Heinrich Winter (winemaker)

Heinrich Winter 1986

Heinrich Winter (born January 31, 1897 in Erzingen (Klettgau) ; † June 29, 1988 ibid), called "Rebenvater", was in the farming and winegrowing village of Erzingen, today the main town of the municipality of Klettgau , the patriarch of the winter family, first post-war mayor and in the post-war period one of the innovators of the economic and social life of the village: "He was one of the prominent citizens of the Waldshut district and made a name for himself in his home village of Erzingen both in the communal and in the cultural field."

Heinrich Winter (left) at one of the first wine festivals in the 1960s

Winter's influence was still traditionally based on family structures and not based on institutional power; he was in the Alemannic southern Germany one of the "chiefs" who worked and known beyond his hometown. In times of need, these men also took on public functions - according to Winter, "who held the office of mayor in the difficult post-war years from 1946 to 1948".

origin

The Winter family in Erzingen is documented back to the 16th century. The family is documented in connection with the acquisition of the "Schlatthof" by nine Erzingen families in the early 15th century from their sovereign, Count Rudolf von Sulz . The purchase was not recorded until later, on October 28, 1533, and the nine families who bought the farm and forest (today Schlattwald) probably for the community, but who were exclusively entitled to the usufruct, were disputed later in the year 1687 all named in a document. This right of the "Schlatthöfler" - today there are eight families - applies to the present.

The 500-year-old civil privilege established a corresponding influence on village life through the high income from chopping wood.

Early years of life

Heinrich Winter was born on January 31, 1897 in Erzingen, in the Waldshut district in Baden (Land) (today Baden-Württemberg). “After leaving school, he worked in agriculture. In 1917 he was drafted into the military and took part in the First World War. In the post-war period he joined the cycling club, “to which he was an active member for over 50 years and which he headed as chairman for 20 years. In 1921 he married Anna Hauger from Unadingen in the Donaueschingen district , who gave birth to seven children. His wife died in 1970. In 1926 he bought an agricultural property on St.-Georg-Straße in Erzingen, which his son Georg and his family later took over. "

Erzinger open-air theater

In the period after the First World War - between 1925 and 1933 - Winter organized an open-air theater in Erzingen. This had an older tradition in the village, because as early as the 19th century the local writer and master gardener Heinrich Weißenberger (d. 1906) “had (written) several pieces himself and performed them as an open-air theater director with the Erzingen amateurs [...]. “The games were continued for some time later by the businessman Emil Egle.

End of the war in 1945

After the Upper Rhine region was occupied by French troops at the end of April 1945, the Allied High Command in Paris ordered a five-kilometer-wide border strip with Switzerland to be cleared of the population. Immediately some Erzinger, including Heinrich Winter and the Catholic pastor Deisler, got in touch with the Swiss director “der Stehli”, the then textile factory in the village, Suter, with the owner Robert Stehli and other personalities in the district. About the Nuncio Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII. , succeeded in "freezing" the order in Paris.

The mountain chapel built in 1945

Simultaneously with the attempt of political intervention to prevent the evacuation, the Erzingen families gathered for a vow and vowed to build a mountain chapel in the vineyard if they were spared. Winter ensured the implementation of the promise and, with its connections in the neighboring Swiss Klettgau, also procured the building materials. Today the mountain chapel crowns the village and the vineyard. With "Erzinger Kapellenberg" she also gave the wine its name.

post war period

Heinrich Winter was appointed provisional mayor by the French headquarters in 1945. He “helped numerous refugees to find accommodation.” Officially, “he held the office of mayor from 1946 to 1948 [... and was] later a local councilor for many years. He only retired after the local elections in 1971. "

Cultural activity

When the demand for cultural performances was great shortly after the war, Heinrich Winter renewed the Erzinger Freilichtspiele in 1947: “The program began with the play 'Der Geiger von Gmünd'. [...] (He) managed to stage the Genovefa open-air festival on Sunday, May 22, 1949 with a large night performance. "In 1950," Andreas Hofer "followed and Friedrich Schiller's " Wilhelm Tell "was even broadcast on Südwestfunk in 1953 . Bad weather conditions were problematic, however, which caused the events (with up to 1000 spectators) to 'burst' several times - sometimes in the middle of the performances. The celebrations continued in the Erzingen restaurants.

Winter's application to the Ministry of Culture and Education for a grant to build a roofing system was rejected, however, and after a last performance in 1954 he gave up these ambitions. The Austrian government awarded Winter the “Austria Book” in recognition of these services.

