Ludwig Thoma left behind not only Bavarian cultural assets, but also shocking, anti-Semitic inflammatory writings.
He is now being discussed again in Munich.
Nobody in his birthplace Oberammergau has discussed yet - especially not about a street with his name.
Oberammergau
- "Sau-Jude" is written there. And that's still harmless. Ludwig Thoma scolded, ranted and verbally raved. He must have hated them, the Jews who immigrated from neighboring countries to the east. “Why”, Thoma asks the readers on April 7, 1921, “do you go to war with the good-natured, decent Russians instead of exterminating this plague with them” - he means “grumpy Jews” and “fat, lazy Jewish women with their butts up Growing fat pads ".
These lines were written by the same Ludwig Thoma who wrote the beloved “rascal stories”, “Holy Night” and “Der Münchner im Himmel”.
The somewhat quirky Bavarian writer with a pipe in his mouth.
The local poet, about whom an old discussion has flared up again.
Ludwig Thoma, "to whom we as Oberammergau residents have to find a new attitude".
At least that's what Christian Stückl says.
Anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlets by Ludwig Thoma: When Stückl reads them, "I feel really sick"
The director of the Passion Play has received several awards for his work against anti-Semitism.
He knows Thomas' propaganda pamphlets that he published in the Miesbacher Anzeiger in 1920 and 21.
When Stückl reads them, “I feel really sick”.
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Should Ludwig-Thoma-Strasse disappear?
This requirement does not currently exist in Oberammergau.
Some think this is the wrong way to go.
© Dominik Bartl
The articles are known.
Some of them were already back then, even if the author wrote most of them anonymously - the information varies between 143 and 173 pieces.
But it was not until Wilhelm Volkerts that the general public began to consider Thomas's darker side.
The historian published all contributions and commented on them scientifically.
The media put Thoma on the front pages in shock, and Munich abolished the Ludwig Thoma Medal.
That was in 1989. Now a commission has decided: Ludwig-Thoma-Straße in Pasing must disappear.
A recommendation, the Munich city council will decide.
Ludwig Thoma was born in Oberammergau, and he also got a street
The people of Oberammergau also have a street like this; the local poet was born in the village on January 21, 1867.
That is why the citizens must deal with the issue, demands Stückl.
Approach the matter “with a sense of history”.
Not with erasing.
Street names gone and done?
Nothing bit like dealing with the past.
Just as little as Ludwig Utschneider's.
It only takes a stroke of the pen, says the history teacher and councilor.
"Zack - one decision, and the name is gone." Very simple.
But where is the discussion about the topic?
The question of backgrounds and historical contexts.
If the Free Voters parliamentary group spokesman had to decide in a meeting tonight without new arguments: He would vote for Ludwig-Thoma-Strasse.
In the spirit of his fellow councilor.
Florian Lang lives in Thomas' birthplace: Do not drag the entire work into the mud
Florian Lang could keep his address in an emergency.
He lives at 20 Dorfstrasse, in Thomas' birthplace.
He is very interested in history, he headed the local museum for 18 years.
But he would prefer not to say anything on the subject, he says at first. Then he starts - and says a lot.
He speaks of a society that is no longer his, in which he no longer understands many things.
From Germans, the world champions are bad-mouthed.
Of completely wrong discussions when one suddenly denigrates veterans' associations as glorifiers of war.
And now wants to eliminate Ludwig-Thoma-Strasse.
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Ludwig Thoma was born in this house on Dorfstrasse in 1867.
A plaque reminds of this.
© Dominik Bartl
Lang makes it unmistakably clear: The inflammatory pamphlets existed. And they're shocking. Anti-Semitic, radical right-wing one would say today. "I don't want to defend Thoma here," emphasizes the 62-year-old councilor of the Free Voters. But is that why Thomas' entire work "dragged in the mud"? Without looking at the time and the circumstances? That doesn't work for Lang. He has created many good things, Bavarian cultural assets. Day after day he hears walkers talking about writers when they read the blackboard at the house where he was born. “Everyone knows him.” Even young adults, although Thoma died in 1921. For Lang, the homeland poet connects generations. The debate annoys him, finds it “superfluous and exaggerated”. Above all, the owner of the wood carving company Lang selig Erben asks himself:Don't we have any other problems? His answer: definitely.
Oberammergau Mayor Andreas Rödl: "I don't see any need for action"
Andreas Rödl doesn't say it that way, but basically says the same thing.
The mayor will not proactively initiate anything.
"I see no reason, no need for action." He lacks "a clear request for change" among the Oberammergau residents.
Should that occur, one could discuss the name of the street - and thus also the address of the town hall at Ludwig-Thoma-Strasse 10 - and on the train also about how to deal with Thoma, his work and his inflammatory pamphlets.
So far, however, "this is not much discussed in the town".
Stückl shares this feeling.
“That's not an issue at all.” But he demands that we make one out of it.
Just waiting is not enough for him.
“You can't just let it go, you have to talk about it.” And find an attitude.
He does not want to specify what this will look like in the end.
"We have to sit down in Oberammergau, then we will find a result."
Ludwig Thoma and his "violent change"
As a local poet, one loves Ludwig Thoma (born on January 21, 1867 in Oberammergau, died on August 26, 1921 in Tegernsee). But he had a bad side. Radically patriotic. Christian Stückl, director of the Passion Play, has dealt with this.
Thoma has undisputedly written wonderful works that “do not suggest anti-Semitism”.
But it is undisputed that the First World War changed it.
Stückl speaks of a "violent change"
: In his time with the satirical weekly Simplicissimus from 1898, Thoma was considered left-liberal. After returning from the war, he wrote well over 100 anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlets for the Miesbacher Anzeiger. “Extreme,” says Stückl. Thoma raged against the government in Berlin, the social democracy, Jews. Without respect, full of anger. It brought success to the paper: for a short time it increased the circulation from 4,000 to 18,000 copies.