Some people in Schliersee wanted it to be quiet at last. In more than eight decades before, there had hardly been any excitement about the marches at the vineyard chapel. The Americans had the memorial there removed immediately after the Second World War because of “nationalist tendencies”, but the fact that there had been a new plaque since 1956 and then annual meetings of old and new Nazis, right-wing fraternities and a number of local associations hardly had any effect bothered someone.
It was only in the 21st century that there was resistance in the face of more and more foreign neo-Nazis, and then there should be silence and the blackboard should disappear. But the Schliersee have “decided to take a more strenuous path”, as Wolfgang Foit from the Miesbach district education organization put it. On Friday the new “Place of Remembrance” was opened at the Weinbergkapelle.
The old plaque, which reminds of the notorious Oberland Freikorps and its members who died in the so-called Battle of Annaberg in what is now Poland in 1921, has not disappeared, just so there is peace. It is still there so that people can now remember how Nazis, right-wing extremists and misguided lovers of tradition remembered their supposed heroes.
The Weinbergkapelle has always been the scene of marches by right-wing extremists and misguided lovers of tradition.
(Photo: Martin Siepmann / imago)
A group that was democratically legitimized both in the market town and in the Catholic parish led by Wolfgang Foit from the Catholic District Education Center and Werner Hartl, the former head of the Schliersee youth education center of the IG Metall union, had taken on the task of finding a new form of remembering by contemporary historians and other scientists and in constant exchange with interested people among the locals.
According to Foits, the group is concerned with “education and dialogue”. In the past few years there has been a lot of wrestling, discussion, planning, discarding and new planning. But that was precisely what made the whole process valuable. There were lectures, workshops and also a multi-day excursion to Góra Świętej Anny in Poland, the former St. Annaberg in Upper Silesia, the place that the Freikorps stormed in 1921 in that bloody battle.
New panels on the memorial explain the controversial old inscription.
(Photo: oh)
“We have found a critical approach to history”
The new “Place of Remembrance” designed by the artist Erwin Wiegerling is only one of several results of this examination of history. It consists of a gently rounded wall, on which four metal panels with explanatory texts flank the old memorial plaque. It was removed from the south wall of the chapel on the vineyard. The chapel consecrated to St. George “is now completely church again”, says Pastor Hans Sinseder, “a sacred place for everyone, freed from the political ballast of this table.”
Due to the new context, it should become a kind of exhibition piece in its new location and no longer stand alone for itself and its original intention. The texts on the new boards illuminate the historical background from 1921 to today and were compiled by the Munich Institute for Contemporary History.
As a second element of the changed memory, the people of Schliersee are trying to reoccupy the day of the annual commemoration: In 2019, on May 21, a May prayer with peace commemorations took place for the first time. “We have found a critical approach to history,” emphasized Mayor Franz Schnitzenbaumer at the opening two months late due to the corona. “We invite locals and guests to find out more at the place of remembrance.”
This has been possible since Friday, but two elements of the concept are still pending. The group wants to develop an educational program on the whole topic for school classes and other visitor groups, for example, and at some point pour their findings into the form of a scientific publication.