BMW Motorrad Germany is holding a customization contest
participants had the option of basing their builds on more than just R 18s
BMW decided to open the competition up to custom R nineT builds
Votes will be accepted through December 11
and those who vote will automatically be entered in a prize drawing for a season with a bike in the R 18 family
BMW defines a season as “April-September 2023”.) 
Participants were given a timeframe of three months in which to build their creations—but beyond that
they could do whatever they liked with the bikes
That’s reflected in the variety of builds you’ll see here
some of which may even have taken 200-plus hours to complete
A total of 12 different builders took part in the 2022 competition
This included ahg Autohandelsgesellschaft mbH Eningen
Motorradzentrum Helmig & Sohn Wietmarschen
Cloppenburg GmbH Erfurt was the one shop that built both a custom R 18 and also a custom R nineT
From a custom paint job inspired by Iron Maiden to one that makes copious use of brushed stainless steel
you’ll find a variety of design theories to appreciate among this year’s entries
Voting for your favorite custom build is simple
although of course you’ll need to enter your personal data on BMW’s webpage
Please be aware that the Country dropdown menu includes a variety of countries other than Germany
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approximately 1000 female Jewish prisoners were evacuated from the Schlesiersee (today Sława) camp in Upper Silesia
 These women were forced on a death march in a southwesterly direction
the march ended in the town of Volary (German: Wallern) in Czechoslovakia
not far from the border with Germany and Austria
106 days of rigorous marching through snow
Of the approximately 1,300 women who marched to Volary
The exhibition is based on the most updated research on the death marches
testimonies of survivors and US Army veterans
and documentation from the trial of death march commander Alois Dörr
approximately 1,000 female prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau - young women who had come mostly from Hungary and from the Lodz ghetto - were sent by train to Schlesiersee
a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen in Lower Silesia
where they lived in appallingly unsanitary conditions and slept on straw that had been strewn on the floor
The commander of the camp was Karl Herman Jäschke of the German Security Police (Schutzpolizei)
formerly a policeman in the Breslau prison
the women marched about 3 km from the farms to the forced labor site
 They were forced to dig anti-tank trenches in the snow-covered earth
using only shovels and other manual work tools
and they were clothed in thin garments and given very little food
 Dozens perished in the course of the three-month forced labor period
 The dead were buried next to the fence surrounding their living quarters
and since we were very poorly dressed some of us women took the one blanket they possessed and wore it out to work
A check was made three or four times of all the woman returning from work
and all those found wearing their blankets were given as punishment 25 whip strokes…The girls were whipped until they were bloody
thirty received this punishment at one time
We used to be beaten also for having our clothes a little wet or dirty.  It was practically impossible to avoid this since our work consisted of digging anti-tank ditches in the snow
given to a US intelligence officer on 16 May 1945 in Volary
the Germans evacuated the women from Schlesiersee
 This evacuation turned into a death march
The death march of the female prisoners of the Schlesiersee camp under the supervision of camp commander Jäschke
 Jäschke was given orders to leave no one behind
The women were marched on foot for eight days
covering  a distance of some 95 km in a northwesterly direction
 They did not know if and when they would be receiving more food
 Clad in thin garments and wearing unwieldy wooden clogs
 The weaker ones were pushed in wheelbarrows by their friends
 It is unclear how many women survived the journey and reached Grünberg
or perished from hunger and exhaustion on the way
were murdered in the vicinity of the village of Alt-Hauland
 Their bodies were later moved to a mass grave in the cemetery in nearby Kargowa
A committee established to research crimes committed against the Polish people in Zielona Góra (formerly Grünberg) investigated the murder of the women in the forest
