(Deutsch) Historischer Dorfrundgang in Timmerlah
Whoever walks or cycles through the district of Timmerlah today will not guess what kind of turbulent history lies behind the village. The Arbeitskreis Andere Geschichte e.V. offers today within its program of city walks an excursion through the history of the small town. With great commitment and a lot of passion the local guardians of cultural heritage Bernd Aumann and Erdmute Trustorff talk about “their” village and its past.
Worker’s sports club “Frisch Auf”
In the year 1920 citizens of Timmerlah establish the worker’s sports club “Frisch Auf”. At first it is just exercising. However, there were no gymnastic apparatus on the spot, it has to be moved through parts of the town to the sports ground. In 1925 citizens took part in the worker’s Olympiad at Frankfurt.
Aumann explains the birth of the name “Frisch Auf” to us. It comes from Swiss and German cyclists who used this slogan for motivating themselves for up-hill runs. In another anecdote he tells us that football was called “English illness” or “foot oafishness” at that time.
A new era in 1933
On September 4th, 1933 newspaper has it that communistic or Marxist organisations were banned. That meant the end of the worker’s sports club. Three years later a small bore club was established at the Timmerlaher Busch. In 1939 a boozy shooting match took place.
After some time the place was transformed from a fairground into a defense place. Timmerlah, that’s what Aumann says, was battered during World War II quite badly. You can still find bomb craters at the Timmerlaher Busch.
Of witch hunting and forced labour
The second part of the walk is lead by Erdmute Trustorff. We walk to the onion dome church of Timmerlah and the corresponding cemetery. We encounter two graves of forced laborers. It’s the grave of the Ukrainian Christa Gamrezka and the Polish Wladyslaw Pistrowski. Gamrezka, Trustorff tells us, bleed to death, alledgedly because of an abortion after a rape. Pistrowski in turn boozed himself to death after the war.
A second stop on the cemetery is the witch hunting. In 1613 two women of Timmerlah, Lucie and Grete Hildendag their names, fell victim to it and were burnt at the Lechlumer Holz. The Thirty Years’ War, Trustorff tells us, was the summit of the witch hunting. Everybody reported anybody for something. According to estimations between 80.000 to 2.000.000 people became victims of this chase. In 1780 the last person died because of witch hunting.
The onion tower of Timmerlah
In the end we go into the church of Timmerlah which is marked by its onion tower. Different stories entwined around Where the tower’s name comes from. Some refer to a Russian princess. The principal magnet of the interior of the church is the ceiling fresco by Enrico Pelligrino. The realization took four years. By now the onion tower church of Timmerlah presents its interior completely new. It offers a huge contemporary piece of art, which is something special alone to its dimensions. The painting shows seven pictures to Bible passages in the shape of a cross. The pictures are linked to the middle which shows a sky. Mirrors are fixed there. That way the spectator mirrors oneself in the sky.
