Unterhaching’s SPD celebrates its centenary – Munich district

Once a month, always on the first Tuesday, the red pennant is taken out of the cupboard in the Althaching tavern. Then there’s the SPD regulars’ table. Not everyone from the local association comes together at the tables. After all, that would otherwise be 106 comrades, in no municipality in the district are there currently more SPD members. But a small discussion group, sometimes with guests from the neighboring towns, always comes together. After many years, it is not only time for a new pennant with the year, there is also an opportunity to look back in the spirit of August Bebel. Because the SPD in Unterhaching is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, with a one-year delay due to Corona.

“Only those who know the past can understand the present and shape the future.” With this quote from Bebel, one of the founding fathers of German social democracy, Natascha Kohnen, member of the state parliament and former SPD state chairwoman, congratulated the Unterhachinger comrades in the anniversary publication. “History is more than memory. Our history is a mission for us,” writes Kohnen. She certifies that the SPD in Unterhaching is a particularly strong, lively and creative local association that has shaped the fortunes of the community for decades. Although Kohnen lives in Neubiberg, her citizens’ office is directly opposite the Unterhaching town hall, and she shares the premises with the local association.

For a long time, many were not even aware that there had already been an “SPD section” in Unterhaching in the 1920s. It was not until 1986, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the re-establishment of the SPD in the communities in the south-east of Munich, that research began in the state archive and the old municipal council minutes were read. But discussions with older party friends also revealed that in late autumn 1921 the upholsterer Wilhelm Kloiber had founded the local SPD.

Kloiber lived in Ottobrunn, which at the time was still called Neuhaching and belonged to Unterhaching. The mayor at the time was Josef Prenn (Farmers’ Association), the 15 municipal councils were mostly farmers or self-employed, after the workers probably did not agree in the spring due to the clashes between democratically minded and radical revolutionary forces and the Soviet Republic, which lasted about four weeks, and also did not agree with them a candidate list in the election. The commemorative publication states: “The fact that the new municipal council once again did not include any workers’ representatives was probably the reason for founding a section of the Social Democratic Party in Unterhaching.”

Since 1990, the party has provided the mayors in the municipality

After the municipal council elections in December 1924, four Social Democrats sat on the committee for the first time. In 1954, Erna Gärtner was the first woman to join the municipal council for the SPD, and she remained the only one until 1972. The SPD has so far provided four mayors in Unterhaching. The master paver and co-founder of the local association Leonhart Sedlmeyer was head of town hall from 1945 to 1948. After three CSU mayors, three Social Democrats followed in Walter Paetzmann, Erwin Knapek and the incumbent Wolfgang Panzer. “We achieved a lot in Unterhaching,” writes Panzer in the chronicle, the SPD had brought to life the motto of Paetzmann, who died young: “Munich in front of the door, the mountains behind the house”. “The SPD is needed and the SPD bears responsibility. The idea of ​​freedom, justice and solidarity has lost none of its topicality,” emphasizes Kohnen. The incumbent chairwoman of the local association, Sabine Schmierl, promises: “In our community we will continue to campaign for social, fair and environmentally conscious politics.”

Even if there is a big celebration for the 100th anniversary in the Hachinga Hall this Saturday, the regulars’ table date on Tuesday evening remained fixed in the calendar. Here you can talk about politics beyond big speeches, agendas and election preparations over beer and schnitzel. Many have already walked a long, sometimes rocky path with their party. Bad election results have never driven them to despair, they have remained loyal to their party for decades. Many are now of retirement age. And that is quite a problem. There is no Juso group in Unterhaching. When Martin Schulz became Chancellor candidate five years ago, some young people from Unterhaching filled out a membership application. An enthusiasm that didn’t last long: most of them are no longer with the SPD.

Sabine Schmierl therefore agreed with her son last year: If Olaf Scholz becomes Chancellor, her son will join the SPD at the age of 16. He is now the youngest member and continues a family tradition. As a member of the SPD in Munich, Sabine Schmierl’s father also contested many election campaigns. “Politics was always discussed at home, and even as a child I was there when flyers were distributed for the SPD,” she says. It is not uncommon for the SPD party book to be passed on to the next generation in families in Unterhaching. Wolfgang Panzer’s father Volker sat for the SPD on the municipal council for a long time and was even the second mayor.

At the time, Dieter Senninger was already representing the SPD on the municipal body, for a total of 38 years. He came to the Social Democrats through the Friends of Nature. “They were all SPD members, it was a sure-fire success,” he says. The party’s Godesberg program and Willy Brandt’s time shaped him. The long-time councilor Waltraud Rensch says: “I come from the Brandt era,” she says. The peace policy and social policy of the time, but also environmental policy and one-world policy influenced her political commitment. Rensch still has the “Vote Willy” badge from 1972.

Open detailed view

Strictly speaking, the regulars’ table in the Althaching tavern is in a place that is steeped in history for the SPD local association: Here, where the Unterhaching town center with the town hall has been since the 1980s, was previously the Bürgerfestwiese. In 1976 Willy Brandt performed here.