Freising
Münchenerstraße during the Third Reich and today
Freising's dark past predates the Nazi era by centuries. During the so-called Kinderhexenprozesse in Freising, the Hexenturm (Witches' Tower) at the Alte Gefängnis was constructed. The
first trial began with the arrest of the so-called Bettelbuben (beggar
children) Andre and Lorenz on December 3, 1715, who were accused of
being able to make piglets and mice. Based on their statements two other
children were arrested. On August 12, 1717 Andre hanged himself in his
cell whilst another boy died of illness. Three boys were executed on
November 12, 1717 by sword and fire. Two other boys had to watch their
execution and beaten with rods before being placed under "spiritual
supervision." One girl, Elisabeth Adlwart was forced to shave the
entirety of her body to be examined for physical characteristics of one having made a pact with the devil. The
last witch hunt in Freising occurred between 1720 and 1722, and it
included the execution of eight “zauberbuben” or magic boys. It was
triggered by the arrest of Adlwart Veit for theft. Probably due to his
conviction in the first children's witch trial (he was one of the two
boys who had to watch the execution) the charge of theft was changed to
witchcraft. Eventually over an hundred people were
arrested with eight boys between 14 to 23 years and three middle-aged
beggars were executed including Adlwart Veit on December 15, 1721. As so
often in history, the wave of arrests and executions did not come to an
end until more and more members of the upper classes were targeted.
Mourners at Marienplatz on the left, honouring murdered Kurt Eisner February 24, 1919 with public buildings flying red flags. On the right is a period postcard of the event and the same site taken from the rathaus's Great Hall.
A
few days after his April 7 murder, the Räterepublik, a soviet republic,
was proclaimed in Munich. On the same day the soviet republic for
Freising was also proclaimed. This soviet republic lasted about five
days. The period photo is shortly after its overthrow when troops from
Regensburg entered Freising. On the 30th they continued south to overthrow the
soviets in Munich. The politically motivated murder of Bavaria's first Prime Minister, Kurt Eisner, on February 21, 1919 had mobilised many people in Freising. At the memorial rally a thousand came dressed in black on the Marienplatz. After hearing a speech from Ferdinand Zwack they marched to Neustift and back, accompanied by a brass band. Nevertheless, after Eisner's murder radical forces in Freising increased; after the proclamation setting up the Soviet Republic on April 7, 1919 in Munich, Freising too joined the Soviet Republic and following instructions from Munich, its public buildings flew red flags, bells rang, and "several thousand" gathered at the Vimy barracks and listened to several revolutionary speeches. Zwack became Commissar of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council of the Soviet Republic.
Whilst this was the type of experience many Bavarian towns had, few lasted very long. In Freising, the predominant influence of the Soviet Republic lasted at the most five days. Newspapers were censored during this time on the orders of the "Revolutionary Central" in Munich. The parliamentary government that had moved to Bamberg subsequently announced military action against the Soviet Republic. Freising behaved apparently neutral towards this Second Soviet Republic although its garrison appears to have stood on the side of the Soviet Republic. By the end of April troops and freikorps units acted against the Soviet Republic in Munich. As part of these troops, which came from Regensburg, moved into Freising on April 26, it met with no resistance. The south of the city was sealed off by a cordon at the Isarbrücke with machine guns set up. The town was now open to the parliamentary government although its leaders declared that followers of the Soviet Republic would be protected among its residents and information about them would not be passed on to the troops. Some volunteers joined various military organisations to participate in the fight against the Bavarian Soviet Republic. On April 30 the forces moved on again, and by May 1 and 2 the Soviet Republic was brutally suppressed.
