Erding
Prior
to and during the Second World War Erding was a Luftwaffe pilot
training airfield. It was built during the course of the Nazi preparations for war in 1935 leading to the population of Erding to grow rapidly to over 10,000 inhabitants by
1939. After the start of the war, hundreds of women, men
and children from the Eichenkofen forced labour camp were made to work at the air base. From 1941 onwards, various flying transfer units were based here, such as the Überführungsstelle Erding, the transfer command for aircraft group 3, the southern group/aircraft transfer squadron 1 and the aircraft lock for air fleet command 2. From April to December 1944 was the 10th (supplementary) squadron of the combat squadron 51 stationed here. It was not until April 1945 that the III./KG(J) 54 was an active flying unit that took off from here with its Messerschmitt Me 262.
Airfield R.91, the Allied code designation at the time, was seized by the United States Army in April 1945
and used as an American Air Force facility during the early years
of the Cold War. The 7200th Air Force Depot Wing was stationed at the air base since July 1949. Anglo-American aircraft took off from Erding for supply flights as part of the Berlin Airlift, which is why the number of employees rose to 7,512 at this time, 2,704 of whom were soldiers. From March to December 1955, the runway was widened to thirty metres and lengthened by 2,450. From February 1956 to December 1959 was part of the 440th Fighter Interceptor Squadron based out of Ramstein with F-86D Saber Dogsbased in Erding and from April 1971 to August 1972 the 52nd Tactical Fighter Group with F-102A Delta Dagger.
The Nazi flag flying before the stadtturm and flanking the town's war memorial, today its iron cross now replaced from the top.
During
the Third Reich non-profit housing companies were intended to support
the folkish idea of homeland. Its inhabitants had to be deemed "racially
valuable" and politically reliable. At the request of the airport
management, the cooperative built a settlement with 61 single-family and
twenty semi-detached houses for the airport employees on
Weißgerberbreite, today's Komponistenviertel. The building cooperative
expanded at the Schöberlhalle in today's Görresstraße with twenty Volkswohnungen.
Flats were only intended to alleviate the greatest need given the Nazi
focus on the settlement of working-class families in their own homes in
the country. From 1937 to 1940 residential buildings were erected on
Johann-Sebastian-Bachstrasse, Lethnerstrasse, Manzingerstrasse and
Feldstrasse. After this however, all housing construction came to a
complete standstill due to the Nazi war economy taking its inevitable
toll.
The
1941 aviation comedy Quax, der Bruchpilot had several scenes shot in or around
Erding- one can for example recognise the Frauenkircherl on Schrannenplatz in the scene shown above.
Directed
by Kurt Hoffmann and starring Heinz Rühmann, it was set
in the 1930s before the outbreak of the war based on an
aviation story by Hermann Grote about an ordinary man who wins a
newspaper competition that offers free flying lessons. Despite initial
struggles, he gradually shows himself to be a good pilot. The character inspired Disney to recently 'revamp' the character as Quack der Bruchpilot, although in English his name is given as Launchpad McQuack. It was
followed by a sequel Quax in Africa which was also made during the Nazi
era, but not released until 1947 in Sweden and 1953 in West Germany. The
film is set somewhere in the south of Germany in 1930; the main town is
referred to as Dünkelstätt although at one point on a sign it's stated
as being Dünkelstedt. Otto Groschenbügel, aka Quax, a small employee of a
traffic bureau, wins in a competition providing free sport aviation
training at the aviation school Bergried. Although hooping for a
different prize, he hopes to become famous overnight in his hometown of
Dünkelstätt. Kicked out of the aviation school owing to his behaviour
covering up his cowardice, he is soon advised to stop the course. 
In
Dünkelstätt, where the reason for his speedy return home is unknown,
Quax is celebrated as an aviator. To live up to expectations, and also
out of disappointment that his friend Adelheid was unfaithful during his
absence, he returns to continue his education. Over time, he actually
becomes a disciplined airman and even proves to be talented. As a
reward, he gains the affection of Marianne, who has helped him out of
difficult situations several times. At the end of the film set two years
later, Quax is seen working as a disciplined flying instructor at
Bergried Flying School. The movie itself was shot from May 23 to
September 1941 at the Ufa Atelier Berlin Tempelhof and in Bavaria at the
airfield of Prien am Chiemsee and here at the Erding Air Base , where
the landing on the course was shot. Other parts of the film were shot on
the airfield Kempten-Durach, Germany's highest-lying airfield. During
the filming the stand-in pilot had to be replaced due to a leg fracture
and, due to the war, could not be substituted. Rühmann himself, an avid
sports aviator in real life, flew in all the scenes. Both on the wing
and in front of the cockpit of the Udet U12 a camera from Bell &
Howell was mounted which only allowed for 27 metres of film, which was
just enough for a minute. As a result Rühmann had to take-of fity times
to record the flight scenes. The première took place on December 16,
1941 in the Ufa Palace in Hamburg. 
It was helped by the Werner Bochmann hit song Heimat, deine Sterne
and went on to win the regime's Filmprüfstelle before eventually making
five million Reichsmarks at the box office. Hitler aparently loved the
film and had it repeatedly shown at the Fiihrer's headquarters. A
sequel- Quax in Fahrt (renamed Quax in Africa after the
war in West Germany)- also starring Heinz Rühmann in the lead role was
made in 1943-45 under the direction of Helmut Weiss. As in all Nazi
aviation films, values such as discipline, camaraderie and social
adaptation are highlighted. A special feature of this film is the main
character who, an anti-hero, shows how even an obvious failure can
become a "German hero" - if he meets only one competent leader- thus
when Quax is at his lowest ebb his instructor does not display the usual
authoritarian traits of discipline and obedience but, on the contrary,
demonstrates confidence by making Quax himself a flight instructor.
Through Nazi film policy, the film was also intended to promote the
Luftwaffe, especially as the Third Reich had a particularly high demand
for new blood in this area during the war. The High Command of the
Allied occupying powers banned the film after the war; Rühmann himself
always asserted that he had never felt that he had any propaganda, let
alone military, training.Some more scenes set in and around Erding's Schrannenplatz from the film. Eric Rentschler contends that films such as this were a vital tool in rallying support for the Nazi regime and shaping public opinion. Rentschler emphasises that movies provided a form of escapism for the German population during a time of economic hardship and political instability. The carefully constructed narratives and grandiose spectacles of Nazi films offered a temporary reprieve from daily struggles, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in a world that glorified the regime.
Rentschler argues that this emotional engagement with movies facilitated the indoctrination of Nazi ideology and bolstered support for the regime. Moreover, Peter Hinton highlights the persuasive nature of visual media and its ability to evoke strong emotional responses. Hinton argues that films, with their compelling images and captivating storytelling, possessed the potential to create an emotional connection between the audience and the Nazi message. By appealing to the senses and manipulating emotions, movies were able to sway public opinion and consolidate support for the regime. Hinton's perspective acknowledges the power of cinema to shape attitudes and beliefs, underscoring the importance of movies in reinforcing Nazi propaganda and indoctrination efforts. 
