Tag Archives: Hermann Radzig-Radzyk

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Schloss Neuburg am Inn – on the track of two paintings by Hermann Radzyk

In September 2024, I visited Schloss Neuburg am Inn south of Passau. My grandfather Hermann Radzyk painted the castle twice about a hundred years ago.

The first picture has been signed as Hermann Radzig-Radzyk, and it is undated. The painting is in my home.

The second painting, I found in the Internet. It is signed and undated, and has been sold by the Galerie Wildner at Passau. 

Hermann Radzyk made these two paintings, when, in July 1925, he stayed in the castle; it was an artists’ hostel then.  

For the second painting, the easel stood north-east of the castle. I could reproduce the view; there are just more trees and bushes here today. 

For the first painting the easel stood south of the castle near the road. Too much forest here to reproduce the view. On my photo, I stand in the garden above the road. Only here, I could see the defensive tower. Perhaps the easel stood, where the bush below me has grown in the meantime.  

Now, let me tell you about my investigations one by one: When I started, I did not know, what castle he had painted. Once I had identified the castle, I looked for the place, where he had put down his easel and for the date, when he has painted it. I will start telling you from the end.

 

Investigating “when”: No date on the painting – why do I know, the painting is from 1925?

My first guess was that Hermann Radzyk had painted the castle in 1924. In the year 1967, my mother (Hermann’s daughter Marion) took me on a tour through upper Swabia and Bavaria. In her diary she wrote, she was about eight years old, when she stayed at the castle with her parents. While her father painted, she went for excursions with her mother, she added.  My mother was born in the year 1916. In 1924, she was eight years old. Hence “painted in 1924” was my first guess. 

By one year wrong. When I stayed at Neuburg, I found the guest book of the castle, and the guest book told me, the paintings are from 1925.

A friendly man parking his car next to mine gave me the hint: Ask the former Kreisheimatpfleger (the former responsible for fostering regional values). I called and met him in the evening; he brought along the guest book, where I found Hermann Radzyk’s entry not for 1924, but for 1925.

It is the fourth entry on this page: “Hermann Radzyk with wife and daughter, Charlottenburg, Waitzstrasse 2, July 25”.

At the same time, the prime minister of Bavaria, Dr. Heinrich Held, member of the Bavarian Socialist Party, stayed in the castle. Many guests were from Berlin. It was a mixture of politicians and artists. I imagine the discussions in the cosy lounge of the hostel were vivid.

 

Source: Photo of the castle museum “Landkreisgalerie”.

Surely, Hermann Radzyk painted the castle, when he stayed here in the year 1925. In July 1925, to be more precise. His daughter (my mother) was then 9 years old. 

Today the castle offers guest rooms in the former Mälzerei (malting plant). I rented a room here at the same castle, where my grandparents and my mother stayed almost a hundred years ago.

Only double rooms are available at the Mälzerei. I felt like a damsel – well perhaps more like the grandmother of a damsel.

The rooms of the hostel for artists, where my grandparents stayed, were located in the centre of the castle. Today, the former hostel has become the castle museum “Landkreisgalerie”. Access to the museum is via the gallery.

I imagine my grandparents with their daughter walking around the castle to look for a nice view for the paintings.

 

Investigating the location of the second painting that we can still “see” today

Let us recapitulate the second painting: It shows the north-east side of the castle with the east tower, the defensive tower behind it, and the main buildings with the chapel.

The castle Neuburg stands on a rock above the river Inn. On the northern side, there is a canyon. I climbed up the counter slope and looked at the castle with its entry tower (right), the east tower and, immediately behind it, the defensive tower (called Bergfried or Burgfried in German). 

From this view, Hermann Radzyk has extracted the left part with the east tower, the defensive tower closely behind it, and what looks like an oriel is the chapel.

Today, the meadow in front of the castle has mostly disappeared. The son of Lithuanian refugees, who was born in the castle, told me that, in earlier times, when the meadow still existed, it was called “Ledererwiese”, because the tanner spread his leather here to dry it in the sun. No tanner lives in the village under the castle any more, no one needs the meadow now, and the trees and bushes could grow.   

On the counter slope, I stand on this small “platform”, the easel must have been behind the bush – but there was no bush here at that time. 