A
few days after his April 7 murder, the Räterepublik, a soviet republic,
was proclaimed in Munich. On the same day the soviet republic for
Freising was also proclaimed. This soviet republic lasted about five
days. The period photo is shortly after its overthrow when troops from
Regensburg entered Freising. On the 30th they continued south to overthrow the
soviets in Munich. The politically motivated murder of Bavaria's first Prime Minister, Kurt Eisner, on February 21, 1919 had mobilised many people in Freising. At the memorial rally a thousand came dressed in black on the Marienplatz. After hearing a speech from Ferdinand Zwack they marched to Neustift and back, accompanied by a brass band. Nevertheless, after Eisner's murder radical forces in Freising increased; after the proclamation setting up the Soviet Republic on April 7, 1919 in Munich, Freising too joined the Soviet Republic and following instructions from Munich, its public buildings flew red flags, bells rang, and "several thousand" gathered at the Vimy barracks and listened to several revolutionary speeches. Zwack became Commissar of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council of the Soviet Republic.  |
| Zwack's grave in St. George cemetery |
Freising
during the Depression- Freisingers queuing up at the high street
tobacconist's. The shop today sells shoes, whilst one of the
reconstructed buildings has erected the bust of an aged woman who
appears to be a casualty of the town's tumultuous history from the past
century.
View of Prinz-Ludwig-Straße from the end of Ziegelgasse. The Ziegeltor was destroyed in 1898, the last of Freising's six gates.
Fischergasse in the 1930s and today. Fischergasse is, as Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl noted in his 1866 essay on Freising, the only historic street that refers to a trade.
All sites online appear to censor the swastika from the photo on the left by cutting the right side of the photo; here I had to meld a high-quality image with one found in the book Alt Freising.
The Gasthof Kolosseum, now gone and replaced on the High Street with a Woolworths, where Hitler gave a speech on February 12, 1928. On September 7, 1922 the local Freising Nazi group was created. On the right is shown Freising girls giving the Hitler salute.
A meeting of Social Democrats held at the Landshuter Hof (now a Thai restaurant) at the end of 1932 before Hitler's appointment and its prohibition under the Enabling Act through which many party officials were imprisoned, killed or went into exile.
1933 saw the replacement of mayor Stephan Bierner, who had been in that office for more than 30 years, with Nazi Gottlieb Schwemmer. This took place after the special commissioner for city and district of Freising (Sonderkommissar für Stadt und Bezirk Freising)Hans Lechner had been forced to accept Bierner's resignation by the NSDAP Ortsgruppenleiter George Preiser. Bierner denied, however, in a speech that he had been forced to resign and declared that he was not a National Socialist, but always a German first.
Adolf-Hitler-Straße, Freising's main street (now Obere Hauptstrasse). Nearly four months after the new Nazi-dominated city council led by Nazi mayor Gottlieb Schwemmer unanimously agreed to offer honorary citizenship to Hitler, President Paul von Hindenburg, Reich Governor Franz Ritter von Epp and SA Chief of Staff Ernst Röhm, Hitler signed a typewritten letter in Berlin accepting the honour and thanked the town for renaming its main street after him. It's not known if Hindenburg, Epp and Röhm also accepted their honorary citizenship; Röhm was murdered in early July 1934 with Hindenburg dying a few weeks later. As far as the street name is concerned, it was - unlike initially proposed - not given to the whole main street, but only the upper and middle part with the lower part, renamed "Hindenburgstraße." All honorary citizenships, which were awarded during the Nazi period, lifted the Freisinger city council in March 1946.
'Adolf Hitler Straße' as referred to in a 1937 postcard. In fact, at the time this lower part of the High Street had been renamed Hindenburgstraße- as shown below its name plate still remains hidden behind two sites at numbers 38 and 54, the latter however covered over with white paint. It wasn't until August 1945 that eighteen streets in Freising were renamed, including Hindenburg Straße to Untere Hauptstraße, Adolf Hitler Straße to Captain Snow Straße and then Obere Hauptstraße, Adolf Wagner Straße to Gartenstraße, Herbert Norkus Straße to Fabrikstraße, Von-Blombergstraße
was named after the defence minister and Generalfeldmarschall of the
Wehrmacht Werner von Blomberg before he fell into disgrace in 1938 and
was renamed Von-Stein-Straße after the Bavarian artillery General
Hermann Freiherr von Stein, Sigmund-Halter-Straße to Sighartstraße, and Horst Wessel Straße to Bahnhofstraße.
