“Butter, Vieh, Vernichtung – Nationalsozialismus und Landwirtschaft im Allgäu” [Butter, Livestock, Extermination: National Socialism and Agriculture in the Allgäu Region] is a participatory education project that offers pathways to the subject of Nazi injustice in southern Swabia via artistic formats and an exhibition. It highlights entanglements with the Nazi state and Nazi ideology at authentic locations in the countryside and in the city of Kempten. Along the way, the project combines the transfer of knowledge with encouragement to act responsibly today.
It is cold and damp in the former “Kälberhalle” in Kempten. The smell of livestock still lingers in the stone walls, and the original iron tethering rings and concrete stalls are still in place. The former cattle barn, built in 1931, is now known as Hall II of the present-day “Allgäuhalle,” which was originally constructed in 1928 for livestock breeding. The two halls are centrally located in Kempten, a city of 70,000 in the Allgäu region. Another section of the complex is used for cultural events. The “Kälberhalle” itself is occasionally used for flea markets nowadays. Only a small plaque recalls the Nazi injustice that occurred here: from 1943 to 1945, the hall was a satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp. Between 650 and 850 forced laborers were housed here, most of them deployed in local arms factories, many on behalf of BMW at the company Helmuth Sachse KG. The commemorative plaque was installed at the initiative of former inmates.
Through the project “Butter, Vieh, Vernichtung” [Butter, Livestock, Extermination], the city of Kempten is now taking an active role in transforming this authentic site into a place of remembrance, explains Kempten Museum director Christine Müller Horn, who leads the project together with Dr. Veronika Heilmannseder of the association Cultura Kulturveranstaltungen e.V. The initiative complements the work of the municipal commission on memory culture, which has been researching the history of Kempten under National Socialism since 2021 in collaboration with the Institute for Contemporary History and Kempten’s local heritage association.
More than 13 million people had been deported to the German Reich for forced labor by 1945. In Bavaria too, hundreds of thousands of people from the Soviet Union, Poland, France, and Italy were forced to work under horrific conditions. They were visible everywhere, employed not only in mines, the armaments industry, construction, church-owned agricultural estates, and private households, but also on farms – in other words, across rural areas. In particular, agricultural operations in the Allgäu and Swabia that were part of the Reichsnährstand [State Food Society] supplied milk and butter to the German population and the front. With most German men fighting in the war, millions of forced laborers were used to maintain food production. Meanwhile, the Allgäu and Swabian regions were also home to numerous arms factories that produced, for example, engines and gearboxes for tanks and military vehicles.
The goal of the project “Butter, Vieh, Vernichtung – Nationalsozialismus und Landwirtschaft im Allgäu” [Butter, Livestock, Extermination: National Socialism and Agriculture in the Allgäu Region] is to transmit knowledge through creative and empathy-driven formats and to make the injustices that took place comprehensible in the immediate vicinity of where they took place. To this end, it explores three thematic areas:
In order to give the victims faces, the project uses numerous workshops and social media to present exemplary biographies of forced laborers and Jewish business owners. Through creative photography, music, theater, and writing workshops, it creates spaces of remembrance that encourage people to engage with their own family and farm histories. Almost every farm once used forced labor – a fact that young people today are barely aware of.
Many are also unaware that, in 1932, Adolf Hitler gave a campaign speech at the very site of today’s Allgäuhalle in Kempten to an audience of 15,000 to 18,000 people from the city and surrounding area. For this reason, the project team also specifically reached out to young farmers and students at agricultural colleges. This approach can help close a gap in historical awareness that is also highlighted by the current Call to Remember MEMO study:
19.3 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that many families today still benefit from wealth built during the Nazi period, but only 2.8 percent say that their own families profited economically from Nazi-era crimes.
How did the regime dismantle democratic mechanisms and rally the population to its side? How did the Nazis manage to make forced labor a routine part of everyday life – and why didn’t people question the exploitation that this entailed? How did the Nazi state function at all? Participants of all ages explored these and other questions in creative workshops held at three historic sites: the former “Kälberhalle” in Kempten, the milk collection point in Thal, and the railway station in Fellheim – the point of departure for the region’s Jewish population as it was deported to concentration and extermination camps.
Another of the project organizers’ key objectives is to emphasize the relevance of Nazi history to today’s democratic society. According to the project leaders, a lot of young people in the region are actively engaged in opposing neo-Nazi movements and view the rise of farright forces as a real threat. But until now, they hadn’t made the connection between these current developments and their own families’ activities in the Nazi period. “It was a real lightbulb moment when I realized how our own family was caught up in Nazi injustice,” says Veronika Heilmannseder. One of the project’s most positive outcomes has been the creation of safe and trusting spaces where people can discuss and investigate the Nazi era intergenerationally for the first time.
Alongside the workshops, new historical research into National Socialism in the Allgäu and Swabian regions is underway and will be presented in an exhibition at the historic “Kälberhalle” in late September 2025. Cultural historian Roman Tischberger from the University of Augsburg is not only gathering documents and historical photographs but also conducting interviews with historical eyewitnesses and their descendants.
All the project participants are committed to ensuring that the “Kälberhalle” becomes a permanent place of learning and remembrance in Kempten. The project is supported by Dr. Theo Waigel, former German Minister of Finance, who has personal ties to the region.
Find out more about the project
The exhibition “Butter, Livestock, Extermination: National Socialism and Agriculture in the Allgäu Region” will be on display at the Allgäuhalle Kempten from September 19 to November 9, 2025.
