Municipal Office ​|​ Dalaas

The current Dalaas municipal office was built in the 1920s using solid stone construction . Until its forced closure by the Nazis in 1938, it housed the poorhouse . Sisters of Mercy, who were under the authority of the motherhouse in Innsbruck, cared for people in the community who needed assistance.

As early as the 19th century, there was an almshouse in Dalaas, which can be clearly seen in a historical photograph by Andreas Schnetzer. It was an elongated wooden building with a shingled roof and two dormers. On August 8, 1915, this building burned to the ground. As a result of World War I, the Dalaas fire department’s crew had been severely depleted, which is why the building could not be saved. Since there was no wind, at least the surrounding buildings were spared from the fire.

Records of welfare assistance for the poor in Dalaas date back to the period of Bavarian rule (1805 to 1814). In 1810–11, there were 13 adults and 9 children in Dalaas and Wald who were classified as“Spendleut”and, as poor residents with local residency rights, had to be supported by the municipality. During those two years, a total of 1,151 loaves of bread were distributed to them. The municipality’s poor relief fund was repeatedly replenished through donations. Elderly people without relatives, as well as people with disabilities, were cared for in the poorhouse by the Sisters of Mercy. However, some children from socially disadvantaged families also grew up there, such as Franz Kohler, born in 1899, who—at the advanced age of about 90—shared his moving memories (he was a so-called“Schwabenkind”) in a radio broadcast.

Starting in the Nazi era, the building no longer served as a poorhouse but only as a municipal office. Subsequently, a new elementary school building was added . Unfortunately, in 1941, a fire in the roof truss destroyed a large portion of the municipal archives.