and summarized as follows in their report of 1967:
The German guards put aside 38 exhausted women who could not continue marching
they were loaded onto three wagons… and removed together with seven guards who accompanied the transport to the forest
the guards ordered the wagon drivers… to halt
 They then began to murder those defenseless women
One of the wagon-drivers said in his testimony:
 The women… looked miserable and exhausted…the head of the village said that they were being taken to the hospital… When we reached the forest
they [the German guards] ordered us to stop
 They pulled them by the hair and shot them… After the women were buried… those guards were drunk
the women from Schlesiersee arrived at Grünberg
a group of some 1,000 women arrived at our camp… most of them from Hungary and woman from Lodz… we didn't know that such things existed
It was winter and they had been sleeping outdoors… the first thing they did when they arrived was to break into our cupboards and steal everything we had… they were very hungry
 We looked at them and we couldn't believe that human beings could look like that… little did we know that the same fate would befall us
a forced labor camp for Jewish women was established in Grünberg
 The women were made to work in the local textile factory DWM (Deutche Wollwaren Manufaktur)
 Most of them were young – between the ages of 15 and 30
and had come to the camp from East Upper Silesia in Poland
the camp went from being a forced labor camp established by Organization Schmelt (an economic network that managed a chain of sweatshops and camps exploiting the Jewish workforce in East Upper Silesia
Lower Silesia and the Sudetenland) to a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen
there were 971 female prisoners incarcerated in Grünberg
One or two days after the women from Schlesiersee arrived
 The prisoners of Grünberg and Schlesiersee were divided into two groups
was marched in a northwesterly direction until Jüterbog
 Many perished or were murdered along the way
 The survivors of this march reached Bergen-Belsen
was marched approximately 480 km in a southwesterly direction
and reached the Helmbrechts camp in Bavaria five weeks later
 Their possessions consisted of a thin blanket
 The commander of the march was the same man who had brought the prisoners from Schlesiersee – Karl Herman Jäschke
The women who had come from Schlesiersee were in the worst shape
 Staying at Grünberg for only a day or two
they had not yet recovered from their previous march
but one of the guards shot her in the head
a labor camp for women situated some 40 km southwest of Grünberg
a few dozen women escaped the ranks of the marchers
while others were caught and returned to Christianstadt
We reached Christianstadt…all the streets there were full of people who had fled from the Russians
 I started to walk with all the Germans… suddenly I met my friend Mania… she had also escaped… and Mania was with a girl from Leipzig who could speak German
 Hanka said that we should say we are refugees who need a place to sleep for the night… we went into a house and they gave us a bed… We fell asleep… in the middle of the night
we heard knocking at the door… Police!…They took us to the police station
where there were already some sick girls whom they had put on a sled… we had to drag them a few kilometers until we reached the camp where the girls were… we got a terrible beating… the man who had brought us told the camp guard to watch over us until morning… he would hang us with his own two hands
he said… our friend Hanka spoke to the  German  and convinced her to let us out of the cellar where we had been locked up
following a stay of some two days in the Christianstadt camp
It would seem that some female prisoners from Christianstadt were added to the group of women that had arrived from Grünberg
 They continued in a southwesterly direction
 Some women who had come from Grünberg took advantage of the chaos that ensued when the camp was evacuated and escaped
Every escape attempt foiled by the march escorts resulted in savage fatal beatings or in the shooting of the escapees
 In the course of the journey from Christianstadt to Weisswasser
several were beaten and shot; this was the first time that Grünberg prisoners witnessed a public execution
describes the will to escape in her memoir All But My Life:
Several girls had already slipped away under cover of darkness… "We must go," I wanted to whisper
Instead I heard my voice saying: "Maybe tonight."