That said, not all scholars concur with Welch's perspective. Kershaw, for example, posits that the influence of propaganda, including comedies, on the German population was rather limited. Instead, he argues, factors such as fear, conformity, and coercion were more significant in maintaining Nazi control. Kershaw's argument, whilst valid in its recognition of the complex myriad of control mechanisms, perhaps understates the role of media in normalising and propagating the regime's ideological tenets. Whilst Kershaw's perspective is compelling, it must be noted that the propagation of Nazi ideals wasn't limited solely to fostering unity and vilifying out-groups. Instead, comedy also played a vital role in creating a semblance of normalcy in distressing times, a point that Kershaw's argument does not adequately address. According to a study by Maltby, comedies were strategically employed to distract the public from the harsh realities of war and the atrocities being committed by the regime. Maltby's research suggests that comedy films were not only an escapism tool but also a medium to create a fictitious world that contrasted starkly with the grim reality of Nazi Germany. While the extent of their influence can be debated, the role they played in shaping public opinion and reinforcing state control during the Third Reich is undeniable. Comedies, under the Nazis, epitomised the power of media in facilitating state agendas and shaping socio-political narratives. In the words of George Orwell, "Every joke is a tiny revolution." For Nazi Germany, every comedy was indeed a tiny revolution, cleverly orchestrated to maintain a tyrannical regime. 
Heinz
Rühmann landing in Schrannenplatz at the end of the film on the left. His role in
the 1930 movie Die Drei von der Tankstelle led him to film stardom. He
remained highly popular as a comedic actor (and sometime singer)
throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, remaining in Germany to work
during the Nazi period, as did his friend and colleague, Hans Albers
during which time he acted in 37 films and directed four. After the
Nazis seized power in 1933, Rühmann did not speak openly about German
politics, but instead kept himself as neutral as possible. In 1938 he
divorced his Jewish wife Maria Bernheim who managed before the war to
move to Stockholm, and as a result, survived the Holocaust. His second
wife, Hertha Feiler, whom he married shortly after, had a Jewish
grandfather, a fact that caused Rühmann problems with the Nazi cultural
authorities. Rühmann retained his reputation as an apolitical star
during the entire Nazi era. During the war years, Rühmann increasingly
let himself be co-opted by the Third Reich. The same year as Quax, he
also played the title role in Der Gasmann, about a gas-metre reader who
is suspected of foreign espionage. In 1944, the première of Die Feuerzangenbowle was forbidden by the Nazi film censor for "disrespect
for authority" although given his good relationships with the regime,
Rühmann was able to screen the film in public. He brought the film to
the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze for a private screening for Hermann
Göring and others. Afterward, Göring was able to get the ban on the
film lifted by Adolf Hitler. As a "state actor", the highest title for
an actor during the Nazi era, Rühmann was not drafted into the
Wehrmacht. 
He
did have to take the basic training to become a military pilot, but for
the Third Reich, Rühmann was more valuable as an actor and he was
spared having to take part in the war effort. In August 1944, Goebbels
put Rühmann on the Gottbegnadeten list of indispensable actors. Rühmann
was a favourite actor of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, who pasted his
picture on the wall of her room in her family's hiding place during the
war, where it can still be seen today, as well as both Hitler and
Goebbels. Rühmann had a difficult time resuming his career after the
war, but by the mid-1950s, the former comedian had established himself
again as a star, only this time as Germany's leading character actor. In
1956, Rühmann starred in the title role of the internationally
acclaimed picture Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, the incredible true
story of a Prussian cobbler, Wilhelm Voigt, who dressed up as an army
officer and took over the town hall in Köpenick. Rühmann was also the
leading man in the 1960 film version of The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik,
after the novel by Czech author Jaroslav Hašek. He also played the role
of Father Brown in three German films during the 1960s. In 1965,
Rühmann was brought to Hollywood by producer Stanley Kramer for a
supporting role as a German Jew in his all-star movie Ship of Fools. 
His last film was Faraway, So Close! (1993)
by Wim Wenders, in which he played an old fatherly chauffeur named
Konrad. Rühmann died in October 1994, aged 92 years. He was buried in
Berg-Aufkirchen. His popularity with German audiences continues: in
1995, he was posthumously awarded the Goldene Kamera as the "Greatest
German Actor of the Century"; in 2006, a poll voted him number one in
the ZDF TV-show Unsere Besten - Favourite German Actors. Erding proved
an appropriate site for an aviation movie given it provided the location
for Fliegerhorst Erding, a military airfield northeast of the town.
Prior to and during the war, Erding was a Luftwaffe pilot training
airfield. The air base was built in 1935 by the Air Force of the
Wehrmacht. From
1941 it hosted various flying overpass units, such as the transfer
point Erding, the transfer command air group 3, the group South /
aircraft transfer squadron 1 and the airlock airlock commando 2. From
April to December 1944 the 10th (supplementary) squadron of the combat
squadron 51 was stationed here. 
Nazi rallies, marches and demonstrations in Erding
Looking down Landshuter Strasse, comparing the view after the war and today.
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| Spiegelgasse |
On Haager Straße the greatest damage was reported as was the number of killed. The pressure of the detonations destroyed roofs and windows in the Innenstadt- on the Schrannenplatz the pharmacy and the Lehner house burned as shown in the photo here. It had taken days of work by mountain commanders to dig up the buried people. To make matters worse, electricity and water were left non-existent for days. The dead were first placed on the roadside in Hagerstrasse, then brought to the heavily damaged city parish church. The coffins had been stacked on top of one another for reasons of space. Many other towns in Bavaria were bombed that day- Freising, Rosenheim, Dillingen, Augsburg, Neuburg an der Donau and Traunstein. Erding's city archivist, Markus Hiermer, observed that American flying fortresses on April 18 should not have actually thrown their cargo over Erding- "An attack on Pilsen was planned, but it was blown off course. They did everything they could to get rid of their bombs." Nazi air defences had already collapsed in the final phase of the war. Nevertheless, Americans and of course the RAF needed to bombard small towns like Erding to break the Germans' last resistance. Thus the attacks were no longer of strategic importance, but it was seen as an appropriate response to the relentless bombing the Germans had happily initiated and continued against civilian populations from the start of their war, particularly against British cities.
The Stadtturm beside the remains of the church on Friedrich Fischer Straße
From the other side on Kirchgaße
Comparison of the same street during the Third Reich and after its wartime bombing
From the other side on Kirchgaße
Of
course, many other towns in Bavaria were attacked that day including
Freising, Rosenheim, Dillingen, rural districts around Augsburg, Neuburg
an der Donau and Traunstein. In fact, the plan was for the USAAF coming
from Sicily to attack Pilsen but it was blown off, leaving the crews to
do everything they could to get rid of their burden. By now the air
defences had already collapsed in the final phase of the war.
Nevertheless, Americans and British are deliberately bombarding small
towns like Erding to break the Germans' last resistance. The attacks
were of no strategic importance, but it was an answer to the Germans'
bombing of the civilian population. On
April 30 German troops returned through Erding with the last squad
passing ordered to destroy all the bridges. Only the Freisinger bridge,
under which the power lines run to the power plant, was spared because
the master of the works, Georg Pfab, convinced the responsible officer
that Erding could not be allowed to sink into the dark. A day later,
American soldiers entered Erding from the already-taken Eitting: "After
this blaze of fire, the 34th Regiment stormed Erding at 8 am, and at 11
am, the city was in American hands," according to a military report from
the American Army. When the American tanks arrived at Erding on May 1, winter
returned with snow covering the rubble. On May 5, 1945 Army Group G
signed the capitulation order in Haar near Munich ending the area's war.
