New findings on the find of weapons in the Bavarian state parliament: rifles were buried in 1933
Created: 11/11/2022, 7:10 p.m
By: Andreas Daschner
The experts found the scraps of newspaper in an old ammunition pouch.
© State Office for Thanksgiving Care
The discovery of historical weapons during construction work in the Bavarian Parliament caused a stir.
Now it is clear from which period the weapons come.
Crumpled up pieces of newspaper gave the key clue.
By chance, the construction workers had come across the guns.
An explosive find – but only in a figurative sense.
The weapons had to be secured by the police and a clearance service.
But there was no danger at any time, it was said at the time from the Maximilianeum.
At the time, it was not clear where the weapons came from.
The astonishment at the find was limited.
Several MPs referred to the history of the Maximilianeum.
"As the Bavarian state parliament, we meet in a historic place, we have always been aware of that," said Ilse Aigner (CSU), President of the state parliament, at the time.
Rarely has this become as clear as with the weapon find.”
Experts find crucial clues in an ammo bag
Since then, experts from the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt and the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments have been tasked with shedding light on the origins of the weapons.
And now they were successful.
They found crumpled newspaper pages stuffed into an ammunition pouch.
A restorer was able to restore the badly damaged paper.
And the date promptly became legible: It was the April 5, 1933 issue of the Völkischer Beobachter.
The crucial clues: The newspaper clippings show that they come from the supplement to the 96th issue of the Völkischer Beobachter (top and middle), specifically from April 5 (bottom).
© Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments
The reconstruction of the newspaper may not have been easy.
Because the paper was crumpled up.
It was probably stuffed into the damp bag to dry, says General Curator Mathias Pfeil, head of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments.
"This crumpled newspaper opens the window to the day into a past that is not so long ago."
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Rifles may have been buried by the Bayernwacht
According to the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, the so-called Bayernwacht, a self-defense organization of the Catholic-conservative Bavarian People's Party, was in the building from July 1932 to April 1933.
This was then pushed out by the SA.
The experts see the find in connection with this.
It is therefore conceivable that the Bavarian Guard wanted to avoid the weapons, ammunition and equipment falling into the hands of the SA and therefore buried them in the ground of the southern arcade courtyard.
Aigner speaks of great insights that the experts gained just a few weeks after the accidental find.
"This is not only exciting for us, but will certainly also keep historians busy," said the President of the State Parliament.
