Alfred Weitnauer

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Alfred Weitnauer's grave in the Evangelical Cemetery in Kempten

Alfred Weitnauer (born February 1, 1905 in Kempten (Allgäu) , † June 3, 1974 in Obergünzburg ) was a German writer, home curator , historian and folklorist. One of his achievements is the coining of the name Allgäu and the writing or editing of dozens of historical works that deal with the history of the Allgäu and its families.

Life

Alfred Weitnauer was born on February 1st, 1905 in Reichsstraße near St.-Mang-Platz in Kempten (Allgäu) , attended the elementary school and the upper secondary school in Kempten (in the building of today's secondary school on Salzstraße ) in his hometown. Even as a schoolboy he wrote newspaper articles. He studied political science, history and art history in Würzburg, Munich and Berlin, became a graduate economist and received his doctorate. oec. publ. and to the Dr. phil. - each with distinction (summa cum laude). In the meantime he worked in the business editorial department of the Berliner Lokalanzeiger; he then worked for the Rockefeller Foundation on the history of awards .

When the assets of the foundation were confiscated by the National Socialists in 1935, the mayor of Kempten, Otto Merkt , won him over for the office of home curator of the Swabian and Neuburg district, with his office in Kempten. In this position he was initially employed as a clerk and from 1937 onwards. In order to get the civil service post , he sought admission to the NSDAP and soon after became a party member. Last but not least, Alfred Weitnauer wrote a memorandum on the 50th birthday of Adolf Hitler in which he speculated about the Allgäu ancestors of the “Führer and Reich Chancellor”, which is kept in the Kempten City Archives. He held the office of home curator until his retirement in 1970.

Weitnauer's relationship with the Nazi leadership was divided: he wrote about the blood and soil ideology and used the regime for his own purposes. But he was also against Adolf Hitler's view of destroying all values, and he was not a supporter of anti-Semitism . Ultimately, this also endangered the care of the homeland, which Weitnauer put his heart and soul into. A large number of the confessions written against the Nazi regime aimed rather at a gesture of subordination for the dictatorship in order to keep the Gestapo at bay, but also to draw other advantages from it.

Because of his good knowledge of English, he was appointed honorary mayor of Kempten for a short time by the US allies from July 21, 1945 to August 3, 1945.

He was commissioned by the historian Max Spindler (1894–1986) together with the diocese historian Friedrich Zoepfl (1885–1973) and the dialect researcher Eduard Nübling (1906–1997) to draft statutes for the Swabian Research Association, which was to be founded in 1949 has been. Weitnauer later distanced himself from the research community. In 1970 he published in his accountability report for 35 years of homeland care in Swabia that the community was only an obstacle to his own projects, as it had already included the publication of Swabian historical sources that he planned to publish in its program.

In 1937 he married Marie-Anne Schnell-Schröder from Borkum; the marriage produced three daughters.

Alfred Weitnauer died on June 3, 1974 in Obergünzburg in the Allgäu. He shares his grave with his wife in the Evangelical Cemetery in Kempten .

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Weitnauer's wide-ranging areas of interest and work included: regional studies, archive maintenance, family research, dialect, local history, folklore, traditional costume renewal, monument preservation, museum preservation and nature conservation. His estate is kept in the Kempten City Archives; The most important of these is the so-called Weitnauer Collection, which includes thousands of documentary photos on all of the above-mentioned subject areas.

As home nurse he formed this office - from June 1935 he was the second full-time district nurse after Bartholomäus Eberl . It was a matter close to the heart of Weitnauer to awaken their own Swabian and Allgäu consciousness again in Bavarian Swabia, to "make the Swabians Swabian again" and to take away their feelings of inferiority towards the formative old Bavarians. This also led to his commitment to the reintroduction of a Swabian costume.

In 1935 Weitnauer founded the Verlag für Heimatpflege , where he published around eighty books with a total print run of several hundred thousand copies. He also published numerous z. Partly popular scientific, humorous and also time-critical essays and articles in which his great literary talent was shown.

Although he had a brilliant scientific education and tirelessly opened up and published sources throughout his life, there are also a number of stories in his publications whose historically verifiable core threatens to disappear under literary embellishments. His theories on the history of Kempten settlement, which were largely constructed without any sources, are the example that showed the most lasting effects.

Weitnauer - who presented himself as a proud Protestant town citizen - claimed that the first monastery in Kempten stood on St.-Mang-Platz and was only moved to the Illerhütterasse in the area of ​​the residence centuries later . Other parts of this theory were a Franconian royal court at the location of the town hall and an Alemannic village in the area of Bäckerstrasse . By placing this thesis in the first volume of a scientific journal in 1953, in 1949 in the first resident registration book of Kempen after the Second World War and in 1950 in a small city guide, hundreds of thousands of which were distributed free of charge on the occasion of a Sparkasse anniversary, this freely invented version became indelible Common property. In the meantime, Weitnauer's theses on settlement history have been completely refuted by the extensive archaeological excavations in Kempten (since 1982), by geological investigations and historical research, but this does not prevent them from reappearing in more recent publications. Even his book from 1961 on the Celtic heritage in Bavaria lacks scientifically sound evidence for his - as always gifted and therefore so convincing - theories.

Weitnauer's main work is the five-volume Chronik des Allgäu (3 text volumes, an illustrated volume and a register volume), for which he has compiled data through extensive research. The text volumes were illustrated by the well-known graphic artist Heinz Schubert (1912–2001) from Kempten .

During the Second World War, his compilations of Allgäu jokes, which he published as a series under the title Lachendes Allgäu , were included in the front packages as moral encouragement. This enabled him to get paper allotments and printing quotas almost until the end of the war, which he also used to publish other works, e. B. his source compilations in the series Allgäuer Heimatbücher , used.

