A short local chronicle of Oberau |
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| The village Oberau, documented first in 750
AD, does not only have a
particularly scenery but also offers its historical interested
visitors some partly little known places worth seeing.
A first tour through the village will show that. |
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| Let us start at the house
Hauptstrasse Nr.
7. At the former farmhouse, which front thank God remained
during the last decades, a plaque recalls the clergyman
Joseph Aloys Daisenberger, who was born
here as a son
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of the farmer Michael Daisenberger on 30 May 1799. Joseph Aloys Daisenberger not only rendered great services as the creator of the Oberammergauer Passionsspiele but also was a bright poet and historian. The writer Ludwig Thoma, whose ancestor on his mother's side comes from Oberau too, erected with his "memoirs" a lasting memorial to the gracious and tolerant man Daisenberger. |
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Daisenberger's father and his grandfather kept a diary from 1765 to 1797 - a fact that was completely unusual for farmers in the 18th century- and established herewith a unique document of the rural way of life in times past. Finally the labourer Johann Georg Prändel also lived in the farmhouse from 1772 to 1777. After leaving Oberau Prändel made an unusual career as he got a professor of mathematics and besides he was appointed honory member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Both Prändel and J. A. Daisenberger are mentioned in the Bavarian Biography written by Professor Bosl. The book with the title "Chronik eines Bauernlebens vor 200 Jahren" tells about the life of the Family Daisenberger after 1750. You can buy it in Oberau.Some years after the secularisation of the Monastery Ettal in the year 1803, in the farmhouse opposite (Im Winkel 2) the pupils of Oberau were taught by the "last Monk from Ettal", Father Othmar Weis. Weis has written the text of the today's Oberammergauer Passionsspiele and was as well a patron of the clergymann Daisenberger. |
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| Going the Hauptstrasse towards the Bundesstrasse we meet the Hotel zur Post, an inn with a tradition
lasting for centuries.
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The owners were hunters in the service of the Monastery Ettal. Ludwig Thoma's grandmother comes from this farm too. In the guest room of the hotel the model of a Loisach-raft is hanging on the wall filled with plaster barrrels. It reminds the once thriving "raft-driving society" from Oberau, who led the broken and burnt plaster Loisach- and Isardownstream. |
| Unfortunately there is only one fresco in the secondary modern school (Schulstrasse 4, Front to the Schmiedeweg) which reminds the 12 plaster mills, which were driven once in the village by the Giessenbach. | |
Before the Hotel zur Post we now turn right, cross the station
place, pass the post office and walk along the railway line
(Toll-Round) to the Werdenfelserstrasse until we reach
House Nr.22. |
This building was the seat of the toll and the wood-inspector-office of Oberau up to the removal of the kurbayerisch-werdenfelsischen border in 1802. The border to the county Werdenfels ran further south of this places, but the duties were paid here at the customs barrier. Here also a mounted border guard was stationend in order to pay attention to the smugglers. |
| We continue our short historical walk by going back down Werdenfelserstrasse to use the level crossing. After the level crossing we turn right towards Loisachbrücke. | |
| Just before the Loisachbrücke we see a small chapel, which is dedicated to Saint Nepomuk. The "raft-driving society" from Oberau built this chapel close to their work station in the 19th century. Before the raftsmen started their dangerous journey, they said a prayer here again. |  |
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We cross the Loisachbrücke and choose the foothpath to the right which leads to Farchant. On our way to Farchant we reach a small wood after about 1000m. To the east of this wood, in the middle of the golf course, we see an elevation in the grass, an old fieldwork, which was built at the beginning of the 18th century in defence of the Austrians. Above the grass a steep cliff, the Röhrlerwand rises. It was an important boundary stone of the kurbayerisch-werdenfelsischen-border. In the south of this important point during a period of 500 years there was the country of the bishop of Freising. It was an "European small state" which had its own legislation and currency as well as its own foreign policy. In times of war the Freisinger people kept neutral as a rule opposite to their Bavarian neighbours. The fieldwork which ran across the whole valley former can be seen only in some places today. The fieldwork way runs directly on the historical building. In front of the fortification a fierce fighting lasting several hours ragged between the Tyroleses and the Bavarians on 27 August 1703. Finally the Bavarians were defeated by a superior strength. Oberau and its surroundings had a great deal to bear from the lost battle. A second fieldwork which is hardly seen today was built already in the Thirty Years' War as a protection against the Swedes. |
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| We start a second
historical walk near the parish church
St. Ludwig.
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This church which today's form is from 1938 made little impression on its visitors, but inside there is a painting of St. Ludwig, which was a present from the "Fairy-Tale King" Ludwig II as well as beautiful glas windows given from Prinzregent Luitpold. |
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We cross the Bundesstrasse 23 and take one of the both ways to the church St. Georg on the Kirchbichl. Up to the year 1875 this small church was the place of worship of the Oberauers. It is one of the eldest sacred buildings in this area. St. Georg was thoroughly renovated in the 80's. The ceiling fresco inside this baroque building as well as the painted stations of the cross, which are indeed worth seeing, are from Franz Serap Zwinck, a famous "Lüftlmaler". The mountain cemetery may be one of the most beautiful cemeteries of Upper Bavaria. A part of this cemetery is supposed to be taken by a castle in former times. A legend tells that it belonged once to a rich earl, who was fallen in a crusade. His sons are supposed to be damned by an old lady as they drew their swords to fought for their heir. Since then they must fight as spirits against each other. |
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| From St. Georg we go down into the valley. There we go the road towards Oberammergau until we reach the end of the village. At the inn Untermberg we turn off to the Alte Ettaler Strasse. Almost at the end of this flat stretch of road (Hous-Nr. 35) there is on the left side a building in which since 1683 first bread was made for the Monastery Ettal. Only later it became an inn. | At this inn the carters made a stop
again before taking the steep Kienbergweg with their waggons.
Also in this house ancestors of Ludwig Thoma were living for a
long time. |
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On the tracks of kings, princes and Martin Luther The today's Alte Ettaler Strasse, which is a beautiful walk to Monastery Ettal is made 1629. The älteste Ettaler Strasse (Schilder Kienbergweg), which was particularly feared by the carters, is well preserved too. It goes along the Giessenbach through a narrow wooded valley, rises later straight to the right side and lead finally after two bends in the Alte Strasse. Four boards inform about the interesting history of this two ways. The eldest road which was many years only a mule track, was probably already gone by parts of the IX. Legion, which was later destroyed utterly by the battle in the Teutoburger Wald. For many centuries kings and princes wandered along this both marked-out routes with their armies and court members. Martin Luther took this route too, when he returned home from Rome. Should you want to know more about the history of Oberau, you may buy the book "Das Goldene Au. Eine Oberauer Chronik mit Bildern". Meantime a new edition of the book "Geschichte der Ettaler Bergstraße" was brought out too. It contains also numerous illustrations. We may recommend the book "Chronik eines Bauernlebens vor 200 Jahren"as well. The books are available at the tourist information office. Text: Heinz Schelle |
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