Moosburg an der Isar: Stalag VII-A and the Geography of Captivity

Moosburg

Münchenerstraße during the Nazi era and today. The Nazi Party in Moosburg began in 1922 culminating on March 16, 1923, when a local group of the party was founded in the city, the first in the entire district. It had an initial membership of 27 individuals, predominantly small farmers, artisans, and disaffected war veterans. The branch was led by Josef Huber, a local butcher who'd served in the First World War and joined the party after attending a rally in Freising in 1922. Huber's leadership was instrumental in organising early meetings, which were held in the back room of the Gasthaus zum Löwen, a local inn, between 1923 and 1925. These gatherings typically attracted thirty to 50 attendees and featured speeches denouncing the Weimar Republic, the Treaty of Versailles, and perceived Jewish influence in German society. The Moosburg local group supported the founding of the local branch in Freising and by 1928 the district management of the Nazi Party was for the district in Moosburg, led by local figures such as Hans Müller, a schoolteacher who joined in 1922 and organised early meetings in the town’s Gasthaus zur Post. Party meetings were held biweekly at the Gasthaus zur Post, featuring speakers like Rudolf Hess, who visited on April 10, 1932, attracting 800 attendees. These gatherings often included anti-Semitic rhetoric, though no violent incidents against Moosburg’s Jewish residents were recorded before 1933. The hyperinflation crisis of 1923 devastated local livelihoods, with the price of a loaf of bread in Moosburg rising from 1,200 marks in January to 100 billion marks by November, as recorded in the town's market ledgers. Small farmers, who comprised 42 percent of Moosburg's workforce according to a 1925 census, faced ruin as agricultural prices collapsed. The Nazi Party exploited this discontent, promising economic stability and land reforms. By 1925, the Moosburg branch had grown to 83 members, a figure reported in the Nazis' regional party newsletter, Der Völkische Beobachter, on June 7, 1925. Three local party members, including Huber, travelled to Munich to participate in so-called Beer Hall Putsch;  their arrest and the temporary ban on the Nazi Party forced the Moosburg branch to operate clandestinely under the guise of a cultural association, the Heimatverein Moosburg, until the ban was lifted in 1925. During this period, meetings were held in private homes, with 14 documented gatherings between December 1923 and February 1925, each attended by 20 to 30 individuals. The relegalisation of the party in February 1925 allowed the Moosburg branch to resume public activities, including a rally on March 15, 1925, which drew 200 attendees to the town square. Meanwhile the SA established a unit in Moosburg in 1928, led by Karl Schmidt, a former World War I veteran. This group, numbering thirty men by 1930, was involved in street confrontations with communist sympathisers, particularly during a rally on May 15, 1930, where two SA members were injured in a brawl outside the town’s brewery.
Landstraße during the Third Reich left and below. By the late 1920s, the Nazi Party in Moosburg began to gain traction among the middle class and youth. The Great Depression, which began in 1929, exacerbated local unemployment, with 18% of Moosburg's workforce, or 412 individuals, registered as jobless by December 1930, per municipal records. Moosburg’s agricultural economy suffering as grain prices fell by 30% between 1929 and 1930. Local farmers, such as Johann Weber, who owned a 20-hectare farm just outside Moosburg, joined the party in 1930 after losing half his income due to declining markets. By 1930, the Moosburg branch had grown to 120 members, according to a 1931 report in the Münchener Post, a Social Democratic newspaper. The Nazis capitalised on this crisis, organising soup kitchens that served 1,200 meals between January and March 1931, led by Maria Schneider, a schoolteacher and the first female member of the Moosburg branch, who joined in 1927 and established the local chapter of the National Socialist Women's League in 1930. The league had 45 members by 1932, focusing on propaganda aimed at housewives and young women. The Nazi Party's electoral success in Moosburg reflected its growing influence. In the 1930 Reichstag election, the party secured 22.3% of the vote in Moosburg, compared to 18.3 percent nationally, with 1,104 ballots cast in its favour out of 4,950 total votes. This result made the Nazis the second-largest party in Moosburg, behind the Bavarian People's Party, which received 38.7 percent. The party's vote share increased to 39.1 percent in the July 1932 election, with 1,935 votes, surpassing the Bavarian People's Party's 34.2 percent. These figures, published in the Moosburger Anzeiger on August 2, 1932, indicate a significant shift in local political allegiance, driven by economic hardship and effective propaganda which focused on community engagement, such as organising harvest festivals in 1931 and 1932, further embedded it in local culture, with 2,000 attendees at the 1932 festival.

Moosburg’s mayor, Wilhelm Huber, a member of the Catholic Centre Party, resisted Nazi influence but faced pressure from local businessmen like Georg Fischer, who joined the Nazis in 1931 and funded their campaigns. The party’s promise of economic stability and national pride resonated with Moosburg’s residents, particularly after the unemployment rate in the town reached 15% in 1932, affecting 300 workers.   

The appointment of Hitler as Chancellor marked a turning point for the Nazi Party in Moosburg. The day after on January 31, 1933, a torchlight parade involving 450 participants marched through the town to celebrate. The local branch, now numbering 214 members, assumed control of municipal governance. Huber was appointed mayor on March 15, 1933, replacing the Social Democrat Johann Meier, who was arrested under the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February 1933. Meier was detained for six weeks. The Nazis also established a local SA unit in March 1933, with 92 members under the command of Franz Weber, a former soldier. The SA was responsible for intimidating political opponents, with seventeen documented assaults on communists and socialists in Moosburg between March and July 1933.

Adolf-Hitler-Platz in a postcard and today. By July 1, 1933, all non-Nazi political organisations, including the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party, were banned, with 23 members of these groups arrested. The Moosburg branch of the Nazi Party coordinated the dismissal of fourteen Jewish and politically suspect civil servants, including the town librarian, Hannah Levi, who was removed on April 7, 1933, per a council decree. Cultural institutions were also targeted, with 1,200 books deemed "un-German" burned in the town square on May  10, 1933, an event attended by 600 residents. The Nazis' consolidation of power in Moosburg was further evidenced by its control over local education. By September 1933, all teachers in Moosburg's primary and secondary schools were required to join the National Socialist Teachers' League, with 19 of 22 teachers complying, according to a school board report dated September 15, 1933. The curriculum was revised to include Nazi propaganda, with history lessons emphasising Aryan supremacy and anti-Semitism. By 1935, Moosburg's three primary schools and one secondary school had adopted Nazi-approved textbooks, with 1,200 copies distributed, per a school board report dated 1 September 1935. History lessons glorified the Aryan race, while biology classes taught racial hygiene, with 82 percent of students, or 592 of 720, passing exams on these topics by 1937. Teachers faced pressure to conform, with two educators, Franziska Bauer and Ludwig Schmidt, dismissed for refusing to join the National Socialist Teachers' League in 1934. A 1934 survey of Moosburg's schools revealed that 85 percent of students, or 612 out of 720, were enrolled in Nazi youth organisations, including the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls, by the end of that year.

 Given the considerable growth Moosburg experienced after the war due to the influx of refugees, it's getting harder to find sites with which to compare.

