Otto Welter

Otto Welter (approx. 1876)

Otto Gottfried Ferdinand Welter (born November 20, 1839 in Zell an der Mosel, † July 25, 1880 in the Zillertal Alps ) was a German lawyer and mountaineer . From 1874 to 1876 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament. In 1880 he was killed in a fall in a crevasse on the eastern Neveser Ferner .

biography

Family, job and politics

Otto Welter was a son of Gertrud Graeff (1805–1861) and the administrative officer Karl Heinrich Welter (1795–1890). He had six siblings - three brothers and three sisters - and was baptized Catholic . After completing elementary school in his hometown, he attended the Royal Prussian Gymnasium in Koblenz from 1853 . During his school days, he made a lifelong friendship with Moritz Seligmann , who came from a Jewish banking family. Welter was ambitious at school and competed with his friend Seligmann for better grades. “Like all Welters” he was “good-natured, but slightly quick-tempered, often to the point of sudden anger”. In 1858 he graduated from high school ; his special talent lay in the field of language.

In 1858, Welter began studying law at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . In the following years he changed the place of study several times: from Berlin to Munich and via Heidelberg to Bonn. When and where he finally graduated is not known. Presumably he then served his military service. Otto Welter settled in Cologne by 1863 at the latest and began his four-year training as a lawyer at the Royal Rhenish Court of Appeal in Cologne . In 1870 he obtained the additional qualification as a lawyer and became a member of the German Lawyers Association founded in 1871 . As a lawyer in court, he made a name for himself as such an excellent speaker that spectators came to court just to hear him.

Stadtpalais Am Römerturm 3 in Cologne (2017)

On May 5, 1870 Otto Welter married the Protestant Lina Schultz (1848–1909), a daughter of Caroline Sofie Schultz, née Rumpel, and Heinrich Schultz. The Schultz family lived in Heumarkt 6, in the "old Schultz House", which is now the Malzmühle brewery , and ran a wine trade . Heinrich Schultz, who suffered from "melancholy", had committed suicide in 1855. The Welter couple moved into a house on the street Auf dem Berlich , which was connected by a garden to the house at Am Römerturm 3, in which the widow Schultz now lived; A spacious city palace at Am Römerturm 3–7 was created through the acquisition of additional buildings and extensions . Otto Welter set up his office on the ground floor of the building and also had a large library. Lina and Otto Welter had four children, two daughters and two sons who were baptized Catholics. The son Otto jun., Born in 1877. wrote memoirs in 1929, which also serve as an important source for the life of the father.

Shortly after the marriage, Welter received the draft notice as a soldier to participate in the Franco-German War of 1870/71. He was a Vice Sergeant in the 6th Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 68 and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class. He was appointed "Sous-Prefect" of a French department and had his wife follow him. In 1871 the couple returned to Cologne.

Otto Welter was politically active in the liberal German Progressive Party (DFP), founded in 1861 , which campaigned, among other things, for equal rights for all religious communities and the separation of state and church. In 1875 he was a candidate for the “third class of voters” for the Cologne city council, but was not elected.

From 1875 to 1876 he was a member of the DFP in the Prussian state parliament (constituency 249 Cologne 1 , 12th legislative period , second and third session). In 1874 he was elected to this office by a large majority. He spoke out in favor of general voting rights in state elections, as this would correspond to general conscription. In terms of Kulturkampf , the Catholic Welter stood on the side of the Prussian government and demanded laws “on the territory of the church”, such as a school law that “enforces the de-churching of schools”, but spoke out against state supervision of church property. “The greatest good” is the unity of the German people so that “education and progress can flourish”. After he had not run again for the state parliament, he gradually withdrew from politics because of ongoing quarrels in the party.

