The Rise of National Socialism in the Bavarian Highlands: A Microhistory of Murnau, 1919-1933

255 Pages·2021·9.158 MB·English

by  Edith Raim

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N A MICROHISTORY OF MURNAU, 1919–1933
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Edith Raim
The Rise of National Socialism
in the Bavarian Highlands
The Rise of National Socialism in the Bavarian Highlands offers a micro-
history of the town of Murnau between 1919 and 1933, a period which wit-
nessed the rise of national socialism in Germany.
National socialism had its roots in Bavaria, where the Weimar Republic
found it difficult to secure popular support amongst the rural population.
It was in this region that economic hardship and effective national social-
ist propaganda furthered the erosion of democracy. Focusing on Murnau,
this book examines the political and economic state of the town, as well as
the mentality and social composition of its inhabitants. It also looks at the
development of tourism in the interwar period, a topic which has received
little scholarly attention. Although the study limits itself to one town, the
reactions of its inhabitants reflect a common attitude of nostalgia for a
seemingly better past and a rejection of the ‘excessive’ demands of moder-
nity that the Weimar Republic exacted on them.
This book will appeal to scholars and students of national socialism, as
well as those interested in the Weimer Republic, Nazi Germany, microhis-
tory and the history of tourism.
Edith Raim is Lecturer of Contemporary History at the University of Augs-
burg, Germany. She has previously worked at the University of Durham, the
Haus der Geschichte in Bonn and the Institute for Contemporary History in
Munich.
Microhistories
Series editors: Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon and
István M. Szijártó
The Microhistories series is open to books employing different microhistor-
ical approaches, including global microhistories aimed at grasping world-
wide connections in local research, social history trying to find determining
historical structures through a micro-analysis, and cultural history in the
form of microhistories that relate directly to large- or small-scale histori-
cal contexts. They are interesting stories, that bring the everyday life and
culture of common people of the past close to the readers, without the aspi-
ration of finding answers to general “big questions” or relating them to the
grand narratives of history. The series is open to publishing both theoreti-
cal and empirical works, but with a focus on empirical monographs which
can communicate stories from the past and capture the imagination of our
readers.
Published
A Humanist on the Frontier
The Life Story of a Sixteenth-Century Central European Pastor
Marcell Sebők
The Rise of National Socialism in the Bavarian Highlands
A Microhistory of Murnau, 1919–1933
Edith Raim
Neighbours of Passage
A Microhistory of Migrants in a Paris Tenement, 1882–1932
Fabrice Langrognet
In Defiance of History
Orosius and the Unimproved Past
Victoria Leonard
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/Microhistories/book-series/MICRO
The Rise of National Socialism
in the Bavarian Highlands
A Microhistory of Murnau, 1919–1933
Edith Raim
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Edith Raim
The right of Edith Raim to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-00371-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-00373-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17384-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003173847
Typeset in Times New Roman
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
List of figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
List of abbreviations x
Introduction 1
Sources and current state of research 6
Structure 10
1 Murnau at the beginning of the twentieth century 14
Life in Murnau 14
Population 20
Clubs and societies 21
Tourism 34
2 Murnau during the early years of crisis (1918/1919–1923) 46
Bavaria after 1918: politics in a state of emergency 46
Revolution and demobilization 48
Parties and elections on local, regional and national levels 50
The citizens’ militia 54
Economic crisis, plight and inflation 60
Local protagonists and völkisch propaganda 64
Agitation against the Allies and reparations 65
The Oberland League 68
Andreas Hofer League 71
The founding of the National Socialist local branch in
Murnau 74
Membership in the NSDAP local branch 77
Campaigning for the NSDAP 80
Hitler’s visit to Murnau 81
vi Contents
Murnau citizens participating in the Hitler Putsch 83
War legacy 87
Returning soldiers and the death cult 88
James Loeb and the controversy about ‘Jewish’ money 94
Sports and politics 99
Winter Sports Club 100
Aviation as rearmament effort 102
‘Schützenvereine’: Marksmen’s clubs 103
Warriors’ and Veterans’ Association and League of Front
Fighters 104
Tourism and xenophobia 106
Shrovetide 112
Cultural self-assertion 113
3 Murnau during the roaring twenties (1924–1928) 140
Tourism and politics 143
Politics 148
The Association for Germandom in Foreign Lands 154
Imposters and the bankruptcy and closure of businesses 157
Mass entertainment under völkisch rumbling 159
Retail’s struggle against consumer cooperatives 162
Infrastructure and welfare 164
4 Murnau and the slide into dictatorship (1929–1932) 180
Propaganda 180
Communal, Landtag and Reichstag elections 183
Mastering crisis 186
The year 1930 188
The year 1931 194
