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Memories of a spectacular night: The Hebertshauser maypole theft in 1981

2022-04-30T23:05:52.965Z


Memories of a spectacular night: The Hebertshauser maypole theft in 1981 Created: 05/01/2022, 01:00 By: Christiane Breitenberger The maypole thieves from back then met now, 41 years later, at the current maypole in Hebertshausen: Roland Schmidla (front), Beate Obermeier (front left), Karl-Heinz Salvermoser, Uli Gratzl, Norbert Obermeier, Angelika Gabel, Hans Riedmair, Ursula Gasparics , Hubert


Memories of a spectacular night: The Hebertshauser maypole theft in 1981

Created: 05/01/2022, 01:00

By: Christiane Breitenberger

The maypole thieves from back then met now, 41 years later, at the current maypole in Hebertshausen: Roland Schmidla (front), Beate Obermeier (front left), Karl-Heinz Salvermoser, Uli Gratzl, Norbert Obermeier, Angelika Gabel, Hans Riedmair, Ursula Gasparics , Hubert Scholz, Erwin Gasparics (back from left).

© hab

Police escort, chase with a fire truck and: moving back to your home town like after winning a world championship game.

It's 41 years since a couple of Hebertshauser friends stole the maypole tree.

Three who were there remember the crazy night.

Hebertshausen

- At 6 behind the fire station.

That was the fixed meeting place for a couple of friends from Hebertshausen.

Every day.

Ratchet, laugh, plan nonsense.

And these friends had an obsession in April 1981: "We could steal a maypole!" Steep thesis for a Hebertshauser at that time, because: For many, many years no one from the village had managed such a coup.

And because last year, on the 40th anniversary, Corona intervened, the three friends Erwin (60) and Ursula (58) Gasparics and Norbert Obermeier (61) are telling the story of the crazy night 41 years ago this year.

Hans Riedmair had a friend, the Dachau farmer Hans Hartmann.

And he told the people of Hebertshausen that the firefighters' tree was near the Karlsfeld sewage treatment plant.

Large spying over a long period of time was not.

"We knew from Hans Hartmann that the tree is not well guarded." The Karlsfelders were just too sure.

The tree was only weakly secured.

“The shovel from a wheel loader was just on the front.

They thought that was enough,” remembers Norbert Obermeier.

Karlsfelder catch up with the maypole thieves: only a road blockade helped

Ursula Gasparics is still upset today when she thinks about the night of April 12th to 13th.

"It's as if I were fully involved again": With a few cars and a bullog, the 21 Hebertshauser friends move up, cut - yes, something like that is actually strictly forbidden when stealing the maypole - a hole in the fence of the sewage treatment plant and slip through.

Nobody is tensing anything.

The troupe is lucky: Sewage attendant Hans Kraus is actually supposed to be guarding the tree, but that's not the case that night.

The boys and girls lift the excavator shovel down and somehow heave the 25-meter tree onto the trailing axle.

The thieves escaped through the main gate with the maypole and their bulldog.

Nobody knows anymore how they got it open.

"Somebody must have had a key," says Erwin Gasparics and laughs.

The drive back to Hebertshausen runs like a rush, the memories are “never that clear”, as Obermeier puts it.

But what everyone knows is that the police are stopping them.

But the convoy was already in Dachau, on Schleissheimer Strasse.

"And once you've passed the place-name sign, the tree belongs to you," explains Norbert Obermeier.

But the police are on the side of the thieves anyway and will escort them the rest of their way.

Suddenly the Karlsfelds catch up with the convoy.

Sewage attendant Hans Kraus takes up the pursuit in the fire truck, they want their tree back at the memorial.

Then the Hebertshausers came up with a trick: “Because we were all in the middle of the street, we said they should drive to the parking lot to negotiate.

Some blocked the exit with their cars and the tree just kept going,” Obermeier says and laughs.

Cheering parade through the sleeping Hebertshausen

Between two and three in the morning, the sleeping Hebertshausen experiences the victorious, euphoric return of the thieves.

"We drove through town honking our horns, like at a wedding, people came to the windows," remembers Erwin Gasparics.

It was done.

Hebertshausen had his honor back and finally conquered a maypole after so many years!

The friends guarded their treasure for a week – one even had to fid to his boss.

"He said he was ill - after all, someone had to watch the tree during the day," the friends remember today and laugh.

Your little sins are now forgiven.

And then what always happens when there's something spectacular to see in the town happened: Everyone wanted to have a say in some way, and also wanted to be a part of it.

“Someone was always looking in the hall.

The older ones in particular wanted to have a say and kept giving us tips,” says Obermeier.

Erwin Gasparics has to laugh.

He says: "It was a sensation at the time!" The reputation of the group rose like a catapult.

"Mia Jungs did what no one has done for so long - not even one of the old hands," says Gasparics.

Proud of the conquest: On Hans Riedmair's farm, the people of Hebertshausen hid and guarded the stolen maypole of the Karlsfeld fire brigade in April 1981. © Private

Then the Hebertshausen fire brigade showed up and wanted to "give good advice on negotiating the trigger".

One thing in particular made the old hands suspicious: "The Karlsfelders wanted us to bring the tree back to them, the festival should then take place at their place," says Erwin Gasparics.

"Everyone advised us against it: They just shit on you," it said from Hebertshausen.

Karlsfelders act like men of honor and pay generous ransoms

But the Karlsfeld firefighters around fire chief Ernst Oppermann, cashier Dieter Stutzenstein and the commander, Günter Merkel, who had already died, were people of honour.

They didn't just keep their word.

"It was crazy," Ursula Gasparics remembers.

The troupe arrived in Karlsfeld sitting on a tree and was welcomed with brass band music.

“The Karlsfelders did not splash out and served up a lot.

There was beer and meat loaf, far more than we asked for,” praises Gasparics.

The former mayor of Karlsfeld, Bruno Danzer, even gave a speech.

"It's good that we didn't listen to the old guys in that case!" emphasizes Norbert Obermeier.

Otherwise they would have missed the lavish party.

And because the height of the fall is just extreme when you're at the top, your friends never tried again

Those were the maypole thieves of 1981

These Hebertshausers were there when the maypole was stolen: Manfred Enzensberger, Heribert Lorenz, Hans Hartmann, Petra Hablitzel, Norbert and Beate Obermeier, Ralf Kursawe, Erwin and Ursula Gasparics, Robert Kopfmüller (already deceased), Siegfried Wolfseher, Gabi Wiche (already deceased), Hubert Scholz, Roland Schmidla, Ingrid Wuttig, Karl-Heinz Salvermoser, Angelika Gabel, Werner Krause, Hans Riedmair, Rainer Schott and Ulrich Gratzl.

You can find more current news from the district of Dachau at Merkur.de/Dachau.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-30

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