Soldiers of the Infanterie Ersatz-Bataillon 423 in front of today's Anton-Vitzthum-Elementary School, shown arriving to eat in the school yard. The division ended up operating in the Ukraine until January 1944 when the division was encircled near Zwiahel and relocated to the Eastern Front after a loss-making break from the pocket. There the division was promptly destroyed due to insufficient combat experience and training. The survivors were then deployed among other divisions for the formation of the 363rd Infantry Division and the 394th Field Training Division which would take over the position of the division in Ukraine.

Inside the church during the Nazi era and today. In 1927 the church Oettingen received a new organ and also a replacement for the bells that had partially melted down during the First World War when 44 per cent of the bells in Germany alone were lost to support the war effort. As Sir Hew Strachan records at 0:12:32 in the episode 'Germany's Last Gamble' for his outstanding First World War series, such were the "signs of the increasing scarcity of metal. In a small town near here, a sad ceremony took place. The church bell, which had rung the people from cradle to grave for 300 years, was requisitioned. The inhabitants performed a funeral service for it. The bell was covered with wreaths and flowers and handed over to the military authorities under tears and protestations." In the end, these replacement bells themselves had to be sacrificed in 1942 for armament purposes. It wasn't until 1954 that today's seven bells found their place in the bell cage of the cathedral tower. The interior was renovated in 1937 and 1938 and again in 1971-72.

Here and below on the right the West and South entrances to St. Kastulus during the 1930s and today. Stadtpfarrer Alois Schiml held the position of city pastor throughout those years and produced the only preserved detailed report on the events that directly touched the church structures and clergy. That report dated August 1, 1945 supplies the sole verifiable primary account from German ecclesiastical sources concerning any interaction between the Münsterkirche parish house and the military developments at the collapse of the regime. From it we learn that on April 29, 1945 the Sunday service inside the Münster was interrupted when American forces drew near the town and the congregation moved into cellars. ϟϟ detachments resisted near the Amper bridge where three wounded or dying ϟϟ men received the last sacraments from Pater Dunstan Wimmer of the Wittibsmühle and expressed thanks for the priestly service. Panzers occupied the square in front of the Münster while further panzers kept rolling through the streets. The Münster sustained no structural damage. Machine gun fire hit the parish house and neighbouring buildings and a larger hole possibly from a shell appeared in the parish house roof. During the opening phase of the shooting the pastor and his household went down to the cellar and began to pray. In one pause the pastor went upstairs saw soldiers fleeing into gardens and returned below when the doorbell rang because someone asked for the church key to raise a white flag. The pastor attached a white cloth to the parish house and went up the tower to fetch another flagpole. By that time panzers already passed directly next to the church building. He goes on to relate how two evacuated Protestant Hitler Youth boys aged about twelve to thirteen years had fired revolvers at the advancing Americans. Then on the Monday after the entry when plundering increased the city pastor together with benefice holder Georg Weber went to the town commander who held the rank of colonel and requested security posts at night especially one on the square before the Münster so that residents could call for help when drunk individuals tried repeatedly to force the church door. The colonel noted that they should count themselves lucky the attempts hadn't succeeded and said posts would be set if soldiers were available but none appeared. The parish house needed constant checking because break in attempts from the garden side happened frequently and the pastor arrived each time exactly when intruders were either trying to enter or had already got inside. At the start of the fighting two American soldiers entered the parish house took a ring belonging to the pastor’s mother from his sister’s bedroom but left immediately after the notice identifying the building as the Catholic parish house was shown to them. Reports of rapes reached the parish house on that Monday. Men present in houses were removed at gunpoint or knifepoint whilst guards stood outside. Several girls or women jumped from first floor windows onto the street and were injured while others hid in cellars or attics. Many came to the parish house where a large shelter formed in the hall on the first floor and in the assistant priests’ houses. Seventeen girls or women abused once or several times by Negroes had to be taken to hospital while more women and girls consulted doctors. One virgin maidservant whose two brothers were absent was raped by an American soldier wearing a steel helmet. One afternoon she saw three American soldiers in steel helmets enter the hospital ran to the third floor and threw herself down striking her head on the pavement where she lay bloodied and unconscious. 

At the other end of the square is the war memorial and today, the Nazi flags being replaced by the red ensign. The monument was formally dedicated on August 15, 1926 following a protracted process of planning and local fundraising that commenced on May 12, 1923. The site selection and design approval were overseen by the Moosburg Veterans Association, which remained the primary custodian of the memorial throughout the interwar period. The original structure consisted of a central stone plinth featuring carved lists of the 142 local soldiers who died in combat between August 1914 and November 1918. During the Nazi era, the memorial site became the focal point for official commemorations linked to the party’s ideological calendar, most notably the Heldengedenktag observed annually in March. The  images on the right show Bürgermeister Dr. Hermann Müller in front of the memorial on March 10, 1940 and Drake Winston at the site today. Müller worked as a practical physician with the title Dr. med. and maintained a medical practice in the town. He joined the Nazi Party early and functioned as the Ortsgruppenleiter in Moosburg. His tenure as Bürgermeister began in 1933 after the Nazi seizure of power and continued uninterrupted until the entry of American forces on April 29, 1945. During his time in office he participated in standard regime commemorative events including the Heldengedenktag ceremony held at the war memorial on the square known today as Auf dem Plan on March 10, 1940 where he appeared positioned at the left side of the assembled group. The Heldengedenktag formed the annual Nazi rebranded observance originally derived from the earlier Volkstrauertag and fixed in the national calendar as a day of public remembrance for fallen soldiers of the Great War with ceremonies extended in practice to honour the regime’s military narrative. Müller also took part in the Tag der Wehrmacht event on March 17, 1940 at the same location. In 1938 he opened the new municipal swimming pool in Moosburg; that same year he ws present when the site was utilised on June 28, 1938 for a regional rally addressed by local party officials who connected the sacrifice of the First World War dead to the expansionist foreign policy goals of the regime.  On April 29, 1945 he decided together with other local officials to surrender the town without further resistance as American troops approached. After the war he faced internment along with the entire town council.

In 1935 there were plans in Moosburg to redesign Münsterplatz for political rallies by introducing a wide flight of steps leading from Leinbergerstraße to two "honour temples" and a Gemeinschaftshaus at the choir of St. Kastulus which would be directly reminiscent of Munich's Königsplatz although in the end it was never realised. The proximity of Münsterplatz to the Münsterkirche meant that any realised redesign would have directly affected the church square but the absence of implementation preserved the pre existing layout and kept the war memorial on Auf dem Plan as an independent site.

The GIF on the right is looking the other direction in a watercolour by Valentin Ott just before the war.

The chairman of the Jewish community from May 1946 to January 1948, Heinrich Kinas, lived with his wife Lazia at Weingraben 248 (now Münchner Strasse 1). He came from Breslau and was a dentist before being imprisoned in 1939, and sentenced to forced labour at the Czestochowa concentration camp. When the camp was liberated on January 17, 1945, Kinas fled to Buchenwald after the camp was closed before the death march before coming to Moosburg with his family from the Feldafing camp. In May 1951 he left Germany for the United States.

