwacht, a self-defense organization of the Catholic-conservative Bavarian People’s Party, wanted to prevent the SA from getting hold of the weapons, ammunition and equipment and therefore buried them in the ground of the southern arcade courtyard,” the statement said . “Reality is more exciting than some historical novels,” said Ilse Aigner, President of the Landtag. “The fact that armed groups were in the Maximilianeum in 1933 and then destroyed and buried their weapons at that time is a completely new finding.”