Josef Marie Lochmatter

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Josef Marie Lochmatter around 1880

Josef Marie Lochmatter (born October 27, 1833 in St. Niklaus ; † August 12, 1882 at Dent Blanche ) was a Swiss mountaineer and mountain guide pioneer . With the second ascent of the Hörnli ridge in 1868 at the latest, Josef Marie Lochmatter was the great authority on the Matterhorn . He is therefore one of the pioneers of tourism in Zermatt .

Mountain guide and mountain guide center

Josef Marie Lochmatter from St. Niklaus in the Swiss canton of Valais was the founder and ancestor of the well-known St. Niklaus mountain guide dynasty. No other community in the Alpine region has produced as many great mountain guides as St. Niklaus in the Nikolaital (also called Mattertal), which has developed into the center of mountain guides in Switzerland.

In the yearbook of the Swiss Alpine Club from 1864 as well as in Iwan Tschudi's travel pocket book about Valais and Ticino from 1871, Josef Marie Lochmatter is named first among the recommended guides. Josef Marte Lochmatter went on tours in the Alps with his two brothers Franz Josef and / or Alexander .

"King of the Matterhorn"

Disaster on the Matterhorn, Edward Whymper's answers 12, 13 and 14 of the relevant interrogation from July 1865, court clerk Donat Andenmatten.
Matterhorn accident on July 14, 1865, legal basis and decision of the district court.

On Saturday, July 15, 1865, on Sunday, July 16, 1865, and in the days that followed, Josef Marie Lochmatter and the rescue teams set out to provide first aid to those who had suffered the first ascent of the Matterhorn . Lochmatter was then also the first mountain guide to venture back to the Matterhorn from the Nikolaital after the Matterhorn drama .

On July 24, 1868, Josef Marie Lochmatter and Peter Knubel completed the upper hut on the Matterhorn at 3818 m on a ledge below the shoulder on the Hörnligrat. The place where the hut stood is still called Zur alten Hütte today.

On July 25, 1868, Josef Marie Lochmatter and Peter Knubel and their guest Julius M. Elliott made the second ascent of the Matterhorn over the Hörnligrat. In the same year, after Josef Marie Lochmatter and Peter Knubel had made the ascent from the Nikolaital, eight further ascents were counted. Josef Marie Lochmatter and Peter Knubel repeated the walk up the Matterhorn so often that it almost looked as if they had a monopoly on Matterhorn climbs: Up until 1880, every second ascent of the Matterhorn was led by a mountain guide from St. Niklaus.

On August 22, 1874, Edward Whymper climbed the Matterhorn for the second and last time in his life with guides Josef Marie Lochmatter, Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich , again via the Hörnligrat.

Josef Marie Lochmatter was the great authority on the Hörnligrat of the Matterhorn until his death in 1882.

family

Josef Marie Lochmatter married Maria Josefa Pollinger, the oldest sister of Alois Pollinger , in 1861 . Josef Marie apparently shaped his sons, because all six followed in his footsteps: Alexander Lochmatter (1863–1882), Josef Lochmatter (1872–1915), Rudolf Lochmatter (1874–1923), Rafael Lochmatter (1876–1960), Franz Lochmatter (1878–1933) and Gabriel Lochmatter (1881–1958).

Also the grandchildren Xaver Lochmatter (1901–1993), Emil Lochmatter (1905–1931), Hermann Lochmatter (1907–2000), Erwin Lochmatter (1911–1987), Arthur Lochmatter (1917–1998) and Franz Lochmatter (1924–1988) became mountain guides.

Music and theater

The “Matterhorn” collection from Extended Play from 2017 by the Berlin-born artist Matzingha includes a. the piece of music "Lochmatter" in homage to Josef Marie Lochmatter.

The play "Bärggeist" in four acts from 1965 is embedded in the historical context of the accidental death on August 12, 1882 at Dent Blanche, which took place at the fourth home conference from August 5 to 7, by the writer Adolf Fux (1901–1974) . June 1965 was first performed.

Accidental death

On Saturday, August 12th 1882, Josef Marie Lochmatter, his eldest son Alexander and WE Gabbett had a fatal accident on Dent Blanche . In the mountain guide museum in St. Niklaus Dorf you can find the original vest of the Englishman WE Gabbett in a showcase in the form of a rock crystal, which was specially designed and manufactured for the mountain guide museum.

First ascents (selection)

  • July 16, 1865 Matterhorn Glacier
  • September 13, 1871: West flank of Dent Blanche with Peter Knubel and R. Flower
  • August 1, 1879: westernmost part of the north flank and west ridge of the Aiguille du Chardonnet (normal route) with Josef Imboden and Percy-W. Thomas
  • the other first ascents see below under literature

See also

literature

  • Christian Imboden: Mountains: job, calling, fate . Rotten Verlag , Visp 2013, ISBN 3-907624-48-3 . Pages 73 ff .: Josef Marie Lochmatter (1833-1882) , pages 108 ff .: The first ascents

Web links

Commons : Josef Marie Lochmatter  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Egger: Pioneers of the Alps , 1946, p. 311
  2. ^ Edward Whymper: Scrambles amongst the Alps , 1871, p. 431 ff.
  3. ↑ Erwin Lochmatter in the Switzerland Wiki, viewed on October 21, 2016.
  4. ↑ Christian Imboden: Mountains: Profession, Vocation, Fate . Rotten Verlag , Visp 2013, ISBN 3-907624-48-3 . P. 168 ff .: The St. Niklaus mountain guide families. The Lochmatter mountain guides.
  5. ↑ Piece of music "Lochmatter" from 2017 on SoundCloud, accessed on August 18, 2017.
  6. ↑ Christian Imboden: Mountains: Profession, Vocation, Fate . Rotten Verlag , Visp 2013, ISBN 3-907624-48-3 . P. 198.
personal data
SURNAME Lochmatter, Josef Marie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lochmatter, Joseph-Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss mountaineer and mountain guide pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH October 27, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Niklaus , Canton of Valais, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1882
Place of death Dent Blanche , Canton of Valais, Switzerland