"All assemble!" the voice of the SS rang out
Than we heard screams and frightened begging from the forest
Three SS men had rounded up fourteen girls in the forest
The commandant fired again and again and the girls fell
I closed my eyes and held Ilse's hand tightly
At that moment I vowed that I would never try to escape
never step off the path that was leading us to death
about a week after the public execution of the escapees in Weisswasser
the women stopped for the night near Bautzen
the guards discovered that some loaves were missing
 No one confessed to the theft of the bread
 The prisoners were ordered to stand in line
and every tenth prisoner was taken to the forest and shot
 Between fifty and sixty women were shot that day
 Another 8 or so other women were also taken to the forest and ordered to bury the dead
Halina Kleiner was amongst those chosen to bury the murdered women
 This job earned each of the women a loaf of bread:
no emotions apart from the terrible hunger
 The massive bombardments looked like an enormous bonfire to the women
as if the whole world was going up in flames
 Mary Robinson-Reichmann recalls in her testimony that some of the prisoners were forced by the guards to spend an entire night on one of the bridges
in the hope that the bridge would be targeted and that they would die
 179 prisoners who had been defined as "unfit to walk" were sent by Jäschke on farmers' wagons to the Zwodau camp
 The rest of the women carried on marching
621 prisoners reached the Helmbrechts camp
 Jäschke and his men left them to the mercies of the commander of Helmbrechts
SS Unterscharführer Alois Dörr and his staff
 On arrival their clothes were taken away for fumigation
 They were forced to stand naked for hours
until their damp clothes were returned to them
Helmbrechts was a concentration camp for women in Bavaria
 The camp was established in the summer of 1944
and comprised some 600 non-Jewish forced laborers
 They worked in the munitions factory in the town of Helmbrechts
Their stay in the camp is described by the survivors as hell on earth – the hardest part of the death march
with neither heating or even minimal sanitation
and a few dozen women were housed there on wooden bunks
a thin layer of straw covered the cold floor
which were woefully inadequate for the hundreds of prisoners
they were whipped because the hut was dirty
The prisoners received no medical treatment in Helmbrechts
and their food rations were especially meager
One of the punishments meted out to the prisoners at Helmbrechts was to stand for hours under the hut roof while water dripped slowly on their heads
was punished in this manner for owning "smuggled" photographs of her murdered family
 She was forced to stand barefoot for an entire day in freezing temperatures
44 Jewish prisoners perished in Helmbrechts
 These women were later buried in a mass grave in the Jewish cemetery in the nearby city of Hof
577 Jewish prisoners and some 590 non-Jewish prisoners including the 25 German women
Dörr ordered the distribution of spare clothing left in the camp amongst only the non-Jewish prisoners
The prisoners were escorted by the camp staff
The women marched in a southeasterly direction
60 sick Jewish prisoners were taken in trucks to Schwarzenbach an der Saale
and had to be supported by their fellow marchers
Each day there were those who didn't wake up
killings and beatings.Tema Weinstock (née Pinczewska)
the women marched 17 km from Helmbrechts to Schwarzenbach
one of the guards shot a prisoner who couldn't march any further
 She was buried in the cemetery in Ahornberg
a village occupied by the Americans a day earlier
the starving prisoners begged for food and water
but most of the guards prevented the locals from helping them
one of the guards led two exhausted women into the forest and shot them in the head
 The Americans who entered Modlitz on 15 April found their bodies and buried them where they had been found
one of the guards shot two more women who could not go on
residents of Modlitz buried her where she was found
one of the guards shot a 20-year-old prisoner in the head because in her weakened state she had fallen behind the marchers
residents of Wölbersbach found her body and buried her there
 After the march had passed through Seulbitz and reached a narrow gully
guards shot four women in the head who were too weak to go on
 Their bodies were found the next day by residents of Seulbitz and buried there
the women reached Schwarzenbach an der Saale
 The prisoners who had arrived on foot spent the night outdoors
in a fenced yard on the outskirts of the town
The sick prisoners who had arrived by truck were led to a building thanks to the intervention of the Deputy Mayor of Schwarzenbach