Comparison of the same street during the Third Reich and after its wartime bombing
Another museum in town occupies the house where Franz Xaver Stahl
was born and which was named after him. Stahl was a painter during the
Third Reich whose paintings of farm-life were bought by Hitler, such as
his "Weidende Kühe" in 1941. He has a street named after him and his
paintings continue to hang in the town hall as well as in the district office and in the canteen of the Bavarian Ministry of Agriculture on Galeriestraße in Munich. In 1931 he moved
into a studio on Nymphenburger Straße in Munich, which he kept until
1944. On June 6 of the same year, some of Stahl's pictures were
destroyed during the fire of the Glaspalast in Munich. From 1937, Stahl regularly participated in the Great German Art Exhibition in
the House of German Art in Munich, the propagandistic exhibition of
Nazi art. From 1937 to 1944, with the
exception of 1939, Stahl represented one or two of his paintings at the
Great German Art Exhibition each year, an unmistakable sign that he had
attained a very prestigious position in the regime. He joined the
Nazi Party in 1941 and 1947 was classified as a "follower" during the
denazification campaign, although the question remains whether Stahl was
a fellow traveller for career reasons or for support of Nazi ideology.
Shortly thereafter, he was appointed head of the animal painting class
at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In 1942, the Academy awarded him
the service title Professor. Regardless, his work seemed entirely
focused on animals- horses in the smithy, cows in the pasture, pigs at the trough. 
Even
with his landscapes, a flock of sheep often appear in the background.
In fact, only he only produced about ten portraits, mostly of family
members and close acquaintances which never changed even after Hitler's
seizure of power; up until his death in 1977, his interest had only one
topic: the animal. The earliest document which provides an indication of
his involvement with the Nazis is a receipt from the Nazi treasurer in
the Max II barracks in Munich on January 30, 1939, confirming that Stahl
had paid twelve Reichsmarks to join the party. He was admitted to the
party in 1941 and, in October that year, was appointed as a teacher at
the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he had previously studied. More recently one of Germany's most visible far-right extremists has been sentenced to ten months in gaol for greeting a Jewish interviewer with "Heil Hitler." A judge described Horst Mahler as "utterly incorrigible" after he denied the Holocaust, again, in open court. Mahler is said to have started a conversation for the magazine "Vanity Fair" with "Heil Hitler" and denied the Holocaust. The interview was conducted by the journalist and former vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Michel Friedman, who subsequently filed a complaint after the interview. Since the conversation was conducted in a hotel at Munich Airport, the prosecutor in Landshut and the court in Erding are responsible for the case. "Vanity Fair" justified the ten-page interview as an exposure of German right-wing extremists. Friedman himself has defended his collaboration in the interview against the criticism that he had offered Mahler a forum. Mahler himself was co-founder of the left-wing terrorist Red Army Faction (RAF) and later member and advocate of the right-wing extremist NPD. Most recently, he was convicted in November in Cottbus for giving the Hitler salute and sentenced to half a year in prison without parole.
Described
in this Nazi-era postcard as Germany's oldest house, the Herderhaus in
Bergham just outside Erding is described by the authorities as
an"ancient ground-floor block with a high thatched hipped roof from the
mid-17th century." With a date of construction listed as being from
around 1650, the Herderhaus is certainly one of the oldest rural houses
in Bavaria. Moreover, it has been in the same place since its
construction and has probably been inhabited for the past four
centuries. The last shepherd lived in the house until 1952 before moving
to a retirement home, where he died in 1967. The interior of the house
is divided into two parts by a corridor, the Flez, on the left of which
is the parlour, kitchen and the room for the children. On the right is a
small sheepfold for half a dozen sheep belonging to Herder himself. At
the north-west corner is the largest room for him and his wife. The hay
was stored upstairs. With no running water, the fountain in front of the
house. Even today there is a well on the site although the well shaft
itself is closed. Isen
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Through
this website I was contacted by Mr. George Fogelson whose father's unit
was in Freising and Moosburg with the 14th Armoured Division. He
directed me to hundreds of remarkable photographs from the 94th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron during
and after the war in the hope that I could recognise some of the sites
shown. Among the locations was Isen, a town I hadn't even heard of
before, about fifteen miles south of Erding. Here is the town's railway
station directly after the war, taken by soldier Hugh West; it's now an
Internet café with the railway line now paved over by the road. Below is
a photo of the Church taken June 1945 and when I visited May 2022.
The
division had been commissioned on November 15, 1942 at Camp Chaffee,
Arkansas. It began combat operations in the war in southern France after
landing in Marseille on October 29, 1944, where it had largely
defensive duties on the Franco-Italian border. It went on into the
Rhineland, Ardennes and Alsace; on December 17 it advanced across the
Lauter. During Operation Nordwind, it succeeded in slowing down the
German attack against five divisions. This included the Battle of
Hatten-Rittershoffen from January 9 to 21, 1945. On March 5 the Moder
was crossed as was, at the end of the month, the Rhine near Germersheim
and Worms. Moving further into central Europe after Neustadt/Main, many
prisoners of war were freed in Hammelburg on April 6 in Stalag XIII C
and Oflag XIII B. Likewise in Moosburg where over 130,000 Allied
prisoners of war were liberated on April 29 at Stalag VII A, including
around 20,000 Americans. At the Ampfing subcamp in the Mühldorf am Inn
area, the last combat action of the war took place for the unit on May
2, 1945. It was reduced to zero strength on September 16, 1945 but not
deactivated before ending up being named for a total of two Presidential
Unit Citations. .gif)
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Now the Gasthof Klement, this was the HQ for the Americans staying in the town. The photo on the left is marked by A Troop's Hugh West.
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West himself shown with
some local children in Isen; wasn't sure I had the right spot until I
got home and noticed the gate and windows lined up. Beside it is how it
appeared sporting the sign marking the location for the troops' base.
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Sgt. John H. Hepler from Lansing Michigan, 1945 and Münchener Straße today. The photo on the right is looking down the opposite direction, showing the American flag that flew during the occupation.
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Near
Dingolfing is this memorial commemorating the emergency landing of the
"Reichsluftschiff Z1" on April 1st, 1909. 36 metres in length with a
diametre of 11.65 metres, the aircraft was powered by two four-cylinder Daimler in-line engines,
each with 100 hp which enabled it to reach a top speed of around 45
kilometres per hour. On board was Graf Zeppelin himself, his chief
engineer Dürr and various military personnel and flown by airship
captain Hacker. As a result, the first long-distance flight to Munich
made headlines with houses decked out in flags, children allowed out of
school and postcards printed for the event. Zeppelin arrived in Munich
at around 9.00 but was unable to land because the wind was too strong
and it was therefore driven away to the disappointment of Prince Regent
Luitpold who had been waiting to receive the entourage. Its travel over
Erding led people to travel all directions to see the giant 'flying
cigar' for themselves. Initially, the municipalities of Loiching and
Niederviehbach vied for the plot of land on which the zeppelin actually
landed, until an agreement was reached on the former although this
memorial stone is sited in the community of Niederviehbach on
Staatsstrasse 2074. The monument was restored to mark the centenary of
the landing.
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A year after I took my
photo the building had been demolished to make way for apartment
buildings. The history of the building went back to the middle of the 19th century when it served as a brick factory. The entire Bründlhof area on which the brick factory was located was bought by Anton Selmair in 1905 in order to ensure, together with two other farms, the supply of the national spa centre he had planned. Initially, the building was used as a quarantine station for the clinic, which was a lung sanatorium at the time. With his sudden death in 1916, Anton Selmair's plans came to a standstill. His son Hans Selmair then ran a surgical practice in the building from 1922 when he came to Wartenberg after his father's death. During the Second World War wounded from bomb attacks were also treated there because the Munich hospitals were completely overwhelmed. After the war, the Bründlhof was then run as a restaurant until 2015. In addition to the failed tenants - including a Viennese coffee house owner and a chain of restaurants with changing sub-tenants - the building itself was problematic. Most saw in it an "old box with horrendous heating costs". Around five million euros are to be invested in the two houses on the Bründlhof site, deemed necessary in order to remain competitive as the clinic wants to expand.
