Franz Reisch

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Franz Reisch, 1903

Franz Reisch (born October 17, 1863 in Kufstein ; † January 6, 1920 in Kitzbühel ) was an Austrian businessman, local politician, tourism promoter and ski pioneer.

Life

Franz Anton Reisch was the son of the master gingerbread maker and wax maker Josef Anton Reisch (* December 18, 1822 - September 28, 1872), who was also mayor of Kufstein . His mother was Anna Reisch (* January 18, 1831; † February 12, 1910) born Lechleitner. Josef Anton and Anna had 11 children (5 sons, 6 daughters), Franz Anton was the 7th child in this relationship and spent his childhood with the family in Kufstein. After the early death of the father in a railway accident, the widowed mother took over the company.

As a result, Franz Reisch attended the citizens' school in Salzburg as a preferred student. He began his professional training with a drugstore apprenticeship in Salzburg, as well as a commercial apprenticeship (1880 Salfeldt & Stein, tobacco factory in Neuhausen an der Lahn). He gained professional experience as a clerk in his own Kufstein company and as a magazine trainee (1883 with Friedrich Max Haakh) in Heilbronn and as a retailer (1884 with Josef Anton Zezi) in Salzburg.

From October 1886 to September 1887 Reisch moved as a one-year volunteer to the Tyrolean Landschützen Regiment in Schwaz (recruit, 2 months) and Innsbruck (aspirant course 10 months) and ended this period of service as a lieutenant in the reserve.

From May 1888 Reisch gained experience as a traveler for the company S. Singer (Vienna), from 1890 he worked as a magazineur and traveler for Baden and Württemberg again for the company FM Haakh in the tobacco and cigar industry.

In November 1890 Franz Reisch came to Kitzbühel to see his younger brother, who was ill, on the instructions of his mother Anna . After the death of his childless and unmarried brother Rudolf Nikolaus (who died December 7th, 1890 from tuberculosis), he took over the management of the Lebzelterei and waxworks in Kitzbühel, a branch of the Reisch family with an attached pastry and coffee shop, on February 2nd, 1891 settled down in Kitzbühel.

In 1896 he married Maria, b. Tscholl, this marriage had 7 children (Hedwig, Ernst, Margarethe, Hermann, Rudolf, Walter and Guido).

Political and tourist activities

As an enthusiastic climber and hiker closely connected with the Kitzbühel mountains, he endeavored to open up this mountain world for city dwellers and lowland residents. Reisch familiarized the Kitzbühel accommodation industry with international customs and requirements and developed intensive advertising activities for Kitzbühel among his many international friends. This is documented among other things:

The first foreign skiers appear in the winter of 1897/98. After buying the Kagringalm in 1896 (today Alpenhaus), Reisch built the summit house on the Kitzbüheler Horn , for the construction of which he climbed the summit up to three times a day in the summer of 1898. At the turn of the century, more ski guests came to Kitzbühel in winter Franz Reisch initiated and sponsored the construction of the Grand Hotel in 1902, as well as a bath at the Schwarzsee to further promote the design of Kitzbühel as a summer resort. In 1902, following a suggestion by Franz Reisch, the first military ski course took place in Kitzbühel under the direction of Lieutenant Georg Bilgeri, others followed. Franz Reisch also turned to the researcher Willy Rickmer Rickmers, a tourism expert, and was able to win him over as a ski instructor in Kitzbühel (1905/06), and later also the Norwegian Chappel Jacobsen as the first Norwegian ski instructor in Kitzbühel (1909/10). In 1904 he acquired the Hinterbräu (restaurant, brewery, agriculture), in 1910 he built the Sporthotel Reisch as his own business, which opened in 1912.

Reisch expanded the Hornweg to the Kitzbüheler Horn (1900) and it was through him that curling and ice hockey was started in Kitzbühel . He also initiated tobogganing and bobsleigh by building his own track (1908).

He recognized the special climatic advantages of Kitzbühel and promoted them together with the first ski guide in Kitzbühel with the title "Schitouren um Kitzbühel", which was written and published in 1908 by Franz Reisch and illustrated with 19 photos by Josef Herold.

