Rediscovered in old photographs

Created: 10/06/2022 11:02 am

By: Andrea Graepel

Happy about the successful joint action: Karl Steinbeißer from the Erling-Andechs home club and Klaudia Metz at the new, old field cross.

© Andrea Jaksch

In Erling, after some research by a local researcher, an old field cross is back in its place.

Erling

– It is memories and things that have been handed down that home clubs deserve.

And every local historian tries to keep the past alive.

This also includes Karl Steinbeisser.

The 84-year-old has lived in Erling since 1961.

He came to Klosterberg as a brewer, later became a commissioner at the Herrsching police station and is now known to many from the old forge, which he looks after for the local Erling-Andechs club.

The monastic community has long since become Steinbeißer's home, and its history is important to him – including the younger ones.

So he has now re-erected an old field cross east of the Friedenskapelle in Erling, right next to the district road to Starnberg, which had almost fallen into oblivion.

Steinbeißer had seen the field cross in photographs from the 1920s and 1930s.

"But nobody could assign it," he says.

During his research, he met farmer Leo Metz, who remembered the cross that stood by the roadside in his forest.

The statement was confirmed in the book "Erlinger Flurnamen", published in 1953 by Franz Wastian.

He had mentioned that the cross had been erected by Ignaz Summer around 1893.

According to Wastian's memories, it was called "'s Metzger-Nazi Kreuz".

In this case, Nazi is the harmless short form of the first name Ignaz.

And Metzger-Nazi is the house name of Ignaz Summer's farm at Mühlstraße 8, which today belongs to Leo Metz.

As it turned out, the cross had been damaged and removed by a motorist in 1970.

Steinbeisser wanted to set it up again.

The Christ body, a carefully crafted gray cast iron body, has been stored in the attic of the Metz estate for 50 years.

It was now brought out and freed from old paint residues.

The wood for the new cross was donated by Stefan Kaindl from Machtlfing, and the Friedingen master carpenter Hans Sedlmaier prepared it for further processing.

The cross was made by Karl Steinbeißer himself. The tinsmith Christian Koder supplied the protective copper roof, the foundation was prepared by Uli Blasi and cast by Toni and Franz Weigl.

"All in all, the project was a successful joint effort," says Steinbeißer happily.

On Saturday the cross was put up again and celebrated with a snack.

"For the foot pilgrims who make a pilgrimage to Rothenfeld during the week of the Cross,

the newly erected cross can be a reason to pause,” says Steinbeißer.

However, the Christian blessing has to be made up for due to time constraints.

Gra