Dachau, in shade and light
MúzeumCafé 35.
Can culture heal horrible wounds, or simply cover them with something beautiful, entrusting everything to the passing of time? This is the dilemma which faced the Dachau artists’ colony in the post-war years, and which at the same time cast a shadow over what for a century had been a peaceful, picturesque region of Bavaria. Mention Dachau and it’s not the artists’ colony which comes to mind, rather a spontaneous association of ideas about its notorious concentration camp – camp KZ, which the SS established in March 1933 and where up to 1945 32,000 people, including Jews and anti-Fascists, lost their lives. The municipal cultural authorities are confronted with this schizophrenic picture, especially in relation to foreign events, as was the case with the exhibition of contemporary Dachau arts held in Szentendre in 2010. With whatever empathy we show for its past and current artists, and the history of the Dachau artists’ colony, “history is overwritten” – to quote a speech delivered in Szentendre. Dachau stands on the banks of the Amper in the near vicinity of Munich and has again become a popular tourist destination. Its ethnography museum, founded in 1905, attracts visitors with an exceptionally beautiful collection. Its fine arts gallery – reorganised in 2005, the 1200th anniversary of the town’s foundation – illustrates the work of the colony and contemporary artists with 220 paintings and items of graphic art. Since the 1970s a stream of studies, catalogues and reference works has been published providing an insight into the beginnings of the artists’ colony, its golden age around 1900 and its legacy. Munich, an important centre for central European arts, found its Barbizon in the Dachau colony, which later was echoed by the Nagybánya summer colony as some artists moved east. Between 1850 and 1914 the loosely organised Dachau artists’ colony had close ties with Munich.