Introduction to the audio guide of the special exhibition "Cold times are coming..." Murnau 1919-1950 in the Murnau Castle Museum from May 12th, 2020 - November 21st, 2021 At the beginning of the 20th century, Murnau was a small town in the Oberland like many others. Politics, but also economic and social progress took place elsewhere, the community on the edge of the Alps led a tranquil existence far away from the conflicts and adversities of the modern world. And yet German history of the first half of the 20th century is compressed here as if in a magnifying glass: the National Socialist economic theorist and early supporter of Hitler Gottfried Feder, the later President of the World Jewish Congress Nahum Goldmann, the American-Jewish patron James Loeb, the painter Gabriele Münter, the playwright Ödön von Horváth and the resistance fighter Christoph Probst lived here. Adolf Hitler, but also Heinrich Himmler and Julius Streicher stopped off in the community on the Staffelsee. The loss of the First World War was a devastating blow for many Germans, as they had been misled for years by the military leadership, which always promised an imminent victory. The fall of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic were linked to the humiliation of defeat, which was blamed not on the military but on the politicians. Turbulent times began for Murnau: the revolution and the Munich Soviet Republic had an impact on the surrounding area. The Murnau residents wanted to protect themselves against revolutionary efforts with a local militia. No sooner had this militia been disarmed than the next one appeared in the form of the Oberland League. Members of the Oberland League took part in the Hitler putsch in Munich and there was even an attempted coup in Murnau itself. In 1923, a local NSDAP group was founded, and again in 1926 after the NSDAP was banned. From 1924 onwards, ethnic and nationalist parties always won the majority of Murnau's votes in elections. Since the late 1920s, ethnic groups and NSDAP members viewed Murnau as their stronghold, which they defended against political opponents - if necessary with violence, as in the Murnau Saalschlacht in 1931. The stylization as the National Socialist center of the Oberland remained essentially propaganda: After the "seizure of power", Murnau and the surrounding area served as a backdrop for National Socialist productions such as the Hitler Youth highland camp in 1934, the 600th anniversary celebrations in 1935 and the 1936 Winter Olympics. The construction of two barracks in 1938 was already a harbinger of the next war, in which, as in the First World War, many young Murnau men fell. During the war, those bombed out, evacuees and refugees needed all the rooms in hotels and restaurants that had previously accommodated tourists. After the end of the Second World War, Murnau was a multi-ethnic town where American occupiers, liberated forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners, refugees and locals lived in sometimes cramped conditions. Interviews with contemporary witnesses and documentary footage of the Americans during the invasion examine the Nazi dictatorship and the end of the war in 1945. By including a large number of historical photographs, posters and objects from the market town archive, the state and main state archive, the Munich city archive and private archives, the political, social and cultural panorama of small-town life from 1919 to 1950 becomes clear, which has national and international significance beyond the local context. A reading corner invites you to engage with the texts of contemporary authors. The exhibition marks the conclusion of the research project commissioned by the Murnau market town. Private lecturer Dr. Edith Raim has spent three years researching numerous, previously unknown source materials. The result is a comprehensive publication priced at €29.90, published by Volk Verlag.