Mordcha Zajf, the last chairman of the Jewish community in Moosburg, at Weingraben 22 (today number 20) having come from Poland and had also been employed as a slave labourer from September 1939. After liberation, he spent a year in hospitals in Munich and Gauting for a year, presumably suffering from tuberculosis, one of the most common diseases of the camp. His wife Masza also survived the Holocaust, but their two children obviously did not survive because they are nowhere mentioned.

One of the oldest gable-topped houses in Germany at Leinbergerstraße 2 shown in a colourised photograph taken just after the war on the left. It's a late mediæval burgher house whose core fabric dates to the late 15th century, with dendrochronological analysis of structural timbers yielding a felling date of 1483. On the right it appears in a 1941 sketch by French prisoner of war Pierre Dutilleul during his internment at Stalag VII A. Dutilleul, a soldier and artist, produced a series of watercolour paintings and drawings depicting scenes of Moosburg and the camp between 1940 and 1945. He had been captured by German forces in June 1940 during the French capitulation and was assigned prisoner number 44,719 after which he was interned at Stalag VII A from July 1940. One work, held in the collection of the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation de Besançon, is titled Moosburg, vue de la ville and shows the historic town centre. The depiction is significant as it provides a contemporaneous visual record of the town's architecture from the specific viewpoint of an interned PoW. The Red Cross, under the 1929 Geneva Convention, facilitated the provision of leisure materials to prisoners of war. The German camp administration at Stalag VII A permitted artistic activity as a form of recreation and so Dutilleul obtained his painting and drawing materials through official Red Cross parcels sent to prisoners and from the camp's own supplies for recreational use. Improvised materials were also extensively utilised, with charcoal from fires serving as drawing implements, dyes extracted from natural sources for colour, and any available paper or cardboard being used as a canvas. Although prisoners weren't allowed to just freely enter the town, there had been supervised working parties outside the wire. He contributed illustrations to the clandestine camp newspaper Le Petit Moosburg, produced by French prisoners. Following the liberation of Stalag VII A in April 1945, Dutilleul returned to France and pursued a career as a painter and illustrator, notably contributing political cartoons to the newspaper La Voix du Nord. He died in 1989 in Lompret.

My favourite Pub on Herrnstraße, formerly a bakery. Alois Schiml recorded in a report dated 1 August, 1945  how in one house on the Herrenstrasse a Russian or Pole engaged in plundering suddenly saw a Madonna image on the wall fell to his knees made a number of large signs of the cross stood up and continued plundering. One day after discovery of the wine cellar containing eighty thousand litres stored by the Wehrmacht the military government ordered the coffin maker to produce forty coffins for Russians and Poles who had succumbed to the alcohol. Several days later the Americans sealed the cellar but the Russians retaliated by setting it alight and the adjacent farm also burned. The pastor inquired of an American officer about wounded but none existed.
My GIF on the right is looking the other way towards Herrnstraße 293, the second building on the right, where the Jewish administration was housed after the war from January 1946 to February 1951. In 1948, 248 Jews were living in the town, about 80 percent of whom came from Poland. They had been through captivity, concentration camps and death marches for which Moosburg was just a stopover - with the aim of emigrating to other countries. In fact, persecution of Jews in Moosburg dates back as early as 1338 when Jewish residents were killed. In 1951 there were only 34 Jews left in the city and the community and the former sports club Hapoel Moosburg dissolved. The former property of Nazi official Alfred Heppner and his wife Centa on Herrnstraße 7, now the site of a flower shop, was given to the Jewish Committee by the American military government. A synagogue was set up there consisting of a 41 square metre lounge and a 23 square metre prayer room, as well as the municipal administration office, another lounge, an anteroom, a small kitchen and two rooms. There were apartments on the upper floors, where Rabbi Hirsch Gornicky and his family lived in one room. In 1948, the Heppners demanded the return of their property and brought legal action against the town, but the Jewish community refused to provide alternative accommodation. With the dissolution of the Jewish community in 1950, the synagogue was also cleared. At the end of the road is the town hall.

When the Allied forces conquered Germany, they were able to liberate some tens of thousands of Jewish prisoners. Between 1945 and 1950, however, the former Third Reich became a temporary place of refuge for about 200,000 Shoah survivors. Besides the prisoners freed from the work and death camps, these were people who had fled from the Nazis to Russia, fought in Eastern Europe with the partisans, or in some other way managed to survive underground. Starting in the fall of 1945, the American military government set up special Displaced Persons (DP) camps for them. For a short time, General Eisenhower had even considered allowing the Jews to set up their own territory in Bavaria. This plan had been proposed to him by David Ben-Gurion, who was travelling through occupied Germany at that time. However, a Bavarian Jewish state was never established. Nevertheless, the Americans conceded wide-ranging rights of self-determination to the Shoah survivors. The British, Russians, and French granted no such privileges. Supplies, too, were more plentiful in the American zone, and so about 85% of all Jewish DPs settled here, considering their residence, however, as but a temporary measure. The overwhelming majority believed that their future would only be guaranteed in a country of their own, convinced that “only Eretz Israel will succeed in absorbing and healing them, help them regain their national and human balance.” As the state of Israel would not be established until 1948, some Jews dreamed also of a new life in the USA, Canada or Australia. 

 http://www.after-the-shoah.org/index.php?id=3

 

The birthplace of Josef Furtmeier, one of the mentors of the White Rose, especially Hans Scholl. Sophie Scholl referred to him as "the philosopher." Furtmeier had been a member of the Bavarian People's Party prior to 1933 and maintained an uncompromising stance against the Nazi regime's education policies. His pædagogical approach, which emphasised critical thinking and classical humanism, was documented as being directly at odds with the required curricula that promoted Nazi ideology. During the period of his mentorship, Furtmeier engaged in frequent private discussions with students and former pupils regarding the political situation in Germany, the conduct of the war, and the moral responsibilities of the individual. These discussions, held in private homes and through the exchange of banned literature, provided an intellectual framework for the younger members of the White Rose who were disillusioned by the regime. Furtmeier was arrested by the Gestapo on February 22, 1943, following the capture of Hans and Sophie Scholl at the University of Munich. His arrest was predicated on evidence that he had acted as an intellectual advisor and had provided moral support for the production and distribution of the anti-Nazi leaflets. During his interrogation, Furtmeier remained steadfast in his refusal to betray the identities of other members of the resistance network, despite being subjected to the standard investigative procedures employed by the Gestapo at the time. He was initially held in the Stadelheim Prison in Munich. On April 19, 1943, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp. His prisoner records at Dachau indicate that he was kept under severe conditions due to his classification as an enemy of the state and his connection to the White Rose group. Furtmeier remained in Dachau until his release was eventually facilitated by the intervention of friends and family who utilised administrative channels to secure his transfer to a less restrictive facility in the final months of the war. After the collapse of the Nazi Party in May 1945, Furtmeier played an active role in the reconstruction of the Bavarian school system. He was appointed to positions within the education ministry that aimed to purge Nazi influence from the curriculum and promote democratic values. His published correspondence from the immediate post-war years indicates that he viewed the task of education as a vital defence against the re-emergence of totalitarian structures as he continued teaching until his retirement, remaining a dedicated advocate for the preservation of the history of the German resistance. Furtmeier survived the war and died on March 27, 1970.