I returned in the morning. The light has changed, and it is closer to the atmosphere created by Hermann Radzyk, where the morning sun illuminates the east wall of the castle above the river Inn. 

Let us look at the east wall of the castle from the other side of the river  Inn, from Wernstein in Austria. We can see the centre castle buildings.  This is, where the artists stayed. From the windows and the terrace, they had a wonderful view of the river Inn and the hills of Austria. Now, the museum is to the right of the chapel and the conference rooms are to the left the chapel.

A side remark: My mother was a geologist. In her travel diary of 1967, she described that the river Inn cuts through the rocks of the Bavarian Forest (Bayerischer Wald) and enters the Bohemian Mass (Böhmische Masse), just before joining the Danube at Passau. The canyon is called “Vornbacher Enge”.

 

Investigating the location of the first painting: Trees hide the view today

Let us recall the view from the south, as captured by my grand-father in the “first” painting.

My mother wrote in her travel diary from 1967 that she immediately recognized the castle, when she drove our car from the south (from Neuhaus am Inn) to Neuburg. She was impressed, how well her father had captured the view and how well he conveyed the impression of the castle. It was engraved in her memory even more than forty years later. We went for a short walk through the castle, and she noticed, it was still a hostel then.

In the year 1957, Karlheinz Biederbick, painted a similar view; his easel was a little lower and more to the right than the easel of my grandfather. Biederbick’s easel stood next to the bus station on the side of the road coming from Neuhaus. This must have been the place, where my mother, 10 years later, recognized the castle, when she drove from Neuhaus to Neuburg in 1967.

I received the photo of Biederbick’s painting from the son of German refugees from Lithuania that were placed in the castle after 1945. He was born in the castle and grew up here. It was still a hostel for artists then, and he grew up with the artists, among them Biederbick. He knew exactly, where the easel was, because as a boy he sat next to the artist.

BUT, when I now, in 2024, drove my car from Neuhaus to Neuburg, I could not see the castle. It was behind trees. I later took this photo from about the place, where Biederbick had put down his easel, next to the bus station. There are some gaps between the trees, where it is possible to get an idea of the defensive tower behind the trees. 

Only from the garden of Schärdingerstrasse 28 above the road and above the bus station, I could see the defensive tower. However, the easel of my grandfather  stood lower and more to the right. Perhaps where the  bush is now. My grandfather and Biederbick could no longer make their paintings today.

The owner of the house 28 was friendly and let me enter his garden.

I met many hospitable citizens at the small village Neuburg grouped around its castle above the Inn. With the son of the refugees (about my age), I spent a warm summer evening in his garden, just under the castle. He lives in a beautifully restored house full of treasures telling stories about the castle and the area around it as well as about his life as a showman with a doctorate in mathematics. It is a welcoming place for a vacation and a great starting point to explore the area at the border between Bavaria and Austria.

 

Preliminary investigations to identify the castle that Hermann Radzyk had painted 

When three years ago, I started the research about my grandfather Hermann Radzyk, I had no idea, which castle he had painted. 

I first suspected, the castle was at Silesia. Later I found the castle called Schloss Neuburg an der Kammel in Swabia, but it had only one tower. Burg Neuberg in Austria looked also similar, but the defensive tower had three and not two windows. I knew in the meantime that Hermann Radzyk painted TWO windows, when there WERE TWO windows. Impossible that Burg Neuberg was his castle.

Finally, I thought that perhaps it is not a coincidence that the gallery Windler at Passau has this painting on their website. I looked for castles around Passau, and found Schloss Neuburg am Inn.

This is almost precisely the view of the Wildner painting. The defensive tower in the background has two windows, like on the painting of my grandfather. 

I found a different photo of Schloss Neuburg. The “broken” wall looks very similar to the painting that is owned by me.

Source: Landkreis.de

There is just one mismatch: The defensive tower in the middle does not carry a lantern. Perhaps, the lantern has been removed later?

I looked for old postcards. And I found the lantern on the defensive tower. 

Source: akpool.de

Now, I was sure that Hermann Radzyk had painted Schloss Neuburg am Inn near Passau.

When, in September 2024, I spent the warm summer evening with the son of the Lithuanian-German refugee, he told me, that the lantern contained a bell and that it was only removed in the 1980’s. This is why, the painting of Biederbick from 1957 still shows the lantern. 

