New knowledge about the building history - the area in Benediktbeuern was inhabited until the 1950s

Benediktbeuern / Bichl - The famous summer cellar in Benediktbeuern is probably younger than expected.

This conclusion can be drawn from the study of historical maps and documents.

The summer cellar is opposite the primary and secondary school in Benediktbeuern.

Until now it was assumed that it was built between 1710 and 1720.

It can be found on an information board of the municipality, which has owned the area since 1995.

The beer barrels of the brewery in Benediktbeuern monastery were once stored in the artificially created high cellar.

There was also a restaurant with a farm building and a bowling alley.

These ruins can be seen to this day.

After the outbreak of the First World War, the area was used as a camp for prisoners of war.

From 1914 to 1918 up to 200 prisoners were housed there.

They had to do heavy work, including cultivating the bog.

The area is directly adjacent to Bichler Flur.

During my research into the new Bichler Ortschronik I noticed that the official land map from 1811 did not show any buildings, but plots belonging to local farmers.

Therefore an early development around 1720 seemed unlikely to me.

Another chapter for the summer cellar

There are two versions of the land map.

On one the area is called Aschbichl, on the other as Aschbühel.

The word "ash" stands for ash.

From a topographical point of view, the Aschbühel is an elongated, flat elevation in the open air.

In order to dispel any doubts, I searched the relevant tax registers in the Munich State Archives and found what I was looking for.

To explain the history of the summer cellar in more detail, you have to take a closer look at the prehistory.

There is a report by the historian Dr.

Josef Hemmerle, who writes in his book “The Benedictine Abbey Benediktbeuern”: “In the vaults of the brewery's cellar there were 10 rooms for beer storage.

Since the beer and wine cellar suffered badly from moisture during floods, as happened in 1714, additional beer cellars were built in a mountain slope behind houses. ”The local historian Peter Sindlhauser also makes a contribution in his booklet“ Benediktbeuern, das alte Laingruben ” : “The monumental Klostermaierhof (1708 to 1718) and the library building (1722 to 1725) were built under Abbot Magnus.

The summer cellar was dug and built during the same period. "

The monastery buyer maintained a brewery

The location of Hemmerle ("in a mountain slope behind houses") can only mean the area east of houses, since the author of the text is to be found in the monastery, and the monastery is located west of the houses.

About 300 meters above the Schwaige, you can see a transverse parcel with house number 130 that deviates from the norm in the land map from 1811 and that would be perfectly suitable.

In order to determine whether the beer cellar was actually built there, one would have to carry out a search excavation in the wooded mountainside.

Sindlhauser presumably let himself be guided by Hemmerle with his time specification and used the term "summer cellar", which does not appear anywhere at this point in time.

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Kilian Streidl (right) received the bronze state medal in 2017 for special services to rural development in Bavaria.

The photo was taken when it was handed over by Peter Selz (left), then head of the Office for Rural Development. 

© arp / A

In 1803, the secularization of the entire clerical monastery came to an end.

The Bavarian state took over all possessions and sold them to secular investors.

Among them was Josef von Utzschneider, who bought up a large part of the real estate and movables, but sold them back to the state in 1818.

One of the so-called "realities" was the brewery that Utzschneider maintained during his time.

In the deed of sale of March 2, 1818, all acquisition titles are listed, only a summer cellar or beer cellar is not among them.

This suggests that there was none at the time.

The entire state complex was called “Military Foal Inspection Benediktbeuern” or Remontedepot and was assigned house numbers 126 and 126½.

This is how the famous avenue of lime trees was created

Now back to the land map from 1811. The land required for the construction of the beer cellar first had to be acquired by the Military Foal Inspectorate through exchange or purchase.

They came from the local owners with house number 17 (Zwerger), 24 (Metzger Schwaighofer), 27 (Kalserlang) and 37 (Geiger).

The cadastre shows that some of the properties were securitized on April 21, 1830 and August 8, 1831, respectively.

The acquired land was included in the new field numbers 2239 (used commercially) and 2240 (used agriculturally).

The available facts justify the assumption that the construction of the summer cellar hardly began before 1830.

With the opening of the restaurant in the summer cellar, the residents of Benediktbeuern and Bichl found a new, sociable meeting point halfway through.

Even the avenue of lime trees has been planted to allow visitors to Bichler to have carefree access.

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A built-up area is drawn in on this floor plan from 1858, and there is also talk of the “summer cellar”.

He is at number 126½.

© Streidl

The use of the facility as a restaurant and beer warehouse probably ended before the First World War, as prisoners of war were already interned during the war.

The summer cellar had no power connection.

The northern part of the building was inhabited by a single woman Fischer with her son Max until the end of the 1950s.

For many decades the walls have been left to decay.

(By Kilian Streidl)

The author

Kilian Streidl (73) is co-author of the Bichler Dorfchronik and has been dealing with various local history topics for many years.

In 2017 he built a model by Bichl around 1810 on a scale of 1: 250.

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