Ludwig Thoma House

Ludwig Thoma was Dachau's most famous citizen, even though he only lived there for three years. He is considered one of Bavaria's greatest writers and poets. The building shown in the photograph above was named after him in 1974. This is not his former home, as one might assume from the name Ludwig-Thoma-Haus. This is not a residence, but rather a large meeting hall. The building is located at Augsburgerstrasse 23, a few doors down the street from Thoma's former office. It is set back from the street, as the photograph below shows. The photograph above shows a model of the town on a post; this model is similar to those which designate the locations of the former gates into the town.

Right across the street from this building is the marker for the Augsburger Tor, the old entrance gate into Dachau for people coming from the town of Augsburg. The building directly across the street on Augsburgerstrasse is the Unterbräu Inn. In 1799, the Thoma-Haus building was purchased by the owner of the Unterbräu and it became known as the Unterbräu Hall. The building became the Catholic Community Center in 1917 and a public library was also set up there. After the Nazi party took control of Bavaria and the town of Dachau on March 9, 1933, the hall became known as the Community Center and it was now used for meetings of Nazi associations and for party events. Books from the library were carted off to the concentration camp where a library of 15,000 books was set up for the prisoners in one of the barrack buildings. After the war, the books were returned to the town.

Today this building is a meeting hall where regular meetings of the Zum Beispiel Dachau Verein and other organizations take place. The English translation of the name of this organization is For Example Dachau. It is an association of local historians, founded by Journalist Hans-Günther Richardi for the purpose of objectively studying the history of Dachau during the Nazi era. The original name of the organization was Warum Gerade Dachau? which means Why Just Dachau? The original name was a reference to the fact that Dachau has taken more heat than other towns that were located near concentration camps.

As the photograph below shows, the building has a Baroque gable and is painted the same color of pink as the Old Town Hall. It was built in the 17th century and originally housed a bakery.

 

Cafe Belstler

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