Staffelsee Museum presents prominent vacationers in a new exhibition

Created: 06/22/2022, 09:00

By: Günter Bitala

Brigitte Bosch and Mayor Markus Hörmann were among the first guests at the new special exhibition in the Staffelsee Museum.

© Günter Bitala

Seehausen – An exhibition that can currently be seen in the Staffelsee Museum takes you back to the early days of tourism in Seehausen.

The idea for this came to Susanne Horak some time ago when she was trawling through the old guest books of the Gasthof Stern: "The lists contain a number of celebrities from that time." A selection of the illustrious summer visitors is presented;

Title: Saint-Tropez at Staffelsee.

In the first half of the 19th century, it was the nobility who left the stuffy city and went out into the country to get some fresh air.

That's where the term 'summer resort' comes from, says Franziska Lobenhofer-Hirschbold (Eschenlohe historical society 'Burgadler') in her introduction to the Seehauser exhibition.

Half a century later, wealthy citizens and artists discovered the foothills of the Alps.

Bag and baggage, the 'better people' quartered themselves in the farmhouses for weeks and months.

Alpine clubs were founded for urban mountaineers.

After the First World War, 'Die Naturfreunde' propagated holidays for all walks of life.

Tourism, beautification and costume associations provided entertainment for the guests.

The Seehauser exhibition begins with Baedecker's 'Guidebook' from 1886, which lists two Seehauser hotels and inns, each with one star: The 'Curhaus Staffelsee' is recommended for a pleasant summer stay, and the 'Gasthof Fuchs' (Seerose) is considered to be unexpensive.

In 1902, Baedecker mentions two well-equipped swimming and bathing establishments.

The guests came from all over Germany.

They were looking for relaxation and physical exercise.

The summer visitors wandered through the woods and rowed on the Staffelsee.

Singing Sailor & German Nightingale

The motto of the exhibition is: A fishing village and its famous summer visitors.

Susanne Horak presents seven celebrities in more detail.

• The opera singer Erna Sack (1898 – 1972) was known as the 'German nightingale'.

During the 1930s, the soprano spent her vacations at 'Haus Iblher' and in 1956 bought a villa on the Burg Peninsula.

• The 'Singing Sailor', Fritz Windgassen (1883-1963), had become known as a heroic tenor and Wagner singer.

Windgassen spent a few summers at the Seehauser Gasthof 'Stern' before buying a house in Uffing in 1925, where he settled from 1945.

• The actress Margarete Haagen (1889-1966) became known to a wide audience in the 1950s as 'Oma Jantzen vom Pferdegestüt Immenhof'.

She found relaxation in the Pension Probst, directly on the Staffelsee - where she could be a normal guest with family ties.

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• The writer Arthur Ernst Rutra (1892-1942) kept coming back from Munich to Lake Staffelsee.

On these occasions he stayed at the inn 'Zum Stern'.

On October 9, 1942, Rutra was murdered by the Nazis in the Maly Trostinez (Minsk) extermination camp.

• The graphic artist Josef Nikolaus Geis (1892-1952) worked for 'Flying Leaves' and later for the magazine 'Jugend'.

He was at the 'Zum Stern' inn for a summer vacation.

• The painter friends Edmund Steppes (1873-1968) and Alfred Vollmar (1893-1980) spent the summers in the inn 'Zum Stern' – they used drawing utensils to look for motifs.

Susanne Horak: "Not only the scenic beauty, but also the water of the Staffelsee attracted the guests.

With the extension of the railway line from Weilheim to Murnau, more and more townsfolk came.” The exhibition can be seen in the Staffelsee Museum in Seehausen until Sunday, September 25, 2022.

Thursday to Sunday, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Info: Tel. 08841-629789 (from 6 p.m.)