Many older people in Taufkirchen still remember the quirky woman who was sometimes seen walking through the village to the supermarket – engrossed in monologues and avoiding any contact, indeed rather suspicious and sometimes even aggressive towards her fellow human beings. This Anna Seidl lived all her life in the Wolfschneiderhof on Münchner Straße, which today houses the community’s local history museum. However, especially in the last few years before her death in 1982, the farmhouse became increasingly dilapidated, and it was a “difficult and hard life” that the last wolf cutter led there, says Michael Müller. The parish curator is going this Wednesday “In Anna’s footsteps”, the title of his lecture in the library. In doing so, he links her private fate with the developments in the community in the last century.
This was not yet twelve months old when little Anna saw the light of day – as the illegitimate daughter of Marie Seidl, who lived with two siblings on the Kleinhäusler farm. The father was probably a rich farmer’s son, says Müller. However, he never confessed to the girl, who not only grew up in poor conditions, but was also excluded because of her origins. “One can imagine that the other children teased them,” says the local historian. In addition, according to the records of the former home caretaker Peter Seebauer, she always heard from her mother: “I would marry if you weren’t there.”
At school, Anna Seidl was considered diligent and intelligent, later mentally confused
At school, Anna Seidl was considered hardworking and intelligent. Later, however, her conspicuous social behavior was increasingly in the foreground, for which she was classified as mentally confused and placed under guardianship. At that time, Anna Seidl was already living alone at the Wolfschneiderhof, after her mother and uncle Johann Seidl had died in 1962. “She was alone there with herself for twenty years,” says Michael Müller. Her only companions were her cats and chickens, whose eggs she sold to earn some extra money. Together with the income from leasing the fields next to her property, which her guardian looked after, this was enough for Anna Seidl to live a very modest life. This came to an end in April 1982 when she was hit by a car in front of her front door and died as a result of the accident.
Today’s interior of the Wolfschneiderhof has little in common with Anna Seidl’s former surroundings.
(Photo: Angelika Bardehle)
A year later, on the initiative of the former home caretaker Ernst Kistler, the municipality acquired the Wolfschneiderhof for one million marks. At least as much had to be put into the core renovation of the dilapidated building, says Müller. In 1985 the first municipal local history museum in the district opened there, although its condition and interior have little to do with Anna Seidl’s former surroundings. “In my presentation I also want to show how hard life on a small farm was back then,” says the local curator. In addition, it will be about the fears and reservations of many long-established residents of Taufkirch whenever their community has been affected by major changes. For example after the war through the settlement of many expellees. Or in the early 1970s, when the population of Taufkirchen shot up from 1,600 to 10,000 in a very short time due to the new Am Wald settlement.
The lecture “In the footsteps of Anna” this Wednesday in the Taufkirchen community library begins at 3 p.m. Admission is free.