Bahnhofstraße
Bahnhofstraße, or “Train Station Street”, is one of the main arteries connecting the two halves of Garmisch and Partenkirchen. It runs along the railroad tracks and past the train station for which the street is named, crosses over the Partnach River that divides Garmisch from Partenkirchen, and up to the Rathausplatz and the City Hall built in 1935 when the two cities were forced to merge together to form a single town.
Bahnhofstraße 1 is a three story building built in 1935 in the alpine homeland style, directly across the street from the town hall.
The stucco work was done by Oswald Bieber and the lüftlmalerei were sketched by Josef Wackerle and painted by Karl Gries in 1935 when the building was first built.1
Between the second and third floor windows, you can see a series of medallions showing muses with instruments of their art, and collections of symbols for the arts and sciences.
Bahnhofstraße 3 was also built in 1935 and has stucco work done by Oswald Bieber.
On the side facing the street, there are two narrative lüftlmalerei between the second and third floor windows by Heinrich Bickel, painted in 1935, “Rest on the Run,” depicting a Bavarian Mary and Joseph traveling with an infant Jesus.4
Around the corner, beneath an ornately decorated oriel window, a lüftlmalerei of Saint Apollonia and Saint Mauritius stand on either side of a sundial.
Saint Apollonia’s teeth were knocked out before her martyrdom, so she’s often depicted holding a tooth, as she is here in a pair of pliers.
Saint Mauritius (also known as Saint Moritz or Saint Maurice) was the Egyptian commander of a Roman legion who ended up being martyred in Germany.
Master pastry chef Alois Kneitinger founded the café on Bahnhofstraße 7 in 1920.
On the front, a lüftlmalerei of women serving coffee, a woman carrying a coffee plant on tray, someone planting a Chinese tea tree, African with cocoa fruit, originally painted by Heinrich Bickel some time after 1945.5
Repainted by Sebastian Pfeffer in 1978 with an addition around the corner of a Lüftlmalerei of the Madonna and infant Jesus floating on clouds above a baker with a cake, and all the workers, animals, and ingredients required to bake one.
Bahnhofstraße 10, once the location of the Zwerger Building company, established in 1903, according to the plaster plaque on the building. The company moved locations at the end of the 1970s.
Above, a lüftlmalerei by August Maninger of Bavarian builders.
Here, at the Bavarian State Archives, you can see August Becker’s photograph of this building in the 1950s, before the lüftlmalerei was painted.
Bahnhofstraße 13, “Haus Adam,” built in 1912.
Bahnhofstraße 15, the Partenkirchner Hof hotel.
On the wall, a lüftlmalerei depicting a wine cellar with a sign at the top, “Enoteca,” painted by Gerhard Ester in 1996.
An “Enoteca” (“wine repository” in an Italian) is a special type of wine shop that originated in Italy, primarily giving visitors or tourists the possibility to taste wines before buying them.
Here, at the Bavarian State Archives, you can see a photo of the hotel taken by Franz Kölbl from before the lüftlmalerei was painted.
Bahnhofstraße 22.
On the outer wall facing the Loisach, a faded lüftlmalerei depicting the Ettal Abbey and a banner referencing their liqueur.6
On the opposite side, a lüftlmalerei of Patrona Bavaria.
In this photo from the Marburg Photo Archives, one can see how this lüftlmalerei looked in the 1920s.
Bahnhofstraße 23.
On the wall of Bahnhofstraße 24, the El Greco Greek Restaurant, a large Lüftlmalerei combines a Greek restauranteur and a boy on a white horse carrying the Bavarian banner.
The image of the white horse is reminiscent of just after World War II when this building was the notorious “Weiße Rössl,” the “White Horse,” a meeting place for gangsters and smugglers, whose proprietress, Zenta Hausner, was once dubbed the “Queen of the Heart of the Garmisch Underworld.”7
At the Bavarian State Archives online, you can see a photo of this building from 1947 and the Lüftlmalerei it used to have.
Today, under the current white horse’s hoof, the signature of the artist, Heinrich Bickel, who repainted the mural in 1956 at the request of Karl Wagner, the owner of the theater above the restaurant at the time, for a price of 1,000 Deutschmarks (around $4,200 in 2020 U.S. dollars).8
Bahnhofstraße 25.
Images of the coat of arms for Bavaria, the Bishop of Freising, Bavarian King Ludwig II, “FJS,” Saint Martin, and the coat of arms for Werdenfels, all painted by Karin Erhardt.9
Bahnhofstraße 30.
The post office.
Although there are no lüftlmalerei to be found there, there is a placard, entirely in German, on the wall outside of the train station at Bahnhofstraße 31.
