Erwin Lochmatter

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Erwin Lochmatter (born September 1, 1911 in St. Niklaus ; † August 9, 1987 there ) was a Swiss entrepreneur , mountaineer , ski and mountain guide . He made the St. Niklaus quartzite stone slabs known beyond the borders of the Valais in Europe .

family

Erwin Lochmatter from St. Niklaus in the Swiss canton of Valais was a grandson of Josef Marie Lochmatter (1833–1882), the founder and ancestor of the famous St. Niklaus mountain guide dynasty, and a son of Josef Lochmatter (1872–1915), the founder of the new one St. Niklaus mountain guide school. Like his father, Erwin grew up as a half-orphan.

Berta Burgener (1914–1998) and Erwin Lochmatter had four children. Berta Burgener was a relative of the "King of Mountain Guides" Alexander Burgener .

Mountain and ski guides

In 1933 Erwin Lochmatter took part in the recovery of the body of Franz Lochmatter , who fell from the Great Gendarme of the Weisshorn on August 17th . In 1934 Erwin obtained the mountain guide diploma according to the ordinance of the canton of Valais of February 13, 1925. He took guests who praised him at least in his guide book, especially to the peaks of the Valais mountains until the 1960s . One of his regulars was the Belgian banker Jacques Verhagen, who said that Lochmatter drives as well as drives. These alpine skills benefited him as an entrepreneur, as the quartzite slab quarries in the municipality of St. Niklaus are one of the few European quarries without road access.

On the 25th anniversary of Franz Lochmatter's death in 1958, Erwin Lochmatter and his professional comrades placed a memorial plaque made of St. Niklaus quartzite stone at the site of the accident at the Lochmatterturm on the Weisshorn. a. carries the following words: A dear father must live up there . In 1971, Erwin proved himself as President of the Organizing Committee in holding the 10th Valais Mountain Guide Festival in St. Niklaus on the weekend from June 19 to 21. I.a. a commemorative medal was issued to Franz Lochmatter.

On September 1, 1977 Erwin fell about 30 meters downhill while expanding the terminus of his water ballast runway. The severe injuries that he sustained prevented him from future high-alpine tours. The material ropeway was a two-lane aerial tramway with a suspension and pulling rope, the two connected cars from the hamlet of Esch north of St. Niklaus Dorf at 1095  m above sea level. M. up to Wintergadmen at 1800  m above sea level. M. led.

The original guide book by Erwin Lochmatter can be found today in the St. Niklaus Mountain Guide Museum. On August 7, 1962, his older son Walter was issued a guide-aspirant booklet from the canton of Valais, which is owned by the family.

Quartzite plate fractures Lochmatter

The Lochmatter quartzite quarries seen in 2006 from Kantonshauptstrasse 213. On the left is the red cabin of the passenger cable car, from where the Lochmatter quartzite quarries stretch around 250 meters to the right or north.

On April 23, 1944, Erwin Lochmatter and his year-old Ulrich Imboden (1911–1988) acquired the concession to mine the quartzite in the area of ​​the municipality of St. Niklaus. Lochmatter took over the St. Niklaus quarries and managed their operations, while Imboden concentrated on managing the construction company. In 1945, when Erwin Lochmatter acquired the mining license, the history of commercial quartzite mining began in the area of ​​the municipality of Embd , which borders the municipality of St. Niklaus down the valley. On October 24, 1954, the municipality of St. Niklaus extended the mining concession of Lochmatter and Imboden, with Imboden ceding his concession rights to Lochmatter on November 11 of the same year and the mining operation and construction company were now completely separate from each other. In 1955 the concession and quarries in the area of ​​the municipality of Embd were transferred to the St. Niklaus family Biner.

The green color and its easy cleavage make St. Niklaus quartzite unique. Over 1,500 tons of quartzite were extracted annually in the area of ​​the municipality of St. Niklaus. The sales of the material were structured as follows:

  • Valais 25% (of which regionally mainly roof tiles),
  • rest of Switzerland 30% and
  • Abroad 45%.

The most frequent foreign deliveries went to Germany , but many also went to Belgium or the Netherlands .