Wartenberg
Now the Gasthaus Bründlhof, from a 1940 postcard when it was the Tirolerstube
and had a photo of Hitler gracing the wall.
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Ismaning
Hometown
of Otto Braun who, under his assumed Chinese name "Li De," was the only
foreigner to have taken part in the Long March with Mao, and might have
even been the original proposer of the idea of embarking on such a
march in an effort to reach the safer interior of China.
The
listed war memorial on Schloßstraße, a stone sculpture about two metres
high in which on a stone altar two standing lions are shown whilst
another lies wounded on the ground next to them. The monument first
commemorates the hundred men from Ismaning who fell in the First World
War. It was inaugurated on May 24, 1924 on the occasion of the 50th
anniversary of the local veterans and warriors club in a solemn act and
is shown at that time and today. The sculpture was designed by Richard
Riemerschmid, then-Director of the School of Applied Arts Munich,
working on a model by the sculptor Wilhelm Nida-Rümelin who was responsible for the huge Nazi-relief that remains on the facade of Julius Streicher's former Gauhaus in Nuremberg. The stone works
were executed by R. Gschwender. Originally a ring of iron spears
surrounded the monument. At the decision of the mayor Erich Zeitler ,
these were replaced after the war by stone tablets, on which the names
of the 181 fallen and 89 missing persons of the war are engraved. Every
year on Memorial Day, a memorial service for the victims of the two
world wars takes place at the sculpture.
The
schloß and war memorial then and now. Although the Nazi party had
existed in Ismaning since 1921, no Nazi represented in the Ismaning
municipal council before the March 1933 Reichstag elections which ended
up producing seven Nazi municipal councillors. From June 1933 all
municipal councillors were Nazi Party members. Benno Hartl, awarded
honorary citizenship during his tenure as mayor from 1922 to 1933, on
May 5, 1933had to hand over his office to Nazi member Korbinian Huber.
Huber remained in office until the capitulation in May 1945. Under
the Nazis Ismaning's associations and organisations were brought into
line and many, from the religious like the Kolpingsfamilie or those
close to the SPD like the "Workers-Cyclists' Solidarity Association"
were banned. The Nazis endeavoured to upgrade the artisan class and bind
it ideologically and so on October 22, 1933, a parade of artisans moved
through the village as every handicraft practiced in the village was
depicted on a decorated wagon and presented by guild signs. The Nazis
also launched construction works; in 1937-38 a settlement of the Upper
Bavarian homestead factory was built on the field between Münchener
Strasse and Isarau. Families who had given up their homes to build the
concentration camp in Dachau or the harness racing track in Daglfing
moved there. The town's sports hallwas created for the Nazi youth
organisations, but later served as accommodation for prisoners of war
and forced labourers, who were employed as workers on the farms and in
many companies. Despite all the propaganda and hidden threats, Nazi
ideology in Ismaning was not as deeply rooted as the party wanted it to
be: only around 156 Nazi members, including 18 women, were counted among
the approximately 4,000 inhabitants in 1945 in the village. In 1939,
the local group leader complained that at the important May Day the
traders and their assistants were completely absent and that only a few
younger farmers had participated. Eventually 270 of the town's young men
fell at the front or were missing with more than 300 taken as prisoners
of war. Ismaning itself was largely spared from the effects of the war
with only a few buildings damaged. In the last days of the war in April
1945, another Nazi training evening took place in the „Deutschen Haus“
(now the Gasthof Hillebrand).
On
April 28 the so-called Freiheitsaktion Bayern called for an uprising on
the radio, but no one from the village became involved. On April 30,
German 'pioneers' blew up the Aschheim Canal Bridge, the bridge to
Unterföhring had already been destroyed two days earlier leaving
Ismaning largely isolated in terms of traffic. At the same time, the
Americans continued from Garching towards Unterdorf and hit the paper
mill. This was considered a warning signal and action was taken: a white
flag was attached to the church tower. When the local Volkssturmführer
exchanged it for a swastika flag, the Americans fired another round.
Someone again dared to raise the white flag, this time without being
threatened by the remaining Nazi authorities.
On
May 1, 1945, the war ended in Ismaning with the invasion of 150
Americans. During the war, refugees and Munich residents who had lost
their homes came to Ismaning in search of food and accommodation. In
1946, in addition to its 4,600 inhabitants, the town housed over a
thousand displaced persons, mostly from the Sudetenland. There were also
other refugees from other regions. Many stayed in Ismaning permanently.
Their integration represents a difficult but, from today's perspective,
a successful chapter in the local history. The street names of the
Bohemian Forest settlement serve as reminders of their former homeland.
Just
outside Ismaning is this listed farm house, located on possibly the
longest village street in the district of Munich, stretching four
kilometres. the In 1905, it was bought by the remarkable widow Therese
Randlkofer Therese Randlkofer who managed to own and develop Dallmayr,
turning it into what is now the largest delicatessen business in Europe
and probably the best-known German coffee brand. She converted the
property into a stately model property and gave it the name "Goldachhof"
- in the style of the little river that runs through the complex.
Randlkofer modernised the system and even had a small E-Werk built in
1906 which was at that time a striking achievement. It exists today,
recently renovated according to the guidelines of monument and water
protection, and can deliver up to 80 000 KWh of electricity per year.
Adolf-Hitler-Platz
in front of the town hall bedecked with Nazi flags as shown on the
cover of Pfaffenhofen unterm Hakenkreuz by Reinhard Haiplik, now in its
third edition. As Haiplik reveals, in the Reichstag election in 1933,
the Nazis achieved its highest election result in Oberbayern with 43.1
percent of the votes in Pfaffenhofen- "indeed by far." As early as 1923,
some of Hitler's adherents from Pfaffenhofen had participated in the
so-called "Marsch zur Feldherrnhalle," otherwise known as the Munich
beerhall putsch. Some ϟϟ
men from Pfaffenhofen made a career, most notably Anton Thumann.
Between 1933 and the end of the war in 1945 there was a lively support
of the ruling regime among the citizens of the city. In this edition
Haiplik was especially concerned about the subject of war criminals: "I
wanted to name the perpetrators and keep the memory of the victims." In
his newly-written chapter titled "Victims of the Holocaust - Individual
Destinies of Murdered Pioneers," Haiplik devoted his focus to Jewish
families, some of whom lived in Pfaffenhofen for decades and became
victims of the Holocaust. Earlier Haiplik had previously written that
there were probably no Holocaust victims from Pfaffenhofen; he has since
determined that several Jewish families lived in Pfaffenhofen until the
1930s before being sent to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz to be murdered.
Parade march of the 13th Infantry Regiment across the main square in 1915 during the Great War. Both world wars have left their traces on Pfaffenhofen. Whilst the First World War didn't turn the town into a theatew of war, the reports of casualties, the establishment of war hospitals and the ever-increasing supply problems made war events clear to the population. The political and economic uncertainty that followed the First World War shaped the following decade, which ended with the global economic crisis of October 1929. The political radicalisation in the face of increasing unemployment briefly recounted below led to Hitler being appointed Chancellor on January 30, 1933 by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. The years leading up to the Second World War were characterised by the bringing into force of all authorities, the dissolution of associations and the persecution of those who thought differently. The war itself would repeatedly make Pfaffenhoffen the scene of low-flying attacks from the summer of 1944, especially in March and April 1945 on trains standing at the main railway station.
