Places, a reprise
Before you bury yourself too deeply in libraries or archives studying White Rose resistance, spend two or three weeks in this corner of the world. Walk it, bike it, hike it. Eat where locals eat.
ICYMI: Here is the first post about the importance of Place, from October 30, 2023.
I am still in Bad Heilbrunn. Less than two weeks until I return to the farmlands of south central Pennsylvania. Less than two weeks of fresh mountain air, healthy breakfasts, and learning how to walk with trekking sticks. Less than two weeks of amazing food and friendship at Park Villa and Waldrast, and coffee at Rewe.
The weeks here have been magical. I didn’t get what I came here for. Initial plans went awry pretty quickly. Instead, I’ve gotten experiences and connections I never would have imagined. Things that have grown me, healed me from the inside out. Heck, I even got a new haircut. That I like. A lot!
I’ve retraced paths that have been familiar for the past fifty years, paths I’ve walked into my soul. Yesterday, I drove the Kesselberg again, the link between Kochel and Walchensee, a road not quite as scary as Million Dollar Highway in Colorado, but close. Remembered my love-hate relationship with the Kesselberg, the thrill of seeing Kochelsee in the rearview mirror, the joy of that first glimpse of Walchensee, a turquoise jewel that stitches happiness onto my being.
Some of these Heilbrunner paths predate my first trip here in 1973. Although the town has stayed in touch with the present, it’s also held onto the past. My forest is gone, replaced with a commercial district. Yet many shortcuts remain, shortcuts through other forests, shortcuts that remain despite skyrocketing real estate costs. These shortcuts, these paths, take me past park benches, past clumps of crocuses and snowdrops, past houses both familiar and new.
And it’s not just Bad Heilbrunn. I love heading up Marktstrasse in Bad Tölz. Tölzer Kurier is still at the bottom of the hill. My favorite woodcarving shop is still catty-cornered across the street. Café Schuler still serves The Best Cake in Town – when they have Apfelstrudel with hot vanilla sauce, I am in heaven. Schuhhaus Mayr still dispenses expert advice and counsel regarding shoes for my difficult feet. Leonhardikapelle und Kreuzkirche still reign over the city from their perch atop Kalvarienberg.
Day trips take me to Tegernsee, Starnberg, Munich, Murnau, Füssen. Ulm and Augsburg are on the agenda for these last few days – not quite as familiar as my Oberbayern, but still beloved and familiar. Friends live there, friends I care about and have cared about for years. I’m returning to Walchensee as well, but via the Alpenstrasse, not Kesselberg, following the Isar, through Lenggries, Langeneck, Vorderriβ, on to Mittenwald and Garmisch before heading home.
All of these places are connected to food, to friends, to laughter. At Waldrast, I’m spoiled rotten. Sitting by one of the big windows, glancing now and again at the changing faces of Stallauereck – the local “mountain” – there’s always something going on. Barbara carries on the tradition of good food that sticks to your ribs, whether Leberkäs – oops, sorry, Leberkas – or leek soup. But it’s the conversation and merriment that keeps locals coming back for more. Lena serves everyone with a smile. Lena knows no strangers.
Not long ago, Park Villa was a dying restaurant for old people. Food was expensive and bad, owners did not seem to like anyone who dined there, and it was stuffy and tired. Elvis and Marijana bought it a few years ago and transformed it into the place for celebrations of all sorts, big, small, insignificant, pivotal.
Rewe is “just” a grocery store. But Mona in the bakery welcomes all who buy coffee and cake, even if it’s just 4 € worth. “Mother of all nations,” that is how Roswitha of Hotel Kilian describes Mona. Rich or poor, well-dressed or in workers’ overalls, Mona is immediately per Du, immediately extending that informal address that draws you in.
Roswitha herself, and the hotel she lovingly owns and operates, also form part of the warp and woof of Bad Heilbrunn. Strong, tough, tender, she quietly helps refugees who are struggling while ensuring the hotel stays sparkling and breakfast remains her guests’ favorite meal of the day. She’s also a strict trainer who’s making sure I learn how to use trekking sticks properly!