Only in summer 2024, I discovered my mother’s diary about our tour in 1967. Only then I understood that I had already been at Schloss Neuburg in 1967, when I was 16 years old, almost sixty years ago. But at that time, I was not aware of the castle painting (it did not hang in my parental home), and I forgot our short visit at the castle. The Baroque city of Schärding and Passau with the different colours of the Danube and the Inn stayed in my mind, but not the castle.

After all my investigations, I added Neuburg to my travel agenda… and arrived here in September 2024 staying overnight at the same castle as my grandparents.

 

Orientation – where are we?

Schloss Neuburg am Inn is in Germany, above the river Inn. The Inn marks the border between Germany and Austria. Wernstein is in Austria and so is Schärding. Neuhaus, Neuburg and Passau are in Germany. 

The easel of the first painting was located near the road coming from Neuhaus (easel “south”). The easel for the second painting was on the counter slope across the canyon north of Schloss Neuburg (easel “north”).

At the entry gate, I found this overview of the castle. 

 

Let us stroll around the castle Schloss Neuburg

Immediately near the castle entry is the paradise garden.

From the fountain in the paradise garden, I am looking towards the entry gate. The Mälzerei is located to the left side of the gate tower.

Entering the gate tower, we reach a bridge that leads to the main tower, the Bergfried in German. It was decorated with the small lantern until the 1980’s.

I visit the museum; it is where the guest rooms of the hostel were before. The cashier takes me to the small chapel behind the museum.

Continuing from the chapel, I reach the painted rooms that now can be rented for events or conferences.  

From here, the views of the Inn and Wernstein in Austria are superb.

Strolling around the castle, I find this fairy tale lake. The artists’ path starts here leading down to the river Inn. 

The Habsburgian Emperor Leopold I retreated to this castle in 1676, when the Turks became a danger for Vienna (they sieged Vienna then in 1683). At Neuburg, he married his third wife, the Palatine princess Eleonore. It was safer here than at Vienna.

The wooden round panel decorated my room at the guest house Mälzerei, and the Lithuanian-German had another copy of this panel in his house. He made me aware of emperor Leopold.

 

Good-bye Neuburg

Good-bye Neuburg, I have spent two wonderful days here, I have solved another piece of my puzzle: I found out when and where my grandfather has made the two castle paintings. I have met many friendly people that helped me solve my puzzle here. And I have discovered another place worth visiting, the castle Neuburg am Inn and its surroundings at the border between Bavaria and Austria, with Wernstein, where Alfred Kubin lived and with Schärding that prepared the baroque city centre for the food festival “Schlemmerfest”.

 

 

The next piece of my puzzle is waiting for me at Wasserburg am Inn, where my grandfather painted six years later, in the year 1931. 

 

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Strolling through Rothenburg, where Hermann Radzyk painted the Plönlein

Rothenburg’s Plönlein, painted by Hermann Radzyk in 1942, looks different now – why?

In 1942, my grandfather painted the Plönlein of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It is the small half-timbered house with the curved beams. 

Look at my photo of the Plönlein. The architecture is different, the beams have been straightened. 

What has happened? Has the Plönlein been destroyed in World War II?

In World War II, 40% of the city of Rothenburg were destroyed. On Holy Saturday, 31st of March 1945, an American squadron set out to release their bombs near Rothenburg, but failed, because their target was in the fog. Fully loaded they were not able to land, and, on the way back, they released their bombs above Rothenburg. Bravely, the citizens of Rothenburg reconstructed their city in the medieval style (see “Rothenburg-unterm-hakenkreuz”).

I always suspected, also the Plönlein had been destroyed by the bomb attacks, but no, it was renovated after the war. I learnt that in October 2024, when I had breakfast in the Hotel Uhl next to the Plönlein. The owner’s father said that the Plönlein had not been affected by the bombs, though the house right across the street was damaged. The Plönlein was renovated in the 1950’s or 60’s, because the old beams were rotten. And now, the beams of the Plönlein are no longer curved, but straight. The tourists continue to like it.

 

The Plönlein is the tourists’ favourite, and Plönlein souvenirs are in high demand

The Plönlein is THE attraction of Rothenburg. The Schmiedgasse is crowded with tourists.  What would my grandfather say?