SA men jumping out of a wagon in Munich marked "Burgerbräu Pfaffenhofen" during the Beer Hall Putsch, November 9, 1923; some from Pfaffenhofen took part in the attempted coup. Indeed,
the Nazi movement found supporters in Pfaffenhofen very early on. In
1922 ten of its citizens had become Nazi Party members, attending Nazi
meetings in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller, at which Hitler spoke. The men
from Pfaffenhofen asked Hitler to come to Pfaffenhofen which he did on
September 23, 1922. Hitler spoke in the Müllerbräukeller; less than a
fortnight later on October 4, 1922 the founding meeting of a local Nazi
Party group in Pfaffenhofen took place in the next room of the
Pfaffelbräu. In 1923 there were already 130 Nazi members in Pfaffenhofen
with sixty of them joining the SA. At 2.00 on the day of the Hitler
putsch, a regimental commander arrived at the house local group leader
Wilhelm Hörskens with orders to immediately provide men for the
occupation of Munich. 
According
to a report in the Pfaffenhofener Volksblatt of November 9, 1933,
eighteen men followed this order. According to Hans Niedermayr, whose
father and uncle were involved in the putsch, fifteen men absolutely
wanted to be taken to Munich but the large Müllerbräulastwagen was not
ready for use, and so one had to be content with a smaller car from the
brewery. Only eleven revolutionaries would have found space in it. These
have been drawn. The four people who stayed at home were entrusted with
another task: they were supposed to carry out the "revolution" in
Pfaffenhofen. The Pfaffenhofen putschists' truck only got as far as
Lohof before being driven into a ditch. According to the Pfaffenhofener Volksblatt
of November 9, 1933, the Pfaffenhofeners had fought valiantly and
heroically on the front line; at the time however the same newspaper
actually admitted that they had fled as soon as they heard the first
gunshots. 
After the so-called “Black Friday” crash on the New York Stock Exchange on October 25, 1929, the huge increase in unemployment in Germany, which had based its economic upswing heavily on American bonds felt throughout the district of Pfaffenhofen. In addition to the dramatic economic and social impact on the population, the immediate consequence was a polarisation of the political party landscape. Belief in the democratic parties of the centre dwindled, so that the Nazis in Pfaffenhofen were already able to record considerable gains between 1928 and 1930. Whilst in 1932 they won 15.7% of the votes, a year later it was almost 38%, making the Nazis the strongest local party. When Reich President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Reich Chancellor, all democratic structures within Germany would soon be dissolved. The ban on political parties, the control of all state and economic organisations or the reorganisation of the entire club and leisure sector were visible results. The land surveying office on the main square shown in the GIV above on the left was used
by the Nazi district leadership from 1933 to 1945. On the day Hitler was
appointed Chancellor the town's ϟϟ
squadron marched through the streets of the town with flaming torches
at 20.00 Five years later, then-mayor Otto Bauer recalled: "What it was
for us when we got the news that Adolf Hitler was Chancellor. Adolf
Hitler is in power! Tears of joy filled our eyes and we enjoined the ϟϟ-Heim to fight again for Adolf Hitler, for Germany's way into eternity." 
On
the occasion of the advertising weeks for the new "Volkswagen" in 1938,
a prototype drove through Pfaffenhofen in the direction of Ingolstadt. Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche were for the most part the makers of the VW Beetle with Porsche the ingenious designer and Hitler the political midwife. Without Hitler's support, Porsche would not have been able to complete the Volkswagen project. Hitler had needed a creative mind to construct a small car that was suitable for series production whilst Porsche needed a political client who would enable him to design without being under cost pressure. In the summer of 1934, the "Reichsverband der Deutschen Automobilindustrie" commissioned Porsche to design a "Kraft durch Freude" car, named after the Nazi organisation for leisure activities. On December 29, 1935, Hitler, who didn't have a driver's license himself, personally inspected the prototype of "his Volkswagen." Two years later, on May 26, 1938, the laying of the foundation stone for the VW plant in Wolfsburg was celebrated in the presence of the "Führer" . However, the "Strength through Joy" car was initially not used for "people's motorisation" but for the Wehrmacht at the front as an all-terrain Kübel- und Schwimmwagen. This was hardly surprising given that back in 1934 Porsche stated that "a Volkswagen must be suitable not only as a passenger car, but also as a delivery van and for certain military purposes."
In the March 5, 1933 elections a week after the Reichstag fire the turnout in Pfaffenhofen was 90%.
1, 033 voted for the Nazis, making them the biggest party. In
comparison the BVP received 826 votes, the SPD 570, and the communists
138. In the Pfaffenhofen district, 10,193 citizens voted for the Nazis,
6,854 for the BVP, 1,286 for the SPD, 570 for the KPD, and 816 for the
Bauernbund. This gave the Nazis their best result of all of Upper
Bavaria with 43.1% (other sources claim 50.2%) voting for the Nazis. At noon on March 10, 1933, the Nazi flag was raised from the balcony of the town hall as seen here on the right. 
Later
that year Pfaffenhofen had a second vote on November 12 to vote on
Hitler's policy- 3,070 people from Pfaffenhofen voted 'yes', 62 'no'.
The residents of a now demolished Wallnerhaus on Sonnenstrasse voted
unanimously with "no" with its house ending up being smeared with fæces.
Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm
Adolf-Hitler-Platz
in front of the town hall bedecked with Nazi flags as shown on the
cover of Pfaffenhofen unterm Hakenkreuz by Reinhard Haiplik, now in its
third edition. As Haiplik reveals, in the Reichstag election in 1933,
the Nazis achieved its highest election result in Oberbayern with 43.1
percent of the votes in Pfaffenhofen- "indeed by far." As early as 1923,
some of Hitler's adherents from Pfaffenhofen had participated in the
so-called "Marsch zur Feldherrnhalle," otherwise known as the Munich
beerhall putsch. Some ϟϟ
men from Pfaffenhofen made a career, most notably Anton Thumann.
Between 1933 and the end of the war in 1945 there was a lively support
of the ruling regime among the citizens of the city. In this edition
Haiplik was especially concerned about the subject of war criminals: "I
wanted to name the perpetrators and keep the memory of the victims." In
his newly-written chapter titled "Victims of the Holocaust - Individual
Destinies of Murdered Pioneers," Haiplik devoted his focus to Jewish
families, some of whom lived in Pfaffenhofen for decades and became
victims of the Holocaust. Earlier Haiplik had previously written that
there were probably no Holocaust victims from Pfaffenhofen; he has since
determined that several Jewish families lived in Pfaffenhofen until the
1930s before being sent to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz to be murdered.
SA men jumping out of a wagon in Munich marked "Burgerbräu Pfaffenhofen" during the Beer Hall Putsch, November 9, 1923; some from Pfaffenhofen took part in the attempted coup. Indeed,
the Nazi movement found supporters in Pfaffenhofen very early on. In
1922 ten of its citizens had become Nazi Party members, attending Nazi
meetings in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller, at which Hitler spoke. The men
from Pfaffenhofen asked Hitler to come to Pfaffenhofen which he did on
September 23, 1922. Hitler spoke in the Müllerbräukeller; less than a
fortnight later on October 4, 1922 the founding meeting of a local Nazi
Party group in Pfaffenhofen took place in the next room of the
Pfaffelbräu. In 1923 there were already 130 Nazi members in Pfaffenhofen
with sixty of them joining the SA. At 2.00 on the day of the Hitler
putsch, a regimental commander arrived at the house local group leader
Wilhelm Hörskens with orders to immediately provide men for the
occupation of Munich. 
