Odyssey Project

Negotiations are under way for Robert Koenig to carve two historic chestnut trees that grew by the entrance to the Oberer Kuhberg in Ulm, Germany. The Oberer Kuhberg was used from November 1933 to July 1935 by the Nazi Regime as a concentration camp for more than 600 political and ideological opponents. The chestnut trees are visible on the foreground of the photograph shown below. They came down in a storm in 2013.

Robert Koenig plans to use various sections of the trees to carve figures remembering those prisoners. He will also cut sections into boards to be used in workshops at the local Anna Essinger school. This is planned for 2015.

There are plans to show the Odyssey project in the town of Speyer in 2015. Robert Koenig’s mother spent several years during the Second World War as a forced labourer in an aircraft factory in Speyer. The Odyssey figures are retracing her journey from her home village in Dominikowice, Poland, through the labour camps in Germany and on to the UK where she settled after the War.

Following the hugely successful exhibition in the town of Leutkirch im Allgäu, southern Germany in 2013, The Odyssey project will go on show in the Bavarian town of Memmingen in July 2014.