 One of the female guards from the truck pushed and dragged them
 The sick women did not receive food either
five of the sick women in the building perished
 Another dying prisoner was taken to the cemetery in Schwarzenbach together with the 5 dead women
the sick women were made to climb up onto a wagon that was attached to a tractor
 Their condition had deteriorated drastically and one of the female guards beat them with a truncheon for not alighting fast enough
the tractor drove via the yard where the marchers had slept and picked up another 15 women who could go no further
the remaining women marched 17 km from Schwarzenbach an der Saale
one of the prisoners fell behind and Kowaliv
 Her body was found later and buried where it was discovered
 The day's second victim was a prisoner who was taken into the forest left of the road between Rehau and Asch
some 5 km after the march had passed through Rehau
two more prisoners from Hungary – 29-year-old Aranka Brody and 17-year-old Elsa Habermann – were shot 40-50 meters apart
 The bodies of all four women were found by the Americans
 They were buried in a mass grave in Rehau
24-year-old Basha Wechsler of Dąbrowa Górnica
 Basha was being supported by her friend Anny Keller (Hanah Kotlicki)
pulled Basha away from her friend and dragged her into the forest
situated on the mountainous border between Germany and Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland)
 The prisoners didn't receive any food that day
A messenger from the SS arrived in Neuhausen and informed Alois Dörr
that he was under orders to stop shooting prisoners and to release them as the Americans were approaching
 The guards were also ordered to stop shooting and harming the prisoners
Dörr was notified that the Americans were 15 km away from Neuhausen
 He was told that negotiations with the Allies were taking place
and was ordered to destroy all documentation
and decided to continue the march immediately
 In the ensuing chaos caused by the nocturnal departure
some 50 prisoners from the group of non-Jewish women that had left Helmbrechts
some of the female guards seized the opportunity to escape under cover of darkness
where they met the sick prisoners whom had been sent there from Ölsniz by Karl Herman Jäschke
commander of the first section of the march
 Of the 160 sick women who had arrived at Zwodau
37 perished by the time the camp was evacuated
 The marchers also met the sick women who had been sent on the truck from Schwarzenbach to Rehau
 Some 150 Jewish female prisoners who had been transferred there from other camps even before the group from Helmbrechts had arrived
Dörr was given orders to leave all the non-Jewish prisoners he had brought from Helmbrechts and to take with him only the German women and the Jewish prisoners
during which time they marched more than 70 km
they reached Neustadt in the pouring rain on the afternoon of 23 April
the marchers reached the village of Wilkenau in the afternoon
 Those who were too weak and sick to walk were carried on horse-drawn wagons
escorted by guards and retreating German soldiers
the column was strafed by low-flying US aircraft
 Several prisoners were wounded and killed
 Some soldiers took the wounded Netka Demska to the local military hospital and later
one of the guards brought her back to the march
 One of the guards wouldn't allow her to be treated for her wounds
Several horses were also killed in the bombardment
 The ravenous prisoners swooped down on the dead horses
tearing the raw meat and fat with their bare hands and devouring it
 Her friend Lola Lehrer brought her some horse liver to eat
and Mary is convinced that this saved her life
prepared for them by the residents of Wilkenau on the orders of the guards
 They were buried together with the prisoner who had been shot
they slept on the snow in the open field where they stopped for the night
the women found the bodies of those who had perished in the night
a guard shot one of them in the chest near Neugramatin
the women crossed the border between the Sudetenland and the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia (today part of the Czech Republic)
and reached the city of Taus (today the Czech city of Domažlice)
 The locals tried to give the prisoners food and drink
and were openly hostile towards the German guards
who tried to disperse them by shooting into the air
 Some of the women took advantage of the situation and escaped
the Czech residents of the village of Mraken tried to feed the marching prisoners
 Dörr became careful to avoid the main roads and to veer the march towards Sudeten settlements that had been evacuated of their Czech inhabitants
Dörr demanded that the Mayor find lodging for all the prisoners
 The Mayor explained that there was no granary large enough to contain them all