As a politician, Franz Reisch was a local councilor from 1892 to 1903, and from 1903 to 1913 he managed the town as mayor of Kitzbühel. He was also a member of numerous associations, such as chairman of the mountain rescue , the beautification club, and the gymnastics club.

to travel

Reisch traveled extensively in Europe , the Orient and overseas. A selection:

Ski pioneer

In 1892 Reisch bought a pair of snowshoes in Norway (skis, 2.30 m length), inspired by the book "Auf Schneeschuhe durch Grönland" by Fridtjof Nansen, and subsequently became a ski pioneer who contributed to the spread of skiing and to the ascent Kitzbühels made a significant contribution to becoming a world-famous winter sports destination. After initially practicing on the Hinterbräuleitn (today Rasmusleitn) at the foot of the Hahnenkamm from January 1893, Reisch undertook a historic winter ascent of the Kitzbüheler Horn (780–2,000 m altitude) on skis on March 15, 1893 and published it in the magazine "Der Schneeschuh" (1st year, Munich, November 1, 1893). On August 1, 1897, Reisch had climbed the Kitzbüheler Horn for the 100th time. After a large shipment of skis from Norway, the first small races took place in the winter of 1895. From 1902 he was chairman of the Kitzbühel winter sports association he founded (founding meeting on December 21, 1902 in the “Schwarzer Adler” inn - now “Hotel Tyrol”). At this meeting the decision was made to have 30 pairs of skis made for local youth and to distribute them free of charge. In the same winter of 1902/03, Franz Reisch undertook to teach the "boys" he named personally on a daily basis. A first race of these young skiers took place. In 1904 the first larger ski jump was built on Schattberg under the guidance of Franz Reisch, based on the example of the then already famous Holmenkollen in Norway (Christiania, now Oslo ). The Kitzbühel Winter Sports Association was transformed into a club on October 15, 1905, thanks to the operation of Reisch. On November 5, 1905, Reisch represented his club at the founding meeting of the German and Central European Ski Association, also took part in the founding meeting of the Austrian Ski Association on November 22, 1905, also in Munich , and was appointed to the advisory board of the main board. On the mediation and initiative of Franz Reisch, the first Tyrolean Ski Championships took place in 1905 (January 14th to 16th) in the form of a winter sports festival and in 1907 (January 5th to 7th) the first Austrian Ski Championships took place in Kitzbühel. On February 17, 1908, the ski championships of the Skiclub of Great Britain took place in Kitzbühel, also at the suggestion of Franz Reisch. A combined curve and speed race was held, in which elements of the later developed Alpine combination or the "downhill-only" race were anticipated. On January 25, 1913, Franz Reisch represented Kitzbühel at the founding of the Tyrolean State Ski Association in Innsbruck , where Kitzbühel was granted and certified the unrestricted right to hold a “general” (international) race every year. Many national and international major sporting events followed, the International Hahnenkamm Race has been the most famous of them since 1931. On January 6, 1920, at the end of a joint ski tour with his sons Hermann, Rudolf and Walter and their friend and later Tibet researcher Peter Aufschnaiter above the Schattbergschanze, Reisch died of heart failure at the age of 56.

Honors

  • 1930 honorary member of the Kitzbühel Ski Club
  • 1959 bronze relief. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary Hahnenkamm race, the Kitzbühel Ski Club donated a bronze relief, a work by the Innsbruck sculptor Franz Roilo, which was attached to the outer wall of the town hall of Kitzbühel and was ceremoniously unveiled on January 17, 1959.
  • 2013 The Kitzbühel Ski Club erects a memorial plaque on the newly renovated Schattbergschanze to commemorate the place where Franz Reisch died on January 6, 1920.

literature

  • Kitzbüheler Nachrichten, number 3, year 7, January 11, 1913
  • Kitzbüheler Anzeiger, special edition, January 17, 1959, commemorative publication for the 20th anniversary Hahnenkamm race in 1959
  • Kitzbüheler Heimatblätter, No. 2, February 1993, 2nd year
  • Kitzbüheler Stadtbuch, Volume IV, 1971, Kitzbühel Ski History - Ski World History, pp. 735–806
  • Kitzbühel Ski Club, 50 years old, 1955, commemorative publication.
  • Kitzbühel, sun and powder snow, by Prof. EA Pfeifer, 1935
  • Anniversary messenger, 100 years Sporthotel Reisch, December 2012.
  • Kitzbüheler Ski Club (KSC) (Hrsg.): Hahnenkamm - Chronicle of a Myth. Munich 2003
  • F. Mathis:  Reisch, Franz (1863–1920), local politician and businessman. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 9, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7001-1483-4 , p. 55.
personal data
SURNAME Reisch, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reisch, Franz Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian businessman, local politician, tourism promoter and ski pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Kufstein
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1920
Place of death Kitzbühel