Alleestraße
At Alleestraße 6, “Huas Bertl,” beautifully painted columns adorn the corners of the building, scrolls decorate the outside of the windows and doors, and a single painting of Saint Anthony of Padua like an icon statue in an alcove sits in the center of the building facing the Loisach.
Fensterumrahmungen around the windows at “Gästehaus Hartl-Mauerer,” located at Alleestraße 8.
Alleestraße 13, “Haus Loisachtal,” has a narrative lüftlmalerei on its wall facing the Loisach river, noting that the building was originally built (“Gebaut“) in 1906 and renovated (“Renoviert“) in 1984. The mural depicts a Bavarian carpenter family reminiscent of Jesus’s — a woodworker (Joseph) on the left, planing a beam, a woman (Mary) on the right, feeding chickens, with a rooster on a whetstone (a whetstone in the subtle shape of the Star of David), and a blond-haired blue-eyed, bare-foot boy (Jesus) in the center, bearing a plank.
According to Hermann Bierl’s book, Garmisch-Partenkirchen und seine Lüftlmelereien, this mural was painted by Heribert B. Wappmannsberger.1
Although technically located on Parkstraße, just on the other side of the Fürstenstraße bridge from Alleestraße, the Bäckerei Andreas Hobmeier at Alleestraße 26, is covered in ornate, pretzel-themed paintings.
On the side facing Parkstraße, a scene painted just above the storefront window shows a man and a woman — the man with a zither, the woman with a small sickle — and in the center, a medallion highlighting the Biblical quote “give us this day our daily bread” in German. An appropriate prayer for a bakery.
The oldest known coat of arms for German bakers dates back to 1111 AD, with pretzels already appearing as the symbol of their occupation.
Their name, “Bretzel” in German, derives from the Latin word “brachiatellium” — translated as “little arms” — because the pretzel symbolizes arms folded to pray. This was the bread Christ supposedly offered to his followers at the Last Supper. The twists create three holes which came to represent the Christian Trinity –- the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, the pretzel took on religious connotations for good luck and prosperity.
No wonder, then, that the pretzel has been the symbol for bakers in Germany for a thousand years.
Legend has it, that in 1323, Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria awarded bakers an official coat of arms for their participation in the Battle of Mühldorf. At the center of their banner, the image of a pretzel.
In 1348, the pretzel on the crest was overlaid with the Bohemian royal crown above it.
For their services during the first Turkish siege of Vienna in 1529, two lions on either side were added.
As the story goes, during the siege, the Ottoman Turks dug a tunnel under the city wall at night. The bakers — who were awake and busy baking when the wall was breeched — are said to have heard the sound of digging first, and, when the Turks broke through, they fought “like lions.” For saving the city, they were awarded the two lions on their guild’s coat of arms.
In 1690, in recognition of their services during the second Turkish siege, Emperor Leopold gave the bakers’ guild permission to arm the lions with swords.
Just on the left above the front door, hidden in one of the ornate scroll swirls, the artist’s name, Sepp Guggemoos, is embossed in gold paint.
Alleestraße 33.
Wittelsbacher Park.
- Bierl, Hermann. "Garmisch-Partenkirchen und seine Lüftlmalereien." Mohr, Löwe, Raute. Beiträge zur Geschichte des Landkreises Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Band 18, Verein für Geschichte, Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte im Landkreis Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 2020, p. 10: "007 Alleestraße 13 Haus Loisachtal erbaut 1906 renoviert 1984 Die Heilige Familie in Nazareth B. Wappmannsberger".