Hindenburgstraße

Hindenburgstraße 2, “Haus Kratzmair,” named for Michael Kratzmair, who still has an interior design business at this location.

On an oriel window, a wrap-around lüftlmalerei of Patrona Bavariae, and the Archangel Michael slaying a dragon by Eberhard Hülsmann, painted in 1967.

The iconography of Archangel Michael slaying a dragon comes from a specific line from the Bible, in the Book of Revelation:

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

Around the corner, another image of Archangel Michael, this time with a flaming sword casting “the Dragon” Satan out of Heaven, painted by Gerhard Ester in 1981.

Hindenburgstraße 6.

According to the website of the Gästehaus Kleisl, the Kleisl family has had a room for rent in this building since 1928.

On the wall outside, a lüftlmalerei painted by Karin Rudolf in 2011 of family member Josef “Sepp” Kleisl (1929-2008),1 a ski jumper who competed in the Winter Olympics in Oslo in 1952 and Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1956.

Behind the ski jumper, an image of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Große Olympiaschanze, or the “Great Olympic Hill,” and its signature ski jumps as they look today.  The Olympic Hill was constructed in 1934 for the 1936 Winter Olympics, and now is one of the venues for the Four Hills ski jumping competition every New Year’s.

Photo of Sepp Kleisl from Postkartensammlung Marktarchiv Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Nr. 2920.

At the State Archives of Baden-Württemberg online, you can see a photo of Sepp Kleisl, himself, mid-flight.  

From a photo of the International Feldberg Ski Jump by Willy Pragher (1954)

And at the Bavarian State Archives online, you can see a photo of a ski jumper with his arms outstretched like the jumper in this lüftlmalerei.

Image of an unknown ski jumper in Garmisch-Partenkirchen from a photo by August Beckert (1931)

Hindenburgstraße 12.

Sgraffiti.

Hindenburgstraße 13.

Saint Christopher by August Maninger.

Window surrounds at Hindenburgstraße 15 by Sepp Guggemoos, 1990.

At Hindenburgstraße 21, a lüftlmalerei of Mary holding an infant Jesus surrounded by putti holding symbols of the Saint — a sacred heart and a white lily — painted by Stephan Pfeffer in 2017.

This image here is inspired by the painting Maria Hilf (Mary of Succor) by Lucas Cranach the Elder from around 1530, which is displayed above the main altar in the Saint James Cathedral in Innsbruck, and Pfeffer’s own work a few years earlier at Römerstraße 1.

Maria Hilf by Lucas Cranach the Elder (circa 1530); photo by Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
Lüftlmalerei at Römerstraße 1 by Stephan Pfeffer (2011)
Lüftlmalerei at Hindenburgstraße 21 by Stephan Pfeffer (2017)

Hindenburgstraße 24.

Patrona Bavariae with a banner behind with the Bavarian flag painted by Heinrich Bickel in 1932,2 restored by Michel Nardiello in 2018.3

At Hindenburgstraße 25, two separate lüftlmalerei by Gerhard Ester in 1995.

On the corner, a series of cartouches depicting the arts — musical instruments, the masks of drama and comedy, a painter, and a wood carver.

Around the corner, Saint George slaying a dragon.

Hindenburgstraße 30.

Saint Christopher by Gerhard Ester, 1967.

Sundial and Saint Florian by Gerhard Ester, 1969.

Behind the image of the patron saint of pilgrims, a scallop shell.

The shell, notably the cockleshell, or the scallop shell, is generally used in Christian art to signify pilgrimage.  The scallop shell is used specifically as an attribute of Saint James the Great.  It is generally supposed to allude to the countless pilgrimages that were made to his celebrated shrine at Compostella in Spain.  Saint Roch is customarily painted in the dress of a pilgrim with a cockleshell in his hat.

Although the walls outside Hindenburgstraße 43 are blank now, in this picture from the Bavarian State Archives, taken in 1968 by Franz Kölbl, you can see that there used to be three coat-of-arms in the space between the second and third floor windows.  And, according to Heinrich Bickel – The Fresco Painter from Werdenfels, published in 1990, there also used to be lüftlmalerei of Saint George slaying a dragon by Heinrich Bickel, painted here some time after 1945.4

Photograph by Franz Kölbl (1968)
Photograph by Franz Kölbl (1968)

Hindenburgstraße 45.

Lüftlmalerei originally painted in 1961 by Isidor Winterholler.

  1. Kleisl, Anton. "AW: Frage zum Wandbild an der Außenwand Ihres Gebäudes in Garmisch-Partenkirchen". Message to the author. 24 March 2020, E-mail: "die Lüftlmalerei wurde auf meinen Wunsch 2011 von Karin Rudolf gemalt. Sie zeigt meinen Großvater beim Skispringen. Er war Skispringer und ist 2 olympische Winterspiele mitgesprungen (Cortina und Oslo). Die Abbildung zeigt ihn vor der alten Schanze mit dem alten Turm."
  2. Härtl, Rudolf.  Heinrich Bickel - Der Freskenmaler von Werdenfels. Adam Verlag, 1990, p. 123: "A 15 Hindenburgstraße 24, Haus Stegmeier: Maria als Patrona Bavaria; 1932."
  3. 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. 124: "308 Hindenburgstraße 24 Himmelskönigin omaggra en Pickel 2018 nardiello.net".
  4. Härtl, Rudolf.  Heinrich Bickel - Der Freskenmaler von Werdenfels. Adam Verlag, 1990, p. 123: "A 138 Hindenburgstraße 43, ehem. AOK: Hl. Georg als Drachentöter, Barmherz. Samariter; nach 1945."