Meeting a Straubing professional: Guido Scharrer

On August 9th, we were able to have an interview with Guido Scharrer. He is a historian from Straubing and he also builds mangers, a local tradition. For many years, he carried out research on forced labour on farms in the Bavarian Forest. He also initiated the construction of a stele to remember the death marches through the town. Being well known in whole Straubing and had been using his knowledge in school teaching before he retired. Though we were happy to find someone who has professional knowledge, interested in similar things than we are, he also said, that being interested in the forced labour issue is an exception and he had been the only one who tried to do research on that yet.

As the Gäuboden funfair was being constructed, we interviewed him in front of the building sites: dodgem cars, food stands and stalls that resemble Bavarian huts out of plastic, thus pointing out to the steadiness of local Bavarian lifestyle. In fact, the Gäuboden funfair got it's current name during the Nazi era. After the interview we had ice cream with Guido Scharrer in a central place. Also, the press was interested in covering our interview, but we had to refuse that, not to spoil our upcoming interviews with people who had been involved in forced labour personally. Rumours go fast in this rural area.

Holger