As of: January 25, 2024, 5:00 p.m
By: Christiane Mühlbauer
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Helmut Renner proudly holds the two books in his hands.
The watercolors on the title and for dividing the various chapters are by the Kochler painter Uli Hoiß.
© proehl
In two books, Helmut Renner and Peter Schwarz recall the construction period of the Walchensee power plant from 1918 to 1924. There is also a lot worth knowing about the history of that time - and also unique historical photos.
Kochel am See – There were difficult times when construction of the Walchensee power plant began in 1918.
Would anyone have thought back then that 100 years later, after its completion in 1924, the original parts were still in use and the tunnels were in perfect condition, that hydropower played a very important role economically and that the plant was classified as an industrial monument?
Hardly likely.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the plant on Friday, January 26th, there are now two books that provide a comprehensive look at how the construction work took place and, above all, the strenuous conditions under which around 2,000 people worked at the time.
It was published and partly written by Kochler Helmut Renner with the support of the operating company Uniper.
“Whenever I walk across the meadows here, I think of the people who used to work here,” says Renner, who has already published three other books on Kochler’s history.
Reread “The Barabs of Walchensee” by Josef Rambeck
An important historical document from the construction period are the notes by Josef Rambeck under the title “The Barabers from Walchensee”.
The focus here is on the workers.
The book was banned during the Nazi era and was forgotten.
Heiko Storz, a former factory employee, had it reprinted around 20 years ago, albeit in Fraktur script.
Renner has reissued this book, which is now out of print.
It covers - with numerous photos - almost the entire first volume.
“When I read Rambeck’s notes, I still had a lot of questions,” says Renner.
So he researched numerous incidents from Kochel during and after the First World War.
Renner also repeatedly includes political developments in Bavaria.
He also met with Rambeck's daughter and grandson to reconstruct his vita.
Sales of books and lectures
The two books can be ordered at a price of 28 euros from Renner by email: ruth.helmut.renner@t-online.de.
They will be available (soon) in the tourist information centers in Kochel and Walchensee, in the Jachenau village shop and after Easter also in the power plant information center.
Renner will present the books on March 7th and September 26th (Kraftwerk Information Center), and Peter Schwarz will give a lecture on the history of construction on April 11th (Kraftwerk Information Center).
Starts at 6:30 p.m.
These lectures are free, but places are limited.
Therefore, please register with the KKK Lenggries, which also organizes the music summer concerts in the anniversary year: www.shop-kkk-lenggries.de, information telephone: 0 80 42/91 24 65. Information about all lectures and concerts online at www.uniper .energy/de/walchensee power plant
Renner: “I’m always captivated by the pictures”
During his research into the history of the building, Renner met Peter Schwarz from Grainau.
He wrote two detailed articles about the construction history of the Walchensee power plant for the local history yearbook “Lech-Isar-Land” in 2017 and 2018 (our newspaper recently reported on it several times).
However, the yearbooks are out of stock.
Schwarz's texts are now being republished in volume two.
Renner then supplemented these records with the history of the plant during the Second World War as well as other topics, such as the financing of the plant, and then describes how the power plant has developed today.
What's special in both books are the many photos - images that the public has never seen before.
It's nice that they decided to publish almost all of them very large and many even double-sided.
The viewer thus looks directly into the faces of the workers.
“These faces tell a life.
“I’m always captivated by it,” says Renner when he leafs through the volumes.
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