To create a place to contemplate so as not to lose tradition and belief in this hectic world: Siegfried Hauser has created a jewel in Hofolding with a specially made field cross.
Hofolding
- On this glorious, sun-drunk late summer afternoon, Siegfried Hauser from Hofolding sat down on his bench under a venerable old chestnut tree and looked with obvious joy at the field cross he had built.
Here on the Reissweg, the silence returned almost in the evening before, no trace of the hectic activity.
Hauser has created a jewel on the edge of his farm on his own property between forest, fields and meadows, which he guards like the apple of his eye.
Pedestrians pass by, stop for a moment.
Lambs, pigs, rabbits and broilers frolic in the open air.
Pedestrians pass by, pause for a moment at the cross and then walk relaxed on the dirt road further west to the edge of the forest.
“That's all still my reason,” says Hauser, describing the size of his property with around 7.5 hectares of fields and 7 hectares of forest, which the family runs in the fourth generation.
Years ago, Hauser switched the farm to "organic".
The active farmer has set up additional benches along this popular walker circuit on the edge of the forest between Hofolding and Brunnthal.
“The people should also take a break from time to time and come to rest,” reveals someone who, as a vital and permanently active spirit, had to force himself to rest in the end.
"It's a Lord from Landsberg."
Illnesses slowed the agile 64-year-old, who after many years of double work with a farm and as a full-time carpenter and formwork carpenter now has at least a little more time for himself as a "troublemaker".
Hauser looks around from his bench and smiles with satisfaction.
“I like to be here,” he admits.
His gaze now remains on the field cross with shining eyes.
“It's a Lord from Landsberg,” reveals Hauser.
There on the Lech he had acquired the noble larch wood sculpture.
"The grandmother of the owner at the time had put up the portrait in 1945 because the family estate had been spared from the war".
There were several applicants who wanted the Jesus figure.
"I got the contract, also because I promised that your figure would continue to be used in a Christian sense."
It is just important that in the midst of this hectic time, values that have grown from faith to tradition are not neglected.
In Corona times, the cross in the open air is also something of a church substitute.
Hauser carefully sandblasted the wooden sculpture, then carefully sanded it down and embedded it with beeswax.
In the evenings for three months, Hauser spent hours working on the sacred object.
“In July I put up the cross with my two sons Franz and Josef,” says Hauser.
Wife Christa regularly supplies the arrangement with fresh flowers.
Pastor Toni Wolf consecrated the cross as part of a small festival.
Since then, the gem has offered valuable moments to pause.
"In these Corona times, the cross in the open air is also something of a church substitute," says Hauser.
Again and again people would come here on their walk, on bike tours or purposefully, praying, resting, thinking.
While Hauser narrates relaxed, the ensemble is also used for animals.
A squirrel quickly climbs onto the chestnut and dares to take a relaxed look around.
Hauser laughs.
"Here you can think, drink an after-work drink with friends or politicize."
"Here you can think, drink an after-work drink with friends or even politicize".
Whereby the declared Christian Hauser argued more calmly in the shadow of the Savior than sometimes in the Brunnthal council, to which he has belonged for many years.
Here at the edge of the forest and field it is quiet and cozy.
Gradually the harbingers of summer evening cover the contemplative Fleckerl.
A grandma with a toddler comes by.
Short greeting, then the two of them devote themselves to the cross and pausing.
The grandma explains, the grandson listens.
The field cross shines in the evening sun.
Hauser and the squirrel watch.
“We have to preserve nature and tradition,” he says when he says goodbye under the chestnut.
Siegfried Hauser certainly does his part.
Also read: For 25 years, the First Responders Helfendorf have always been there when you need them.