Welcome Innsbruck - Sommer 2018

W E L C O M E 54 K U L T U R distant, or to put it better: very much higher. The funicular’s constructor was the South Tyrolean engineer Josef Riehl, and his thoughts may well have revolved around going further, higher. While in the beginning he still envisaged a multi-sectional funicular as far as the Seegrube station, and then on to the Hafelekar summit, he submitted plans, as early as 1909, for an aerial cableway. Considered for a long time to be technically unrealisa- ble fantasies, the first such cableway had been opened one year earlier in Bolzano, South Tyrol. Riehl was not meant to pursue the fulfilment of his plans. World War I broke out, he died in 1917. Riehl’s partner Karl Innere- bner kept on the ball, even though a few years had to come and go first. Construction finally got underway on July 15, 1927. The first section, from the Hungerburg station to the Seegrube, was conceived as a con- ventional aerial tramway, with two gondolas. The second part, from the Seegrube to the Hafelekar, had to make do with one gondola. „For the first transports, particularly for the goods cable lift and the workers’ barracks, ten porters were recruited from the Pinzgau region, who are regarded as particularly reliable and known for their enormous capacities,“ Günter Denoth writes in his book stadtflucht (lit. escape from the city). Seventy kilograms each of these porters was able to transport uphill in one go –131 kilograms is said to have been the record. Two times a day the distance was covered, so that an average of 1.4 tons of mate- rial in total was transported up the mountain in a day. Other materials, such as construction timber, were taken to the mountain by the Deutsche Lufthansa with the help of parachutes. The accuracy of this method, how- ever, left much to be desired and the damages too were considerable. On December 23, the topping-out ceremony took place at the See- grube. Two weeks later came the fist anticlimax. Fire broke out due to sparks. The intermediate station burnt to the ground, which set the works back by a month. When the Patscherkofelbahn cableway was opened, on April 14, 1928, the constructors of the Nordkettenbahn backed down, namely as far as the appearance of their gondolas was concerned, which were meant to come in a cream colour, with brownish red window frames. The Patscher- kofelbahn managers perceived disadvantages, though, and decided on a darker colourway, which led to quite a lot of formalities, as construction of the gondolas was already in progress at the Bleichert factory. On July 8, 1928, the first section finally went into operation, section two followed on July 21. „Besides its eminent importance for the tourism of North Tyrol in general, and the tourism of Innsbruck in particular, the Nordkettenbahn brings considerable advantages for future climbers, who elsewhere are not averse to pull up their noses at cableways, by making more easily ac- cessible very remote mountain areas, reachable only by great effort in the past, indeed developing them at all,“ the Tiroler Anzeiger newspaper wrote on July 21, 1928. „Many Innsbruck citizens as well, who all their lives have only looked at the Nordkette range from below, will not miss the opportu- nity of paying a visit to this glorious mountain area.“ W zurückgelegt – also wurden pro Tag im Schnitt 1,4 Tonnen Material den Berg hinaufbefördert. Anderes Material wie Baubretter wurde von der Deutschen Lufthansa mittels Fallschirmen auf den Berg gebracht. Aller- dings war die Treffsicherheit dieser Methode nicht sehr hoch und auch die Materialschäden waren beträchtlich. Am 23. Dezember wurde auf der Seegrube Firstfeier gefeiert. Zwei Wochen später erfolgte die große Ernüchterung. Durch einen Funken- flug brach ein Brand aus. Die Mittelstation brannte fast zur Gänze ab, was die Arbeiten um einen Monat zurückwarf. Als am 14. April 1928 die Patscherkofelbahn eröffnet wurde, mach- ten die Erbauer der Nordkettenbahn einen Rückzieher und zwar, was die Farbe der Wagen anbelangte, die in Creme mit braunroten Fensterrah- men gehalten sein sollten. Man stellte bei der Patscherkofelbahn jedoch Nachteile fest und entschloss sich zu einer wesentlich dunkleren Far- be, was einiges an Formalitäten auslöste, da die Kabinen bei der Firma Bleichert bereits in Bau waren. Am 8. Juli 1928 nahm die erste Sektion schließlich den Betrieb auf, am 21. Juli folgte Sektion 2. „Die Nordkettenbahn bringt neben ihrer eminenten Bedeutung für den Fremdenverkehr Nordtirols im allgemeinen und den Innsbrucks im besonderen auch den zünftigen Bergsteigern, die sonst nicht abgeneigt sind, über Bergbahnen die Nase zu rümpfen, ganz bedeutende Vortei- le, indem sie weit abgelegene, früher nur unter großen Anstrengungen erreichbare Berggebiete leichter zugänglich macht, ja erst recht er- schließt“, schrieb der Tiroler Anzeiger am 21. Juli 1928. „Auch viele Inns- brucker, die ihr Leben lang die Nordkette von unten angeschaut haben, werden sich die Gelegenheit nicht entgehen lassen, diesem herrlichen Berggebiet einen mühelosen Besuch abzustatten.“ W F rom every point in the city the Nordkette range takes up a special position indeed. Like a city sentinel it seems from a distance and yet every tourist is captured by its appearance.“ (from a tourist guide, early 20th century) Small wonder, therefore, that so many thoughts should revolve around the question of how to make this imposing mountain range accessible, tangible – for every visitor, not just for the physically fit. The first step was a funicular, which went into operation after a construction time of only seven months, on September 12, 1906, and connected the Innsbruck Ro- tunde (rotunda), which also housed the Riesenrundgemälde (giant cyclo- rama) at the time, with the Hungerburg above. The mountain was still very © INNSBRUCKER NORDKETTENBAHNEN / STADTARCHIV INNSBRUCK