During the Nazi era, Weitnauer was intensively involved in documenting the buildings and art monuments of the Allgäu as a home keeper. In practice, this led to the creation of secret depots for works of art that were brought to the Allgäu from museums and churches throughout Germany and thus survived the war and the occupation unscathed. This is how the Allgäu came to be known as the “air raid shelter of German art”. Weitnauer also had some successes in rescuing historically significant bells before they were melted down, which was quite risky.

Awards

Weitnauer was awarded the honorary citizenship of his hometown (1973), the Bavarian Poetentaler (1961), the Bavarian Order of Merit (1959) and the Federal Cross of Merit.

Works (selection)

  • Venetian trade of the Fuggers (first dissertation, 1929)
  • Very nice ballads, around 1930, illustrated by Sepp Zwerch
  • The imperial city of Kempten war burdens and their application during the Thirty Years War (second dissertation, 1931)
  • The fief book of the Princely Kempten Monastery from 1451, Oechelhäuser, Kempten, 1938
  • The population of Kempten Abbey from 1640, Oechelhäuser, Kempten, 1939
  • The civil register of the imperial city of Kempten, Oechelhäuser, Kempten, 1940
  • The farmers of the Kempten Abbey 1525/26, Schwabenverlag, Ellwangen, 1949
  • Kempten. Attractions u. Interesting facts from the history, art and economy of the Allgäu capital, Volkswirtschaftlicher Verlag Fehr, Kempten, 1949
  • The Allgäu breed, self-published in Kempten 1952, cover photo by Heinz Schubert (later at least 3 more cover variations)
  • Allgäuer sagas, co-author with Hermann Endrös, Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten (2nd edition 1954)
  • Allgäuer Chronik, an illustrated book and three text books, two editions
  • Celtic heritage in Swabia and Baiern, Kempten 1961
  • Old Allgäu families, Verl. Für Heimatpflege, Kempten, 1963
  • Allgäu-Urlaub, Verl. Für Heimatpflege, Kempten, 1966
  • Allgäuer Chronik, 5 volumes, 1969–1972
  • Swabians are people too, numerous requirements
  • With us in the Allgäu, numerous editions
  • Laughing Allgäu, numerous editions
  • Allgäu sayings, numerous editions
  • Beautiful Allgäu from A - Z, numerous editions
  • Three Kings in Swabia, Swabian play, Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag Kempten, ISBN 3-88006-019-3
  • Really antique, Swabian play, Verlag für Heimatpflege Kempten (1969)
  • Don't sing, bird! Swabian play, Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag Kempten, ISBN 3-88006-009-6

literature

  • Alfred Weitnauer: Final balance. An accountability report for 35 years of homeland care in Swabia. Verlag für Heimatpflege, Kempten (Allgäu) ao 1970.
  • Hilmar Sturm: Alfred Weitnauer, a picture of his 100th birthday. In: Heimat Allgäu. Journal for homeland care. 19th year, No. 4, 2004, ISSN  0948-6593 , pp. 8-15.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martina Steber: Ethnische Gewissheiten, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, p. 387.
  2. ↑ Hilmar Sturm: Alfred Weitnauer, a life picture for his 100th birthday. In: Heimat Allgäu. Journal for homeland care. 19th year, No. 4, 2004, ISSN  0948-6593 , pp. 8-15. ( online )
  3. ^ Eduard Nübling: 30 years of the Swabian Research Association at the Commission for Bavarian State History. Address from 1979 . In: Pankraz Fried (Hrsg.): 50 Years of the Swabian Research Association (=  studies on the history of Bavarian Swabia 26). Schwäbische Forschungsgemeinschaft, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 978-3-922518-26-6 , p. 147 ff .; here: p. 150.
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Zorn : "Founding Years" - A look back at 1945-1955 . In: Pankraz Fried (Ed.): 50 Years of the Schwäbische Forschungsgemeinschaft (=  Studies on the History of Bavarian Swabia 26), Schwäbische Forschungsgemeinschaft, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-922518-26-5 , pp. 71 ff .; here: p. 80.
  5. ^ Alfred Weitnauer: final balance. An accountability report for 35 years of homeland care in Swabia . Verlag für Heimatpflege, Kempten (Allgäu) u. a., 1970.
  6. ↑ Hans-Peter Uerpmann , Dorothee Ade-Rademacher, Gerhard Weber, Beate Grentzenberg, Josef Lorch , Peter Zwerch, Wolfgang Haberl: The town hall of Kempten in the course of history . A documentation. Ed .: Lord Mayor of the City of Kempten Josef Höß . Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten 1987, ISBN 3-88006-128-9 , p. 125 f .
  7. ↑ a b Birgit Kata, Gerhard Weber: Archaeological findings in the area of ​​the Kempten residence. In: Birgit Kata u. a. (Ed.): “More than 1000 years…” The Kempten Abbey between founding and closing from 752 to 1802 (= Allgäu research on archeology and history . No. 1). Likias Verlag, Friedberg 2006, ISBN 3-9807628-6-6 , pp. 41-76, here pp. 58 f.
  8. ↑ Kempten - Sights and interesting facts from the history, art and economy of the Allgäu capital. (various editions and designs)
  9. ^ Alfred Weitnauer: History of the Stadt- und Kreissparkasse Kempten - plus things worth seeing and interesting facts from the history, art and economy of the Allgäu capital and the 30 communities of the Kempten district. Schwabenverlag, Kempten 1950.
personal data
SURNAME Weitnauer, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, historian and folklorist
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Kempten (Allgäu)
DATE OF DEATH 3rd June 1974
Place of death Obergünzburg