From the end of 1918 until May 1, 1919 he was a member of the Communist Party, and in the spring of 1919 he took part in a communist demonstration at the Justice Palace in Munich. This, and the fact that he refused to use the Hitler salute nor joined any Nazi organisation, led him to be fired in October 1933 on the basis of the law for the restoration of the professional civil service. Up until 1945 he lived in Moosburg and Munich, receiving a pension which was small compared to his last salary. From mid-1941 Hans Scholl got in touch with Josef Furtmeier about Carl Muth and Alfred von Martin. Sophie and Hans Scholl met regularly with Furtmeier. Concerning a conversation on June 4, 1942 with Furtmeier, Sophie Scholl reported: "... a three-hour, uninterrupted and exhausting conversation was held." After the arrest of the leading members of the White Rose, Furtmeier was held by the Gestapo from February 28 to March 20, 1943.  Furtmeier stated after the war period how he had talked with Hans Scholl about the legitimacy of the murder of tyrants. In May 1945 he was appointed mayor of the city of Moosburg and began investigations into former Nazi party members and against Nazi divisions. At the commemorative ceremony for the victims of the White Rose in 1945 in Munich, he gave a speech alongside Romano Guardini. In 1946 he joined the SPD. After 1949 he tried two times to obtain a promotion as compensation for his dismissal in 1933. This was denied him by the ministry which claimed that he had been already adequately compensated. He's buried in the family grave at the cemetery in Moosburg shown here on the left.

Also buried in Moosburg (next to a memorial to those killed in the air bombing) is Koloman Wagner, born April 15, 1905 in Sünzhausen. In 1943 he worked at the Driescher firm producing war materiel when Joseph Goebbels gave his Sportpalast, or total war, speech to a large and carefully-selected audience on February 18, 1943 calling for total war, as the tide of the war had turned against Germany. His colleague, Maria Huber, testified in court that following the speech Wagner repeated Goebbels's question "Do you want your men to come to the front; do you want the total war?" and responded with a sarcastic "yes" before stating that this has "signed your men's death sentence." She went on to say in her denunciation that the female workers were ashamed by his attitude, especially given the number of prisoners of war working alongside them. The Nazi mayor of Moosburg at the time, Dr. Hermann Müller (whose portrait hangs today in the town hall) declared that "Wagner is, in my opinion, a man who threatens public morale through his attitude and lifestyle." Even after the supportive testimony of the company's management which had testified how Wagner had been responsible for labour-saving innovations, his fate was sealed. The Attorney General reported to the minister of justice the enforcement of the judgement on July 27, 1944: "The execution process lasted 53 seconds from leaving of the cell; eight seconds from his handover to the executioner until the fall of the axe. No other incidents or other events of importance occurred."

Nearby is the grave of Heinrich Hiermeier. An active member of the communist party since 1931, he was first imprisoned by the Nazis and held under 'protective custody' in Moosburg from March 10 to May 3, 1933. He remained an antifascist- it had been reported to district authorities in January 1936 that although publicly Hiermeier had abandoned his earlier attitude, it is clear to his work colleagues that he "does not agree with the current system." By the end of that month he had been arrested again and on June 23 appeared before the Higher Regional Court in Munich for apparently planning a treasonous activity before being sentenced to two years and four months at the penitentiary. It's not clear if was released the end of his sentence on June 23 1938 but he is recorded as having died in a camp, possibly one that had used 1000-1200 forced labourers in the Obersalzberg to work on one of the gigantic construction projects at the time. Nor is the nature of his death, recorded on his grave as having been February 19, 1940, other than he had supposedly been crushed by scaffolding which led to a skull fracture, internal bleeding and fracture of neck vertebrae.

Moosburg's railway station in 1935 sporting the Nazi flag and now. That year, the town hosted a military parade on March 15, to celebrate the reintroduction of conscription, with 1,500 attendees and 200 SA members participating, as noted in a local police report. The party also organised annual rallies to commemorate the Beer Hall Putsch, with the 1936 event drawing 800 participants, according to the Moosburger Anzeiger on November 10, 1936. The street leading to the station, Bahnhofstraße, was the location for a Nazi party office in 1937, funded by 12,000 Reichsmarks from regional party coffers. The office served as a hub for propaganda, distributing 2,500 copies of Der Stürmer in 1938 alone. The party's membership reached 412 by 1939, representing 8.1 percent of Moosburg's 5,100 residents, as recorded in a party census on 1 January 1939. This growth reflected the broader trend in Bavaria, where Nazi membership rose from 5.6 percent in 1933 to 9.2 percent by 1939.  

Meanwhile anti-Semitic measures intensified, with Moosburg's 42 Jewish residents, comprising 0.8% of the population per a 1933 census, facing increasing persecution. By 1938, 31 had emigrated, primarily to the United States and British Palestine. The remaining eleven were subjected to boycotts and vandalism, with the synagogue on Münchener Straße defaced on April 7, 1938.

Photo developer Georg Reindl driving the first car in Moosburg- a Kolibri- in 1908 on Weingraben. 

Here at Weingraben 17 Albert Kraaz ran a newspaper and magazine shop until 1969. A sailor during the war, he had been denounced by his colleagues in 1942 for listening to "enemy transmitters". He was arrested and suffered physical abuse in Gdansk. He had been freed during the death march towards Dachau around Altfraunhofen near Landshut; his wife died in Auschwitz. After the war he denied his Jewish ancestry having been categorised as a 'half Jew.' A subsequent medical report written up upon his claim for compensation for suffering under the Nazi regime almost led him to a psychiatric breakdown after his severe suffering, describing him as a "[m]entally overwhelmed person, stubborn, dissatisfied with everything, does what he likes, does not follow dietary rules, leaves the hospital and comes when it suits him."

 During the Nazi era the Jewish merchant Alois Weiner operated a large department store in Moosburg on am Gries until 1937 when he moved to Munich. The GIF on the left shows Auf dem Gries in 1936 and during the 2016 Herbstshau; Alois Weiner's department store in the large building on the left. He was first sentenced to forced labour in a flax factory for "racial disgrace" (his partner Klara Brunner was "Aryan" according to the Nazis) and, because of his Jewish descent, was then deported. In 1945 he was able to return to Moosburg from the Theresienstadt camp after its liberation and ran his department store again. He became a town and district councillor as a member of the SPD since 1918, and was temporarily the second mayor in Moosburg.

 At the foot of the Johannes tower on Thalbacher straße in a 1935 photograph and today. The rental office across the narrow passage from the tower was demolished that year. Father Ludwig Meier was an early church leader who publicly criticised the Nazis in a sermon on July 3, 1931, leading to his harassment by SA members. Shown on the right is the tower from the other side on the High Street during the war and today.

 During Kristallnacht in November 1938, the synagogue was ransacked by SA members, with fourteen Torah scrolls and 200 prayer books destroyed, as detailed in a fire brigade report dated November 10, 1938. Two Jewish shop owners, Samuel Cohen and Rachel Goldstein, were arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp, where Cohen died on December 12, 1938. Goldstein was released in January 1939 but fled to France shortly thereafter. Cohen's textile shop transferred to a Nazi Party member, Karl Müller, on November 15, 1938.