A planned "Hermann Goering Road " along Asamstraße was not realised. Heinestrasse, named after German poet Heinrich Heine was renamed due to his Jewish origin to Dietrich-Eckart-Straße after the early Nazi member and mentor to Hitler who had dedicated the second volume of Mein Kampf to him. A number of streets were renamed after 'martyrs' of the cause- Fabrikstraße was renamed Herbert-Norkus-Straße after a Hitler Youth member who was murdered by communists in 1932, becoming a role model and martyr for the Hitler Youth widely used in Nazi propaganda, most prominently as the subject of novel and film Hitler Youth Quex. Hirschmannstraße, now Kesselschmiedstraße, was named in honour of a brownshirt killed in 1927 after he and five others were chased for an hour through the Giesing district of Munich by political opponents and seriously injured before dying the next day of his injuries; Hitler delivered the funeral oration at Ostfriedhof. Schlageterstraße, now Goethestraße,was of course named for Albert Leo Schlageter who had been killed by the French occupiers of the Ruhr in 1923 and co-opted posthumously by the Nazis as one of their own. Those killed as part of the failed Munich beer hall putsch were also honoured with street names- Andreas-Bauriedlstraße (now Meisenstraße), Kurt-Neubauerstraße (now Rabenweg), Von-der-Pfortenstraße (today Tannenweg), Laforcestraße (renamed Buchenweg) and Karl-Kuhn-Straße (now Erlenweg).
Renamed Horst-Wessel-Straße during the Nazi era, the
äußere Heiliggeistgasse in the 1930s and today on the left, and photo
on the right from around 1870 showing the former Münchner Gate which had
been emblazoned with the arms of Freising. The neo-Romanesque Altöttinger chapel on the right is still there.
One last example is Casellastraße, whose named has reverted back to Plantagenweg (behind where I live). Theodor Casella was the bank clerk who, according to Ernst Röhm in his book "Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters," was with Martin Faust both members of the armed militia organisation Reichskriegsflagge and were shot down accidentally in a burst of machine gun fire during the occupation of the War Ministry as the result of a misunderstanding with II/Inf.Regt 19. Some of the remaining putschists, including Heinrich Himmler, Karl Osswald and Walther Lembert, collected the two men and took them to the Josephinum hospital on Schönfeldstraße in the hospital where Casella died an hour later.
Difficult to see in every image apart from the one at the NS-Dokumentationszentrum in Munich (left), the bus that transported armed Nazis to Munich for the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch came from Freising- it reads on the side 'Hofbrauhaus F[reising]'
Seen from the opposite side, 'Freising' is clearly discerned
The Freising Hofbräuhaus then and now
Marienplatz during the Third Reich and today, and with torchlight procession during the last year of the war
Marienplatz in 1943 and today
The Nazi-era eagle that gives its name to the Adler Apotheke at Obere Hauptstraße 62 dates from 1937.
Obere Hauptstraße 3 during the nazi-zeit and today. Originally built in 1905, it housed the Hutmachergeschäft Koislmaier from 1911. By 1966 this building and the ones on either side were replaced with those of local architect Hans Hofmann. Meanwhile the Laubenbräu at Marienplatz 3, now Café Marienplatz after a fire in 1965 too has changed its façade. Drake Winston at the side of the town hall and behind.
Military parades in the town centre
Drake Winston in front of the rathaus and St. George church. Citizens and clergymen initially hung the white flag on the church tower on their own initiative which nevertheless failed to prevent the approaching Americans from attacking the Sankt-Georgs-Kirche
and the heights around Wippenhausen having suspected an artillery
observer might have holed up in the tower and passed on his
observations. In addition, their commanders suspected that the white
flag was just a ruse.
Looking towards cathedral hill from Mohrenbrücke.
The wartime scars on the bridge are still left untouched, remembered by an inscription.
The main street lined with swastikas
The Fürstbischöfliches Lyceum in 1933 on Untere Hauptstrasee directly across Marienplatz.