According
to a report in the Pfaffenhofener Volksblatt of November 9, 1933,
eighteen men followed this order. According to Hans Niedermayr, whose
father and uncle were involved in the putsch, fifteen men absolutely
wanted to be taken to Munich but the large Müllerbräulastwagen was not
ready for use, and so one had to be content with a smaller car from the
brewery. Only eleven revolutionaries would have found space in it. These
have been drawn. The four people who stayed at home were entrusted with
another task: they were supposed to carry out the "revolution" in
Pfaffenhofen. The Pfaffenhofen putschists' truck only got as far as
Lohof before being driven into a ditch. According to the Pfaffenhofener Volksblatt
of November 9, 1933, the Pfaffenhofeners had fought valiantly and
heroically on the front line; at the time however the same newspaper
actually admitted that they had fled as soon as they heard the first
gunshots. 
After the so-called “Black Friday” crash on the New York Stock Exchange on October 25, 1929, the huge increase in unemployment in Germany, which had based its economic upswing heavily on American bonds felt throughout the district of Pfaffenhofen. In addition to the dramatic economic and social impact on the population, the immediate consequence was a polarisation of the political party landscape. Belief in the democratic parties of the centre dwindled, so that the Nazis in Pfaffenhofen were already able to record considerable gains between 1928 and 1930. Whilst in 1932 they won 15.7% of the votes, a year later it was almost 38%, making the Nazis the strongest local party. When Reich President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Reich Chancellor, all democratic structures within Germany would soon be dissolved. The ban on political parties, the control of all state and economic organisations or the reorganisation of the entire club and leisure sector were visible results. The land surveying office on the main square shown in the GIV above on the left was used
by the Nazi district leadership from 1933 to 1945. On the day Hitler was
appointed Chancellor the town's ϟϟ
squadron marched through the streets of the town with flaming torches
at 20.00 Five years later, then-mayor Otto Bauer recalled: "What it was
for us when we got the news that Adolf Hitler was Chancellor. Adolf
Hitler is in power! Tears of joy filled our eyes and we enjoined the ϟϟ-Heim to fight again for Adolf Hitler, for Germany's way into eternity." 
Advertising shot on the main square in December, 1930.
Between
1933 and the end of the war there was active support from the
ruling regime among the city's citizens. Indeed, during the Nazi era some ϟϟ
men from Pfaffenhofen made noteworthy careers including Anton Thumann
who had served in various Nazi concentration camps during the war. He
had joined the Nazi party as member no. 1,726,633 and the ϟϟ
as member no. 24,444 in the 1930s, serving as a guard at Dachau
concentration camp from 1933 onward. Starting in 1937, Thumann was
employed in the Office of Guard Command and ascended to the rank of
Schutzhaftlagerführer in 1940. By early August 1940 he transferred to
Gross-Rosen concentration camp, which at the time was still a sub-camp
of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In early May 1941, Thumann became
the Protective Custody Camp Leader of the now independent Gross-Rosen
camp, under Commander Arthur Rödl. From February 1943 to March 1944 he
was Protective Custody Camp Leader at the Majdanek concentration camp
where, due to his sadism and participation in selections, gassings and
shootings, he was known as the "Hangman of Majdanek". According to Jerzy Kwiatkowski, an eyewitness interned at Majdanek during the time, Thumann
personally executed prisoners and Soviet prisoners of war. He owned a
German Shepherd that he used to bite the inmates. For a few weeks
between March and April 1944 Thumann was at Auschwitz. He appears in the
so-called Höcker Album containing a series of photographs from an ϟϟ
recreation camp, the Solahütte near Auschwitz, which had been
discovered in 2007. In one of the photos shown on the right Thumann is
pictured with Richard Baer, Josef Mengele, Josef Kramer and Rudolf
Hoess.
Thumann
then served as Protective Custody Camp Leader at Neuengamme
concentration camp from mid-April 1944 until the end of April 1945.
Often accompanied by his dog, he was greatly feared in Neuengamme due to
his reputation for abuse of prisoners. As the British closed in on
Neuengamme, the ϟϟ
evacuated the prisoners to prison ships. During the evacuation, 58 male
and thirteen female resistance fighters from nearby Fuhlsbüttel concentration
camp were selected to be brought to Neuengamme to be executed on the
orders Georg-Henning Graf von Bassewitz-Behr. With the participation of Thumann, these prisoners were hanged between April 21 and 23, 1945
in a detention cell. When some continued to resist, Thumann threw a
hand grenade through the cell window. Under the command of Thumann and
Wilhelm Dreimann, the last 700 prisoners remaining at Neuengamme were
forced to dispose of bodies and cover up the traces of the camp. On
April 30, 1945 the prisoners were then sent on a death march with the
aim of reaching the area of the Flensburg government. At the end of the
war Thumann was arrested by the British and put on trial before a
British military tribunal in the Neuengamme Camp Case No. 1 in Hamburg.
Thumann and thirteen other defendants, including Wilhelm Dreimann and
Max Pauly, the Commandant of Neuengamme, were
charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court handed
down a guilty verdict on March 18, 1946 and sentenced eleven of the 14
defendants to death by hanging on May 3, 1946, including Thumann,
Dreimann and Pauly. The death sentence was carried out by British
executioner Albert Pierrepoint at Hamelin prison on October 8, 1946.
Adolf-Hitler-Platz then and now, renamed Hauptplatz, with the rathaus on the right
The Brauerei Bortenschlager sporting the Nazi flag and today, a K&L clothing shop.
Karl Riemer spent the entire time of the Nazi rule from 1933–1945
in the Dachau concentration camp. He fled from the camp on April 26,
1945. He succeeded in getting through here to Pfaffenhofen, some fifty kilometres
away and already in American hands, by April 29. The American town
commandant there assured him immediate help for the prisoners in the
Dachau concentration camp. Karl Riemer was unaware that the order for
liberating the camp had already been given on the morning of his
arrival.
Some views of the town before the war and today
The "Moosburger Hof" run by Josef Rath which was the birthplace of the SPD regional association of Bavaria.
After the war they would coordinate with the occupying Americans in
the tracking and investigation of Nazis and former activists. In October
1945, the parties took part in their first public action in the
district having already met in secret in July and August, going so far
as to develop their presence in Pfaffenhofen. Significant leaders of the
SPD before 1933 such as Wilhelm Hoegner met several times in the
“Moosburger Hof”, which by then was now run by the Social Democrat Sepp
Rath. Here those responsible set the course for the re-establishment of
the SPD at the Bavarian state level and prepared the party for the local
elections a few months later.
Master
baker Heinrich Wagenknecht prevented the Ilm Bridge, shown here from
around 1935, from being blown up when the Americans invaded on April 27,
as they approached Pfaffenhofen on a broad front in a southerly
direction. The XIII. ϟϟ-Armee-Korps and the 17. ϟϟ-Panzergrenadier-Division
„Götz von Berlichingen“ subordinate to it (mentioned later below in
regards the massacre of some of its members), began to withdraw to the
area south of Pfaffenhofen. In doing so, they secured the road between
Ingolstadt and Munich and the autobahn to the south in order to prevent
surprise attacks by American units. The following incident, described by
Otto Stumm, possibly prevented a tougher confrontation over the town of
Pfaffenhofen:
Army Group H, which was deployed in our area and to which a great many units of the Waffen ϟϟ belonged, was commanded by General of the Infantry Schulz ... Oak leaves adorned the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. His wife had been living here with her one-year-old daughter as an evacuee for some time on the Schleiferberge. On the night of April 27-28, 1945, General Schulz ordered the commanders of the troops under him to go to Mr. Prechter's hunting lodge, which was located in the community of Sulzbach im Walde, on the way from Wolfsberg to Menzenbach to undertake the general withdrawal order to the Isar-Amperlinie near Munich. Did tactical reasons prompt him or did he want to spare his wife and child the horrors of a bombardment and the probable destruction of Pfaffenhofen? Only he knows.
