Helmut Simon (mountaineer)

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Helmut Simon (born December 11, 1937 in Nuremberg ; † October 15, 2004 near Bad Hofgastein , Austria ) was a German hobby alpinist. Professionally, he was in charge of a building in Nuremberg, which, in addition to the city library, also housed the rooms of the Natural History Museum of the Nuremberg Natural History Society . The museum has an extensive prehistoric section.

Simon and his wife Erika (* approx. 1941) discovered the glacier mummy known as " Ötzi " from the Copper Age on September 19, 1991 near Tisenjoch on Niederjochferner in the Ötztal Alps .

After more than five years of legal dispute between the Simon couple and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol, the regional court there had only decided in November 2003 that the Simons could call themselves the finders of "Ötzi". Negotiations about the amount of a finder's fee continued until mid-2009. Simon asked for approx. 250,000 euros, the state of South Tyrol initially offered 50,000 euros as a reasonable finder's fee. In June 2009 the Simon family finally accepted the sum of 150,000 euros offered by the state since 2006, but this agreement fell through at the last moment. There was another procedure that ended in June 2010, after which the South Tyrolean provincial government promised the Simons a finder's reward of 175,000 euros.

The Ötzi discoverer and experienced alpinist set out on a solo hike on October 15, 2004 on the Gamskarkogel in the Gastein Valley near Bad Hofgastein. While walking an unsecured stretch of the via ferrata, an unmarked 30 to 45 degree steep Jägersteig of the Geisskarkopf, he fell about 100 m into a gorge during a weather change with snowfall. He was found dead in a stream on the morning of October 23, 2004. According to information from the Salzburg mountain rescue service, a Hofgastein hunter became aware of a "red dot", the jacket of the casualty, when he descended from the 2365 meter high Geisskarkopf - a mountain next to the Gamskarkogel. He called the mountain rescue.

Helmut Simon was buried on October 30, 2004 in the local cemetery in Bad Hofgastein.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ötzi finder: "We were no longer quiet" . In: https://www.hna.de . September 18, 2016 ( hna.de [accessed September 25, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Report on the dispute over the finder's reward in the star
  3. ↑ dpa: 150,000 euros finder's reward for “Ötzi” . June 16, 2009 9:17 am CET
  4. ↑ For “Ötzi” there was a reward of 175,000 euros from June 28, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Simon, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German hobby alpinist, discoverer of Ötzi
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 2004
Place of death near Bad Hofgastein , Austria