The Big Fire of 1865

Again and again, Moosburg fell victim to big fires: in the years of 1207, 1634, 1702, 1809, 1848 and 1851. Finally in 1865, the Moosburg sports club Turnverein decided to found a fire brigade. But it was already too late: on 13 June 1865 a fire broke out in the rear bulding of the merchant Heilingbrunner (10, Stadtplatz) and consumed 71 houses in the old town within three hours (the red area on the map). The fire brigades from Landshut and Freising could only prevent the fire from spreading further to the north, thus protecting the two churches nearby. The rubble of the ruins was used to fill up the moats of Asch castle and of the town wall along Krankenhausweg. Plan: WebTeam Moosburg

The most important building destroyed in 1865 was the town hall at the corner of Herrnstraße and Stadtplatz in which were also the rooms of the boy's school. The building had only been completed in 1718 after its Medieval predecessor had burned down in 1702 because a careless servant had put hot ashes behind the roof. The drawing shows the Baroque town hall with its two storeys, a high hipped roof and an ornate ridge turret. Picture: Heimatverein Moosburg (society for local history) Bild: Heimatverein Moosburg

Buildings works on the citizens's houses started a few days after the fire, but the town hall was not reconstructed until March 1866 - in the Neo-Gothic style of an Italian palazzo. Although 10,000 guilders were donated to rebuilt the town (1,000 guilders by the Bavarian King Ludwig II) the town of Moosburg had to raise a loan of 100,000 guilders. The council wanted to protect the town from future catastrophes, and so the voluntary fire brigade was founded in July 1865, a water supply system was established in 1866, and in 1909 a water-tower improved the pressure of the water pipes. So the fire of 1865 was in fact the starting point of Moosburg's development into a modern town. Picture: Town of Moosburg Literature: Franz Heilmann: "Der Wiederaufbau Moosburgs nach dem Stadtbrand vom 13. Juni 1865", in: Unser Moosburg 1, 1980, p. 11-17; Ludwig Weh: 125 Jahre Freiwillige Feuerwehr Moosburg 1865-1990, Moosburg 1990, p. 9-21; Ludwig Weh - Toni Fischer: Geschichte der Stadt Moosburg, Moosburg 1991, p. 59-62

Last update 26 Nov 1998 by © Werner Schwarz (E-Mail) - All rights reserved!