Günther Messner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memorial plaque on the parish church of St. Peter in Villnöß

Günther Messner (born May 18, 1946 in Brixen , South Tyrol ; † June 29, 1970 at Nanga Parbat , Pakistan ) was a banker , mountaineer and a younger brother of Reinhold Messner . He died during an expedition led by Karl Herrligkoffer to the eight-thousander Nanga Parbat.

Alpinism

Günther Messner was one of the best mountaineers in the late 1960s. For years he was his brother Reinhold's rope partner and climbed the most difficult routes in the Alpine region with him. Despite his three-digit number of extreme tours in the Alps , Günther Messner was initially not intended as a participant in the Nanga Parbat expedition in 1970; only shortly before the start of the expedition did he join the team due to the rejection of others.

Death on Nanga Parbat

Reinhold Messner set out from the last camp at night on June 27, 1970 to go it alone on the Rupal wall. The Rupal face is the highest steep face in the world and was not yet climbed back then. His brother Günther, who had initially started in the morning to secure the lower part of the Merklrinne, the climbing route on the Rupalwand, with Gerhard Baur, soon made the spontaneous decision to follow Reinhold and climbed up alone. This decision was very risky as he did not have bivouac equipment or enough warm clothing and food with him. Günther caught up with his brother. According to his brother, Günther Messner soon showed signs of altitude sickness and exhaustion due to the extremely high rate of ascent . They reached the summit together in the late afternoon. What happened from then on is controversial.

Reinhold Messner's information

Reinhold Messner reported that the two brothers were forced to an emergency bivouac in the Merkl-Scharte not far from the summit, as a night descent over the Rupalwand seemed impossible due to Günther's exhaustion and altitude sickness. Although the next day there was telephone contact with Felix Kuen and Peter Scholz , who were also climbing to the summit via the Rupalwand , Reinhold Messner was unable to get help that would have made it possible to descend via the ascent route. Reinhold Messner, who was still relatively strong compared to his brother, decided - only now, as he says - to descend over the somewhat easier, but unknown to him, Diamirwand, in order to get Günther to the lower, saving elevations as quickly as possible bring. This descent of several days, which led to the second crossing of an eight-thousander, brought both climbers to the limit of their strength. Reinhold lost contact with Günther towards the end of the descent on June 29, 1970. He suspects that Günther was buried in an avalanche. After a few days, Reinhold Messner managed to return to civilization.

Felix Kuen's information

During the phone call between Felix Kuen and Reinhold Messner, Reinhold called out that everything was OK, although at this point Günther Messner was already showing signs of altitude sickness. Reinhold Messner said that he had asked for a rope and equipment in the aftermath. Call contact took place under difficult conditions in the so-called death zone over a distance of 80 to 100 meters.

“There was not a word for help, not a word for a rope, not a word that Günther was sick! We had to assume that everything was really all right with the Messners. [...] We would have helped, would have climbed up to the left around the southern tip and from there to Reinhold and Günther. Not to expect Peter [Scholz] and me to do this, even in thought, would be simply monstrous. It might have taken us five hours, but we would have been there with all the equipment. […] We couldn't just have helped! - We would have helped! But Reinhold pointed towards the Diamir side, called out a greeting, bent down as if he wanted to pick something up, and disappeared behind the ridge! "

- Felix Kuen : in "On the summits of the world" by Karl Ruef, Graz 1972

Max von Kienlin's and Hans Saler's information

In a dispute in 2001, Reinhold Messner accused the expedition of failing to provide assistance in connection with the death of Günther Messner. Subsequently, the expedition participants Max von Kienlin and Hans Saler claimed that Reinhold Messner might have separated from his brother near the summit or had sent him back to the rope team, which was also already on the way to the summit. He then went down alone via the Diamir side, while Günther Messner made the way back to the Rupal side alone and was killed in the process. Reinhold Messner also planned to cross the mountain single-handedly from the start. Reinhold Messner says that the idea to get down on the Diamir side came from Günther Messner and that he, Reinhold, was unable to oppose it. In the following legal dispute, Saler could not prove the allegations made in his book, whereupon his publisher published an amended new edition.

Finds

In July 2000, the mountaineer Hanspeter Eisendle found a bone (right fibula) at the foot of the Diamir wall on Nanga Parbat at an altitude of approx. 4400 m. Due to the decomposition of the DNA , it was not originally possible to determine with certainty whether it was a Günther Messner bone. It was not ruled out that the bone could have come from mountaineer Siegi Löw , who died in 1962 on Nanga Parbat . Evidence for this was Siegi Löw's green trousers found near the bone and the old climbing rope . A later analysis at the University of Innsbruck, however, very likely suggested Günther Messner's identity.

On August 17, 2005, further remains of a climber were found on the Diamir side. Reinhold Messner recognized his brother Günther Messner's shoes and jacket. On September 8, 2005, the remains were burned on a stake at the foot of Nanga Parbat. It was a funeral according to Tibetan tradition. The participants sang “Lak yelo, the gods have been gracious” and threw rice in the air. On October 21, 2005, scientists in Innsbruck confirmed after a DNA analysis of tissue samples from the deceased that the glacier corpse discovered in August on Nanga Parbat was probably the remains of Günther Messner. Thus, the currently known circumstances suggest that Günther Messner died on the Diamir side of the mountain and not on the ascent through the Rupal wall.

literature

Movie

  • Death on Nanga Parbat - The Messner Tragedy. TV documentary by Ludwig Ott (44 min., 2004)
  • Nanga Parbat . Director: Joseph Vilsmaier in collaboration with Reinhold Messner. Release date: January 14, 2010. Length: 104 minutes. The film traces the tragic events of 1970 from the perspective of Reinhold Messner.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günther Messner's diary, entry from May 18, 1970, in: Reinhold Messner, Der Nackte Berg , 2002, Piper Verlag, p. 119
  2. ^ Karl Ruef: Felix Kuen - On the summits of the world. Graz 1972, p. 167f
  3. ↑ Summary and criticism of the film Nanga Parbat ( memento from January 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at Bayerischer Rundfunk
personal data
SURNAME Messner, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian mountaineer and younger brother of Reinhold Messner
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Brixen
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1970
Place of death Nanga Parbat , Pakistan