Bergopfer-Gedenkkapelle St. Bernhard, Memorial chapel at Kührointalm in Schönau am Königsee, Germany.
Bergopfer-Gedenkkapelle St. Bernhard is a solid masonry chapel built to plans by architect Franz Grüsser of Berchtesgaden, with a rectangular main room and apse, and a square tower attached to the side. Steep local-style shingle roofs cover the tower with a pyramidal top and the main room with a hipped roof whose visible truss extends over the entrance as rain protection. A sundial and painted corner quoins were added during the 2019 renovation for its 20th anniversary.
Three local residents established this chapel in the 1960s to honor mountaineers who died in the region, prompted by a desire to create a fitting memorial. The project grew from recognizing the need to remember those lost to the mountains.
The chapel is dedicated to Saint Bernard of Menthon, patron of Alpine dwellers and mountaineers, whose statue stands on a pedestal to the right of the apse. The carved figures were made by students of the Berchtesgaden woodcarving school under director Gerhard Passens and sculptor Fritz Schelle; the tower cross is by Hans Richter.
The chapel stands right beside the Kührointhütte, a self-catering hut of the DAV Berchtesgaden section, on the edge of the Kührointalm clearing at 1408 m. It is reached on foot via the forest path that passes the managed hut; opening is normally tied to the hut's operating season. The site lies near the former Federal Border Guard training facility, so expect a mountain hike with proper footwear.
The memorial books were compiled from earlier records by A. Helm and Max Wembacher: Karl Komposch gathered names of victims from the Berchtesgaden Alps (Book I) and district residents who died elsewhere (Book II), while Hubert Heil compiled victims of the Watzmann East Wall (Book III).
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