Quartzite blocks were blasted out of the rock from the tunnels, which were up to 600 meters long. These heavy stone blocks were loaded onto special rolling wagons and pulled into the daylight on narrow-gauge rails, where they were split into layers with a hammer and chisel. The plates were sorted according to size and quality. The panels with a regularly greenish and even surface were processed into terrace panels, steps, window sills, etc., with the edges being milled to a certain extent or using a template. The surface of the plates remained split and was not processed further.

In 1972 Erwin Lochmatter handed over his business Erwin Lochmatter Quarzite Quarries St. Niklaus to his twin sons Walter and Anton Lochmatter ( Brothers Lochmatter Quarzite Slab Quarries St. Niklaus ). In 1975 Anton Lochmatter had a fatal accident in the quarry on December 22, before his 35th birthday. In the area of ​​the municipality of St. Niklaus, quartzite was commercially mined in the quarry until Walter Lochmatter's accidental death on March 16, 2005 ( Walter Lochmatter quartzite quarries St. Niklaus ).

In the first generation, more than 60 employees were employed in the quartzite plate quarries of the Lochmatter company. In the second generation, the number fell to around 20 employees in the course of increasing mechanization of the mining operations.

Edelweiss St. Niklaus Music Society

Erwin Lochmatter played the tuba in the Edelweiss music company in his home community from the 1930s to the 1960s . Then he was honorary president of the association. On October 18, 1986 he was appointed honorary veteran of the veterans' association of the Upper Valais Music Association.

Tourist office St. Niklaus and the surrounding area, today's tourist office

Erwin Lochmatter was one of the main initiators in founding the St. Niklaus and Surroundings Tourist Association in 1966 and also its first president, who is still dedicated to soft tourism to this day .

First ascents (selection)

  • August 19, 1938 First enchaînement or ascent from Felikjoch to Castor , traversing to Pollux by climbing the north face and descent to Zermatt in around 24 hours with his cousin Hermann Lochmatter (1907–2000) and guest Dr. Oliver K. Williamson (1866-1941)
  • the other first ascents see below under literature and / or in the guide book 1934–1961 by Erwin Lochmatter (1911–1987)

literature

  • Christian Imboden: Mountains: job, calling, fate. The St. Niklaus mountain guides as pioneers of international alpinism . Rotten Verlag , Visp 2013, ISBN 978-3-907624-48-7 . (Chapter The mountain guides of St. Niklaus and the quartzite quarries of the Nikolaital , page 96; Chapter The first ascents of the St. Niklaus mountain guides to the present , pages 108 ff. And Lochmatter Erwin (1911–1987) , page 172.)

Web links

Commons : Erwin Lochmatter  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Imboden: Mountains: Profession, Vocation, Fate . Rotten Verlag, Visp 2013, ISBN 3-907624-48-3 , p. 171 .
  2. ↑ Christian Imboden: Mountains: Profession, Vocation, Fate . Rotten Verlag, Visp 2013, ISBN 3-907624-48-3 , p. 107 .
  3. ↑ Christian Imboden: Mountains: Profession, Vocation, Fate . Rotten Verlag, Visp 2013, ISBN 3-907624-48-3 , p. 198 .
  4. ↑ Christian Imboden: Mountains: Profession, Vocation, Fate . Rotten Verlag, Visp 2013, ISBN 3-907624-48-3 , p. 63 .
  5. ↑ Walter Lochmatter quartzite quarries 1976-2005 , accessed on October 10, 2017.
  6. ↑ Walter Lochmatter quartzite quarries , accessed on October 29, 2017.
  7. ↑ Local look around: St. Niklaus - General Assembly of the Music Society «Edelweiß»
  8. ↑ MINUTES of the 7th Veterans Conference of the Upper Valais Veterans Association on October 18, 1986 in Ausserberg
  9. ↑ Christian Imboden: Mountains: Profession, Vocation, Fate . Rotten Verlag, Visp 2013, ISBN 3-907624-48-3 , p. 201 .
  10. ^ Alpine Journal. 53, 1942, pp. 261-263.
  11. ^ Alpine Journal. 51, 1939, pp. 133-134.
personal data
SURNAME Lochmatter, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss entrepreneurs, mountaineers, ski and mountain guides
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Niklaus , Canton of Valais, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1987
Place of death St. Niklaus , Canton of Valais, Switzerland