Penzberg (;

Central Bavarian Central Bavarian form a subgroup of Bavarian dialects in large parts of Austria and the German state of Bavaria along the Danube river, on the northern side of the Eastern Alps. They are spoken in the ' Old Bavarian' regions of Upper Bavaria (wi ...

: ''Benschberg'') is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

(although some see it as a town) in the

Weilheim-Schongau Weilheim-Schongau is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the south of Bavaria, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Landsberg, Starnberg, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Ostallgäu. Geography The distric ...

district, in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is located about 50 km south of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, and had a population of around 17,000 in 2020. A historic

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

town, Penzberg today is known for its

pharmaceutical industries The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate symptoms. ...

History

The settlement was first mentioned as ''Poennesperch'' in a 1275 contract, when it was sold to the

Benediktbeuern Abbey Benediktbeuern Abbey (Kloster Benediktbeuern) is an institute of the Salesians of Don Bosco, originally a monastery of the Benedictine Order, in Benediktbeuern in Bavaria, near the Kochelsee, 64 km south-south-west of Munich. It is the oldest ...

. Surface coal mining had already started in the 16th century, though it was ended by the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

and the industrial exploitation of coal did not begin until 1800. In 1919 Penzberg received

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

World War 2

An allied air raid on 16 November 1944 severely damaged the town, including the parish church, but did not affect the local coal mine, the heart of the town's economic life. In order to follow Hitler's "scorched earth" policy (

Nero Decree The Nero Decree (german: Nerobefehl) was issued by Adolf Hitler on 19 March 1945, ordering the destruction of German infrastructure to prevent its use by Allied forces as they penetrated deep within Germany. It was officially titled Decree Conc ...

), the local Nazi leaders wanted to blow up the coal mine which was the economic life blood of the town ('' The End: Hitler's Germany 1944–45'' by

Ian Kershaw Sir Ian Kershaw (born 29 April 1943) is an English historian whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's leading experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is pa ...

– p344), so, on 28 April 1945 (the

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

mayor of Penzberg until the

Nazi takeover Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

in 1933) and others deposed the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

mayor. However, it was not long before the officer commanding a local Wehrmacht unit had the leaders of the revolt arrested. When, on the evening of the same day,

Gauleiter A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...

Paul Giesler Paul Giesler (15 June 1895 – 8 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party functionary responsible for acts of brutality which included killing opponents of the regime in southern Germany. He first joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1922; he reenrolled on ...

heard about the incident, he gave orders that the leaders were to be shot immediately without trial. To achieve this, a

Werwolf ''Werwolf'' (, German for "werewolf") was a Nazi plan which began development in 1944, to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany, in parallel with the ''Wehrmacht'' fighting in f ...

group, around 100 strong, was dispatched, storming the town hall. They arrested and shot Rummer and seven fellows. During the night, a further eight suspected resistance fighters were

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

by a "

drumhead court-martial A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice. The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as an improvised ...

" under SA brigade leader . Among the victims were two women, one of them pregnant. The very next day, the Americans arrived. The massacre is known as the ' (Night of Penzberg Murder). The mine was not destroyed, and remained open until 1966 when it closed for economic reasons; the adjacent

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

was also shut down in 1971.

Transport

The town is served by

Penzberg station Penzberg station (german: Bahnhof Penzberg), also known as Penzberg Pbf, is a railway station in the city of Penzberg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the Kochelsee Railway, Kochelsee line of Deutsche Bahn. Services the following services ...

on the

Kochelsee Railway The Kochelsee Railway (german: Kochelseebahn, literally "Lake Kochel Railway") is a branch line in Upper Bavaria (''Oberbayern''), Germany, that is just under 36 km long, single-tracked and fully electrified. It is operated by the Deutsche B ...

Important buildings

* Post office by

Robert Vorhoelzer Robert Vorhoelzer (13 June 1884 – 23 October 1954) was a German architect. Vorhoelzer belonged to the International Modernism, classical modernist school of architecture that is otherwise rather underrepresented in Bavaria. Most of his works ...

in the then dominant "Heimatstil", 1922-1923

Notable people

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F088853-0014, Helmut Schlesinger

* Verena Eberle (born 1950), former German swimmer *

Ludwig Kögl Ludwig Kögl (born 7 March 1966) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Kögl was born in Penzberg. He played more than 300 (West) German top-flight for FC Bayern Munich, VfB Stuttgart and SpVgg Un ...

(born 1966), soccer players including

FC Bayern München Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

and

TSV 1860 München A tab-separated values (TSV) file is a simple text format for storing data in a tabular structure, e.g., a database table or spreadsheet data, and a way of exchanging information between databases. Each record in the table is one line of the text ...

* Max Kruse (author) (1921-2015), children's books author (''

Urmel aus dem Eis ''Impy's Island'', or ''Urmel from the Ice Age'' (german: Urmel aus dem Eis), is a 2006 German Computer animation, computer-animated feature film based on the Children's literature, children's novel ''Urmel from the Ice Age'' by Max Kruse (author) ...

'') *

Norbert Reithofer Norbert Reithofer (born 29 May 1956 in Penzberg, West Germany) is a German businessman and former chairman of the board of management (CEO) of BMW. He currently serves as chairman of the supervisory board. Early life and education After finis ...

(born 1956), former chairman of the board of managing directors and current supervisory board of BMW *

Helmut Schlesinger Helmut Schlesinger (born 4 September 1924 in Penzberg) is a German economist and former President of the Bundesbank. Education After his military duty, he studied economics at the University of Munich, from where he graduated with a Diplom in ...

(born 1924), former president of the

Bundesbank The Deutsche Bundesbank (), literally "German Federal Bank", is the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Due to its strength and former size, the Bundesbank is the most ...

Jochen Schümann Jochen Schümann (, ; born 8 June 1954 in East Berlin) is a German sailor and three-time Olympic champion. He competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he won a gold medal in the '' finn class''. He competed in the Soling class ...

(born 1954), sailor and winner of the

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

with *

Karl Wald Karl Wald (17 February 1916 in Frankfurt am Main – 26 July 2011 in Penzberg) was a German football referee . Life In 2006, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported a claim by former football referee Karl Wald, from Frankfurt am Main, that he ha ...

(1916-2011), football matchmaker and inventor of the penalty shoot-out *

Klaus Wolfermann Klaus Wolfermann (; born 31 March 1946) is a former West German javelin thrower. He won a gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in MunichWeilheim-Schongau