In front of the bridge remains this fountain dated 1934, its swastika removed but leaving no mistake as to what it represented
It
wasn't until the summer of 1944 that Pfaffenhofen did suffered direct
bombing, with waves of enemy bombers having flown over to target
Augsburg or Munich. The first bombs fell on neighbouring fields without
causing any damage. Later, lighter bombs were dropped over the forest on
Niederhauser Weg near what is now Marienfried. In July 1944 a USAAF
bomber had to make an emergency landing near Pfaffenhofen with the plane
crashing in Rehgräble leaving six of the crew killed ( two crew members managing to jump out and land in the farmyard of Xaver Spleiß in Erbishofenand)
summarily buried. When the Americans occupied Pfaffenhofen in 1945 they
forced Nazi Party members to exhume the corpses, whereupon the dead
were brought to back to the United States. Two crew members of the bomber jumped
off and landed in the yard of the farmer Xaver Spleiß in Erbishofen.
Sergeant Thomas received them and brought them to Weissenhorn the next
day. As
the fighting was getting closer to Pfaffenhofen, between April 18 and
22 alone the town's sirens sounded 53 times to warn of impending air
raids, making it impossible to distinguish whether a pre-alarm, major
alarm or the all-clear was being sounded. Despite this, lessons were
still being taught in schools. In
total only one person had died from air raids whilst numerous civilians
and soldiers would be killed by the shelling of the city by the ϟϟ and from defensive battles on April 28, 1945 conducted by the ϟϟ, Wehrmacht and remnants of the Volkssturm. In 1953 19.2% of the population was still displaced.
March through the main square in 1935. Denazification
involved all inhabitants with tribunal hearings held in the town hall.
Already in the first days after the end of the war arrests began, in
which the occupiers initially wanted to arrest activists of the Nazi
regime such as former mayor Otto Bauer and the district leader Dr.
Arrest Max Limmer and Josef Haumayr. More arrests of this kind followed
in the course of 1945. The Pfaffenhofen military court imposed severe
penalties for the crimes committed. For example, 'Konrad F.' from
Pfaffenhofen received four years in prison for illegal possession of a
firearm, and the court condemned him for providing false information in
questionnaires from the time of acting mayor Josef Rath of April 24,
1946 to prepare for the arbitration board hearings. Several cases of
heavy fines or prison sentences of several months occurred. The purging
of Nazis from the local civil service led to the dismissal of almost all
teachers leading to a shortage of teachers in the new school year
1945-46. A similar picture emerged when it came to staffing the
authorities. Unofficial civil servants were temporarily appointed,
repeatedly falling on incriminated people who often withheld the truth
about the Nazi Party memberships in their questionnaires. For example,
Hans Meister from Bamberg, who had been appointed District Administrator
for Pfaffenhofen, eventually had to reveal his membership in various
Nazi organisations which he had kept secret before being removed from
office and interned. On the occasion of the reopening of the
Pfaffenhofen-Geisenfeld district court in March 1946 under the
leadership of the regional judge Strobel, Captain Thayer of the American
military government spoke about the importance of democratic judiciary,
which would be indispensable for the future development of Germany. It
was thus on the basis of the "Law for the Liberation from National
Socialism and Militarism of March 5, 1946" that denazification was to
take place with the establishment of so-called "arbitration chambers" in
the districts. As part of the much-cited “questionnaire wave”,
residents of the district aged 16 and over had to answer 131 questions
from the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC)
questionnaire under threat of punishment if they provided false
information. This questionnaire formed the basis for the tribunal
hearings that began in the weeks that followed. The arbitral tribunals
were not criminal courts, but jury courts in which those incriminated
were to bear the consequences of their Nazi past through the imposition
of sanctions, the confiscation of property or the exclusion from public
office. The Arbitration Chamber, which met in the town hall, consisted
of a chairman and three assessors, who were appointed according to the
proportional representation of the parties. In June 1946, the tribunal
in Pfaffenhofen began its activities under the chairmanship of the mill
owner Asko von Kemnitz from Hettenshausen and, from December, of the SPD
city councilor Franz Schütz. Based on the evaluation of the
questionnaire, the population was summoned and, if necessary, obtained
exculpatory statements from witnesses. Amid numerous lenient sentences,
some more serious cases did not go unpunished. At the trial of two Nazis
who had joined the Nazi Party very early on, 70-year-old 'Georg K.', member
no. 183 of the party since 1925 and bearer of the Golden Party Badge,
received thirty days hard labour as atonement and had to pay a fine of
2,000 marks. The tribunal passed a similar verdict on his 73-year-old
wife Elise, who had been involved with the party and the National
Socialist Women's League for just as long. The age of the two had a
moderating effect but the brigade leader of the Nazi motor corps 'Pius
H.', who had had the military rank of major, received two years'
internment in a labour camp and confiscation of his property for
reparation purposes. He was left with only 3,000 marks as a deductible.
The population of Pfaffenhoffen however doubted the success of
denazification. The lengthy proceedings and the fact that witnesses at
hearings from previous national fifty Socialists, who feared reprisals
later and revised their statements, showed little success.
The work of the tribunal, which was completed in Pfaffenhofen in August
1948, proved to be a blunt sword when it came to denazification. Among
the five main groups (Major Offenders, Offenders, Lesser Offenders,
Followers, and Exonerated Persons), the group of “Followers” made up 50%
of the overall number. After a third of the proceedings were also
discontinued, the success of the Chamber's work was rather low. The
reason for this was the comparatively mild judgment practice of the
arbitral tribunals, which were staffed by Germans. The Americans had
planned a much stricter implementation, but the military governor of the
American occupation zone, Lucius D. Clay, could not achieve more. 
After three weeks the school was sufficiently
repaired to be able to start regular lessons although the start of
lessons was further delayed because both the boys 'and girls' schools
combined only had nine teachers for 18 classes. This was where the
initially strict denazification practice became noticeable, removing all
civil servants from their posts so that the teachers could not be
filled quickly. City commander Sloat, who returned to Pittsburgh as a
university professor, tried his best to improve conditions during his
time in Pfaffenhofen from May 1945 to January 1946 only to find that
military interests often stood in the way of faster advances in the
school system. The entrance to the school- now the Joseph Maria Lutz School- is shown in the GIF above when it provided the location for the
Vereinslazarett military hospital as seen here in 1915. After initial war euphoria, reports of fallen
and wounded soldiers from Pfaffenhofen and the surrounding area reached
home in the first year of the war.
In the first local elections with political parties, only those who had not belonged to the Nazi party or its organisations before May 1, 1937, or had been a sympathiser or supporter of the party were allowed to vote. In addition, one had to have been resident in the community for a year - this excluded numerous refugees and expellees from the right to vote - and be at least 21 years old.
On
the right shows an address by an American official on the occasion of
the reopening of the motorway bridge near Geisenhausen in 1945. Apart
from this partly destroyed but quickly repaired motorway
bridge, hardly any major damage had occurred in the district. In the
first weeks after the war, bus routes could be put into operation again,
whereby the petrol, which was scarce for the general public, was mainly
reserved for systemically relevant professional groups such as
entrepreneurs, doctors or the Red Cross. Up to autumn 1945 the transport
system was structurally largely at the pre-war level and formed a basis
for the later economic development although it was the lack of vehicles
and petrol that most stood in the way of it. Between 1978 and 1979, the
Autobahndirektion Südbayern widened the highway on three lanes in each
direction causing it to be slightly altered from how it orginally
appeared.