This Japanese couple dressed as Bavarians in dirndl and leather shorts (called “Krachlederne”) is getting ready to make a selfie in front of the Plönlein. They enjoy it, they laugh, and I smile with them. 

Next to the Plönlein, the small restaurant Peking caters for Chinese tourists advertising their meals in Chinese.

Souvenirs of the Plönlein are in high demand. They appear in the souvenir shops on curtains, …

… beer tankards, … 

… ceramic tiles and plates, …. 

… bags, T-shirts, key rings, fridge magnets, snow globes, framed photos or paintings … they are sold as small model houses…  no limits to the phantasy and mostly at the brink of kitsch.

 

The market square: The “twin townhall” and medieval houses

The centre of the city is the market square with the “twin townhall”. The white part with the tower is Gothic (built 1200-1400), the ochre part is Renaissance (16th century, constructed after the great city fire of 1501). 

The Renaissance staircase disappears behind the gallery that has been added in the late 17th century.

I climbed the Gothic white townhall tower. First I walked up comfortably in the Renaissance staircase. Next, in the old tower, the stairs became steeper and steeeper, and on top, I had to do almost rock climbing to lift myself from the last step on to the balcony platform. I took no photo, I stood in the mist, it was a rainy afternoon.

Across the townhall, these beautiful half-timbered houses line the market square; in the house labelled “Marien-Apotheke”, emperor Maximilian I was a prominent guest in 1513.  

The other building is called Meat- and Dance-House. The Künstlerbund, founded in 1923, makes exhibitions here and, according to their website, they are open every day after 13.00. I was curious, but the door was closed. I could not find out, why. The Künstlerbund seems to be a secret association. 

In front of these two half-timbered buildings, a fountain had been installed in 1446. In 1608, it had been replaced by the Renaissance fountain that we see today. Saint George fights the dragon.

The market square is lined with medieval houses, carefully rebuilt after the bomb attack of 1945. The building with the historical clocks is the Ratstrinkstube (something like an inn reserved for the councilmen). Field marshall Jean Tilly and old mayor Georg Nusch appear every full hour in the windows besides the clock. They illustrate, how, in the 30 years’ war,  the old mayor saved the city by drinking a tankard of 3.25l of Franconian wine in one go.

Right below and behind me is the Renaissance Baumeisterhaus, the house of the main mason of Rothenburg. He built his house with the sculptures in 1596. 

Impressive medieval marketing.

Inside I find a restaurant in a court,  a wonderful atmosphere. However, the restaurant is good for people that like a lot of meat with dumplings, but hate vegetables. I found better restaurants at Rothenburg, such as the Butz or the Glocke.

 

The Saint James church with the Heiligkreuz altar of Riemenschneider 

The Gothic St. James church, built between 1311 and 1484, became a Lutheran church, when Rothenburg joined the reformation in 1544.

A modern friendly Saint James with a smile on his lips invites the pilgrims to enter the church (sculptor: Steinacker, 2002; see Gussmann).

There are also some tourists who follow his invitation – like me. Inside the Gothic vaults seem to rise up to heaven.

In 1499 to 1505, Til Riemenschneider created the Heilig-Blut-Altar (Holy-Blood-Altar) for the west choir that crosses the Klingengasse. Riemenschneider was asked to build the altar for the relic of the Holy Blood; he placed the relic in the gilded cross of 1270; it is held by two angels. Below and in the centre, there are the Last Supper, the Garden Gethsemane and Jesus entering Jerusalem. The altar with its relic became an important pilgrimage site. It is unique that a protestant church contains a relic for the Catholics, it is a sign of reconciliation.

In the scene of the Last Super, Judas is in the centre, not Jesus. Jesus passes Judas the bread. It is the moment, where Jesus says: “One of you shall betray me”. I see the shock in the faces of the disciples. For instance, to the right, two of them seem to be debating: “No, it will not be me, I will not betray Jesus…”. However, the pastor Oliver Gussmann says that the disciples seem to take no interest in the scene with Judas and Jesus (https://youtu.be/An5XAw1fr78). He would perhaps say, the two debating just continue being focused on their intense debate. The unusual and vivid setting of the Last Supper is fascinating, the expressive faces of the disciples call our imagination and evoke our own interpretation. Riemenschneider had carved the figures out of limewood.

