Erinnerungsort Badehaus

About

The Erinnerungsort Badehaus (own spelling "BADEHAUS") is a historical museum situated at Kolpingplatz in Waldram, a district of the town of Wolfratshausen, approx. 30 km south of Munich (Germany). Documents of the settlement's history since its foundation in 1939 are exhibited in the museum. It is an extracurricular place of learning and a place of encounters for various generations, nations and religions. The association Bürger fürs Badehaus Waldram-Föhrenwald e.V. is owner and operator of the museum. It saved the building from demolition, had it refurbished and developed the concept for it to be turned into a museum. All the activities of people are and have been on an honorary basis. In 2022 the museum received the Obermayer-Award for its outstanding engagement in saving the Jewish history and for its ongoing fight against current prejudices.

In 1939 a sanitation building was constructed for the male population of the Föhrenwald camp, as the modest houses where the workers of the nearby ammunition factory lived, had no bath tubs or showers. After the Second World War, when the camp Föhrenwald was used for displaced persons, it became the central sanitation facility for all the inhabitants. It was used on alternate days by men and women. From October 1945 onwards, by order of the American Military Administration, the camp was inhabited exclusively by Jews who had survived the National Socialist regime. In addition, initiated by the Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, a mikveh, a Jewish ritual bath, was set-up in the cellar of the building. This was documented no later than early March 1946.

When the catholic nonprofit association Siedlungswerk took over the whole area in 1955, all houses were refurbished and bathrooms were installed. Thus the function of the Badehaus as sanitary building became obsolete. The new owners demolished the mikveh basin and installed a heating-system in the cellar. The consequence of this take-over was that the Jewish displaced persons had to leave the camp, successively, and the whole area was renamed into Waldram.

In 1963 the ground-floor of the building was converted into flats for teachers and in the attic rooms for the pupils of the catholic school Spätberufenenseminar St. Matthias were installed. The seminar complex itself had been built in September 1957 in the immediate neighbourhood of the former sanitation facility. The members of the Spätberufenenseminar St. Matthias called it "Badebau", a name which became popular in Waldram.

In 2011 the last inhabitants left the building. The financial department of the arch diocese planned to demolish the building and have blocks of flats erected on the site. However, an initiative of local citizens prevented this, their fear was that the characteristic appearance of the Kolpingplatz would be destroyed.

In September 2012 The association Bürger fürs Badehaus Waldram-Föhrenwald e.V, headed by historian and journalist Sybille Krafft [ de ], was founded. Members of the association Historischer Verein Wolfratshausen e.V. and of the association Siedlungsgemeinschaft Waldram e.V. formed an alliance in an attempt to save the historical building from demolition and to create a place of encounters and documentation. Documentation of the history of Waldram and Föhrenwald was compiled to be shown to the public in a multimedia -based presentation. The project received prominent support from Max Mannheimer (1920–2016) who, as a survivor of the Holocaust, had a special relationship with Föhrenwald. In Föhrenwald and other camps, after the war, he had taken care of Jewish displaced persons, who were traumatised through experiences during the Nazi regime. He became the first member of the association in 2012.

In 2015 the foundation Seminarstiftung St. Matthias gave the building to the association on condition that it be turned into a memorial site. In more than 20,000 honorary working hours, also with professional assistance and with the financial support from the municipality of Wolfratshausen, the district administration of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, the Bavarian government and the European Union, it was possible to refurbish the building and to create the museum.

On 21 October 2018 the Badehaus museum was opened as a museum. It became a place against forgetting, visited by the locals, guests from all over the world, contemporary witnesses and their descendants. The 7000th visitor of the museum was welcomed in early April 2021. Already on 22 July 2022 the 10.000th visitor was welcomed.

The concept of the memorial site rests on several pillars and has been realised multi-medially by a scientifically and pedagogically trained team.

- Guided museum tours for individuals and groups, also through Waldram and the ruins of the armament factories in the former so-called Wolfratshauser Forst.

- Museum app with audio guides and outdoor guided tours

- Series of events: Encounters at the BADEHAUS

- Series of events: Artistic interventions

- Interviews with contemporary witnesses

- Touring exhibitions, which can be hired

The space of the museum of 900 m 2 is spread over three storeys, providing documents, photographs, films and exhibits as well as interviews with contemporary witnesses.

A permanent multimedia-based exhibition shows the local and the migration history in European dimensions at the time of the National Socialism and at the post-war period in Germany after 1945. Each phase shows the local history of Föhrenwald and Waldram with examples in a cross-locational context: the beginning as a Nazi model settlement for the armes workers in 1939; the temporary use for survivors of the concentration camp prisoners' death march in 1945; the transformation into a camp for Jewish displaced persons in mid-1945; again a transformation into a settlement for refugees and expellees from Eastern European countries in 1956; and finally the development into the suburban living quarters of Waldram nowadays.

In the attic the installation "Forest of Memories" gives an insight into the respective destinies of camp Föhrenwald contemporary witnesses and inhabitants from Waldram. By using various media, the different stages are on display employing stylised trees which picture the lives of the Germans drafted to work, the lives of the forced labourers, the lives of the death march survivors, of the Jewish and non-Jewish displaced persons, of expellees and today's migrants. The trees are a symbol, marked by the Scots pines growing in the area. Trees have always been an archetype of life in all religions. Names and photographs of contemporary witnesses are displayed on the walls. Many of these persons were interviewed and give the visitors of the museum an insight into their fates

Due to the hillside position, the basement of the building has an outside exit too, and was therefore named "garden storey" by the founders of the museum. Documents of the religious life of the Föhrenwald camp are exhibited in the garden storey. A film is available showing the mikveh which was installed in the cellar during the post-war period; it was used as a ritual bath by the Jewish camp inhabitants.

Also placed on this storey is the radio play Föhrenwald by Michaela Melián which has received several prizes. The artist's drawings extend it into a multimedia-based installation. In the darkened room the floating pictures overlap and create an imaginary walk through the location accompanied by music, texts and quotations. Additionally, there is a room for special exhibitions on this storey used also by the local adult education centre.