From the Bahamas to Holzkirchen: The eventful life of Krov Menuhin

Created: 05/25/2022, 07:00

Family visit in the Oberland: Krov Menuhin with his grandchildren (from left) Vera, Ava and Arthur.

The two youngest grandchildren Edgar and Esther are not in the photo.

© private

Krov Menuhin was stationed in Lenggries as a US soldier.

His job as a nature filmmaker has taken him around the world.

The son of a famous violinist also has a direct line to Holzkirchen.

Holzkirchen – In the past, Krov Menuhin flew a lot.

To Alaska, South America, to the Bahamas.

And he was always at the controls himself.

Now the 81-year-old uses the car – and drives it to Holzkirchen from time to time from England, where he lives with his wife Karen near Oxford.

"We have a dog and a cat, we can't fly with them," says Menuhin and laughs.

It is the family that keeps bringing him to Holzkirchen: son Aaron lives with his wife Merle, their five children and two dogs in the market town.

The conversation takes place via video call, Menuhin is sitting in his house in England.

Karen waves at the camera.

She is a writer and her crime novel “The Dead of Melrose Court” has just been published in German.

Photos of airplanes can be seen in the background.

No instruments?

After all, his father was the famous violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin.

The son smiles: "The musical talent jumped me."

Training in the Isarwinkel: Krov Menuhin in 1963. © private

From the Bahamas to Holzkirchen: The eventful life of Krov Menuhin

Menuhin knows the Oberland.

He was here many years ago, as a soldier in the US Special Forces, the "Green Berets".

They were stationed in the Tölzer Flint barracks and at times also in Lenggries.

The Americans came in 1953 and stayed until 1991, and alumni still meet in the Isarwinkel today.

Menuhin arrived in the Oberland in 1961.

Before that he had studied.

"But that didn't suit me," he says.

So Lenggries.

There Menuhin worked as a teacher and trained American soldiers in guerrilla tactics.

"Our task was to train the resistance with friendly armies." It was the time of the Cold War.

By that time, Krov had already discovered the passion that would keep him busy for the rest of his life: scuba diving.

He has lived in the Bahamas with his mother and stepfather since he was 15, where he started diving.

It later became his profession: Menuhin began filming whales and made nature films for the British BBC in the 1970s.

From 1983 to 2010 he directed the French TV series Ushuaia, a popular series about nature and its history.

He benefited from the fact that he had acquired a pilot's license after his time in the army.

Menuhin acted as a pilot, cameraman, diver and director - a whole production company in one person.

Famous father: Yehudi Menuhin (1991).

© private

also read

Assault on boys' festival: 18-year-old harassed by unknown person - description of perpetrator published

Nine-euro ticket: Fear of "overkill" - BRB boss reveals which routes you should avoid

In the Kochelsee he dived for weapons

He likes to think back to his time as a soldier in the Oberland.

To the jeweler Eichmann in Bad Tölz, for example.

He had made the emblem of the "Green Berets", a Trojan horse.

Soldiers wore the piece, cast from a silver coin, on their green berets until the Army replaced it with another emblem in 1962.

"We weren't allowed to have it anymore, but everyone kept it," remembers Menuhin.

And he says that every soldier who arrived in Bad Tölz exchanged his US boots for Tölz shoes.

They worked together with the emergency services on site, such as the mountain rescue service.

"We had helicopters and helped out with mountain rescue teams." In general: The relationship with the Tölz population, says Menuhin, was exceptionally good.

When he returns to the Oberland now, he occasionally goes back to the places he used to know.

To the Kochelsee, for example.

There he dived at the age of 23 for weapons from the Second World War.

He also visited the Flint barracks in Bad Tölz.

Menuhin notes that the region has changed.

"But the town centers are often the same as they were back then." Although he was born in Australia, Menuhin describes the Bahamas as his home.

"Almost home", as he says, almost like home.

That's saying something, after all he's lived in California and New York, in England, Switzerland and France.

Aaron was born there.

With him, says father Krov, he now flies together, in the flight simulator, he in England, Aaron in Holzkirchen.

In this way, the two explore the world from above in a virtual community.

Until Krov gets back in the car and drives the 1300 kilometers to Holzkirchen.

by Andreas Wolkenstein