At Andreas Hofer's open-air play , "16 Erzingen horse owners were dressed as Bavarian cuirassiers on horseback."

Land consolidation

Immediately after the state government's plan for land consolidation became public, Winter campaigned for agriculture, which had become ailing in the past centuries due to the division of inheritance : “The agricultural population of the Klettgau is fairly in favor of such land consolidation open-minded, "stated an expert author nor 1971 states: as already" been carried out in the last 10 years [...] "he calls the villages Rechenberg , Erzingen and Wutoeschingen what this gave also a way ahead, 'because in this years of procedure were There were only four other locations and most of them had only just applied for land consolidation.

The Erzinger Rebberg today

Renewal of viticulture

However, the new planting of the Erzinger vines was and still is the most important work of winter and one that established its general reputation.

The entire wine stocks of the Erzinger Winzergenossenschaft had been confiscated by the French occupiers in 1945, but it also became apparent that “the predominantly produced Elbling wines no longer corresponded to the refined taste of wine drinkers because of their natural acidity. So the viticulture, on which the Erzinger hang with all their hearts, threatened to succumb. "

“The cold winter of 1955/56 caused severe frost damage in the Erzingen vineyards, and this at a time when viticulture on the Upper Rhine continued to decline. In this phase of general resignation, it was Heinrich Winter who, in cooperation with the then mayor Heinrich Stoll and other viticulture veterans, campaigned for an accelerated land consolidation. "Winter became chairman of the land consolidation commission and after the end of the procedure" he tried to add new ones Grape varieties. ”He himself did the necessary preparatory work in his own vineyards, convinced the still hesitant winemakers and helped many in planting new vines. "He was also available to the few winegrowers in Rechberg and Nack with advice and action."

"While three quarters of the vineyard area used to be Elbling and a quarter of Pinot Noir, today it is a quarter of Riesling-Silvaner and three quarters of Pinot Noir ."

- Hermann Stoll: Vom Erzinger Weinbau, 1966.

With the Erzingen wine princesses in 1983. Heinrich Winter, top left, next to him, councilor Gottfried Indlekofer

Wine festivals

In 1958 Heinrich Winter prepared the first Erzinger wine festival: "He was looking for a representative of the Erzinger wine and today [1987] there are already over 20 wine-growers' daughters who wore the crown as wine princess."

As a result of the wine festivals, Erzingen became "known far beyond the country's borders." From the winemaker's point of view, this primarily referred to the Baden borders and also to Switzerland. Heinrich Winter - according to the chronicler Wilhelm Person - “(has) made the Erzinger wine known in Württemberg . [..] In the community of Ertingen near Sigmaringen, he has made it possible for a wine festival to be celebrated for 15 years [since 1971] and Erzinger wine being drunk. "

Heinrich Winter in the Baden central winery , 1980

"As chairman of the Erzingen winegrowers' cooperative, he organized the Erzingen wine festivals every year up to his 80th birthday [1977]." In the central winery of Badischer Winzergenossenschaften there is still an over-sized "Erzinger wine barrel".

On Winter's initiative, the establishment of a “home parlor” in the Löwen inn was also back.

Connections to Switzerland

Border to Switzerland on the vineyard

Soon after the end of the war, Heinrich Winter had resumed the old neighborly relationships with the residents of the Swiss wine-growing communities of Trasadingen , Hallau , Wilchingen and Osterfingen , who also provided active support for the rapid rebuilding of the vineyards in Erzingen.

Keeping horses

Horse farm: continuity of family tradition

Winter was particularly fond of horses; It is said that after the war he was the only one in the village who still kept a horse, the well-known 'Lise'.

Later the tradition recovered:

"Heinrich Winter has been there for 12 years when a group of riders from Erzingen drives to Weingarten and takes part in the blood kick (procession with several hundred riders)."

The oldest grandson Franz Winter maintains this family tradition with his horse farm.

Last years of life

90th birthday

The 90th birthday of the honorary citizen of Erzingen was celebrated in 1987. At this point in time Heinrich Winter had "14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren".

Demise

The inauguration of the “winter fountain” in the village park was unplanned for a first farewell party with the participation of “many residents from Erzingen - including numerous winegrowers”, because the father of the vine, who was unable to take part due to a serious illness, is supposed to come afterwards enjoyed a musical "serenade in front of his house" by the 'Erzinger Rebläuse' association.

At the inauguration of the fountain system created by the sculptor Norbert Berger, Mayor Johannes Meier promised "that the community and its residents will gratefully accept this work and hold it in honor." Heinrich Winter died at the age of 92, one day after the one he designed and donated fountain with a Roman woman (as a motif for the establishment of viticulture in the region) was inaugurated.