The Murnau hospital: a perfect solution? 206
Excursus: the trace of money 209
The year 1932 211
Conclusion 227
Bibliography 236
Name Index 242
Figures
0.1 At the Staffelsee, early twentieth century [Schloßmuseum
Murnau] 3
0.2 View of Murnau from Dünaberg [Schloßmuseum Murnau] 4
0.3 Aerial view of Murnau, 1916 [Kriegsarchiv München] 5
0.4 Newspaper editor Josef Fürst and his printing shop
[Schloßmuseum Murnau] 9
1.1 Cattle market at Murnau, 26 September 1931 [Schloßmuseum
Murnau] 16
1.2 Tourist brochure of Murnau’s hotels and taverns [Marktarchiv
Murnau] 18
1.3 Gymnasium Murnau and sports club members, 1905
[Schloßmuseum Murnau] 20
1.4 Peasant drama society, Josef Fürst seated at table, third from left
[Schloßmuseum Murnau] 22
1.5 Murnau skiing ace Ernst Pöltl at the ski jump in Partenkirchen
[private archive F.W.] 28
1.6 Society for Traditional Costumes with flag displaying the portrait
of King Ludwig II [Schloßmuseum Murnau] 29
1.7 Murnau’s public Lido and its swimmers, among them playwright
Ödön von Horváth, second from left [Schloßmuseum Murnau] 31
1.8 Map of Murnau, after 1933 [Marktarchiv Murnau] 38
2.1 Vice mayor Emil von Menzel’s membership card of the
Einwohnerwehr (citizens’ militia) [Marktarchiv Murnau] 55
2.2 Anton von Taeuffenbach, regional head of the Einwohnerwehr
Gau Oberland [Kriegsarchiv München] 57
2.3 Local emergency money bill, depicting a dragon (lindworm),
showering the market with paper money, 1923 [Marktarchiv
Murnau] 62
2.4 Gottfried Feder with his newspaper Die Flamme [Marktarchiv
Murnau] 64
2.5 Free corps Oberland in Munich, 1919 [Schloßmuseum Murnau] 69
viii Figures
2.6 Meeting of Andreas Hofer League and Association for
Germandom Abroad, with Major Alfred Pöppl in colonial
uniform on the right, 1928 [Schloßmuseum Murnau] 73
2.7 Franz Kapfer’s stormtrooper membership card
[Federal Archives Berlin] 78
2.8 Celebratory return of German soldiers, 1920
[Schloßmuseum Murnau] 91
2.9 James Loeb’s estate in Murnau-Hochried [postcard,
private archive] 94
2.10 James Loeb [Schloßmuseum Murnau] 95
2.11 Gottfried Feder and family in front of their villa in Murnau,
1929 [Marktarchiv Murnau] 98
2.12 Peasant drama performance of the execution of Tyrolean hero
Andreas Hofer [private archive] 116
2.13 Ekkehard play [private archive, L.O.] 118
3.1 Carnival 1926, author Ödön von Horváth, front row,
first from left 141
3.2 Vacationers at the Staffelsee, 1927 [private archive, L.O.] 145
3.3 A vision of tourism’s future, a watercolour by a tourist in
the guest book of the Fürst Alm, 1928 [Marktarchiv Murnau] 147
3.4 Water calamity, with water delivered from Partenkirchen, winter
1928/29 [Marktarchiv Murnau] 168
4.1 Folklore dance of the coopers in Murnau, 1929
[private archive, F.W.] 187
4.2 National Socialist March in Murnau, after 1933 [Schloßmuseum
murnau] 196
4.3 Kirchmeir Tavern, on the left, after 1933
[Schloßmuseum Murnau] 197
4.4 Otto Engelbrecht amongst other defendants and their relatives
in front of the Munich district court, autumn 1931 [Illustrierter
Beobachter] 199
4.5 A court drawing of the trial, 1931 [Illustrierter Beobachter] 201
C.1 National Socialist election propaganda, March 1933
[Marktarchiv Murnau] 232
C.2 Hitler’s honorary citizenship of Murnau, 1933
[Marktarchiv Murnau] 234
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Professors Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon and István
Szijártó for accepting the manuscript into their microhistory series at
Routledge, as well as to two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions thor-
oughly improved the final version. At Routledge, Michael Greenwood,
Stewart Beale and Louis Nicholson-Pallett assisted and guided me through-
out the development of the book. Dr. Christine Brocks turned the book into
readable English. Copy editor Robin Cook prepared the manuscript most
diligently for publication and helped to clarify many points.
Furthermore, I am indebted to many archivists, first and foremost
Dr. Marion Hruschka (Marktarchiv Murnau), but also Dr. Sandra Uhrig
(Schloßmuseum Murnau), Dr. Christoph Bachmann, Robert Bierschneider
and André Geister (State Archive Munich), Gerhard Fürmetz M.A.
(Bavarian Main State Archive Munich), Dr. Martina Haggenmüller
(Kriegsarchiv Munich), Dr. Michael Stephan and Elisabeth Angermair M.A.
(City Archives Munich), Alexander Klotz M.A. (Archive at the Institute of
Contemporary History Munich), Angelika Betz (Bildarchiv at the Bavarian
State Library Munich), Stefan Ritter (Historisches Alpenarchiv Munich),
Christoph Meierfrankenfeld (Archive of the Bishopric Augsburg), Jutta
Jäger (Deutsches Tagebucharchiv Emmendingen), Dr. Joachim Heberlein
(City Archives Weilheim) and Dr. Gerhard Neumeier (City Archives
Fürstenfeldbruck), as well as Sabine Gresens and Heinz Fehlauer (Federal
Archives Berlin). They all helped to locate relevant files and offered inval-
uable advice. At Murnau, Katharina Drexler, Roland Lory, Martin
Schmötzer, Thomas Wagner and Karl Wolf shared research materials and
technical know-how with me, as did two private collectors. Research on the
German version of this book was commissioned by Markt Murnau, and I
wish to thank Mayor Rolf Beuting and the communal council for initiating
and financing the project.
As always, my greatest debt is to my parents, who passed away in 2012
and 2015. Their boundless love and wisdom carry me through every day.
My younger sister Eleonore and my partner Jürgen Wedemeyer provided
encouragement and help in many more ways than I can name.