In 1936 surrounded by Nazi supporters and in front of the Marcushaus
SA marching past the Marcushaus on March 9, 1933 and an SA man intimidating any thinking of shopping inside the following month. Named after Marcus Lewin who had moved to Freising in 1901 and married Johanna Krell, who owned a department store on Marienplatz in Unteren Hauptstraße 4, together they had a daughter, Hildegard Lewin and established the Krell department store. It was a large company at the time, employing over twenty workers in what had originally started as a textile store. It eventually expanded its range and after the death of Katharina Krell in 1921, Marcus Lewin ran took over sole control of the company. With the Nazi 'seizure of power' he and his family were immediately targeted. Already in 1933 a businessman protested that a fruit and potato market taking place on Marienplatz would end up benefittng the Krell department store. 
That same year SA units took up positions in front of the department store on Marienplatz and in front of other shops run by Jews in Freising as shown here calling on passersby to boycott and held up signs that said: "Buy only in Christian shops as a countermeasure against the Jews' agitation abroad." Lewin eventually fled Freising in 1936 and moved to Munich. His daughter Hildegard managed to escape to England in 1939. Marcus Lewin had hoped to escape the Nazi terror within the anonymity of a large city, initially renting his department store before selling it far below its value in 1939. The Nazi regime collected the proceeds of the sale. When it was determined in 1942 that he would soon be sent to an extermination camp, Marcus Lewin committed suicide through an overdose of sleeping pills.
That same year SA units took up positions in front of the department store on Marienplatz and in front of other shops run by Jews in Freising as shown here calling on passersby to boycott and held up signs that said: "Buy only in Christian shops as a countermeasure against the Jews' agitation abroad." Lewin eventually fled Freising in 1936 and moved to Munich. His daughter Hildegard managed to escape to England in 1939. Marcus Lewin had hoped to escape the Nazi terror within the anonymity of a large city, initially renting his department store before selling it far below its value in 1939. The Nazi regime collected the proceeds of the sale. When it was determined in 1942 that he would soon be sent to an extermination camp, Marcus Lewin committed suicide through an overdose of sleeping pills. 
The Kreisleitung of the NSDAP in 1936; formally the 'alte
rathaus', the locals would refer to it as das 'braune haus.' On the
façade can be seen the Nazi eagle and the writing "Ein volk, Ein führer,
Ein reich."
On the other side is clearly shown a Hitler Youth drummer. The Kreisleiter was a Nazi Party political rank and title which existed as a political rank between 1930 and 1945 and as a Nazi Party title from as early as 1928. The position of Kreisleiter, or county leader, was first formed to provide German election district coordination and, after the Nazi assumption of power, the position became one of county municipal government, effectively replacing the traditional German government establishment.
In 1881 Ignaz Neuburger opened his family-run department store on Bahnhofstraße 4 directly across the road from the Nazi party headquarters from where I took the photo of it today compared to how it appeared before being 'aryanised' and the family sent off to exile and/or death. By the time the photograph on the right was taken Bahnhofstraße was rechristened Horst Wessel Straße. Ignaz Neuburger and his wife Lina maintained a textile and fashion goods business there with their three children: Alfred, Siegfried and Emma. The Neuburgers were very well respected in Freising particularly given their charitable work; Ignaz Neuburger gifted part of the family fortune to the kindergarten or the orphanage. In addition, the family was considered patriotic and had participated contributed to the financing of the town war memorial. After the death of their parents, the three siblings continued the family business. Their clients were mainly farmers from the surrounding area with whom they would share a beer or two in the local pub.
On November 10, 1938 the second large, publicly organised action against the Jewish community took place against in Freising after four large meetings including those organised by the Nazi Ortsgruppe in the Kolosseum and the owner of the Stieglbräu as well as at the Neuwirt and at the Grünen Hof. A large crowd of 3,000 people with signs marched before the house of the Neuburgers and the Holzers and demanded loudly that all Jews in Freising leave. Irma
Holzer was humiliated on the street by the crowd, the window panes of
the Neuburger department store were smashed in and on the facade as shown here was scrawled "The Jews must leave. To Palestine". Jewish citizens were publicly pilloried, their businesses smeared and destroyed. The Nazis also drove later Freising mayor Max Lehner, then a lawyer who had represented Jews in court, through the city wearing a sign reading "Judah die."
