Hechendorf: Rafting and Architectural History

Several specific travel interests come together in Hechendorf: the history of rafting, the construction phases of the St. Anna branch church, and Molo Park as a garden with a memorial site. A cycling tour through the Murnauer Moos also passes through Hechendorf. You can focus on local history, architecture or a route through the raised bog.

The Loisach and rafting

The Loisach flows directly past Hechendorf. A distinct profession of raftsmen once developed there. From April to September, the Hechendorf raftsmen regularly traveled between Oberau and Schönmühl near Wolfratshausen. In 1892, rafting traffic on the Loisach came to a complete halt. The season, route and end of the traffic give the history of rafting a clear outline: it tells of a local trade, its recurring operating season and a precisely named connection between two places.

The past is also brought to life on the Loisach Cycle Path: in Hechendorf, a former rafting village, the route offers insights into rafting. A cycling tour through the Murnauer Moos follows the cycle path along Olympiastraße to Hechendorf first, then continues along the Loisach. It passes through the largest contiguous raised bog in Central Europe. This means the tour offers access to the bog landscape as well as a connection to the village; Hechendorf lies along the route between Olympiastraße and the onward journey along the Loisach.

St. Anna: a history of construction in several phases

The Catholic branch church of St. Anna is a Baroque-style hall church with a recessed choir and a mansard-roofed tower on its north side. Its core dates from the mid-15th century. The church was extended and altered in the mid-17th century. St. Anna is considered probably the oldest church building in the Murnau parish, as well as an unusually cohesive Early Baroque church. Romanesque and Gothic masonry has been preserved in parts of its core.

The construction details bring together different periods without assigning the church to just one era: its Early Baroque character sits alongside older sections of masonry and a core dating from the 15th century. The terms hall church, recessed choir and mansard-roofed tower also make the overall form and individual architectural features easy to understand. For architecture enthusiasts, St. Anna offers a tangible reason to notice the different layers of time in a church building.

Molo Park: gardens and remembrance

Molo Park is a garden covering more than four hectares in Hechendorf. It was created between 1932 and 1934. A gravestone in the park commemorates Walter von Molo. The size and date of its creation describe the garden; the gravestone adds a personal connection to remembrance. Thus, alongside the history of the river and the church, Hechendorf also offers a garden and a specific memorial site as distinct themes.

Art and literature in the wider destination

The wider destination of Murnau a.Staffelsee also offers independent art and literature themes. The Schloßmuseum Murnau displays works by Gabriele Münter and works by artists of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München and Der Blaue Reiter, including Wassily Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin, Alexej Jawlensky, Franz Marc and Heinrich Campendonk. The museum houses the largest collection of Münter’s works on public display.

The Schloßmuseum includes extensive documentation on playwright Ödön von Horváth. From 1924 until he was forced to leave for political reasons in 1933, he lived mainly in Murnau, where he wrote, among other works, the plays “Zur schönen Aussicht” and “Italienische Nacht” and began the novel “Jugend ohne Gott.” When choosing accommodation, you can start by considering what you want to focus on: is it mainly Hechendorf’s local history and cycling route, or art and literature in the wider destination of Murnau a.Staffelsee?

For the wider travel overview: Murnau Am Staffelsee.