As of: March 1, 2024, 4:50 p.m
By: Wolfgang Schörner
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The gripper arm holds the trunk, which is sawn off by an employee of the contracted company - it is the place where a victim of the Penzberg murder night was hanged in 1945.
© Wolfgang Schörner
The two listed linden trees and another linden tree on Bahnhofstrasse in Penzberg were felled on Thursday evening shortly before 8 p.m.
It only took a few minutes before the trees were sawn down and transported away.
Penzberg - The two lime trees - 100 years old according to the most recent report - were probably the trees on which a victim of Nazi fanatics and another man were hanged on the Penzberg murder night on April 28, 1945 was supposed to be hanged, but miraculously survived.
The two tribes are now stored at the back of the town square for the time being.
Ghostly scene bathed in spotlights
It was an eerie scene, bathed in spotlights and followed by several onlookers.
A gripper arm held each trunk, then an employee of the landscape maintenance company Mayr from Kochel sawed it through just above the ground.
The city had everything filmed “as a historical document for posterity.”
In view of the stumps and their rings, there was a discussion on site about the age (100 years or not that old?) and condition of the trees.
When asked, an expert from the landscape maintenance company said that core rot could be seen at the bottom of the trunk of two lime trees, and he suspected it in the crown area of the third - which would correspond to the report.
CSU parliamentary group leader Maria Probst described the felling, which came like many others, as “bitter”.
Nobody made the decision easy.
Considerations about what happens to the tribes
When asked, Mayor Stefan Korpan (CSU) said that the city council or a committee would think about what would happen to the two trunks, for example whether they would be used artistically.
At the time of the felling in the evening, Korpan said he was chosen so as not to hinder bus traffic.
The last city bus stopped at the Stadtplatz stop next to the Linden around 7:30 p.m.
As reported, the city had ordered the felling because two reports had found that the trees were at risk of breakage.
A week ago, the State Office for Monument Preservation initially stopped the felling by certifying two lime trees as monuments and asking the city to first obtain a special permit.
The lower monument authority in the district office granted this permission on Thursday.
Reaction to the felling of the linden trees: BfP chairman resigns
Penzberg – Erich Sczepanski has announced his resignation from the chairmanship of “Citizens for Penzberg” (BfP) – in response to the felling of the listed lime trees on Bahnhofstrasse on Thursday evening.
When asked by the local newspaper, he justified this on the one hand by saying that the two BfP parliamentary group members who were present in the city council on Tuesday had not advocated for the preservation of the trees at the meeting.
This gave him a hard time to think about.
According to him, the behavior of several BfP members in an internal WhatsApp group also led to the decision to resign.
According to Sczepanski, they applauded the fact that the district office approved the felling on Thursday.
Another reason Sczepanski gave was that as BfP chairman he had to work in a trusting manner with those responsible in the city.
This is no longer possible.
Sczepanski, who was elected BfP chairman in the summer of 2021, was strongly committed to preserving the lime trees on Bahnhofstrasse.
Last year he applied to the State Office for Monument Preservation to place the trees - as crime scenes of the Penzberg Murder Night - under monument protection.
Which is what the authorities did last Friday.
In an email to the BfP board, he explained his personal background that his uncles and great-uncles were imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp.
He goes on to write that, especially today, “the preservation of places of remembrance of the terror of the brown hordes is of particular importance.”
It is important to raise your voice and not silently support a culture of repression that is spreading.
According to Sczepanski, these memorials also included the two lime trees on Bahnhofstrasse, which, according to the public prosecutor's office files, were "crime scenes" or "instruments" of the Penzberg murder night.
According to Sczepanski, who refers to the tree report, the trees could have been preserved in one case by shortening the crown, in the other case with a metal framework to secure the tree.
However, he added in the letter, the city had used “a theatrical barrier” to create the mood for the trees to be “removed”.
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