The Lewins left, selling their house in 1936 for substantially less than it was worth. Martin Holzer emigrated to Palestine, whilst the Neuburgers remained the longest in the city when their official notice of departure to Munich took place only by 27.x.1939. Neuburger was placed in protective custody for "dealing with Aryan employees in public". By the end of 1938 - shortly before their departure - the post office monitored their letters which revealed how "they no longer felt safe about life". From a seizure order of 29.xi 1938, it indicates that Siegfried Neuburger was sent to Dachau. One of the last official indignations the Freising authorities inflicted was the forced change of names- the three Neuburger siblings had to bear the names Assur, Sally and Tana from October 1938 onwards. The Freisinger NSDAP moved into the first and second floors of the property. Freising in the Third Reich Hans Obster took over the "German business". The Neuburgers stayed in Freising the city the longest, only selling their property in May 1939. They eventually fled to Munich, selling their house to the Sparkasse at far below its actual value. Their official deregistration to Munich did not take place until October 27, 1939. Eventually Siegfried, Alfred and Emma Neuburger died in a Nazi massacre of Jews in Kaunas in Lithuania in 1941.
The Lewins left, selling their house in 1936 for substantially less than it was worth. Martin Holzer emigrated to Palestine, whilst the Neuburgers remained the longest in the city when their official notice of departure to Munich took place only by 27.x.1939. Neuburger was placed in protective custody for "dealing with Aryan employees in public". By the end of 1938 - shortly before their departure - the post office monitored their letters which revealed how "they no longer felt safe about life". From a seizure order of 29.xi 1938, it indicates that Siegfried Neuburger was sent to Dachau. One of the last official indignations the Freising authorities inflicted was the forced change of names- the three Neuburger siblings had to bear the names Assur, Sally and Tana from October 1938 onwards. The Freisinger NSDAP moved into the first and second floors of the property. Freising in the Third Reich Hans Obster took over the "German business". The Neuburgers stayed in Freising the city the longest, only selling their property in May 1939. They eventually fled to Munich, selling their house to the Sparkasse at far below its actual value. Their official deregistration to Munich did not take place until October 27, 1939. Eventually Siegfried, Alfred and Emma Neuburger died in a Nazi massacre of Jews in Kaunas in Lithuania in 1941.
Nearby on the high street, which I found hard to find despite looking out for them, are the so-called 'stumbling blocks' (stolperstein) that mention the fates of Freising's Jewish victims.
Another victim of the pogrom was lawyer and future mayor Max Lehner. Although not a Jew, he was forced to wear a sign reading Juda verrecke around the town. He was accused of being Jewish because he represented Jews in court. He later fled to Saxony and in 1940 to France, where he remained until the end of the war. After his return to Freising he again worked as a lawyer. From 1948 to 1970 he was Mayor of Freising where, among his achievements, include the reconstruction of the city and the founding of the "Freisinger Stadtwerke". In 1970, he resigned as Lord Mayor and died five years later. His grave is in St. George cemetery from which entrance it is shown looking down Ziegelgasse during the Nazi era and today.
Memorial to ethnic Germans forced out of the Sudetenland after the war shown during its inauguration on October 28, 2000 by District Council President Franz Jungwirth after unknown perpetrators scrawled the slogan "Shit Germany - German are perpetrators, not victims"just before and with Drake Winston years later. It was deliberately decided not to remove the smear to supposedly serve as a reminder against intolerance towards displaced persons before ending the ceremony with the a brass band playing the Egerländer Marsch. . The memorial, created by Sudeten-born Manfred Kozel and seemingly hidden away, is located on the site of the former "Alter Kindergarten Refugee Camp" set up at a time when a defeated Germany was confronted with the task of taking in about 12 million people displaced from its eastern and Sudeten German homeland.
On August 10, 1950 the Isar Post would report that many of these refugees would participate in a large rally in Marienplatz: "Thousands of expellees protested last Sunday in Freising in the marketplace against the signing of the Potsdam Agreement, which resulted in the expulsion of millions of Germans from their homeland."
Neustift's kloster when it served as a military barracks and today and the kindergarten which was originally established in 1937 by the Nazis as the NS-Kindergarten Neustift.