Based on burials in the local cemetery, at least sixteen children died in the small camp of Uttenhofen (Bavaria) during the six months of its existence between fall 1944 and spring 1945. We have no records indicating the total number of babies born in this camp, however, or how many could have died and been buried on the campgrounds (as witness statements indicate) without being mentioned in any records.
Scheyern
Nearby
Scheyern Abbey, resting place of Bavarian dukes and duchesses Otto I,
Agnes von Loon, Ludwig der Kelheimer, Otto II and Agnes von
Braunschweig, then and now. The site is historically significant as one
of the origins of the Bavarian ruling house Wittelsbach; Joseph
Peruschitz, a victim of the sinking of the Titanic, was the abbey's
Benedictine priest. He had boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger, having paid £13 for ticket number 237393. Survivor Ellen Toomey told reporters after the disaster that he, Fr Montvila and Fr Byles had said Mass every day whilst on board. 
He and a colleague continuously engaged themselves with giving general absolution to those about to die. As an eyewitness recorded in the Catholic magazine America,
Nearby
Scheyern Abbey, resting place of Bavarian dukes and duchesses Otto I,
Agnes von Loon, Ludwig der Kelheimer, Otto II and Agnes von
Braunschweig, then and now. The site is historically significant as one
of the origins of the Bavarian ruling house Wittelsbach; Joseph
Peruschitz, a victim of the sinking of the Titanic, was the abbey's
Benedictine priest. He had boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger, having paid £13 for ticket number 237393. Survivor Ellen Toomey told reporters after the disaster that he, Fr Montvila and Fr Byles had said Mass every day whilst on board. 
He and a colleague continuously engaged themselves with giving general absolution to those about to die. As an eyewitness recorded in the Catholic magazine America,Those entering the lifeboats were consoled with moving words. Some women refused to be separated from their husbands, preferring to die with them. Finally, when no more women were near, some men were allowed into the boats. Father Peruschitz was offered a place which he declined.
Inside is this plaque within the cloister commemorating him inscribed in Latin: "May Joseph Peruschitz rest in peace, who on the ship Titanic piously sacrificed himself"During the war Scheyern was a location of the air
signal corps of the Luftwaffe."
Immediately after the war the American
Air Force's listening units were housed in Scheyernand would grow in
importance as the Cold War developed. Until the Schyren barracks were
abandoned in 1993, Scheyern was also the location of the Bundeswehr
although air defence units of the German Air Force have been stationed
here since 1958.Schrobenhausen
The former Adolf-Hitler-Platz from a Nazi-era postcard and today. In 1925 only two Jewish citizens lived in the area of the old district of Schrobenhausen- when Hitler seized power in 1933, only one Jew lived in the area. This was for historical reasons- Schrobenhausen had belonged to the territory of the Electorate of Bavaria for centuries, and Jews were not allowed to settle here until the end of the 18th century. Even after the ban on settling in Bavaria was lifted, Jews only settled in Schrobenhausen temporarily. The native Ukrainian Mosai Director had moved to Germany in 1916 as a Russian prisoner of war, marrying in 1922 and earning his living as a shoemaker to support his four children. Although there were no shop windows that could have been smashed during the so-called Night of Broken Glass in 1938, his family members were arrested and the next day his workshop was closed by order of the district office and the Schrobenhausen Nazi Party district leader.
In February 1945, Mosai Director was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. After it was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945, he returned to Schrobenhausen to his family, having managed to survive no doubt due to the fact that he was taken to the concentration camp comparatively late given that he had been married to a non-Jewish German woman.
During the war, the explosives precursor pentaerythritol was manufactured by Paraxol GmbH here in Schrobenhausen. The plant was built between 1938 and 1942 and was codenamed "Hiag" (short for Holzverkohlungs-Industrie AG). 800 construction workers were exployed in its construction, its factory eventually employing 210 people. Production began on October 1, 1942. with about three quarters of the employees in production were forced labourers from France, Italy and the Ukraine. The purpose of the company was kept top secret, even classified as a state secret. It was officially declared that it was a wood flour plant.
The three-storey rathaus in the foreground with a steep gabled roof, reinforced concrete skeleton, grouted brick masonry on the second floor and on the gables, glazing on the two lower floors and structure with pillar-like templates was built by Peter Buddeberg, replacing the original seen in the postcard shown on the right in 1968. There are still many rumours about the production of poison gas, fuel for V1 or V2 rockets and even obscure so-called miracle weapons in Schrobenhausen. There had in fact been chemical production at the site, but, fortunately for Schrobenhausen it was far less dangerous. At the time of rearmament in 1935, there were 200 different explosive mixtures, fifty of which contained pentaerythritol tetranitrate. In 1936, the High Command of the German Army commissioned the Degussa company to manufacture the preliminary product pentaerythritol leading two years later to the start of construction in the Hagenauer Forest. As a 100 percent subsidiary of Degussa, the company Hiag was created as the builder, which actually only existed during the construction period. The plants for manufacturing the chemical were built for 12.3 million Reichsmarks. Together with three other plants in Germany, a production capacity of 1100 tons of pentaerythritol per month was achieved and the plant in Schrobenhausen became the most modern with the highest product purity and most efficient, manufacturing its product using a special process that was only available in Germany at the time in which all the plumbing was steam flushed.
The Hotel Post in a period postcard on Adolf-Hitler-Platz and today.Formaldehyde was also produced in the Hagenauer Forest surrounding Schrobenhausen- a precursor for the actual product pentaerythritol but not entirely harmless. Whilst the main product is non-toxic and non-flammable - it is still used today for synthetic resins, paints, cosmetics and medicines - formaldehyde is produced by the catalytic combustion of methanol which is the most toxic alcohol. Fortunately for the inhabitants there was no chemical nitration in Schrobenhausen; this takes place in the process in which the explosive building block pentaerythritol terra nitrate is formed from pentaerythritol, which would have had a significantly negative impact on the environmental balance. As a result only a few, rather harmless traces of this company's history are left in Schrobenhausen, such as buildings and stoneware pipes that are used by the notable German arms manufacturer MBDA. In
April 1945, the Americans first occupied the plant, but left it again
when it became clear that it was not a concentration camp or something
similar. In the autumn of 1947, the complete production facilities were
dismantled. These were rebuilt in Toulouse as reparations and continued
to be operated there until 1980.
Forced
laborers were also used at a flax roasting plant in Schrobenhausen. They were forced to separate flax fibers from the core, which were then used in yarn production. The work was just as tedious and unsavory as it was extremely harmful to health because of pollutants, especially since the workers were completely unprotected.
Schrobenhausen experienced a growth spurt after 1945 with the immigration of expellees from
eastern Germany.
Dorfen
About twenty miles south of Landshut is the tiny town of Dorfen, its Marienplatz shown here during the Nazi era and today. At the end of March 1933, the Dorfen market town council awarded the honorary citizenship of Dorfen to Hitler, von Hindenburg, Bavarian Minister of the Interior Adolf Wagner and the Nazi Party Reich Governor in Bavaria, Lieutenant General Ritter von Epp. It has never rescinded the honour given the legal opinion that honorary citizenship ends with death, many other towns have expressly revoked Hitler's honorary citizenship posthumously.