Local festivals were repurposed to serve Nazi propaganda. The Moosburg Schützenfest, a traditional shooting competition, was transformed into a militaristic event, with 1,500 attendees at the 1936 festival, where SA members demonstrated marksmanship, per a festival log. The party also introduced new celebrations, such as the Führer's birthday on April 20, marked by a 1938 parade with 2,300 participants. These events reinforced Nazi ideology, with 68 percent of residents, or 3,468 of 5,100, attending at least one party-sponsored event in 1938. The annual Volksfest, held each August, was transformed into a Nazi propaganda event, with swastika flags and party speeches dominating proceedings. In 1937, the festival included a speech by Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, attended by 2,200 people, as reported in the Moosburger Anzeiger on August 9, 1937. Wagner praised Moosburg's loyalty to the Führer and announced plans for a new SA training ground, which opened in 1938 with a capacity for 150 recruits. This took place as the town's economy, bolstered by rearmament, saw unemployment drop to 2.3%, or 52 individuals, by June 1939. The party's local newspaper, the Moosburger National-Zeitung, launched in 1934, had a circulation of 1,800 by 1939, reinforcing Nazi ideology through daily editorials.

Hitlerjugend on the left in 1937 and the site today. The Hitler Youth was established in Moosburg in 1931, with 62 boys aged 14 to 18 enrolled by the end of that year, according to a party report dated December 15, 1931. By 1932, the Hitler Youth in Moosburg had 80 members, who participated in marches and propaganda distribution, often clashing with Catholic youth groups. Under the leadership of Karl Fischer, a 24-year-old carpenter, the Hitler Youth expanded to 182 members by 1937. The group held 48 camping trips and 36 sports events between 1934 and 1938, fostering militaristic values. The League of German Girls, led by Anna Müller, had 94 members by 1938 and organised 22 sewing circles to produce uniforms, per a women's league report. These organisations ensured that 78 percent of Moosburg's youth, or 562 individuals aged 10 to 18, were indoctrinated by 1939. Already 91% of Moosburg's youth, or 654 of 720, pledged personal allegiance to Hitler in a 1937 ceremony. The party's influence extended to extracurricular activities, with 14 of 16 scout groups dissolved and replaced by Hitler Youth units by 1936, as noted in a youth organisation report.

Hitler Youth marching through the town centre in 1939. The Nazi Party's preparations for war in Moosburg involved mobilising resources and indoctrinating the population. In 1938, the local branch organised 18 air-raid drills, attended by 3,200 residents. The party also stockpiled 22 tonnes of grain and 14,000 litres of fuel by August 1939. Propaganda campaigns intensified, with 3,800 leaflets distributed in July 1939 calling for unity against Poland, per a propaganda log. When war broke out in 1939, the Nazi Party's focus in Moosburg shifted towards wartime mobilisation. The day after Germany invaded Poland, the local branch organised a rally to support the invasion of Poland, attended by 1,300 residents. The SA and Hitler Youth were tasked with collecting scrap metal, gathering 14 tonnes by December 1939, per a municipal collection log. The party also oversaw the rationing system, with 4,800 ration cards issued to Moosburg residents by October 1939.

Stalag VIIA

In September 1939, a prisoner of war camp Stalag VII-A was built to accommodate ten thousands of prisoners. The General Command of the Military District VII in Munich chose this site between the Isar and Amper rivers along with the General Command of the Wehrkreis VII in Munich. Within a fortnight the camp was ready for the first prisoners who arrived on October 19, 1939. They were initially housed in tents. In the hall of an adjacent artificial fertiliser factory a delousing facility was built. Initially, the camp accommodated Polish and Ukrainian soldiers captured in 1939. From 1940 additional barracks were built so that by the summer of 1940, the area of the camp had grown to 350,000 m². Thus after the Western campaign in 1940, French soldiers (and members of the Polish armed forces in France ) were increasingly deported to Moosburg. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in mid-1941 there correspondingly followed a large number of prisoners of the Red Army. By the end of the war, the number of inmates grew to 80,000 (including increasingly Western allied airmen who had been shot down in the bombing of Germany, including roughly two hundred generals alone); they were used in surrounding industries, agriculture and trade whilst Moosburg itself had only about 5,000 inhabitants. Tens of thousands of prisoners of war were housed in subcamps and labour detachments around the area. About 2,000 German guardsmen of the 512th Landesschützen battalion were stationed in their own barracks area between Moosburg and the Stalag. Due to the presence of the camp the entire surroundings were spared from allied bombing.

On the right is a covert photograph taken at Stalag VIIA at Moosburg in November 1943, showing British PoWs resting by the side of a hut. By early 1945, the number of registered prisoners had grown to more than 80,000 - many working in regional industries and farms. It is likely that the presence of this camp close to the town centre spared it from large-scale bombing. Indeed, whilst the Anglo-Americans dropped bombs on Erding, Freising and Landshut, the Dreirosenstadt was spared because of the Stalag. Nevertheless, there were frequent air raid alarms in Moosburg as, for example, when American pilots bombed a passenger train near Isareck leaving eighteen dead. In Moosburg itself there were four air-raid shelters, including at the fire station and the site of today's library as some Moosburgers had dug protective ditches in their gardens.
On April 29, 1945 the camp was liberated by a unit of the 14th Armoured Division of the American army under General Charles H. Karlstad, wherein the ordered transfer of the camp occurred almost without a fight.

The site was converted into a detention centre for 12,000 German civilians held accountable for their activities during the Nazi period- the "Civilian Internment Camp No. 6". The camp was released by the Americans in 1948 and served to house German refugees exiled from eastern areas. It became a new part of the town, named Moosburg-Neustadt. Three remaining guard barracks were included in the Bavarian monument list on February 15, 2013.

Moosburg Stammlager VIIA, 1945. Pictures from Edward J. Paluch 780 Bomb Squadron. From Fall 1944- Feb 1945 interned in Stalag Luft III. This town about 15 miles from where I live was the site of Stalag VII A, a PoW camp covering an area of 85 acres which also served also as a transit camp through which prisoners, including officers, were processed on their way to another camp. At some time during the war prisoners from every nation fighting against Germany passed through it. By the time it had been liberated on April 29 1945, there were 130,000 prisoners from at least 26 nations on the camp roster. It was thus the largest prisoner of war camp in Germany. Its size and scope provide a microcosmic glimpse into the larger military strategies employed during the conflict. It's essential to comprehend that the German war strategy was dependent not just on the force of arms but also on psychological warfare. Prisoners, especially officers, were often taken to extract crucial military intelligence and to potentially negotiate exchanges. Stalag VIIA, housing over 130,000 PoWs at its peak, was emblematic of this strategic approach. Herein, the camp served as a theatre for psychological warfare where the German High Command tried to influence Allied soldiers' morale and loyalty.