Afterlife

In 2008, a spring water fountain in the Erzinger Rebberg, built by Heinrich Winter in 1957, was restored and redesigned by Rolf Preiser, Josef Stoll and Heinz-Peter Hierholzer.

Relocation at the 1971 wine festival

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Erzinger Winzergenossenschaft (1961–2011), a ceremony was held that mentions Gottfried Indlekofer and Kurt Hierholzer, along with Heinrich Winter, then mayor Hermann Stoll, in the festschrift, “as viticulture pioneers”. The rebuilding plan for the vineyard was the first to be approved in Baden. Heinrich Winter became chairman of the wine cooperative with 58 members in 1961. Today the cooperative includes 48 winegrowing families, chaired by Martin Stoll.

Honors

• Cross of Merit on Ribbon ("Federal Cross of Merit "), Bonn, January 10, 1964, awarded by Federal President Heinrich Lübke for services to viticulture.
• Honorary citizenship of the municipality of Erzingen, July 30, 1971, conferred by Mayor Johannes Meier.
• Certificate of honor from the Erzingen winegrowers' cooperative, awarded in September 1977 for many years of work as a board member, services to viticulture and the organization of wine festivals.
• Klettgau Medal of Merit 1977.

Remarks

1. ↑ The nine families were: Huber, Indlekofer, Netzhammer, Schumacher, Stoll, Weißenberger, Winter and Zölle. The Schumacher family has since died out. (According to Hubert Roth: We Schlatthöfler are proud of our wood , Albbote, Der Waldshuter narrator, from June 23, 1990.) The notarization 1687 can also be in connection with the change of rule this year in the Landgraviate of Klettgau by Count Johann Ludwig II Sulz have confessed to the Prince of Schwarzenberg .
2. ↑ The Erzinger Heinrich Weißenberger also left numerous notes from the village events between 1860 and 1906, which Hubert Roth made available to the Alb-Bote editors: Parts published in Das alten Erzingen in: Alb-Bote, Der Waldshuter Erzähler, dated January 5, 1990.
3. ↑ The saving measure came too late for the already evacuated residents of Jestetten , Lottstetten and Altenburg, who were brought to the Black Forest with little belongings and were only able to return in autumn 1945. Here the local French military command prevailed. A reliable justification for this evacuation of the parts could not be determined until today.

literature

• Author group: Klettgau themenweg ,
• Dr. Helmut Maurer : Eleven hundred years of the Erzingen community , printing of the speech on the occasion of the anniversary celebration on September 26, 1970.
• Hubert Roth: Klettgau. Wine-growing community in Klettgau in: Heimat am Hochrhein, yearbook of the district of Waldshut, 1987.
• Mayor Franz Schmidt (Ed.) Der Klettgau , on behalf of the city of Tiengen-Hochrhein, 1971.
• Hermann Stoll: Vom Erzinger Weinbau , in: Heimat am Hochrhein, series of publications by the district of Waldshut, 1965/66.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Badische Zeitung: An honorary citizen with profile , July 1, 1988.
2. ↑ Wilhelm Person: The organizer of the Erzingen wine festivals (for Heinrich Winter's 90th birthday), in: Der Waldshuter Erzähler , Alb-Bote , January 31/1. February 1987.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Wilhelm Person: The organizer of the Erzinger Winzerfeste , Alb-Bote, January 31/1. February 1987.
4. ^ Hubert Roth: With the special train to the open-air theater in Erzingen , Klettgau municipal archive, undated.
5. ^ H. Roth: Special train to the open-air theater , Klettgau community archive.
6. ^ Badische Zeitung: An honorary citizen with profile , July 1, 1988.
7. ↑ Dr. Ignaz Stein (Stühlingen): Agriculture in Klettgau , in: Der Klettgau , Mayor Franz Schmidt (ed.) On behalf of the city of Tiengen-Hochrhein, 1971, p. 488 f. At this point in time, Stein mentions Dettighofen , Horheim , Jestetten , Bühl as "in progress" and Grießen , Weisweil , Geißlingen , Untereggingen and Hohentengen in the application .
8. ↑ Hermann Stoll: Vom Erzinger Weinbau in: Heimat am Hochrhein, 1965/66, p. 27.
9. ^ W. Person: Bronze memorial during his lifetime , Südkurier, June 29, 1988.
10. ^ Südkurier: Jewel next to vines , August 6, 2008.
11. ↑ Sandra Holzwarth: Erzingen winemakers stay small but nice , Südkurier, September 2, 2011.