Ernst Aichner

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Ernst Aichner (born January 11, 1943 in Obergünzburg ) is a German military historian . From 1979 to 2010 he headed the Bavarian Army Museum .

Life

Origin and studies

Aichner was born in 1943 as the son of a lawyer in the Allgäu . He first attended elementary school in his hometown of Obergünzburg and in 1963 passed his Abitur at the Oberrealschule Kempten . He then studied German, history and geography for a higher teaching post as well as Bavarian history, modern history and historical auxiliary sciences at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In 1974 he was in Hans Rall at the Faculty with a thesis The extension and starting conveyance of the Bavarian state fortress Ingolstadt (1848-1918) Dr. phil. PhD.

job

In 1972 Aichner came to the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt, where he became its director in 1979.

In 1986 Aichner acquired a bundle of 6,000 Nazi propaganda works of art for the museum , which had been seized by the United States at the end of the Second World War . The United States made it a condition of the sale that these holdings be reprocessed as museums. Aichner sent some of the war paintings to the German Historical Museum in Berlin and the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden. However, Aichner wanted to wait until the planned department for the Second World War had been set up before processing the objects that remained in Ingolstadt.

In the same year, Aichner also set up a starfighter in the museum courtyard, although other military historians noted that it was difficult to identify any connection between the exhibit and the history of the Bavarian army that was established in 1682 and disbanded in 1918/19 .

In connection with the Bavarian State Garden Show in Ingolstadt in 1992, Aichner developed ambitious expansion plans for his museum. In addition to the previous, not yet fully used main building in the New Palace, all historical military buildings on the southern bank of the Danube in Ingolstadt's old town were to be used for an expansion. The Army Museum would have become the third largest military history museum in Europe. Ingolstadt lawyers, doctors, teachers and artists feared for Ingolstadt's reputation as a city of culture and founded the initiative “Culture instead of cannons” with the local SPD member of the state parliament, Manfred Schuhmann , while the Ingolstadt car manufacturer Audi was also concerned about the image of its headquarters.

The first extension to be opened was the permanent exhibition on the First World War in the Reduit Tilly in May 1992, but the inauguration was repeatedly delayed.

When, in March 1993, a tin soldier with SS runes was offered for sale at the souvenir stand of the museum's cash desk and therefore police investigations were started in the museum into the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations , Aichner is said to have ordered the responsible employee to cover up the matter and denied it Police , the Danube Courier and his Minister of Education, Hans Zehetmair, the facts. Zehetmair explained to a state parliament request from the Green parliamentary group chairman Manfred Fleischer that he was waiting for the outcome of the investigation, but regardless of the fact that the exhibition of objects that had nothing to do with the history of the Bavarian Army was viewed as "overzealous", which was not in his mind. Schuhmann asked Zehetmair Aichner to be replaced. But Aichner received backing from the ranks of the Friends of the Army Museum and the local CSU : A few days before his appointment as Secretary of State, Hermann Regensburger announced on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Ingolstadt reservist comradeship in the Army Museum that he, Lord Mayor Peter Schnell and the (Christian Social) City council majority are proud of Aichner's committed work and “overzealousness” for him is “a compliment and not a blame”. Aichner's employee was sentenced to a fine for the matter. The proceedings against Aichner were dropped and he remained in office.

The Bavarian Police Museum, housed under the organizational umbrella of the Army Museum, was supposed to have been inaugurated for years, but here too the inauguration was postponed several times and could only take place after Aichner retired.

But Aichner did not give up his expansion plans until the end: His last major official act before his retirement was the opening of an exhibition on the history of the German mountain troops from 1915 to the present, at which the "German Mountain Troops" foundation was founded. The group of comrades of the mountain troops , which is controversial because of its relationship to war crimes of the German armed forces, has brought all its exhibits and all documents into the foundation as a basis.

Even after his retirement, Aichner remained true to his topic, the history of the fortress construction in Ingolstadt, and is involved as chairman of the Friends of the Bavarian Fortress Ingolstadt eV

Private

Aichner is married, a Catholic and has an adult stepson.

Fonts (selection)

  • with Peter Jaeckel , Jürgen Kraus , Jürgen Schalkhaußer: Bavarian Army Museum, Ingolstadt (= Museum . 1981, April). Westermann, Braunschweig 1981.
  • with Jürgen Kraus (arrangement): Special exhibition pioneers, engineering troops in four centuries (= publications of the Bavarian Army Museum . Vol. 2). Verlag Donau-Kurier, Ingolstadt 1981, ISBN 3-920253-15-9 .
  • (Ed.): Special exhibition on the occasion of the establishment of the standing army in Bavaria 300 years ago, Bavarian military painters from Beich to Thöny (= publications of the Bavarian Army Museum . Vol. 5). Verlag Donau-Kurier, Ingolstadt 1982, ISBN 3-920253-17-5 .
  • (Ed.): Special exhibition of German mountain troops from World War I to the present (= publications of the Bavarian Army Museum . Vol. 6). Bavarian Army Museum, Ingolstadt 1983.
  • with Gerd Treffen, Siegfried Hofmann: Historisches Ingolstadt . Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, Bamberg 1988, ISBN 3-87052-386-7 .
  • (Ed.): Guide through the Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt . 2 volumes, Creative-Verlag, Ingolstadt 1998.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dolce Vita for the final victory . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 2001, p. 194 ff . ( online ).
  2. ↑ a b Abendzeitung from September 22, 1993, p. 19
  3. ↑ I want a Leo too . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1992, pp. 95 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Donaukurier of September 22, 1993, p. 19
  5. ↑ Bernd Siegler: When night falls in the Army Museum . In: taz , November 25, 1993, p. 11
  6. ↑ Donaukurier of June 8, 1993, p. 15
  7. ↑ Donaukurier of June 14, 1993, p. 9
  8. ^ Donaukurier from January 19, 2010
  9. ^ Donaukurier of January 18, 2010
  10. ↑ "Open Air Museum of Fortress Architecture" Augsburger Allgemeine from May 21, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Aichner, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Obergünzburg