Nazi atrocities in the Berger idyll: Archivist brings Nazi past to light

Created: 02/28/2022, 15:02

By: Simon Nutzinger

On the scene: Archivist Heinz Rothenfusser (left) and Mayor Rupert Steigenberger in front of the Marianne Strauss Clinic on the Milchberg in Kempfenhausen.

The National Socialists once ran one of the so-called “Action Brandt Clinics” there.

© Andrea Jaksch

Berg and National Socialism - that hasn't been a big topic so far.

The latest research by archivist Heinz Rothenfusser should change that.

Apparently there were several forced labor camps in the community.

The Nazis also ran their own clinic on the Milchberg.

There is even talk of euthanasia.

Berg – If you search for the terms “Gemeinde Berg” and “Nationalsozialismus” on the Internet, you won’t get a lot of hits.

You can read about Mussolini's confidant and foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, who fled to Allmannshausen with his family after the Italian dictator was overthrown in the late summer of 1943.

Or the so-called death march, during which the SS drove 6,887 prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp southwards at the end of the war until half of them died exhausted.

In the Berger district of Aufkirchen, a bronze sculpture commemorates the victims.

But otherwise: hardly anything.

There doesn't seem to be any other connection worth mentioning between the fantastically situated community of 8,300 souls on Lake Starnberg and Germany's darkest chapter.

Nazi atrocities in the Berger idyll?

none.

The reason for this is the latest research by Heinz Rothenfusser.

Over the past few months, the voluntary Berger archivist has worked hard to come to terms with the Nazi past in his home town - and in doing so has brought to light something that is as astonishing as it is frightening.

In the community newspaper "Bergblick", the 68-year-old writes about forced labor camps in which hundreds of prisoners of war from Italy, France, Serbia and Slovenia are said to have been interned.

Partly accommodated in barracks on the site of today's Marianne Strauss Clinic on the Milchberg in Kempfenhausen as well as in the Marstall and in the Rottmannshöhe retreat house.

According to Rothenfusser, there was also an "Action Brandt Clinic" set up by the Nazis in Kempfenhausen, in which a suspicious number of people died in a very short time.

It remains to be clarified whether this was actually done in a consciously controlled manner as part of the euthanasia program at the time.

Tough stuff, that's for sure.

Also for Mayor Rupert Steigenberger.

"Simply a terrible and actually unimaginable thing," he emphasizes when asked by Starnberger Merkur.

"If the worst fears come true, it would be deeply distressing."

A letter from Italy gets the ball rolling

It all started with a letter from Italy.

Sent from the Museo della Deportazione in Prato, Tuscany.

Among other things, the foundation deals with the history of Italian prisoners of war in the Third Reich and wanted to know from the Berg community whether they could provide more detailed information about two forced labor camps in Berg and Kempfenhausen.

"We were completely blank," admits Steigenberger.

No one in the administration, including himself, had ever heard of such facilities.

More than reason enough for Heinz Rothenfusser to take a closer look at the matter.

He emphasizes: "I was immediately alarmed."

Together with other volunteers such as district archivist Dr.

Friedrike Hellerer from Herrsching, he combed through the documents that the Italians had sent.

One letter in particular from 1946 had it all.

In this, Berg's mayor at the time, Michael Wammetsberger, officially confirmed the dissolution of the two POW camps numbered 2691 in Kempfenhausen and 409 in Berg.

"So they must have definitely existed," says Rothenfusser.

By means of further research in the Munich State Archives, in Berger and Starnberg church registers and in the Archbishop's Ordinariate, he soon brought further findings to light: from 1941 until the end of the war, French, Serbs and Italians were apparently interned there, who worked as agricultural workers on the farms or as construction workers, for example of the former company Kunz were used.

In addition, in August 1945, Pastor Max Karbacher wrote of 250 Slovenes who were forcibly resettled and housed in the Rottmannshöhe retreat house confiscated by the Nazis.

Most of the deceased from the “Aktion Brandt Clinic” were buried to the left of the paved path in the Aufkirchner cemetery.

In the background the memorial for the shot concentration camp prisoners.

© Rothenfusser

But not only the existence, but also the location of the former camps is now largely clear.

In the case of Kempfenhausen, according to Rothenfusser, it is certain that at least some of the forced laborers lived in barracks on the site of today's Marianne Strauss Clinic on Milchberg.

They were still there up until the 1960s.

In the case of Berg, there is a lot to be said for accommodation in the Marstall.

"The grounds were very well shielded from the dense tree population," says the archivist.

"A good prerequisite for letting things happen there that nobody should notice."

So much for the sad and shocking insights into the forced labor camps, which have so far been completely unknown – at least to the general public.

The Italians had apparently been spot on with their assumptions.

Rothenfusser discovered another inconsistency during his research: From October 1944 onwards, the number of deaths in Berg suddenly shot up from 15 to almost 200 per year.

"That made me suspicious," he says.