The Bürgerturm when it was used by the Hitlerjugend during the war. I'd been locked inside for an hour one morning when the proprietor locked up without knowing we were upstairs at the time.
SA marching down my street- Prinz-Ludwig-Straße and looking from the other direction- the 7. Infanterie-Division and 19. Infanterie-Regiment marching down the same road on May 1, 1939. Members of the SA would frequent the Paradies guesthouse on this street; further down towards the High Street was the Nazi Party local Zum Hirschen.
Prinz Arnulf-kaserne in 1914 on the left and from my street exactly 100 years later.
The German army leaving the site, now used for private accommodation. Later renamed the General von Stein Kaserne der Bundeswehr, today it's known as the Vimy kaserne, named after the immortal Canadian victory over the Germans during the Great War. The street was given its name by the Nazi authorities. It was here that ϟϟ-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann, holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, assigned to the 19. Infantry Regiment for two years. Heinrich Himmler also attended military training in 1918 here, writing to his family in nearby Landshut:
The Freising course is getting more and more rotten and strict: oh well, we’ll make a reasonable job of it, even if we’re not brilliant.Even before this he wrote in his diary on February 21, 1915 of his visit to Freising:
[Sunday:"... then we drove to Freising. Gebhard and I were allowed to accompany Dad and Mum. We took the tram to the train station. "Before dinner, we visited the parish church and walked around town. ... ... On the Domberg is the high school and a seminary. It is an ancient cultural site.]It was also here that Otto Wächter completed his German military service in 1935 where he was completing his military service at the Dachau concentration camp. Wächter would later serve as Governor of the district of Kraków in the General Government and then of the District of Galici before being appointed in 1944 as head of the German Military Administration in the puppet state of the Republic of Salò in Italy. During the last two months of the war, he was responsible for the non-German forces at the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin, dying in Rome in 1949 after an extrardinary flight from the Allies as outlined in Philippe Sands's outstanding The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive.
The road entering into the
complex, Major-Braun-Weg, is named after Major Alois Braun,
head of the Freisinger Panzer Replacement Division 17. It was just outside Freising to the north at the Haidberghof (which I run past very week) in the hamlet of Pettenbrunn that Braun chose as a base for the anti-Nazi Freiheitsaktion Bayern (FAB). In early April 1945, the Major met with members of the FAB which consisted mainly of members of the military in Freising, Munich and Moosburg, who had also reached out to civil society groups and even American intelligence in Switzerland. It wasn't until the night of April 27-28 that they initiated any action involving the removal of higher military personnel and the Gauleiter of Munich and Upper Bavaria before, based on a ten-point programme, a transitional government would be established. With leaflets, newspaper and radio, the public was called upon for support. In the end, nearly 440 soldiers were involved. |
| The 'CIA Safehouse' nearby |
Today, the Pallotti House houses an education and therapy centre and its garden and secondhand book shop is my personal favourite place in Freising. Albert Eise, the Pallotti House's first rector, was born on January 7, 1896 in the Swabian town of Oeffingen. After the First World War he joined the Pallotti, completed his novitiate at Limburg and was ordained a priest in 1925. In 1936 in connection with the December issue of monthly magazine "Queen of the Apostles" for which he served as editor, he fell for the first time in conflict with the Gestapo. He was accused of promulgating in the issue"remarks which were likely to cause unrest and an erroneous impression about the German armaments in the reader." Other versions were referred to as "spiteful attacks on party and state". From the start of the war his rejection of the Nazis increasingly grew until he was finally arrested on August 4, 1941 by the Gestapo. He had spoken at a public meeting "in the sense of an enemy of the state". On November 14 he was sent to Dachau concentration camp. Due to the tortures of the camp and poor medical care Father Albert Eise died on September 3, 1942. This plaque inside commemorates him.
Another remaining army barracks is the General-von-Stein-Kaserne, built in 1936-37 as part of the upgrade of the Armed Forces on Mainburgerstraße. It was first named the Artilleriekaserne as the Artillerieregiment 7 was first stationed here and later renamed after Hermann Freiherr von Stein, a Bavarian General of Artillery in the First World War. From 1939 the Fahrersatzabteilung 7 was based here followed, from 1942 until the end of the war, again by the Artillerie-Regiments 7. After the war it served the USAAF; from 1948 to 1957 it was the home of the 604th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron. In 2010 the site was converted into a residential area and all surrounding buildings were demolished.
