The Oberammergau elementary and middle school is now a listed building.
Not only because of the numerous works of art on the walls, but above all because of its historical significance: The building from 1937/38 was exemplary for the Nazi regime of what a schoolhouse should look like: strict, obedient, defensive.
Oberammergau
- It has lost none of its charisma over the decades. The Oberammergau elementary and middle school is impressive, large and powerful. Just as its creator, the Oberammergau architect and mayor Raimund Lang (1895 to 1976), had in mind in 1937 when the groundbreaking took place. Today, 84 years later, the Oberammergau elementary and middle school building has been placed under a preservation order. For two reasons: the artistic, but above all the important historical significance.
Lang's handwriting is still visible throughout the building today.
But it was the state - i.e. the Nazi leadership in 1937 - that set strict guidelines.
The politician, who was mayor of the Passionsgemeinde from 1933 to 1945 and from 1948 to 1966, acted entirely in the interests of the National Socialists with the design of the schoolhouse.
Lang wanted to show the virtues from the Nazi era from the outside, the social notions of rigor, obedience and defensiveness: all of this through sober, reduced forms and with a clear reference to the defense architecture of the Middle Ages, such as the entrance tower.
Karl Gries and Michael Zeno Diemer conjured up works of art on the walls
The result is a two-storey, angled, pitched roof building with a tower-like entrance project, a porch supported by round arrows and a facade sculpture. The facade was painted by Karl Gries, the interior mural was made by the Oberammergau artist Michael Zeno Diemer. "Overall, the historical inventory is well preserved," says Julia Steinbach, spokeswoman for the State Office for Monument Preservation in Munich (BLfD).
But what will change now for school and community?
"Monument protection does not mean that a building may no longer be changed," Steinbach makes clear.
"Rather, it is desirable that architectural monuments are used." Nevertheless, the historical features of the building should be preserved.
In the future, every change will require a permit from the Lower Monument Protection Authority.
Before this makes a decision, the authority gets the technical opinion of the BLfD.
School is regarded as a testimony to the accelerated growth and prosperity of the community after the turn of the century
The historic building is part of the so-called Heimatstil or Heimatschutz architecture, which was common in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. The school is a testament to the accelerated growth and prosperity of the community after the turn of the century. This is also shown by the other buildings that were built around the same time as the carving school, the orphanage, the post office or the stage of the Passion Play Theater, which Raimund Lang also realized. The financing of all these projects as well as the school house was only possible through the profits of the Passion Play in 1934. Financial support from the state, on the other hand, remained low for the school, which at the time was one of the most modern in the district. The spatial separation of the classes has been eliminated.It had its own gym and library.
The creator of the school was not considered a fanatical supporter of National Socialism, even if he joined the NSDAP in 1932 - before Hitler came to power. In June 1933 this helped him to the post of NS mayor in Oberammergau. "He rejected a radical National Socialist policy," writes student Ludwig Utschneider in his book "Oberammergau in the Third Reich". But Lang was not a man of resistance either. He tried to use the new conditions to "expand and consolidate his position as local prince". He realized the school project that was planned at the turn of the century. Previously, classes even had to be taught in a pub.
