A piece of jewelry is back home

Created: 05/08/2022, 09:02

By: Peter Schiebel

The blessing for the flag: members and friends of the Leutstetten and Starnberg fire brigades celebrated an ecumenical prayer service in the St. Alto Church this week.

© Photographer: Andrea Jaksch

According to the Leutstetten volunteer fire brigade, it has one of the oldest flags in the Starnberg district.

The jewel from 1901 has now been restored and blessed this week as part of an ecumenical prayer.

Leutstetten

- Saint Alto looks kindly from the front, on the back you can read the words "God to honor, the next to the defense": The first flag of the Leutstetten volunteer fire brigade is a particularly beautiful piece of jewelry - and an old one at that.

It was made in 1901 and according to Doris Baur, the chairman of the fire brigade association, is one of the oldest flags in the district.

As of this week, the flag is back in Leutstetten, so to speak it's back home after it was restored by the Eibl art embroidery workshop in Olching.

"The defective embroidery was re-embroidered as far as possible and the loose areas were reattached," explains Baur in an interview with Starnberger Merkur.

"The rod side was provided with a particularly stable hook band, the remaining three sides were provided with new gold twisted fringes in the old look." In addition, the specialists cleaned the silk background - "as far as this was possible", says Doris Baur.

Some oil stains caused by transport, for example, could not have been removed.

The central image of the Holy Alto, painted on velvet, also continues to be adorned with patina.

"It could only be reapplied during the restoration," explains Baur.

A restoration, for example, of the worn areas was not possible because there was no longer a restorer for it.

The flag was in the workshop for five months, and the work, which the fire brigade association paid for, cost 6,000 euros.

This week the flag was blessed during an ecumenical prayer in the St. Alto Church in Leutstetten, organized by Hans Pestenhofer.

The Catholic pastor Georg Lindl and the Protestant deacon Harald Reizner were there, along with organist Bernard Texier and members and friends of the Leutstetten and Starnberg fire brigades.

Around 40 guests then met in the community hall for roast pork, potato and coleslaw, prepared by Alfred Klingler.

"We are among those who rely on tradition," says commander Michael Rattelmüller.

"That's why we try to keep old things." The flag cabinet in the tool shed not only contains the new flag from 1982 and the restored piece from 1901, but also the standard from the 1870s.

"It was the commander's sign," explains Rattelmüller.

"You knew exactly where the boss was." The people from Leutstetten had the old pump from 1875 restored many years ago, with Reinhard Mücke in charge at the time.

"We take out the restored flag for the Christmas party or on special occasions," says Rattelmüller, who sees the jewel in good hands in the flag cabinet.

"It's also protected from the light there." So that the Holy Alto may look down from the front for many decades to come.