 –

In the eastern choir, there is another gem: Friedrich Herlin was the construction manager of the “Twelve Apostles’ Altar” (Zwölfbotenaltar, 1466). It has its name from the Predella, where Jesus appears with the twelve apostles. 

In the middle, we see the crucifixion scene with Maria, James and Elisabeth von Thüringen to the left and the disciple John, a bishop (perhaps Leonhard) and Antonius with his bell to the right (Rothenburg brochure, p. 22 and video of Gussmann). 

Herlin himself made the paintings on the side wings and the Predella. Some of Herlin’s figures wear glasses. When Herlin became older, he had problems to see the details; wearing glasses he could read and paint again (Gussmann). Herlin was so impressed that he gave glasses to some of the figures on the altar, for instance to the circumciser in the Circumcision scene.

Also Petrus in the Predella wears glasses; he is an elderly man and needs them for reading. Never before have I seen people wth glasses on a medieval altar.

The backside of the altar hides another amazing painting: The dead body of James is carried into Rothenburg ob der Tauber; on the market place of 1466 both parts of the “twin” townhall were still of Gothic style; this happened before the great fire of 1501.

Of course, St. James entered Santiago de Compostella, but Herlin had never been there. The city he could paint best was Rothenburg.

The altar of the Coronation of the Virgin is attributed to the Riemenschneider school.  

The Ludwig-von-Toulouse altar is from 1490; it is an early work of Til Riemenschneider. Louis de Toulouse was the bishop of Toulouse around 1300.

The windows in the main choir (from the late 14th) give a solemn atmosphere to the church. Gussmann explains them beautifully in his video. They were saved from the bomb attacks of 31st of March 1945, because the citizens had taken them off the church and had transferred them to a basement that withstood the bombs. Also the other treasures of this church survived the bombing there. 

I say good-bye to Christoph carrying Jesus across the river… 

… and to St. James (now in Gothic style), …

… and I continue strolling through the city.

 

Some impressions from the streets with its medieval atmosphere

Descent is only allowed to carts carrying persons (Personenfuhrwerk). Pedestrians may also be allowed. 

This oriel is called “Feuerleinserker” (oriel of the little fire), the house is from around 1600.

The Herrngasse was the noble address, where the patricians of the city once lived. Now it is lined with hotels, restaurants and shops, amongst them the hotel Gothic House.

The neighbour, the Hornburg-Haus, is half-timbered. Some beams are from the year 1477. The house is in search of new shop tenants.

Around the corner, in the Klosterstüble, I had a delicious Bavarian-Franconian dinner with dumplings. 

The Landsknechtstübchen is beautifully adorned with geraniums (A “Landsknecht” is a man at arms).

Across the street, the family owned restaurant Ochsen looks inviting. 

When strolling through the city, two more churches invited me for a visit. First the modest Franciscan church with the rood screen.

In the choir and behind the beautiful baptismal fountain, there is another small altar of Til Riemenschneidre showing the history of Franciscus.

Second, I enter the Gothic Church of Saint Wolfgang, the patron of the shepherds. It has been built into the city wall. 

Three wonderful altars are inside. 

From the choir, you can enter the wall and walk through a tunnel  that ends up on the other side of the nave. Amazing.

 

The city wall and the Burggarten

The city wall with the gates still today surrounds Rothenburg.

Walking along the moat west of the city centre… 

…  takes me to the Burgtor, …

… where the Burggarten starts. Here, the Hohenstaufen had built their castle in the 12th century, after the dukes of Rothenburg had died out. The Staufen castle has disappeaered. Only a small chapel is left.

The Burggarten is well kept and romantic.

From the Burggarten, the southern part of the city line appears above the Tauber valley. 

One morning, I did the wall walk all around the city. Homely corners…   

… and roof “landscapes” all along the walk.

 

More painters felt attracted by Rothenburg, as the museum in the former Dominican monastery tells us

The museum in the former monastery of Dominican nuns lays out the history of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. 

 In the 19th century, various journals praise Rothenburg to be the ideal medieval city with its picturesque architecture. The message is heard in Germany and  Europe. Painters from Germany, the Netherlands and England come to Rothenburg, and one department of the museum is dedicated to some of these painters. Hermann Radzyk was not the only painter that felt attracted by Rothenburg.

