The Lüftlmalerei of Garmisch-Partenkirchen
A guided tour of the vibrant, un-curated, open-air, art gallery that is the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany
The Lüftlmalerei of MITTENWALD
A guided tour of the vibrant, un-curated, open-air, art gallery that is the market town of Mittenwald in Bavaria, Germany
The Lüftlmalerei of OBERAMMERGAU
A guided tour of the vibrant, un-curated, open-air, art gallery that is the municipality of Oberammergau in Bavaria, Germany
“Art will always be art.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
During my time living in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, everywhere I looked in the beautiful Bavarian district, the walls of the buildings seemed covered in vibrant, living art.
Indeed, except for the number of houses, nothing seemed to have changed since 1908, when Franz Josef Bronner wrote:
Which summer guest or tourist has not already taken sheer delight in the old, gracefully painted farmhouses of which our High-Alpine country still possesses a respectable number! Many a mountain resort — above all the renowned Oberammergau (with roughly a dozen painted houses) and the splendidly situated Mittenwald (with thirty-two fresco-adorned houses) — might be called vast picture-books in their own right. I venture to assert that no other part of Germany can boast so many frescoed farmhouses as does our Bavarian Alpine landscape between the rivers Lech and Inn. And should some inquisitive foreign visitor seek to slake his thirst for knowledge by asking after the creators of these paintings, he would, in all likelihood, receive scarcely half-a-dozen correct answers to a hundred questions. Most of the locals know little or next to nothing about the matter, and a search through local histories or guide-books leaves one hardly better informed. After all, this is an art that lives out on the street, and in many respects resembles the folk-song: one revels in these creations without much asking who conceived them, who executed them, or who first brought them into being.1
Walking past these murals, one can immediately see how unique these treasures are.
What one may not see at first glance, however, is just how each of these magnificent murals is some thousands of years in the making. That is not to say that they are thousands of years old — although some of them were, in fact, painted centuries ago. Rather, they are the culmination and coalescence of some 2,000 years of competing politics, pilgrimage, and patronage.
These works of art are the product of their place in time — a mash-up of a multitude of masters, meanings, and even the very history of the building they are painted on.
As Jude Welton so succinctly stated:
We often look at paintings out of their original context. But to fully appreciate the particular character of a work of art, we need to consider its original function and setting, and think how those affected its form and content. Most paintings were not made to be hung beside others in a gallery; they were commissioned or sold for a set purpose. That purpose might have been anything from aiding private religious devotions to decorating the ceiling of an aristocrat’s palace. The imagery, style, size, and viewpoint of a painting depend largely on why it was painted, for whom it was painted, and where it was intended to be seen.2
Hidden in each of these works, their history is written. When one knows how to read these so-called “Lüftlmalerei,” then a stroll through Garmisch and its surrounding towns is like flipping through a picture book — one where each image helps to tell the story of the town, its people, and this place.
I began this particular website in 2019 as a place to share online what little I learned on short jogs and long walks in the area. It soon swelled into an entire encyclopedia.
While I have since left Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2025, I hope that this curated collection of what photographs and notes I managed to gather — from tour-guides as well as fellow-tourists, the town archives, owners of the buildings, and even from some of the artists themselves — continues to add to the experience newcomers and old-timers alike have when they look at these murals, just as I hope it continues to give those who are interested a bit of insight into the people who created them and the stories that they tell.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ART FORM
What it is, where it came from, and why you'll find it here
Please note that the content of this website was originally written in English. Because this site uses an online translator, depending on where you are in the world, the text may be translated. And, depending on the text, it may be translated incorrectly.
- Franz Josef Bronner, Von deutscher Sitt' und Art (Munich: Max Kellerer, 1908), p. 305: "Welcher Sommerfrischler oder Tourist hätte nicht schon seine helle Freude an den alten, anmutig bemalten Bauernhäusern gehabt, deren unser Hochgebirge noch eine ganz erkleckliche Anzahl aufweist! Manche unserer Gebirgsorte, wie z.B. das berühmte Oberammergau (mit ungefähr einem Dutzend bemalter Häuser), das prächtig gelegene Mittenwald (mit 32 freskengeschmückten Häusern) gleichen geradezu riesigen Bilderbüchern. Ich glaube kühn behaupten zu dürfen, daß kein Gebiet Deutschlands so viele freskengeschmückte Bauernhäuser besitzt wie unsere bayerische Alpenlandschaft zwischen Lech und Inn. Wenn nun einer der fremden seiner Wissensgier Befriedigung verschaffen wollte und sich nach den Schöpfern dieser Gemälde erkundigen würde, so würde er auf hundert Fragen aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach kaum ein halb dutzendmal einen richtigen Bescheid erhalten. Die meisten Einheimischen wissen wenig oder so viel wie nichts in der Sache und bei einem Nachschlagen in Chroniken oder führern ergeht es einem nicht viel besser. Freilich, diese Malerei ist ja eine Kunst, die an der Straße steht und die in mancher Beziehung Ähnlichkeit mit dem Volksliede hat; man ergötzt sich an diesen Schöpfungen -- ohne viel zu fragen, wer sie erdacht, wer sie gemacht oder wer sie zuerst gebracht."
- Jude Welton, Eyewitness Art: Looking at Paintings: The Essential Visual Guide to Understanding Paintings and Their Composition (New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1994), p. 20.