Controversial tower returns to Unterammergau

Created: 05/13/2022Updated: 05/13/2022, 13:30

By: Josef Hornsteiner

Popular exhibit in Flossenbürg: Not only the concentration camp memorial can be seen from the top of the "sighting", but also the small town of the same name.

Art must never be irrelevant.

Andreas Klement © Andreas Baumann

Controversial art object is coming back to Unterammergau – the sculpture trail opens on Friday, May 13th.

Unterammergau – From up there you can see the outlines of the prisoner barracks, the SS watchtowers, the crematorium where most of the approximately 30,000 dead were literally “disposed of”.

Here in the Flossenbürg concentration camp in north-east Bavaria, the SS organized the factory extermination of people with forced labor in the quarry, starvation, arbitrariness and harassment in an unprecedented form between 1938 and 1945.

Andreas Klement overlooks the entire area from the top platform of the "Sighting".

On top of the once controversial Unterammergau Tower.

On Friday, May 13th, he returns to the Ammertal.

As part of a sculpture trail that accompanies the Passion from the Kunsthalle to the Unterammergau parish church of St. Nicholas.

Two days ago it was taken down at the concentration camp memorial in Flossenbürg.

He has been standing there for a good six months, helping visitors to view the former camp from an unusual perspective – from above.

The "sighting" here in the memorial not only fulfills a practical task as a vantage point, but also a very symbolic one, explains Klement.

“Down, at the first steps, you only see forest.

The higher you climb, the lighter it gets.

It opens your eyes.” Crimes would fade if you didn't remember them.

"Time just grows above it." Like the forest at the foot of the "sighting".

"And only when you climb up do you have a clear view."

A fascination that the director already enjoyed in Unterammergau.

Of course, Klement remembers the discussions two years ago that triggered the work of art in the Ammertal.

The tower has been adorned as a "rusty nail" and with many other unsightly nicknames.

A fairly heated national debate ensued.

But that's part of it for Klement: "Art should never be trivial," he says.

"It's absolutely fine to say: I don't like that." But he also received a lot of positive feedback.

"It's a work of art that's not just for an elite group, but for everyone.

Everyone can climb up, touch it, experience it with all their senses.”

On May 13th it's that time again: The tower will then be built at the mSE Kunsthalle.

On the foundation that still stands.

Klement does not expect renewed debates.

After all, it is already certain that the sighting will only stay in Unterammergau for six months before moving on to the next exhibition location.

This is exactly what the dispute was about in 2020: Some did not want the tower to be there permanently.

But the work of art is not the only one that can be seen in Unterammergau from today.

The sculpture trail stretches over 1.1 kilometers from the Kunsthalle to the parish church of St. Nikolaus with over 14 exhibits by ten well-known artists.

It accompanies the Passion, which is why it is also called "Passion in the Valley".

Originally it should have run from the Unterammergau Tower to the Oberammergau Passion Theater.

"But there were problems because of the restricted area around the Passionshaus," says Klement.

All exhibits are related to the vow play in some way.

For example, wooden nails on the Weiherweg with a height of up to 2.80 meters, created by Hans Panschar.

Or an entire “packed church” by Bruno Wank and Torsten Mühlbacher.

Classical ornaments of a church can be guessed at in many of the boxes.

The “Triptych” exhibit, a work of art in three parts, by Lois Anvidalfarei is on display in the forecourt of the Kunsthalle.

Another artist works purely with moor, creating sculptures and abstract paintings from it.

There is much to discover, such as the famous Barlach crucifix at the parish church of St. Nicholas.

Opening of the sculpture trail

The Unterammergau Sculpture Trail opens on Friday, May 13, one day before the big Passion premiere in Oberammergau.

At 4 p.m. a small celebration is planned at the Unterammergau mSE Kunsthalle, in which the artists will also take part.

The exhibits will then be on view until the final performance of the vow play in October.