The III Abteilung des Artillerieregiments 7 on Hitlerstraße moving on its way to the new barracks on the left. Behind is the Fürtnerbrau which, although flying Nazi flags along with the the others, was the SPD local.
The Nazi eagle that graced the entrance of the only remaining example of the architecture of the Nazi era in Freising has been removed, but its round base sans swastika remains.
At first we weren’t, but when the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was obliged to join. I was still too young, but later as a seminarian, I was registered in the Hitler Youth. As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back. And that was difficult because the tuition reduction, which I really needed, was tied to proof of attendance at the Hitler Youth.
Pope Benedict XVI's arms incorporate the Coat of arms of the Prince-Bishopric of Freising and the seal of Freising (right). Both the bear and the head represent St. Corbinianus, a 7th century bishop of Freising.
The Cathedral during the Nazi era and now. Apparently there had been a judensau on the cathedral until 1921. The inscription attached to the fifteenth century Judensau in the choir read: “Sowahr die Maus die Katz nit frisst, wird der Jud kein wahrer Christ” (as much as the mouse does not eat the cat, the Jew won’t become a true Christian).
The square in front of the cathedral with the 1857 statue of Otto of Freising, Bishop and historian of the Second Crusade, best remembered for Chronica sive Historia de duabus civitatibus and the Gesta Friderici Imperatoris.
The former Knabenseminar, (now the Dombergmuseum) was converted by the Nazis into a military hospital during the war.
The Christi-Himmelfahrt Evangelical Church after the bombing of April 18, 1945 and today following the plans of the Günzburger architect Julius Ott. It was consecrated May 22, 1952. The memorial in front marks the 200 who were killed in the bombing, forty of whom were parishioners of this church.
The railway station before the war and today
The railway station immediately after having been bombed, provisionally cleared up, and now. Until shortly before the end of the war, the town had not been directly affected by the war. Since there was hardly any war-important industry and there was a military hospital for foreign officers on the Domberg, it was considered safe from bombing by the population and the authorities. The April 18 air raid killing 224 people was the only significant such attack, and the the target of the 61 Boeing B-17s was the station. The area around the station with the factories of Steinecker and Schlueter was the most affected. The Church of the Ascension was also destroyed; the area around Wörth and the area around Kochbäckergasse were hit harder. A small chapel on the Dombergsüdhang and a building on the Domberg were also destroyed. The victims were buried in mass graves in the Neustift cemetery.
The post office across the street too was destroyed, shown after its destruction, as it appears in Freising von 1945 bis 1950, and today
Brunnhausgasse after the April 18, 1945 bombing
Other public air-raid shelters were found in beer cellars such as the Laubenbräukeller on Marienplatz, the Schwarzkeller on Obere Domberggase 15, the cellar in the old Hofbräuhaus on the Domberg, the Schweinhammerkeller in Vöttinger Straße, the cellar in the police station on Haydstraße, the Gößweinkeller on Mainburgerstraße 2, the Urbankeller on Altenhauser Straße 2, and a shelter in the Weihenstephan University. Each was staffed with one auxiliary policeman and and one air-raid warden. Further shelters were found in the Ratskeller on Marienplatz (now Franziskus Bar), the Keller in the Bahnpostamt, the Pfarrhofkeller in Lernerfeld, the Furtnerkeller in Wippenhauserstraße and the Schutzraum in the Hofbräuhauskeller. The overall command post was housed in the Sporrerkellern from 1941 here under the Lindenkeller; the emergency generators are still visible there today.
From March 1942 Allied air attacks began on Munich leading to these air raid bunkers being regularly used until the end of the war.
The provisional graves of the victims have been replaced, and today a memorial at the Waldfriedhof commemorates Germans from the lost territories.