He found out that the dead came in equal parts from an infant home of the Hauner children's clinic and the so-called "Action Brandt Clinic".

Both facilities were apparently in the same building on the Milchberg, right next to the prisoner-of-war barracks.

"Action Brandt Clinic" operated by the Nazis in Kempfenhausen

The name “Aktion Brandt Klinik” in particular makes you sit up and take notice.

Even today, their existence in Berg is almost completely shrouded in silence.

However, the Reich Medical Association, which had been based in the Lüderitz villa in Kempfenhausen since 1934, had actually chosen an area on the Milchberg as the location for a "biological research clinic".

The Nazis extorted it from the then owner of Kempfenhausen Castle, Count Bylandt, in 1938 under the threat of foreclosure and soon after began to build the clinic.

However, it was not until 1944 that it was completed. Due to the war, there was an acute iron shortage.

"Unfortunately, we can't say anything more about the construction due to the missing documents," Rothenfusser admits.

"But it is very likely

But what happened in the clinic built by the Nazis?

Why were there so many deaths?

Questions that Rothenfusser is not yet able to answer specifically.

"Without accurate medical records or the like, that's too speculative," he clarifies.

Mayor Steigenberger also warns against “drawing hasty conclusions”.

An understandable caution in view of the extremely sensitive topic.

On the other hand, it is clear that the "Action Brandt Clinics" were an integral part of the euthanasia program at the time.

The hospitals, named after Hitler's doctor who accompanied him, Karl Brandt, mainly admitted patients whom the Nazi regime considered no longer worth living.

In order to create free hospital beds for wounded soldiers, their deaths were usually brought about either through deliberate undersupply or through medication.

At the Kempfenhausen site, around a hundred people from the Ruhr area were transferred to the Upper Bavarian clinic by the Nazis.

According to Rothenfusser's research, about half of them had died by the end of the war.

"Even if you should be very careful with the word euthanasia," says district archivist Dr.

Friedrik Hellerer.

"For me there is no question that the deaths of these people were at least accepted."

Hidden between trees: what was then the Milchberg Clinic in 1956. Kempfenhausen Castle in front on the right, behind it the clinic building and on the left the long white bar of the barracks.

© Archive Municipality of Berg

However, the search for possible tangible evidence of the atrocities committed by the National Socialists proved difficult.

For example, Professor Dr.

Ingo Kleiter, Medical Director of the Marianne Strauss Clinic, which is now located on the Milchberg, pointed to a black hole in knowledge relating to the time during the Second World War.

"There are no documents from back then," he asserts when asked by Merkur.

"We took over the house 32 years ago without any archives or previous data." After the war, the Americans handed it over to the city of Munich before it later became today's MS clinic.

Kleiter hopes that the work of Heinz Rothenfusser and his colleagues will provide further insights - no matter how bitter they may be.

“Unfortunately, this seems to be part of the history of this building.

We deeply regret the great suffering and injustice that has happened to the people here and hope that such a bad time will never happen again."

One question remains: How could the matter remain secret for so long?

With all the new information, one question remains unanswered: How could it have taken almost 77 years before it came to light?

"The people from Berg must have noticed something at the time," emphasizes Rothenfusser.

Be it the many forced laborers on the farms, the transports to the clinics or the excessively frequent burials in the Aufkirchner cemetery.

"That's noticeable - definitely." Rupert Steigenberger is also a mystery.

"We weren't told anything about it at school," he says.

When the research picked up more and more speed, he even tried to talk to his father, a former Berger.

However, with moderate success.

"It's difficult to get reliable details from the memories of an 89-year-old."

In general, he explains the previous collective recess of this chapter of Berger's local history with a protective mechanism.

"I think it has something to do with a common process of displacement, in order to be able to return to a certain normality at least back then." Many people would have seen or experienced terrible things at that time.

"Confronting yourself directly with it is certainly immensely difficult."

hope for more insights

Nevertheless, he calls on all Berger citizens who can provide information or memories from that time to get in touch.

"If we don't finally dig up these things now, they will be lost forever," emphasizes Steigenberger.

In the same vein, Dr.

Friedrik Hellerer.

She wishes that those who have been silent until now will now pull themselves together.

"It's not in any way about blaming someone or pointing the finger at someone because they didn't do anything about it at the time," she clarifies.

It's all about the most complete possible explanation of what happened.

"That's the least you owe the victims."

Should the fears, which exist above all about the "Aktion Brandt Clinic", come true with reliable evidence, Steigenberger would like to react as soon as possible.

He has a memorial plaque on the Milchberg or his own memorial in mind.

"There must never be any peace on this subject, we must always keep the memory of it alive," he emphasizes.

"Otherwise some Browns will end up thinking it's enough and handing out their slogans."

"One always thinks we live in paradise here," he says.

"It's still hard for me to believe."

Appeal to eyewitnesses

Anyone who can contribute to the clarification of what happened at the time in the forced labor camps and the "Aktion Brandt Clinic" can contact Heinz Rothenfusser at any time on 0178/2410953.