Most exhibits in the museum are paintings of Wilhelm Schacht (1872-1951). He painted the old brigde at Detwang (left), like my grandfather. On the second painting (right), we can faintly see Rothenburg behind the lime tree with the inviting bench.

This is another view of Detwang painted by Wilhelm Schacht, with the Romanic Saint Peter and Paul church. 

The pen drawing of Theodor Alt (1846-1937), a Franconian, shows Detwang in the valley and Rothenburg ob der Tauber above it. 

Arthur Wasse (1854-1930) was born in Manchester, studied art in Germany and finally settled at Rothenburg. His picturesque “Häuser an der Klingengasse” was reused by Disney as a suggestion for the background of the film “Pinocchio”, as the panel in the museum says. 

Elias Bancroft (1846-1924) from England painted the “Siebersturm, Rothenburg ob der Tauber”, with the still unrenovated Plönlein. 

Martin Monickendamm (1874-1943) is a Dutch painter. He painted this overview of Rothenburg and called it “Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Das kleine Rothenburg)”. 

In all I have been at Rothenburg ob der Tauber five times, always as short stop overs on my way to Berlin. The first time in the 1960’s with my best friend, the second time on a short afternoon stop over in August 2022 (then I found the location of the easel of my grandfather), the third time in October 2023 to explore the city more in detail, fourth in August 2024, when staying at its urban district Detwang to look for the moated castle, and fifth in October 2024 with a focus on St. James church. There is always something more to explore in this medieval city full of treasures and museums.

Let us say good-bye to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Next, we will explore more treasures in the Tauber valley: The Celtic oppidum at Burgstall and the Church of Lord (Herrgottskirche) with Saint Mary’s altar by Tilman Riemenschneider.

 

Sources:

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Hermann Radzig-Radzyk painted in Silesia a hundred years ago: Neumannskoppe with Maria-Schnee-Kirche

In May/June 2023, I was in Silesia, looking for some places, where my grandfather Hermann Radzyk put up his easel a hundred years ago (as an artist he painted under the name of Hermann Radzig-Radzyk).

One painting I was looking for was the “Neumannskoppe” of 1919 (belongs to my sister and me). 

I know title and year from a letter of my mother to her best friend. I acquired the painting from a friend of the son of my mother’s best friend.

I solved the puzzle end of May 2023: To paint the “Neumannskoppe”, my grandfather had put his easel up at Rudolfswaldau, now Sierpnica. The mountain Neumannskoppe has become Niczyja. The wooden church with the baroque belfry is called Maria-Schnee-Kirche (Kościół Matki Bożej Śnieżnej, i.e. “Our Lady of the Snows”). 

I was at Sierpnica end of May 2023 to see, what the church looks like today, and I took the photo from where the easel was (approximately).

Today the church is hidden behind trees.

While taking my photos, I met Dziki who lives near the church. He gave me his winter photo. The trees without leaves allow to see more of the church that my grandfather painted.

Source: Photo taken by Dziki Domek.

Now let me tell you, how I solved the puzzle to find the easel for the painting “Neumannskoppe”.

 

Where is the Neumannskoppe?

I started by looking for the Neumannskoppe. I suspected, the Neumannskoppe is a mountain somewhere in Silesia. I entered “Neumannskoppe” in google maps – no result. I continued googling and googling “Neumannskoppe” combined with various terms… and after a lot of googling, I found this old German-Silesian advertisement for the “Grenzbaude im Eulengebirge” (boundary mountain hut in the Owl Mountains). 

The advertisement says that the Grenzbaude is located between the “Neumannskoppe” and the “Hohe Eule” (1). Hence the “Neumannskoppe” is not far from the “Hohe Eule”. Googling “Hohe Eule”, I found the name “Wielka Sowa”, which is the highest mountain in the Góry Sowie (Owl Mountains). 

Conclusion: The church with the Neumannskoppe is not far away from the Wielka Sowa. I asked Google to show me the churches around Wielka Sowa and  I clicked on all of them.

At Sierpnica, I found the church that my grandfather had painted. It is now called Kościół Matki Bożej Śnieżnej, in German Maria-Schnee-Kirche.