and suggested housing them in several different locations
 Dörr decided that the women would spend the night outdoors
the prisoners didn't receive anything to eat
 At least 3 women perished during the night
325 Jewish prisoners and 25 German prisoners reached Volary
 The group that had marched on foot arrived in the evening
and the sick women brought on wagons arrived later that night
The residents of Volary tried to give the women food
but the guards prevented them from doing so
 One of the female guards beat the prisoners who stretched out their hands for food
Dörr had decided to let the remaining prisoners go
 He planned to take them to the neighboring city of Prachatice
on the border between the Protectorate (Czechoslovakia) and Germany
the Jewish women underwent a selection at the hands of Dörr
 150 Jewish women and the 25 Germans continued the march on foot
 The remaining 175 were categorized as unfit to walk
 35 of them were hauled up onto vehicles driven by Dörr and some of the guards
the intention being to rustle up more vehicles to bring the rest of the women to Prachatice
the vehicles were strafed by a low-flying American aircraft
 Some of the prisoners took advantage of the situation to escape
but most of the women in the vehicles were too weak
and the guards locked them up in a granary in the town of Bierbruck
3 guards caught 12 women from the group who were walking
 The guards were eager to avenge the death of Ruth Schultz and the injuries of the other guards
and were angry that the Jewish women had not been hurt
 It would seem that one of the guards was Schultz's boyfriend
The group of marchers continued via Pfefferschlag towards Prachatice
 Her body was found after the Americans arrived
and she was buried in the cemetery in Prachatice
The marching women reached Prachatice at night
and charge of them was transferred to the local home guard
In the shack of a furniture factory in Volary
 The two guards that had been left in charge of them waited in vain for the vehicles to return from Prachatice and to collect them together with the prisoners
3 guards evicted all but one of the women from the granary in Bierbruck where they had been locked up
the guards forced them to run up the mountain and into the adjacent forest
the guards released the last three women who were still alive
Luba Federman (Dzilovski) and Jadzia Goldblum - survived
Some of the women who had carried on marching to Prachatice managed to escape
 The remainder was handed over by Alois Dörr to the local home guard
The women feared that they were about to be executed
did the women realize that they were unguarded
 They descended the mountain in an easterly direction
towards the rising sun – the direction of the Russians
a Czech village in the territory of the Protectorate
 They arrived when the villagers were in church
saw one of the women and alerted the church-goers
the villagers brought soft food from their homes
The doctor telephoned the mayor of the neighboring city of Vodňany
 The women were housed in the local school in Vodňany
 12 women suffering from typhus were transferred to the hospital in nearby Volyně
where two of them – Masha Heide and Liwia Zaks – died
started to administer treatment to the sick women who had been left in the shack
She knew we were free but did not seem elated
"She went out to get water and hasn't returned
She has been gone a long time"… I went out to look for Suse
but for a moment I did not realized she was dead… "Suse
Liesel Stepper also perished in the hospital in Volary
two days after they had arrived at the shack in Volary
the Americans opened a comprehensive investigation in order to establish what these women had endured
and how they had come to be in the deplorable state in which they were found
testimonies were gathered from some of the survivors of the march
and from some of the SS women who had accompanied the march
 The investigation was headed by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert F
the resulting report contains shocking photographs of the survivors after their arrival in Volary
The German military hospital in Volary was situated in a 4-storey school building
the 118 women were transferred from the shack of the furniture factory in Volary to the first two floors of the hospital
after the wounded German soldiers there were evicted
 111 of them were suffering from malnutrition and severe vitamin deficiency
to supervise their transfer to the hospital
 He arrived at the shack of the furniture factory in Volary on the afternoon of 7 May
 In the testimony he gave two days later he relates:
 My first glance at these individuals was one of extreme shock not ever believing that a human being can be degraded
can be so skinny and even live under such circumstances..
