Klammstraße
Klammstraße 1, the St. Antonius Apotheke.
In the gable at the top, a mural of Jesus carrying the cross on the left crowning his mother, Mary, in the center, while God looks on with a scepter on the right.
This lüftlmalerei and the one at Klammstraße 5 are both based on Franz Zwinck’s work in nearby Oberammergau.
At some point, local artist Gerhard Ester renovated the lüftlmalerei that had been here and painted this image of the Coronation of Mary as an homage to the same lüftlmalerei painted by Zwinck.
Klammstraße 3.
Lüftlmalerei of Anna Selbdritt by Gerhard Ester.
On the wall of Klammstraße 4 facing a fountain is a lüftlmalerei of a blacksmith at work, watched by a saint dressed in a monk’s habit, leaning on a horse and broken carriage painted by Heinrich Bickel some time after 1945.1
While Hermann Bierl dates the image to around 1958 and identifies this saint as Saint Leonard, he also notes that the building used to be a blacksmith’s workshop, and is now Georg Schießlbauer’s locksmith shop.2
Therefore, the saint is more likely to be Saint Dunstan — patron saint of blacksmiths.
Saint Dunstan was born in 960 in Glastonbury, England, to a noble family. He was educated by Irish monks and sent to the court of King Athelstan at a young age. He eventually became a Benedictine monk and a priest, ordained by his uncle, Saint Alphege, the bishop of Winchester.
Saint Dunstan has a number of interesting legends:
One, the Devil was annoyed at the healing properties of a spring at Tunbridge Wells in Kent, and poked his nose right below the surface causing it to go red and taste of sulphur. Saint Dunstan pulled him out by the nose using a set of blacksmiths tongs. Those tongs can be seen at Mayfield Convent, a Roman Catholic boarding school in the village of Mayfield in Sussex.
To get back at him, the devil disguised himself as a beautiful young lady to try and tempt him. However, bent as he was over his anvil at work, he noticed the Devil’s hooves poking out from beneath the dress. Dunstan then grabbed the Devil by the nose with tongs again which caused the Devil to unfurl his wings in order to fly away in pain.
Finally, Dunstan is reputed to have nailed horseshoes to the Devils hooves and refused to remove them until the Devil promised to leave blacksmiths alone.
This is where the legend of a horseshoe being lucky comes from, as the Devil promised never to enter a building with a horseshoe nailed above the door.
Klammstraße 5.
This lüftlmalerei and the one at Klammstraße 1 are both based on works on buildings in nearby Oberammergau by Franz Zwinck.
Indeed, in 1908, although Franz Joseph Bronner could not identify the artist of the mural at Klammstraße 5, he noted that in “the gable there is a coronation of Mary, which reminds in color and conception of the Oberammergau master Fr[an]z Zwinck. (See in this regard also the fresco at no. 144a [in Oberammergau]!) External appearances like the posture of Jesus, God the Father, and Mary also speak for such an assumption.”3
This lüftlmalerei was restored by Gerhard Ester in 2010.
At the Bavarian State Archives online, you can see a photo of what this building looked like in 1977 with its lüftlmalerei before Ester’s renovation.
In the gable at Klammstraße 6, “ANNO-1519” is written, suggesting the year this building was first built.
The lüftlmalerei between the windows, panels depicting rural farmers, were done by August Maninger.
Fensterumrahmungen at Klammstraße 10a.
Fensterumrahmungen at Klammstraße 11.
Klammstraße 12.
Lüftlmalerei by Sebastian Pfeffer.
Above the door at Klammstraße 13, “Beim Martl Gäppö,” a lüftlmalerei of Saint Joseph holding white lilies and an infant Christ (while a putto seems to be stealing an L-square from his toolbox) by Sebastian Pfeffer.
On the walls of Klammstraße 19, the Hotel Zugspitze, lüftlmalerei painted in 1997 by Christoph Hodgson.
You can see additional photos of this artist’s work on his website.
- Härtl, Rudolf. Heinrich Bickel - Der Freskenmaler von Werdenfels. Adam Verlag, 1990, p. 123: "A 137 Klammstraße 4, Betten Strüwer: Schmied und Heiliger mit 2 Pferden; nach 1945."
- 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. 139: "353 Klammstraße 4 schmied und Hl. Leonhard Bickel ca. 1958 Nebenan ehemals eine Schmiedewerkstatt, heute Schlosserei Schießlbauer".
- Bronner, Franz Joseph. Von Deutscher Sitt' und Art. Munich: Max Kellerer, 1908, p. 327, footnote: "Nr. 7 und 8 (Villa Byschl). Am Giebel ist eine Krönung Mariens, die im Farbenton und in der Auffassung an den Oberammergauer Meister Frz. Zwinck erinnert. (Siehe diesbezüglich auch das Fresko an Nr. 144a!) Auch Äußerlichkeiten wie die Körperhaltung Jesu, Gottvaters und Mariens sprechen für eine solche Annahme."