Gettysburg is my home. It’s a place I love. I feel comfortable there. My neighbors watch out for me, they bring me joy. It too is a community that preserves old paths while forging new. As in Bad Heilbrunn, history means something. As does the present. This life balance is precious and to be treasured.
Why am I boring you with a brief travelogue about my time in Oberbayern? After all, this is a Substack about White Rose resistance, and why it matters.
Because. Place matters too. It shapes the people who live there, just as the people who live there shape the place. Gettysburg, Bad Heilbrunn… both attract people who appreciate lack of train service to Harrisburg and Munich respectively. Both towns have sunk roots deep into their pasts, preserving old homes, old lifestyles, old music, history, traditions, while connecting with young people. To my surprise, both also place high priority on good medical care for residents – Bad Heilbrunn’s physical therapy clinic is world-class, as are the medical facilities in Gettysburg.
And place shaped our White Rose friends. Here – Oberbayern, from Bad Tölz to Lenggries to Murnau to Vorderriβ to Walchensee and places in-between – they walked, and biked, and hiked, and skied, and camped these places into their feet. Whether it was Christl “forcing” Alex to wear Bavarian suspenders, or Lilo and Falk laughing on Walchensee, or Hans and Sophie with the Borcherts in Tölz, or Willi’s jaunts to Lenggries for skiing and serious conversations, or Alex spending time with Christl during summer breaks (before the craziness of war), or any of the many, many recorded events that took place outside the big cities, this countryside provided healing, provided safe haven, provided fresh air and good food that renewed.
Just as Lena has made Wednesdays special the weeks I’ve been here, by coordinating a “sisterhood” evening of strong women and good food, so too did Bavarian locals give White Rose friends a circle where they lived a bit freer and stood straighter.
If you are interested in studying their history, learning more about what they did and who they were, it will not be enough to read the Protokolle and study their diaries and letters. If you do not understand this Place, and why it mattered, you’ll miss the essence of their words.
When I first read the Scholl diaries and letters (censored, and in English translation) in 1994, Place jumped off the pages. I could “see” their environment, because I knew it. Of course some things had changed from 1943 to 1994. But much more had stayed the same. The Bavarian dialect, the food, the mountains and lakes, fresh air, the mountains and lakes!... Had they stayed in Munich and never ventured southward, I dare say their words would have been more bitter, less optimistic about the possibility of success. There is simply something here that invigorates.
Please do not misunderstand. I am not saying that Oberbayern was a hotbed of resistance. Both Christoph Schnitzer and Martin Hake have contributed and are contributing greatly to our understanding of Oberbayern, specifically the Tölzer region, during the Shoah. There are a few highlights, where priests, teachers, citizens, businessmen and -women, neighbors resisted. Like the rest of Germany, the Tölzer region had more than its fair share of despicable actors who delighted in fulfilling the Führer’s wishes, leading the way (for example) in making health resorts Judenfrei. That is a shameful part of the past, and I am grateful to these two journalist-historians who are working to document Tölz from 1933-1945, and not sweeping anything under the carpet.
I am talking, rather, about the freedom that comes with Nature, with fresh air and good food, from physical exercise, from the healing qualities of mountains and lakes and trees and meadows and streams.
That is what our White Rose circle of friends found here. It mattered to them.
If you are starting on your journey, researching these friends, I strongly recommend that before you bury yourself too deeply in libraries or archives, you spend two or three weeks in this corner of the world. Walk it, bike it, hike it. Eat where locals eat. Try to develop an ear for the dialect. Sleep with the window open and heater on. Enjoy fresh Semmel and hot coffee for breakfast. Walk the perimeter of Kochelsee. Trek up Herzogstand, or if you cannot physically do so, at least take the gondola up.
Steep yourself in the traditions and music of the countryside that impacted the people you want to know more about.
And thank me later. Because: Your research will not be the same.
Have you traveled in Oberbayern (Upper Bavaria)? What memories did you make while there? What were your impressions? Please contribute to the conversation, so fellow researchers are tempted to book their own travel!
© 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. Please contact us for permission to quote. To order our simple travel guide, click here. Note that print version and customizable version will ship on April 15 and following.
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Through your commentary and pictures, I almost feel that I am traveling along with you. What a stunning and peaceful place!