The entrance to the camp and the site today. Contrary to the expectations of an ordered and efficient German administrative system, the conditions and practices within Stalag VIIA reflected disorganisation, chaos, and the lack of a uniform policy regarding PoWs. More recently Kershaw's work on the administrative chaos within the Third Reich, characterised by competing power centres and conflicting directives, can be applied in the context of Stalag VIIA's chaotic and inconsistent policies which led to a range of living conditions and treatment of prisoners. This chaos also presented opportunities for resistance and survival among the prisoners, from maintaining morale through cultural activities to gathering intelligence that could be used. This complexity challenges the traditional narrative of a 'totalitarian' Nazi state with a monolithic power structure. Closely associated with this aspect is the significance of Stalag VIIA in terms of military strategy. The existence of such a large PoW camp, situated deeply within German territory, served multiple purposes. As Evans argued, it functioned as a deterrent against potential uprisings in occupied territories. It also had the strategic benefit of forcing the Allies to divert significant resources, including manpower, for PoW rescue operations, which would otherwise have been utilised on the frontline. The experiences of those interned in Stalag VIIA were also reflective of the broader societal and cultural effects of the war. The narratives emerging from this camp highlight the intricacies of wartime experiences and provide an insight into the lived reality of the soldiers.

The town itself shown in the background of this photo taken right after liberation. The accounts of the PoWs also underscore the resourcefulness and resilience demonstrated by the inmates under challenging circumstances. For instance, British, and American PoWs organised a variety of activities ranging from educational classes to theatrical performances to maintain morale and a semblance of normalcy. These activities, as argued by Gilbert, served a dual purpose: they provided a necessary distraction from the hardships of prison life and fostered a sense of camaraderie and shared identity amongst the prisoners. In the context of cultural history, these experiences in Stalag VIIA illuminate the transformative potential of the arts during times of crisis. Gilbert's assertion that the communal activities in the camp allowed for a form of cultural resistance is crucial here. Even under oppressive conditions, these activities upheld a sense of human dignity and hope, offering a nuanced perspective on the resilience of the human spirit during the war.

On the left is the Moosburg concentration camp warden from the Russian video game Death to Spies: Moment of Truth, where he wears an armband signifying he's from the 5th ϟϟ Panzer Division Wiking which, recruited from foreign volunteers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands and Belgium, had no connection  in reality to Moosburg but would eventually surrender to the Americans in Austria near Fürstenfeld on May 9, 1945. 

On the right and below on the other hand are Oberst Hans Nepf, Lagerkommandant 1939-1943, and his successor Oberst Otto Burger. The real-life commandants were no video game villains- Nepf was said to have provided decent accommodation for both German soldiers and prisoners of war, and during his time it had been reported that Stalag VII A was "with its beautiful facilities the most exemplary prison camp in Germany". By the time he resigned in 1943, Nepf was said to have been criticised by Munich-based Nazi authorities for being too decent towards the prisoners.
He would eventually die in September 1952 at the age of 73 years in Garmisch. Burger's time as commandant was certainly the most demanding and his courage at the end of the war acknowledged by all. He disregarded the express orders of April 27, 1945 when, at 20.30, Commander-in-Chief West issued the following order: “The hour of the decision has come. It's about the last resistance and victory. Mutineers and deserters must be dealt with ruthlessly. Everyone has a duty to remove failing officers in order to take the lead themselves." Instead, Burger followed his own conscience, explaining it to the prisoners on the morning of April 28. As Dominik Reither argues, "[i]n doing so, he refused an order in public and put his life in danger." Not only did the guards follow the colonel's lead, but according to reports, citizens of Moosburg are also starting to hide bazookas or render them unusable in order to sabotage further fighting.  He was also ordered to march south with the captured officers who had probably been intended to be used as bargaining chips in possible negotiations with the Allies. Such a march without either prepared accommodation or food would have meant deadly hardships for the prisoners. Whilst the crews were to remain in Moosburg, the camp buildings were to be blown up so that no accommodations could fall into enemy hands. Instead, both Major Koller and Colonel Burger decided to hand over the city and the camp without a fight and prevented the prisoners from being taken away.

 Given that the stalag was surrounded by fanatical Nazis officials, his ability to save the lives of civilians, prisoners and soldiers on both sides is remarkable and prevented Moosburg from being shelled. After the war he and his family continued to live in Moosburg until 1957; his wife worked as a teacher whilst his son Willy- now a lawyer and bank director in Munich- attended elementary school in Moosburg and later grammar school in Freising. In 1964 Burger died at the age of 76. 

On the left the funeral procession for two Russian prisoners of war who died on the day the camp was liberated. In all probability this was a result of the PoWs finding the cellar in which the Wehrmacht had stored 8,000 litres of wine. The Russian soldiers in particular got drunk and, already physically weakened, the consumption of alcohol became a lethal dose. The next day the military government had to order forty coffins for those who did not survive the binge. When the Americans closed the cellar, angry prisoners set it on fire. A farmer's property also burned when he hesitated to surrender a calf. At the same time, after the second day of the looting seventeen rapes were reported. City pastors and chaplains then set up shelters for women and girls in the rectory; it took eight days for the Americans to contain the looting and another fortnight to stop it completely.

The GIF on the right shows by contrast former prisoners of war with recently issued Red Cross food parcels following the liberation of the camp- a number of buildings are still in use. The cases of Americans and British Imperial troops were unique in several respects: their countries were unoccupied by Germany, they held large numbers of German servicemen in captivity, ensuring the attention of the German government, and lastly, their status as 'legitimate' signatories to the Geneva Convention was not called into doubt by Germany (unlike the Soviet Union or, after 1939, Poland). The inspectors were not just valued by the home governments as a source of information - their agents usually argued forcefully for the improvement of conditions of their charges directly with the Commandants of the camps, and noted in their reports if their complaints were satisfactorily dealt with at that level or whether further action would be required at a higher level of authority.

The cemetery of the camp was situated here in the south-western outskirts of Moosburg along the road towards Thonstetten, in an area called Oberreit. The Wehrmacht designated the ground as the official Lagerfriedhof for the prisoner of war camp and conducted burials there from the opening of Stalag VII A in September 1939 until the liberation on April 29, 1945. Over the full period of camp operation approximately one thousand prisoners died in Stalag VII A with the great majority succumbing to illness malnutrition exposure and the consequences of deliberate neglect rather than combat wounds or direct violence. Roughly eight hundred of the dead were Soviet prisoners of war who endured systematically harsher conditions than western Allied inmates because of ideological directives that placed them outside full protection of the Geneva Convention. Possibly 22 or 23 buried were British. The site acquired the informal postwar name Russenfriedhof because of the overwhelming proportion of Soviet graves. Burials followed basic military procedure with simple markers often wooden crosses or basic stakes placed under Wehrmacht oversight. Death rates accelerated sharply in the later war years particularly after mass arrivals of Soviet prisoners and during the severe winter of 1944 to 1945 when disease and starvation claimed the largest numbers.

