Christian Moser
Who was the chair of Deggendorf from Aug 2012 to Aug 2013?
Deggendorf Deggendorf ( ) is a town in Bavaria , Germany , capital of the Deggendorf district . It is located on the left bank approximately in the middle between the Danube cities of Regensburg and Passau . The Danube forms the towns natural border towards the south . Towards the west , north and east the town is surrounded by the foothills of the central Bavarian Forest . Near the southwestern rim of the town , the railway bridge crosses the Danube at river-kilometer 2286 . Directly south of the town Autobahn A3 and A92 form an important crossing . A few miles downstream , east of the district Deggenau , lies the confluence of the River Isar with the Danube . Historical background . Early history . The earliest traces of settlement in the area were found near the Danube and date back approximately 8,000 years . Both Bronze Age and Celtic era archeological finds indicate continuous habitation through the millennia . The first written mention of Deggendorf occurred in 868 , and Henry II , Holy Roman Emperor established his supremacy over the area in 1002 . Deggendorf is first mentioned as a town in 1212 . Heinrich ( d . 1290 ) of the Landshut branch of the ruling family of Bavaria made it the seat of a custom-house ; and in 1331 it became the residence of Heinrich III of Natternberg ( d . 1333 ) , whose name derived from a castle in the neighbourhood . The ruins of Natternberg castle are still well preserved and a popular destination for hikers . Massacre of 1336 . In the early 1330s , Deggendorf was an expanding market town with commerce and trade . At the beginning of that decade , however , it was caught in the middle of a conflict between the Bavarian dukes . A fire damaged large parts of the town . It is presumed that this was one of the reasons for the massive indebtedness with the local Jewish community . that culminated in a massacre . The first reference to this murder of the local Jews is found in an official document by Duke Heinrich XIV originating from 1336 . In this document , the duke pardoned the citizens of Deggendorf and spared them any kind of punishment for killing the Jews . He even granted them the right to keep every item they looted from their victims . Further clues to the murders are found , for example , in the annals of some important monasteries of the time and in the works of Johann von Viktring ( d . ca . 1346 ) . For 1338 , these sources mention a plague of locusts which destroyed much of that years crop . Johann von Viktring refers to this infestation in connection to the murder of the Jews of Deggendorf . Yet , the inscription in the basilica of Deggendorf differs from all former sources . As the date of events it gives 1337 . The Jews are purported to have set fire to the town . The body of God was found so that the community of Deggendorf started to build a church . Im Jahre des Herrn 1337 , am nächsten Tag nach St . Michaels-Tag , wurden die Juden erschlagen , die Stadt zündeten sie an , da wurde Gottes Leichnam gefunden , das sahen Frauen und Männer , da hob man das Gotteshaus zu bauen an . In the year of the Lord 1337 , on the day after Michaelmas , the Jews were slain . They had set fire to the town . Then the body of God was found . This was seen by women and men and the building of the house of God was begun . The wrong date indicates that this inscription stems from a much later date . The mention of the body of God points to a host desecration . It must be assumed that the accusation of host desecration had already taken on a life of its own at that time so that further explanations were not needed . Everyone was familiar with the narratives of this legend . The fully formed legend of the host desecration by the Jews of Deggendorf and about the miracles happening after their punishment appears in a composite manuscript in the library of the monastery St Emmeram in Regensburg not before the 15th century . Das Gedicht von den Deggendorfer Hostien ( The poem of the hosts of Deggendorf ) has strictly no credibility at all . Its sudden appearance centuries after the actual events took place makes just one piece of evidence for this . Its content is schematic and clichéd . Stereotypically , Easter Day is given as the date and the accusation of well poisoning is added even though it had never been mentioned before in this context . Details that could be interpreted as specific to Deggendorf are left out . The only name given is that of Hartmann von Degenberg who could not be identified as an actual historical person . A complete deformation of reality becomes manifest in the poem . What happened in Deggendorf in 1338 is probably that the pogrom came about because of the high debts the Christian citizens owed the Jews . The locusts destroying much of the crop tightened the situation . The end of September or the beginning of October 1338 is likely the correct date ( around the payday on Michaelmas. ) This means the Jews were murdered for economic reasons . Events were reworked later to justify the act so that in the 15th century the stereotypical legend took on its own life . The course of the Deggendorfer Gnad . Genesis and development of attendances . In the years following the economic downturn and the aforementioned massacre , Deggendorf regained some of its former wealth . Thus , the construction