Dreitorspitzstraße
Dreitorspitzstraße is named for the nearby Dreitorspitze mountain: “Dreitorspitze” “Street”.
At Dreitorspitzstraße 1, a medallion depicting the original building when it was built. On a banner underneath, the words “Old Red Gerber House * Rebuilt in 1935”.
On the left furl of the banner below the lüftlmalerei, the artist, Eberhard Hülsmann’s signature and the date, 1963.
Dreitorspitzstraße 2 is covered in lüftlmalerei by Sebastian Pfeffer.
Dreitorspitzstraße 3.
At the Bavarian State Archives, you can see a photograph of this building taken by Franz Kölbl in 1973, before any lüftlmalerei at all were added.
Above the door today, the symbol of Partenkirchen — a “Parted Church,” a church with an axe through it.
Around the corner, a lüftlmalerei of Saint George slaying a dragon by Sepp Guggemoos in 1988.
This particular image of Saint George is based on the one painted around 1790 by Josef Degenhart on a building in Lechtal, Austria — a photograph of which can be found on page 108 of Bemalte Fassaden1 — and an expansion of another lüftlmalerei Guggemoos, himself, did at Hölzlweg 36.
Dreitorspitzstraße 9.
Dreitorspitzstraße 13.
Dreitorspitzstraße 18.
Dreitorspitzstraße 21.
According to the Denkmalliste, the lüftlmalerei here were painted by Hermann Lang in 1923.2
According to Hermann Bierl, however, the murals were painted by Charles Johann Palmié.3 Palmié died in 1911.
On Dreitorspitzstraße 28, a lüftlmalerei of Saint Joseph.
At the Bavarian State Archives online, you can see a photo of this building with this lüftlmalerei taken by August Beckert some time between 1960 and 1970.
Nearby at Dreitorsptizstraße 32, Joseph’s wife, Saint Mary with a naked, infant Jesus.
Dreitorspitzstraße 56 has an unusual geometric medallion of the Zodiac constellation, symbol, and image of Taurus, the bull.
While taking photos of the lüftlmalerei at Dreitorspitzstraße 66, the owner was standing outside and he yelled at me in German, joking, “Photos cost 1 Euro!”
I asked him if he knew anything about the painting, and we ended up having an entire conversation in his driveway.
First, he corrected my pronunciation of the artist’s name. I had been pronouncing Heinrich “Bickel” like an American — like the word “nickel.”
“In German, it’s ‘beek-el'” he told me.
He also explained to me that, because of the paintings, his house is protected by the Denkmalshutz.
“Denkmal,” he said, “means something like ‘to look back.’ And Shutz just means ‘protection.’ So the Denkmalshutz is a protection of art and buildings to remind us of our past. Which is good.”
“But,” he said, “Because of it, I’ll never be able to sell my house.”
When I asked him why, he said, “Because it is a small house, no modern plumbing or electricity, old windows, and a damp basement. Because of the protections, I cannot tear it down and replace it with something new. No one wants to buy an old house.”
When I asked him if he minded if I put the photos I was taking of his house online on my website, he told me that the Denkmalshutz included photos of his home, too, and it was already online.
Indeed, at the Bavarian State Archives online, you can see a photo of this building just after the lüftlmalarei was first painted in 1933.
Next door, a lüftlmalerei by Gerhard Ester in 1984, showing Archangel Michael with a flaming sword casting Satan out of Heaven.
- Baur-Heinhold, Margarete. Bemalte Fassaden: Geschichte, Vorbild, Technik, Erneuerung. Verlag Georg DW Callwey, München, 1975, p. 108: "166, 167 Holzgau im Lechtal, Tirol, Josef Degenhart, um 1790. — Abb. 166: An der Langseite St. Georg."
- Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege. Denkmalliste, Markt Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 11 November 2020, www.geodaten.bayern.de/denkmal_static_data/externe_denkmalliste/pdf/denkmalliste_merge_180117.pdf, p. 8: "Dreitorspitzstraße 21. Landhaus, zweigeschossiger Flachsatteldachbau im alpenländischen Heimatstil mit Lauben, Zierbund und reicher Fassadenmalerei, von Hermann Lang, 1923."
- 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. 69: "164 Dreitorspitzstraße 21 165 C. Palmié 53".