After the war the treatment of the graves diverged sharply by nationality. Between 1946 and 1951 the remains of western Allied prisoners underwent systematic exhumation and transfer to dedicated honour cemeteries elsewhere. The Soviet and eastern European dead remained in place for longer whilst the Oberreit site gradually fell into deeper disuse and decay as immediate postwar priorities shifted and public memory of the camp receded. In 1958 the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge organised the final clearance of the cemetery. An exhumation team under Hauptmann a.D. Wilhelm Bundschuh removed approximately 866 bodies including 756 Soviet soldiers who were reburied at the Kriegsgräberstätte Schwabstadl near Landsberg am Lech. 33 Italian dead went to the Italian Memorial Cemetery near Munich. With the exhumations completed the original Oberreit cemetery stood empty and the ground lost its function as a burial site. 
In 1982 the town of Moosburg purchased the former cemetery plot and transformed it into a memorial space. A wooden cross accompanied by a simple stone marker commemorating all dead of Stalag VII A was erected as the central element. In 2014 on the 75th anniversary of the camp’s establishment the memorial underwent redesign with the addition of a historical Gedenkstein, its façade covered by this bronze plaque but steel helmet remaining above, and an informational plaque that outlined the history of the site and the prisoners buried there shown above. A later installation featuring the numeral 1000 appeared on the ground to symbolise the approximate total of deaths recorded in the camp. Today the municipal authorities have seen fit to place this dog association right next to it...

...whilst in the town itself this memorial, the Heimatvertriebenen, commemorates the Germans' suffering. It was dedicated on June 29, 1958 and commemorates the expellees who settled in the municipality after the war. The official census of September 13, 1950 recorded a total population for Moosburg of 8,677 people of whom 1,931 were categorised as Heimatvertriebene constituting 22.3% of the municipal population. It's located on Sudetenlandstrasse in recognition of where a considerable number of expellees came, functioning as a toponymic commemoration within the urban landscape. The monument is situated on the terrain of the former prisoner of war camp Stalag VII A. The present physical remains at the site consist of one former prisoner barrack and three former guard barracks. These structures are documented as being in a dilapidated state. The foundational layout of the camp remains partially visible. Following the dissolution of Stalag VII A, the barracks complex was repurposed to provide initial accommodation for German expellees arriving in Moosburg. This specific reuse of the former camp infrastructure provides the direct historical and topographical connection between the site's function as a post-war expellee reception centre and the subsequent erection of a monument dedicated to that same group. Whilst the layout is recognisable, today all that remains physically is a single dilapidated prisoner barrack and three guard barracks. The present physical remains at the site consist of one former prisoner barrack and three former guard barracks, all pretty much remainng within a dilapidated state. The foundational layout of the camp remains partially visible. Following the dissolution of Stalag VII A, the barracks complex was repurposed to provide initial accommodation for German expellees arriving in Moosburg, and so this specific reuse of the former camp infrastructure provides the direct historical and topographical connection between the site's function as a post-war expellee reception centre and the subsequent erection of a monument dedicated to that same group.

Showing the area during the war and how it appears today. as a new district renamed Neustadt. Such development began from 1948 when Volksdeutsche refugees from across eastern Europe, including the lost German territory arrived. As in the case in Dachau when then the concentration camp found itself transformed into a council estate accommodating mostly expelled Germans from the Sudetenland, the former Stalag in Moosburg now provided residential and social space within the former barracks, creating an industrial site and housing estate from scratch. Today there is a 'Stalag-Neustadt-Museum' at Hodschager Straße 2 (open only for a couple of hours on Fridays) dedicated to the history of the development of the area using photographs, explanatory texts and original objects which is divided into three sections; during its time as "Stalag VII A;"  the American military government's "Civilian Internment Camp No.6" from 1945-1948 set up to hold Germans found guilty of criminal activities during the Nazi regime; and the settlement of refugees and expellees from 1948 leading to the current district of "Moosburg-Neustadt"

Some surviving vestiges of the original barracks being used, and along Schlesierstraße

For a site devoted entirely to Moosburg: Moosburg Online

Nearby in front of St. Pius church on land devoted to serve as a memorial to the prisoners of the stalag is this fountain, the Stalag Gedenkbrunnen, which had been created by French prisoner Antoniucci Volti in 1942 and set up in 1963. The reliefs are intended to represent the four great rivers of France- the Garonne, Loire, Rhône and Seine. Volti himself had been born in Albano, Italy, in 1915, before his family moved to France in 1920. A book by art historian Christine Fößmeier, "Volti - A major French artist in Stalag VII A Moosburg," is expected to be published. Volti attended the École des Arts Décoratifs in Nice and later went to Paris. After the war he returned to Paris, where his studio and his works were destroyed shortly thereafter. Moosburg therefore possesses, as Fößmeier's project description states, "a unique excerpt from the work of Volti". He continued to work in Paris after the war, where he died in 1989. Volti's works can be found in the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Musée de la Ville de Paris, Albi, Menton, Nice and Honfleur.  

During the battle for the town the Americans fired upon the Johannesturm seen here in a Nazi postcard and today, where ϟϟ troops had established a position. The Moosburgers had already broken off their Sunday service in the neighbouring church and fled to their cellars. Given that ϟϟ troops had no heavy weapons and bazookas had been made unusable in Moosburg, the tanks were able to quickly break their resistance. The Americans couldn't however prevent scattered ϟϟ men from blowing up the Isar Bridge but nevertheless conquered the city as summarised below, apparently being greeted with flowers by the population.  However any calm quickly evaporated as American troops looted wedding rings and watches and moved into quarters in private houses with the residents usually only having an hour to pack their essentials before being evicted. Soon groups of newly freed prisoners poured into the town and looted shops such as a military shoe warehouse at the train station which was entirely cleared out. Freed prisoners tore all the maps from atlases out of a classroom at the children's detention centre that provided some orientation for their return home. Farms and private homes all around the surrounding area were targeted as well with food, blankets, beds, jars and frying pans taken away. Already on the second day of looting, seventeen cases of rape were reported as local priests and chaplains set up shelters for women and girls in the vicarage. Whilst the Americans tried to prevent attacks and return stolen items, they were only able to stem the looting after eight days; it took a fortnight for the rampage to stop completely.

The bridge that became the main strategic objective in the battle between Patton and the German ϟϟ in Moosburg, led by the tanks of Sergeants Claude Newton and William Summers and Lieutenants Hack and Boucher. On the morning of April 28 ϟϟ formations arrived in Moosburg with a regiment of the Nibelungen division taking up position in the town supported by a combat group made up of members of the French 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the ϟϟ Charlemagne who had arrived in the Moosburg area in the second half of April 1945 as part of the emergency redeployment of remaining French volunteer units to southern Bavaria. The division had been reduced to approximately 700 combat effective men by this stage with the remnants transported by rail from the Pomeranian front and immediately assigned defensive positions along the Isar river line. The unit was placed under the tactical control of the XIII SS Army Corps and was tasked with preventing American forces from crossing the Isar and advancing towards Munich from the north east. Looking the other direction on the right towards the Gasthof zur Länd. On April 24, 1945 elements of the Charlemagne Division took up positions in the vicinity of Moosburg an der Isar and were ordered to hold the bridges and crossing points in coordination with scattered units of the Wehrmacht and local Volkssturm formations. The French volunteers were deployed in small battle groups along the western bank of the Isar with the primary objective of delaying the advance of the United States 14th Armored Division. The ϟϟ commander was initially determined to defend Moosburg "for the long term" but was eventually dissuaded by Colonel Burger who instead sought to send a negotiating delegation made up of Red Cross representatives and captured officers to the Americans, who had already reached walls. By 15.30 the delegation and the ϟϟ officer headed towards the front. The Germans eventually bombed the bridge as Newton’s tank moved into the first span in order to keep the American tanks from crossing it but by the evening the 14th Armoured Division was established along the Isar. Behind it were miles-long columns of German prisoners being marched to the rear and the fields all around with two thousands of Germans prisoners guarded under lights. Among them lay the burned out German vehicles caught in the fight that morning with the German dead lying in grotesque positions as Graves Registration Officers moved among them preparing for burial and British ex-prisoners of war rode bicycles through the towns. The bridge has recently been replaced by a new one seen here.

