Heilbronn Dachstein accident

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Laying Out in the Obertraun Sports Hall (April 27, 1954)

The Heilbronn Dachstein accident was an event in 1954 in which ten students and three teachers from Heilbronn were killed in a snow storm on the Dachstein massif in Upper Austria .

Mountain accident

In the Holy Week of 1954, around 150 people from Heilbronn, including a group of around 40 from the Heilbronn Boys' Middle School (today's Dammrealschule ), spent their holidays with their teachers at the Obertraun Federal Sports School . The group planned some mountain hikes, including on the Krippenstein , where the first two sections of the cable car were just being built. Despite the unfavorable weather conditions, a group of 14 (ten students and four teachers) ventured on April 15th, Maundy Thursday, led by the teacher Hans Georg Seiler the ascent. In doing so, however, they were repeatedly warned, among others by the hut landlady of the Schönbergalm and two workers of the material ropeway who were coming down from base 5; they were the last to see the thirteen victims alive.

After the group did not return to their accommodation in the evening, a search was started that night. The first traces of the group were not found until Easter Tuesday, the following weekend the first dead and after around one and a half months the last. The search was one of the largest in Alpine history with over 400 mountain rescuers, alpine supporters and volunteers. The teacher Hildegard Mattes was the only one who survived the accident, as she turned back after a two-hour walk.

The victims

Sacrificial graves in the main cemetery in Heilbronn
  • Willi Alfred Dengler, 16 years old, student
  • Herbert Adolf Kurz, 15 years old, student
  • Peter Lehnen, 15 years old, student
  • Peter Eberhard Mössner, 16 years old, student
  • Rolf Richard Mössner, 14 years old, student
  • Roland Georg Josef Rauschmaier, 15 years old, pupil
  • Karl-Heinz Rienecker, 16 years old, pupil
  • Hans Werner Rupp, 24 years old, teacher
  • Hans Georg Seiler, 40 years old, teacher (spelling in some sources: Sailer)
  • Kurt Seitz, 14 years old, student
  • Dieter Steck, 16 years old, student
  • Klaus Josef Strobel, 15 years old, student
  • Christa Doris Vollmer, 24 years old, teacher

Commemoration

The chapel on the Krippenstein

A memorial stone was erected on the Heilbronn main cemetery . In 1959 a small chapel was built on the Krippenstein , in which a bell from the city of Heilbronn was raised - dedicated to the memory of the victims.

The Heilbronner Kreuz , a simple wooden cross, was erected at the point where the dead were found, around three kilometers southeast of the Krippenstein at an altitude of 1959 meters on the hiking trail to the Gjaidalm . It can be reached via several hiking trails. Coordinates: 47 ° 30 '36.2 "  N , 13 ° 43' 18.5"  E

The Upper Styrian writer Peter Gruber attempted a literary approach to the incidents in his novel Tod am Stein (2006), after years of grappling with the facts for the Heilbronn city archive.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary, Jochen Neurath composed Frozen Dreams, a scenic cantata for two choirs in which the misfortune is dealt with musically and scenically. It was premiered in 2014 in the Kilian's Church (Heilbronn) by the chamber choir of the Mönchsee-Gymnasium and the Heilbronn vocal ensemble.

60 years after the accident, ORF Upper Austria designed a program from the Austrian Experience series .

Question of guilt

During the commemorations that have been taking place for decades, the question of guilt has always been ignored. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary, Servus TV broadcast a documentary on Good Friday 2014 as part of the Retroalpin series . In this documentary, the filmmaker Hajo Baumgärtner takes a clear stand and assigns the teacher Hans Georg Seiler the main responsibility for the accident. The sister of Klaus Josef Strobel, Beate Strobel-Müller, takes the same view. For the head of the Heilbronn City Archives, Christhard Schrenk , the question of guilt cannot be answered.

literature

  • Christhard Schrenk (ed.): The Heilbronn Dachstein accident in 1954. Ten students and three teachers lose their lives on Good Friday. Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2004, ISBN 3-928990-87-X ( Publications of the Heilbronn City Archives , 44) heilbronn.de (PDF; 85 MB)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Three teachers and ten students missing in the Dachstein area . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 17, 1954, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ↑ a b "Heilbronn Dachstein Catastrophe": Commemoration of the excursion into the white death . The standard ; Retrieved April 26, 2012
  3. ^ Josef Khälß: Good Friday tragedy 1954 on the Dachstein . woadsack.at; accessed on August 17, 2017
  4. ↑ Heilbronn tragedy . Mountain Rescue Obertraun; Retrieved April 26, 2012
  5. ^ Heilbronn Dachstein tragedy in 1954 . Obertraun municipality; Retrieved April 26, 2012
  6. ↑ Rudolf Lehr: Dachstein: Adventure in the past and present. OÖ Landesverlag, Linz 1982, ISBN 3-85214-333-0
  7. ↑ Sad diary . Voice.de; Retrieved April 26, 2012
  8. ^ Vocal ensemble Heilbronn. Church music at Kilian's Church Heilbronn, May 25, 2011, accessed on February 7, 2019 .
  9. ^ Commemoration of the Dachstein accident. In: Voices.de. Retrieved February 7, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Preview of the ORF documentary "Experience Austria": 60 years after the "Heilbronn Dachstein tragedy". April 7, 2014; accessed on December 18, 2017
  11. ↑ The ropemaker shouldn't have done this tour . nachricht.at; Retrieved April 19, 2014
  12. ↑ Easter 60 years ago: «They lead the students to their death» - The misfortune in the Dachstein Mountains . News4teachers; Retrieved April 19, 2014