Directly across is this grave- possibly the oldest at the Waldfriedhof. The last word etched upon it is 'Auschwitz' and it commemorates siblings Bärbel and Joschi Pohl, victims of the Nazis' genocide of the Sinti and Roma. The Pohl family had lived as Lutherans in Pankow in the north of Berlin. Bärbel served an apprenticeship as a dressmaker whilst Joschi worked as a page in Berlin's famous luxury hotel, the Adlon at the Brandenburg Gate. In October 1942 the two, aged 15 and 16, were picked up by the ϟϟ and taken to concentration camps. Bärbel was deported to Auschwitz and shot there in 1945. Joschi Pohl was sent from 1942 to November 1944 to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg near Berlin and then taken to Auschwitz. On January 25, 1945, two days before the liberation of the extermination camp by the Red Army, he was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp from where, on May 1, 1945 he managed to escape. On February 26, 1948 he died in Freising hospital (where my son was born) through the consequences of ill-treatment, hunger and imprisonment.
On April 29, 1945 at 18.00 the Isarbrücke was blown up; its current incarnation after it was rebuilt in a slightly modified form in 1948 seen from Korbinianbrücke on the right. In the early afternoon, the northern part of Freising was particularly affected by artillery. Some businessmen, including Dettenhofer, the owner of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, tried to persuade the city commander to surrender. They had hoisted the white flag on the church tower of the parish church of St. Georg, which had to be brought up again. A second attempt by Dettenhofers to get the commandant to work in his command post was unsuccessful because he feared the ϟϟ in the city. Since the American troops had now reached the outskirts, Dettenhofer went to them with the mayor and the pastor of St. Georg. They reached a cease-fire in order to be able to negotiate the handover of the city. An American officer escorted her back to the command post. The ϟϟ had since left and the commander agreed to hand over the city. At around 18.00, the Korbinian Bridge over the Isar was blown up by the ϟϟ to hinder the American advance. The next day, a pontoon bridge was built, but with a few exceptions, it was initially only allowed to be used by the military. Within five days, a wooden footbridge was built at the blown-up bridge and by June 2 a bridge from Freising companies that could be used by heavier vehicles was built. 
The Americans advancing down Hitlerstraße after crossing. On the 29th at 13:45 the alarm was given and Freisingers ran to their cellars and air raid bunkers. Shortly afterwards from the Ampertal grenades were fired into the city. At 17:30 the first American units reached the Wieskirche; already by noon the last regular German troops had withdrawn from Freising towards the south, leaving only 160 men of the Freising volkssturm between Neustift and Hozgartenstrasse. It was only by around 18:30 that the town commander gave them the order to retreat given that the Americans were already on the main street as shown in the photo above. By 19:15 they now occupied the town centre from Thalhauser straße and Wippenhauserstrasse. It had been the decisive act of Karl Dettenhofer, the former owner of the Bayerischer Hof hotel that Freising was handed over without a fight. After Dettenofer was told by the city commander that "surrender is out of the question", he summarily approached the Americans accompanied by pastor Albert Brey and Alois Schwarz who drove (being the only one of them with a license) with a white flag on the bonnet. Moving towards the enemy lines they asked the commanding American officer to come with them to the remaining German defenders under the Lindenkeller from where the city commander finally signed the order for capitulation.
The Braustuberl Weihenstephan flying the Nazi flag and today. On the right an American GI stands in front of what is now the Technische Universität München at supposedly the oldest brewery in the world- Weihenstephan.
Nazi flags hanging from the Akademischer Hof and today
What passes for Weihenstephan's war memorial in a disused lot
Top: Nazis on Marienplatz during the Third Reich, and Neo-Nazis commemorating the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Freising at the same location, as they do every April 18.
Bottom: Neo-Nazis at the same site on March 13, 2011 over seventy years later; looks like the handful of members hurried out of their car to take the picture at 3 in the morning... One weekend I was stopped by a nice group of National Socialists on the bridge in town over the Isar and given this brochure against foreigners such as myself. My Chinese wife, a bit further back, wasn't offered one. Difficult to see in the image are the dashed borders within those of Poland and Czech Republic denoting the land Germany "lost" (including the Sudetenland) after the war and which, presumably, this group has still not accepted.