of the basilica ( Heilig-Grab-Kirche ) could be completed by 1400 . By the beginning of the 15th century the fully formed legend had already spread far enough to encourage more and more people to pilgrimage to Deggendorf . An average of 40.000 people per year traveled to Deggendorf and its famous hosts . The development of the pilgrimage to become a time of worship of the magic hosts of Deggendorf was particularly promoted by pastor Johannes Sartorius ( 1599–1609 ) and Duke Albrecht of Bavaria ( 1584–1666 ) . The much admired hosts , however , had been retrospectively purchased and had to be replaced regularly . During the 18th and 19th century and especially in 1737 ( year of the 400-year-jubilee ) the Gnad reached its peak attracting six-figure attendances . The pilgrimage constituted one of the major factors of the Deggendorf economy . Yet , after its peak , attendances decreased steadily until 1927 . In 1970 , only about 10.000 pilgrims , mainly from the Deggendorf area , took part in the festivities . The supra-regional significance of the Deggendorfer Gnad had been lost . In addition , only older people seemed to keep participating in the Gnad . Due to these developments the town pursued a thorough advertising campaign combined with a redesign of the festivities in 1976 resulting in a slight increase in younger peoples’ attendance figures . The growing critique of the Deggendorfer Gnad can also be regarded as a reason for the decrease in attendance figures . The course of the pilgrimage . The pilgrimage started with a ceremonial inauguration and the ritualized unbarring of the Gnadenpforte , a.k.a . the church door of the basilica Heilig-Grab-Kirche , on 29 September ( Michaelmas Day ) . On 30 September , a church parade with the magic hosts in a monstrance constituted the highlight of the pilgrimage . In 1962 , a vespertine church parade was added to the programme in order to increase the pilgrimages appeal . The pilgrimage concluded with a sermon at 4pm on 4 October and the ritualistic barring of the basilicas church door . In 1973 , the vespertine church parade was rescheduled from 30 September to 4 October , and from then on combined with the concluding rituals . End of the pilgrimage . It was not before the 1960s that the Deggendorfer Gnad attracted more and more criticism . It was demanded to remove all anti-Jewish depictions showing them in the middle of the alleged host desecration . Among these was a cycle of sixteen oil paintings , the hosts themselves and the Judenstein ( an anvil with Jewish figures around it and floating hosts ) . Even though the debate quickly became a heated topic in the press – abroad as well as domestic – it took until 1968 for the first four of the sixteen oil paintings to finally be removed , which was the first concession . The debate quickly polarized . While some saw the Deggendorfer Gnad as anti-Semitism in its purest form , others thought it just a piece of Bavarian folklore . The diocesan chapter of Regensburg invoked the long tradition of the pilgrimage and assured that the Jews as its cause were hardly ever mentioned in the sermons . In the 1980s , Manfred Eder ( University of Regensburg ) started work on his doctoral thesis carefully researching the origin and development of the Deggendorfer Gnad . On the basis of his findings , the diocese of Regensburg finally decided to abolish the pilgrimage . Bishop Manfred Müller asked for forgiveness for the centuries-long defamation of the Jews . In 2017 , Richard Utz linked the tardy discontinuation ( thirty years after the Second Vatican Council ) of the pilgrimage tradition to a decision by Regensburg Bishop , . In the late 1960s , Graber replaced a chair in Judaic Studies with one in Dogmatic Theology at the newly founded University of Regensburg . A chair in Judaic Studies would have sped up the production of the kind of research that would have debunked the traditions false claims . Displaced persons camp . Deggendorf was the site of a displaced persons camp for Jewish refugees after World War II . It housed approximately 2,000 refugees , who created a cultural center that included two newspapers , the Deggendorf Center Review and Cum Ojfboj , a theater group , synagogue , mikvah , kosher kitchen , and more . The camp even issued its own currency known as the Deggendorf Dollar . Many of the camps residents were survivors of the concentration camp at Theresienstadt . The displaced persons camp closed on 15 June 1949 . Lord Mayors . - 2000-2012 Anna Eder ( born 1950 ) ( CSU ) - since 2012 Christian Moser ( born 1977 ) ( CSU ) Twin towns – sister cities . Deggendorf is twinned with : - Neusiedl am See , Austria - Písek , Czech Republic Notable people . - Georg Rörer ( 1492–1557 ) , Lutheran theologian - August Högn ( 1878–1961 ) , teacher , local historian and composer - Kathrin Passig ( born 1970 ) , journalist and writer - Django Asül ( born 1972 ) , comedian - Robin Yalçın ( born 1994 ) , footballer - Gudrun Stock ( born 1995 ) , cyclist External links . - City of Deggendorf home page - Deggendorf in christlichen und jüdischen Nachschlagewerken Stadt Deggendorf ( Research at haGalil dated 4 June 2012 ) - Urkunde Kaiser Heinrichs II. , Regensburg , 20 November 1002 with first record of the place name of Deggindorf - Deggendorf : Amtliche Statistik des Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik