Almost 500 years ago, the scientist Philipp Apian created the “Big Map” of Bavaria on behalf of Duke Albrecht V – six by six meters, on a scale of 1:45,000 traveled through the duchy, determining distances on foot and on horseback, and mapping places and rivers. Among other things, a watercourse appeared in the work, completed in 1564, which rises between “Deissnhofen” and “Ob. Heching” and flows twelve kilometers north from there before seeping away behind Perlach.
Dietrich Grund has already written several books about the history of Taufkirchen.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
This is the first known depiction of the Hachinger Bach – the body of water that shaped the landscape and life in the Hachinger valley like hardly anything else. For Dietrich Grund, the watercourse is “the lifeline” of the region. Because, according to the hobby historian from Taufkirchen: “Water is life. That’s why the Hachinger Bach was the basic requirement for people to settle here.” Dietrich Grund explains how this actually happened in his new book entitled “Chronik des Hachinger Tales”. In it, the 80-year-old traces the history of the people in the Hachinger valley, which was once formed by glaciers, with lots of numbers, facts and details – starting with a 5,500-year-old copper ax, which can now be admired in the Unterhachinger local history museum, and right through to the present day and problems such as the surface sealing and the role as a fresh air corridor.
The 140-page work is already Grund’s sixth book – but a novelty insofar as the previous works exclusively dealt with the history of his home town of Taufkirchen. But he has now finished with that and has therefore broadened his view of the surrounding area, says the trained civil engineer, who discovered writing books as a hobby after retiring. There are different representations of local history in the surrounding communities – such as the “Hachinger Heimatbuch” by Karl Hobmair; but with his chronicle he wanted to provide an overview of this small settlement area, says Grund. In contrast to previous projects, he did not have to go down into the archives for this, but was primarily able to fall back on existing books.
The next work will deal with the Perlacher and Grünwalder forest
The result after almost a year’s work is a tour de force through several thousand years, from prehistory through the Middle Ages to the 21st century. Among other things, the readers learn that the Hachinger Bach was already extended in the Baroque period to Berg am Laim and later to the Middle Isar Canal. Moreover, Dietrich Grund confirms his thesis that, contrary to popular belief, the nobleman Hilprand, who is still revered in Taufkirchen today, was not a knight at all. In his book, the local researcher devotes particular attention to what happened in the Hachinger valley during the Nazi era. The following decades, on the other hand, are dealt with very briefly – “because I’m less interested in that,” as Dietrich Grund openly admits.
Like its predecessors, his sixth book was published by “Books on Demand” and can be purchased either on the associated website www.bod.de or in bookstores for eight euros. Meanwhile, Dietrich Grund is already planning the next project, for which he wants to look beyond the borders of his hometown again. “My idea is to write a comprehensive book about the Grünwalder and Perlacher forests,” says the native of Rhineland-Palatinate, who moved to Munich in 1968 and to Taufkirchen eleven years later. “This used to be a huge area that also played an important role as a hunting ground for the Bavarian dukes. It’s an interesting subject with many stories to tell.”