It notes that during the last days of the war in 1945, Johann Mordstein helped Jews being sent from Dachau to Austria through this train station to escape.
It doesn’t give any specific details, just a link to an audioguide.
But on April 25, 1945, a freight train of about 1,700 Jewish prisoners was stopped here. Mordstein owned a cantina near the tracks, and on the night of April 28, 1945, freed two of the prisoners being held there and hid them.
That night, the remaining prisoners were marched to the nearby market town of Mittenwald.
The very next day, the U.S. 10th Armored Division liberated Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Bahnhofstraße 46.
At the bottom right, the artist, Sepp Guggemoos’s signature and the date, 1984.
At the corner of what is now Chamonixstraße and Bahnhofstraße used to stand the “Buntes Haus,” — the “Colorful House”. It may have gotten its name from the many lüftlmalerei ringing its second floor. The images were designed by Heinrich Bickel,10 who actually lived across the street when he and his family first moved to town in 1913.11
The complex — a mixture of a residential and commercial building, and a vacation rental house called “Logierstätte” — was first built by Hofrat Franz Ottenheimer in 1922.
In 1929, Michael Ende (1929-1995), the author of “The Neverending Story,” was born and lived here until 1932.
In 1936, this building was the press center for the Olympic Winter Games.
Afterwards it became home to the Mauxion Cafe and candy company.
While you can still find photos of the building taken by August Beckert and Franz Kölbl at the Bavarian State Archives online in 1956-1960 and in 1965-1970, the building was razed in 1992 and its “colorful” lüftlmalerei — allegorical figures representing the seasons and the elements of “Wind,” “Water,” Earth,” “Fire” — were otherwise lost forever.
- 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. 38: "Bahnhofstraße 1-4, 6 Entwürfe Prof. J. Wackerle, Ausführung K. Gries".
- Härtl, Rudolf. Heinrich Bickel - Der Freskenmaler von Werdenfels. Adam Verlag, 1990, p. 122: "A 46 Bahnhofstraße 2: Am Erker Tierkreiszeichen; vor 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. 38: "Bahnhofstraße 1-4, 6 Entwürfe Prof. J. Wackerle, Ausführung K. Gries".
- Härtl, Rudolf. Heinrich Bickel - Der Freskenmaler von Werdenfels. Adam Verlag, 1990, p. 122: "A 26 Bahnhofstraße 3: Ruhe auf der Flucht in barocker Umrahmung; Allegorische Figuren in Fensterumrahmungen; 1935."
- Härtl, Rudolf. Heinrich Bickel - Der Freskenmaler von Werdenfels. Adam Verlag, 1990, p. 122: "A 116 Bahnhofstraße 7, Cafe Kneitinger: Scheinarchitektur mit Balkon, Kaffee servierende Mädchen; Brasilianerin; Kaffeepflanze auf Tablett, Chinese Teestaude pflanzend, Afrikaner mit Kakofrucht; 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. 42: "106 Bahnhofstraße 22 Ettaler Kloster-Liqueur Magenbitter und Weinbrand".
- Kaiser, Wolfgang. "Die tote Herzenskönigin der Unterwelt". Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt, Merkur.de, 2009-04-09, https://www.merkur.de/lokales/regionen/tote-herzenskoenigin-unterwelt-162120.html. Last Accessed 11 May 2021: "Das "Weiße Rössl" im Untergeschoss der einstigen Kurlichtspiele an der Bahnhofstraße neben der Partnachbrücke in Partenkirchen gibt es heute noch und beherbergt ein griechisches Restaurant."
- Heinrich Bickel's bill for services dated October 5, 1956; source: Markt Archiv Ga-Pa, Depositum Heinrich Bickel, Rechnungen 1954-60
- 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, pp. 42-43: "103 Bayern 104 Bischof von Freising 105 Ludwig II Bahnhofstraße 25 108 FJS KE 109 Sankt Martin 110 Werdenfels Bahnhofstraße 25 K. Erhardt".
- Härtl, Rudolf. Heinrich Bickel - Der Freskenmaler von Werdenfels. Adam Verlag, 1990, p. 136: "Landschaftsstraße, „Buntes Haus”: Allegorische Gestalten, Handwerker, Scheinarchitektur, Pflanzenornamente."
- Härtl, Rudolf. Heinrich Bickel - Der Freskenmaler von Werdenfels. Adam Verlag, 1990, p. 11: "Bereits im Jahre 1913 übersiedelte die Familie des Künstlers nach Garmisch-Partenkirchen und bezog eine Mietwohnung in der „Villa Rosa”, die dem Metzgermeister Falterer gehörte und gegenüber dem heutigen „Bunten Haus” gelegen war."