A city archive is not a publicly accessible museum: the insight that the 100 participants of a guided tour recently got was all the more exclusive.
In addition to an exhibition on the former Biller department store, they saw Elvis on an electric boat – and plans for a tram that were never realised.
Starnberg – 10,500 files, around 10,000 pictures from various holdings and other historical material are stored on the shelves of the Starnberg City Archives, which opened their doors to around 100 visitors on Sunday.
They expected a guided tour through the rooms that are not normally open to the public, lots of information and an exhibition on the former department store of the Biller family at Hauptstraße 25 in Starnberg.
There are 15 moving boxes that the heirs of the Biller family left to the city archives last autumn.
The estate includes more than 320 photographs that shed light on family life, school reports and business documents.
"We are currently organizing and recording everything and packing it in acid-free folders," explained archivist Christoph Aschermann, who has been working in the city archive since 2018.
He is currently researching the history of the Biller family and their department store.
This dates back to 1804, although Johann Baptist Biller only erected the listed building on the main street 53 years later.
In addition to haberdashery and undershirts, there were also gelatine, cinnamon, pitchforks and fishing rods that the people of Starnberg could buy.
+
The focus of the archivists: the Biller family, who once ran a department store in Starnberg.
The estate contains 320 photos that tell of the old days.
© City Archives
The business has remained family-owned over the years.
Until 2013, Gertrud Weiß mainly sold underwear, clothing and fabrics.
"The house has been empty since her death in 2021," said Aschermann.
“It was only open from time to time on certain occasions.” For example, on the day of the open monument in September, when 450 visitors wanted to see the inside of the Biller department store and thus inspired the archivists for the current exhibition.
"Now the department store has been passed on to good hands," said cultural designer Elisabeth Carr.
"After the dissolution I went there again and was reassured to see that the buyers are restoring very carefully and that even the shop fittings will remain.
We did what we could to save the house.”
Elisabeth Carr also took part in one of the three guided tours through the archive.
Archive manager Christian Fries and FOS intern Panajiota Paliogianni led the guests through the rooms and explained the work of the archivists.
"We are the memory of the city of Starnberg," says Panajiota.
"Our main task is to take over and manage all the files of the city administration."
Plans for the tramway in Starnberg were ready, but never realised
But the archive is neither a library nor a museum.
Although citizens can view the archived files and photos, a legitimate interest must be demonstrable.
According to Fries, this could be, for example, research into family history or another research project.
In the so-called magazine, where the files are kept, visitors can expect, among other things, a photo of Elvis Presley on an electric boat on Lake Starnberg from 1959 and the plans for a tram between Starnberg and Söcking from 1903. "All the plans were ready," says Fries.
“There was even an estimate.
Nobody knows why the project was not implemented.”
Fries and his colleagues were satisfied with the open day.
Some visitors were able to help the archivists.
"We hung a few pictures on a board that we couldn't assign yet," said Aschermann.
Visitors could write down what they knew about the people and buildings depicted on small sticky notes.
Valuable information for the memory of the city.
Vanessa Long
Also read:
By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Starnberg newsletter.
You can find more current news from the district of Starnberg at Merkur.de/Starnberg.
