100 years of the Oberding war memorial: "You still cry today"

2020-11-07T11:11:48.390Z

The war memorial in Oberding will be 100 years old these days. We look back into history with Hubert Sandtner, the secretary of the warrior and soldier comradeship in Oberding.

The war memorial in Oberding will be 100 years old these days.

We look back into history with Hubert Sandtner, the secretary of the warrior and soldier comradeship in Oberding.

Oberding -

Corona has mixed up a lot this year, now also the day of national mourning on Sunday, November 15th.

The warriors and soldiers' comradeship in Oberding, among others, has drawn conclusions and has as a precaution canceled its commemoration at the war memorial.

This year, of all times, there would have been a festive occasion, because the monument on the forecourt of the church will be 100 years old these days.

We look back into history with Hubert Sandtner, the secretary of the war club.

And start with a tragic episode from the early days of the monument, which the 62-year-old also has a very personal connection to.

We are in 1918 towards the end of the First World War.

Sandtner's father Johann, born in 1911 and only died five years ago at the biblical age of 103, was then a seven-year-old boy.

At that time, the family of the common recorder and senior teacher Otto Bach, who has been working in Oberding since 1897 and until 1925, is well known in the town.

Little Johann Sandtner also knows his son Eduard, who, as a 22-year-old soldier, is currently at war.

Johann Sandtner lives in the neighborhood of the school house and the teacher's family.

On a hot July day, the seven-year-old was sitting on the swing in the school garden with someone of his age when suddenly the postman stopped by the Bachs - mind you, at an unusual time of day.

Shortly afterwards the young Sandtner hears desperate screaming and crying.

The two boys run away in fear.

While the mayor will have to fulfill this sad duty in the Second World War, in the First World War it is common for the postman to deliver the news of death to the relatives.

It was the same on that summer day in Oberding: Eduard Bach fell in France.

At the end of the four-year war horror, the Oberdinger counted 15 dead, and Edward's father Otto Bach initiated the erection of a war memorial, which was ultimately erected in 1920.

"Bach was very active and influential politically," says Hubert Sandtner 100 years later.

Georg Karrer and the mayor at the time, Albert Schweiger, supported the senior teacher with the construction.

Otto Bach, however, does not stop at a memorial in his grief.

In honor of his deceased son, who worked as a bank clerk before the war, he had a relief plaque installed on the entrance portal of the Oberdingen church, which still exists today, but should soon be restored, as Hubert Sandtner reports.

Everything on the board is no longer clearly legible.

However, it is clearly recognizable that Eduard Bach was in the war for three and a half years and that he was killed at Reims.

Namely “on the morning of July 15, 1918, on the first day of the last German attack - deeply regretted by parents, siblings and homeland, whom he loved more than anything”.

At the very end of the inscription it says: "Dead is he who is forgotten."

The war memorials keep the memory alive, but at the same time warn of the terrible consequences of armed conflicts.

The Oberdingen monument was made by the Erdinger stonemason Karl Gottmann, it is made of tuff stone.

The main component is the large column with a laurel wreath, directly in front of it is a water basin.

A record of the erection of the monument is embedded in the dome.

On the front of the column there is a plaque with the names of those who fell in the First World War, another three plaques were added after the Second World War.

On it you can read the names of 34 fallen and ten missing from World War II.

"The location is almost ideal, it is on the forecourt of the church," says Hubert Sandtner about the monument, which has been redesigned and regularly restored, most recently in 2018. "In 1958 it was surrounded by a rose border and an iron mesh fence," reports the Secretary of the war club.

“In the course of the 1250th anniversary of the community, it was completely restored in 2000 and the fountain reactivated.

Since then, the memorial has been an integral part of the redesigned village square, where it fits in perfectly as a monumental gem. ”It is looked after by the warrior and soldier comradeship, which today has 105 members.

Above all, Hans Schöttl takes care of the maintenance.

The chairman is Georg Schäffler.

Incidentally, the association was founded in 1872, just like the Eustachia-Schützen and the fire brigade.

The three community authorities are therefore planning a festival week for the 150th birthday in 2022 - if Corona allows it, of course.

But back to the monument again.

An inscription at the top reads: “These men went to war more or less believing in a just cause which was not theirs.

It was forced upon them.

They were the heroes, but also the big losers of their time.

They lost their young life.

Your fate serves us today as a warning. "

Hubert Sandtner reports that fellow citizens who are around 90 years old still tell him about their fallen brothers: "They still cry today," says the secretary.