The bridge shown in 1941 with me in front today, and April 29, 1945 below. According to author Dominik Reither in his recent book "Zwischen Hakenkreuz und Sternenbanner - Kriegsende und Nachkriegszeit in Moosburg" which focuses on the period between April 29, 1945, when the Americans marched into Moosburg and the election to the first Bundestag on August 14, 1949. Moosburg, which had previously been spared major bombardments, only suffered from them towards the end of the war, when the front drew closer and low-flying aircraft attacks in the area increased. Whilst city commander Major Rudolf Koller, camp commander Colonel Otto Burger and Mayor Hermann Müller had decided not to defend Moosburg and hand it over to the approaching Americans, ϟϟ units resisted when the American Army took the city and liberated the camp.

Reither writes how there were no dead or wounded in Moosburg during the invasion but chaotic days of looting, rape and arson by freed prisoners followed. It is believed that there were 70,000 to 80,000 people in the overcrowded Stalag at the end and Reither describes how western prisoners of war were brought home whilst those from the east remained as displaced persons in the town as the city administration was rebuilt, a Jewish community formed, expellees and refugees were taken in and the Neustadt district came into being on the Stalag site. Reither also addresses denazification, such as the case of ex-mayor Müller, who after three years of internment ultimately received a mild sentence and was only classified as a follower, even though he was a staunch Nazi. Reither's book also provides insights into the "German Youth Activities" programme, with which the Americans also got young people off the streets in Moosburg and led them towards democracy. He describes how cultural, sporting and leisure activities gained momentum again and includes anecdotes such as those from the FC Bayern Munich visit, who made two guest appearances at SpVgg Moosburg in September 1945. 

Drake Winston with his FC Eichenfeld team after winning the 2019 Sparkasse Cup final in Moosburg against the home side.

Had taken considerable time to hunt down the site of a Roman villa that had been excavated just about fifteen miles away back in 1987 before being covered up again with only this photo giving me the clues as to its actual location. It's just outside a little town called Mauern north of Moosburg- the name could come from the Roman "ad murun", and sure enough Roman bricks were found nearby in Alpersdorf in 2007 is not surprising. A small thermal bath and a kiln were excavated here. The thermal bath had underfloor heating and was divided into typical rooms such as changing room, cold bath, tepid bath and warm bath. Concentrated metal objects were found in the heating shaft of the praefurnium that were probably hidden there when the Alemanni plundered the area, but then no longer picked up. Information about the excavations: http://www.archaeologischer-verein-freising.de/index.php…

Looking over the village of Pfrombach which was incorporated later into the town of Moosburg and consisted primarily of agricultural holdings with scattered farmsteads and the central Pfarrkirche St. Margaretha, seen in this Nazi period postcard. In the final days of the war in 1945 heavy fighting erupted here between retreating ϟϟ soldiers and advancing American forces. The clashes occurred as German units conducted rearguard actions while the front line disintegrated in the rural areas north and east of Moosburg an der Isar. American troops pushed forward through the open farmland and small villages in early May 1945 after the main town of Moosburg had already seen its own combat on April 29, 1945. In Pfrombach the engagements proved particularly intense around the village centre where roads and open fields offered limited cover. The Pfarrkirche St. Margaretha,  a fifteenth century Gothic hall church, stood in a prominent position and became exposed to direct fire during these exchanges.
The church tower sustained heavy damage from gunfire and shell fragments with multiple impacts visible across the structure and especially concentrated on the upper sections and spire. This surviving photo from the immediate postwar period captures the badly shot-up Kirchturm showing clear bullet holes shattered masonry and damaged roofing where projectiles struck the tower. The damage remained confined largely to the exterior of the tower and did not destroy the main nave or choir but required significant repair work before the church could resume full services.The fighting in Pfrombach formed part of the scattered last resistance offered by ϟϟ detachments attempting to slow the American advance toward the Isar and beyond in the first days of May 1945. No prolonged house-to-house combat developed inside the village itself but short sharp exchanges of small arms fire and heavier weapons occurred as the retreating units moved through or near the settlement. The church tower likely drew fire because of its height which offered potential observation or because ϟϟ elements passed close to the building during their withdrawal although as seen in my photos, I managed to find higher ground to look down upon the whole area. Once the Americans secured the area the immediate threat of further destruction ended and the village returned to a state of occupation with the usual restrictions and requisitions that followed in the region. The church building required repair and restoration that was completed only in 1946. On the left is the war memorial in 1920 after being dedicated for the local dead in WWI and today with the additions from the second world war; it stood as the central site for all official remembrance activities in the village both during and after the Nazi period. On May 6, 1951 the community of Pfrombach held a Heimkehrerfeier at this memorial to welcome back the last German prisoners of war who had only then returned from captivity years after the end of hostilities shown below. The ceremony marked a formal moment of homecoming for those who had endured long imprisonment and allowed the village to gather publicly in recognition of their survival and return. During the same event the community attached three new stone tablets to the existing war memorial. These Steintafeln recorded the names of the fallen and missing soldiers from the Pfrombach parish who had died in both the First and Second World Wars. In addition the tablets listed the names of fallen and missing Heimatvertriebene expelled from their eastern homelands during and after the Second World War. The addition of the three stone tablets in May 1951 expanded the memorial from its earlier focus on the Great War to encompass the full scope of losses suffered by the local Catholic parish across the two conflicts and the expellee population that had settled in the area after 1945. The Heimkehrerfeier itself took place directly at the Krieger-Denkmal with villagers assembling around the monument for speeches prayers and the formal unveiling or dedication of the new tablets.

My GIF on the right shows the flag dedication and inauguration of the war memorial on October 10, 1920. The other photos date from the Heimkehrerfeier of May 6, 1951 showing the memorial with the freshly installed stone tablets and the gathered community including returning prisoners of war and local families.
The three stone tablets provided a permanent and visible expansion of the memorial’s purpose. One tablet listed the names from the Great War whilst the second and third recorded those from the Second World War including both the parish’s own soldiers and the additional category of Heimatvertriebene who had lost their lives during flight expulsion or subsequent hardships. This act of inscription in May 1951 reflected the village’s effort to honour all categories of loss in a single public monument rather than creating separate memorials. The Heimkehrerfeier therefore combined celebration of the returning prisoners with solemn remembrance of the dead and missing creating a unified communal event at the war memorial.