Source: Marius Tyski, Church of our Lady of the Snows, Instagram, appeared in google maps about a year ago, in the meantime I can no longer find it there. 

This is the location of the Kościół Matki Bożej Śnieżnej on my hiking map of the Owl Mountains, south west of the Wielka Sowa. 

Source: Compass Góry Sowie, mapa turystyczna, scala 1:35’000

But where exactly is the Neumannskoppe? It must be either the peak Sokól or the peak Niczyja – this puzzle remained. I solved it at the hotel Lesny Dvor at Wolibórz (Volpersdorf) – we stayed here a few days. The Lesny Dvor had a German map whith the Neumannskoppe – and comparing with my hiking map, it becomes clear that the Neumannskoppe is now called Niczyja.  

Source: German map that hangs in the hotel Lesny Dvor at Wolibórz

Niczyja (“nobody’s mountain”) is the approximate translation of  “Neumannskoppe” (“new man’s mountain”).

My grandparents must have spent their vacation at Rudolfswaldau in 1919, when their daughter (my mother) was 3 years old. My grandfather took his easel, canvas and colours with him to paint the Maria-Schnee-Kirche in front of the Neumannskoppe. About a hundred years later, in May 2023, I was here as well – at Sierpnica – and solved the puzzle.

 

The church Lady of our Snows (Kościół Matki Bożej Śnieżnej) is a historical treasure

The church Kościół Matki Bożej Śnieżnej was built out of wood in the 16th century. It is one of many “Schrotholzkirchen” in Silesia (see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Schrotholzkirchen_in_Niederschlesien). 

It was a protestant church. After the War of 30 years, after 1648, it became a catholic church (the area belonged to catholic Austria at that time). In the 17th century, the tower burnt down, and the new baroque tower was built.

I could not enter the church,  I could just look through the window and capture the interior with the altar…

… and the benches.

Visiting more wooden churches or Schrotholzkirchen might be another interesting target in Silesia. 

 

Meeting today’s Silesians while wandering off the beaten tracks looking for the easel of my grandfather

When looking for the places, where my grandfather put up his easel, I usually wander off the beaten tourist tracks. At Sierpnica, I walked uphill on an unpaved path and through the adjoining meadow to get the view of the church from above. The tourists that visit the church, walk around it and leave again. They do not walk uphill to places, where they can hardly see the church. A car comes on the unpaved path and stops. “What are you doing HERE”, the driver asks me in fluent English. “Look at this”, and I show him my photo of my grandfather’s painting.  “Yes, this IS the church,” he says. We exchange addresses and he sends me the winter photo of the church. Later, I enjoy the hospitality of Dziki. He invites me to his house and family. He shows me his photos from German times before 1945, when Sierpnica was still called Rudolfswaldau. He is proud of the German photos decorating his house. The German past is an integral part of his house.

This is not the only house in Silesia that keeps memories of the German past. Karolina Kuszyk wrote the beautiful book “In den Häusern der anderen – Spuren deutscher Vergangenheit in Westpolen” (2). She  describes  places, buildings and objects that the Germans – expelled after 1945 – left behind and that the Poles took over, most of them expelled from the eastern districts taken away from Poland in 1945. Touching biographies on both sides. Years later Germans return to see the places of their early youth or of their ancestors. Sometimes they find the houses and objects left behind 50-60 years ago and sometimes friendships arise between the former and the new owners. 

My grandfather opens my eyes for Silesia from a hundred years ago, and following him opens doors to experience Silesia today.

 

Notes

  • Footnote (1) More precisely, the Grenzbaude is located on the top of the pass between Neumannskoppe and Hohe Eule. It is called “Grenz”-Baude or “boundary hut”, because it is located on the boundary between the districts Glatz (now Klodzko) and Waldenburg (now Walbrzych). The advertisement says, it takes 50 minutes to walk to the Bismarck tower on the Hohe Eule. The Grenzbaude is proud to have electrical light and central heating.   Above the Grenzbaude was the Grosssprungschanze or great ski jump. 
  • Footnote (2) Original title: “Poniemieckie”. German title translated to English “in the houses of the others – tracks of the German past in West Poland”, christoph-links-Verlag Berlin 5. Auflage 2023.