like mice on top of one another too weak to as much as raise an arm… when I entered the room I thought that we had a group of old men lying… at that time judged their ages ranged between fifty and sixty years
I was surprised and shocked when I asked one of these girls how old she was and she said seventeen
when to me she appeared to be no less than fifty… about seventy-five percent had to be carried in by litters
The other twenty-five percent were able with the help of others to drag their weary bodies from the shack to the ambulance… As a medical officer of the United States it is my opinion that at least fifty percent of these 118 women would have died within twenty-four hours were they not located and given the best of care
among them 25-year-old Fela Szeps of Dąbrowa Górnicza
 Fela perished in the hospital in Volary on 9 May
 The photograph of her dying on the wooden plank bed was distributed amongst the 2nd Regiment of the 5th Infantry Division
Guccia and Mina had all marched together from Schlesiersee
 Guccia and Fela were murdered along the way
 She was the youngest of four sisters who started out on the march together from Grünberg
buried her in the cemetery in Volary and left only after the shiva (seven days of mourning)
Most of the survivors that recuperated left Volary in July 1945
The Americans established a cemetery for victims of the march in Volary
as far as was possible within the time constraints
and buried the women who had perished along the way
There are 95 graves in the cemetery in Volary
The residents of Volary have tended the graves from the end of the war to this day
commander of the Death March from Helmbrechts to Volary
was put on trial in 1969 in the court of Hof
he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment
commander of the Death March from Schlesiersee to Helmbrechts
was incarcerated in a Polish prison in 1947 for war crimes
Germany commenced the preparation of an indictment against Inge Schimming (Asmus)
one of the SS women who escorted the march
 Asmus died in Berlin before she was brought to trial
most of the death march survivors left Volary in July 1945
Some returned home in the hope of locating surviving family members
 Most of the women reached the Displaced Persons camps situated in Austria
they began the slow and painful process of rebuilding their lives
most of the women left Europe and immigrated to other countries
the search for work and the inevitable language barriers brought new challenges
started families and became involved in community life
and they found joy and fulfillment in being able to give their annihilated families new life
Lectures by the Hohenberg Ecological Education Center on nature and climate protection in cooperation with the "Friends of the Hof Public Library".
</a>Foto (ÖBI): Biolandwirt Markus Kießling (links) mit ÖBI-Vorsitzendem Udo Benker-Wienands vor seiner Rinderherde in HallersteinStrengths of the regionFor years
specialist lectures on nature and climate protection in cooperation with the "Friends of the Hof Public Library" have been an integral part of the event program of the Hohenberg Ecological Education Centre
the public library is once again opening its doors for this traditional series of events
The theme of the spring series at the Hof public library in 2025 is "Strengths of the region"
Irina Turner welcomes the fact that the series of events
can be continued this spring and hopes that many visitors will take up the offer
The information and discussion evenings take place on Thursdays at 7:30 pm in the Hof City Library
droughts - do we need to change the way we use water and is the drinking water supply future-proof
Tobias Zuber from the State Office for the Environment
Is the supply of drinking water secure in the long term
How much of a threat do possible periods of drought or heavy rainfall events pose to life in the region
Tobias Zuber will talk about the problem of "water"
people in our region were not worried about water
climate change is also fundamentally changing the situation in Central Europe
organic farmer from Hallerstein near Schwarzenbach
the organizer of the "Regio-Markt Hallerstein"
includes regional suppliers from Schwarzenbach an der Saale and the entire region
specialties from the region are offered every first Thursday of the month in the market barn in Hallerstein from 4:00 to 7:00 pm
It is the largest and most diverse farmers' market in the Hochfranken gourmet region
where producers sell their regional products directly
What should have been a peaceful Sunday walk turned tragic when an Akita died after stepping on electrified ground in Schwarzenbach an der Saale
While searching for a spot to relieve herself near a historic street lamp
the seven-year-old Akita suddenly let out a heart-wrenching cry and collapsed
Authorities believe she suffered a fatal electric shock
A passerby who tried to help also sustained minor injuries and required medical treatment
it was thought the dog urinated at the lamp’s base
investigations now suggest the ground near the lamp was electrified
and the accident occurred when she sniffed the wet area
town officials immediately switched off all similar street lamps and commissioned a specialist inspection
The lamps will remain off until they are deemed safe
several dog owners reported their pets behaving strangely near the same lamp
The street lamp had been converted to LED technology two years ago
but the exact cause of the electrical fault remains unclear
and the case is under review by the public prosecutor’s office
mourning the loss of the beloved Akita while awaiting answers and assurances that such a devastating accident won’t happen again
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