Alpinism

Johann Niederwieser (around 1902)

Schultz-Welter grave in Cologne's Melaten cemetery

On May 9, 1869, the German Alpine Association was founded in Munich with the aim of “expanding and disseminating knowledge of the 'German Alps'”. In 1873 the DAV merged with the Austrian Alpine Club (ÖAV) to form the German and Austrian Alpine Club (DuÖAV). Otto Welter was one of the signatories of an appeal by the DAV “to all friends of the Alps” to organize. At first he was a member of the Munich section until the Rhineland section was founded in Cologne in 1876, of which he and Moritz Seligmann were founding members. After the establishment, Welter sat with Seligmann on the board of the section, in which mainly men from the upper middle class were members.

It is not known exactly when Otto Welter began to be interested in mountain hiking and mountaineering. Even before 1867 he traveled to Tyrol several times. The first trip to the Alps that he himself documented took place in 1867, of which he reported in a text in 1872. For the periods 27. – 30. August 1867 as well as 1. – 4. August 1868 stays in Merano (each time in the "Gasthof zum Kreuz") are documented by the tourist lists.

In the following years Welter would make numerous trips to the mountains. He described his experiences in travelogues that appeared in relevant magazines, such as Amthor's Der Alpenfreund , as well as in collective publications about the Alps. He made tours to the Pitztal and Ötztal Alps , Switzerland , the Stubai and Berchtesgaden Alps , the Carnic Alps and other mountain regions. Among the mountains he climbed were the Piz Buin , the Ortler , the Großglockner and the Hochalmspitze . On August 5, 1876, he and Heinrich Schulz from Lyon were the first tourists to climb the Dachstein in 1876 , using a newly developed path.

In mid-July 1880 Otto Welter and his friend, the Cologne banker Moritz Seligmann (1840–1915), set out on a trip to Tyrol. Before leaving, he announced that it would be his last trip to this destination because he had done all the interesting tours there. Mountain tours were planned in the Salzkammergut and in the Zillertal Alps . As a mountain guide, the two men had Johann Niederwieser gen. Stabeler from sand and Johann Knaus gen. Mauthner from Ramsau am Dachstein involved. Welter had been friends with the latter for many years. In addition, the porter Franz Hofer from Krimml accompanied them .

On July 22nd, Welter and his companions met the well-known mountaineer Emil Zsigmondy and his brother Otto in a restaurant , and they spent a cozy evening together.

On July 25, 1880 at 12 noon, the group around Welter was on the descent from the Großer Möseler via the eastern Neveser Ferner. Welter broke into a crack there and fell upside down about 18 meters after he had loosened the rope that had connected him to Niederwieser because it bothered him. Later it turned out that he had not stepped into his trail - as instructed by the mountain guide - but had left it minimally. It is believed that he turned to the side to look at his next target, the gymnastics camp.

Johann Niederwieser was lowered to the living Welter on a rope. Attempts to pull the two men up failed, especially since Welter was very tall and strong (he is said to have weighed around 100 kilograms). Finally Niederwieser's rope broke and he fell on Welter's body. He was pulled up on a tied rope and briefly passed out. The mountain guides tried desperately to get further help from the nearest homesteads. Seligmann, who had initially been able to speak to Welter until he no longer answered, could not initially be persuaded to leave the scene of the accident, but only in the early morning at the urging of the mountain guides. When support finally arrived and another man could be lowered into the crevice, Welter was dead; he was frozen to death. The body had to be removed from the ice with a pick .

At the suggestion of the board of the Taufers section of the DuÖAV, the two mountain guides and Seligmann were questioned in court on the morning of July 27, 1880. Based on the statements made by Seligmann in particular, it was established that it was an accident and that the two mountain guides were not at fault. The central committee of the DuÖAV prepared a report at the suggestion of the board of the Taufers section. Thereafter, the severely frozen corpse had abrasions on both hands , a fresh wound over the forehead and edema on the arms.

In 1885 Emil Zsigmondy wrote in his book The Dangers of the Alps : “Two days before his death we met the poor man in Rosshag (Zillertal Alps). None of us, who were so funny together, thought that this huge man who weighed more than two cents would perish so shortly afterwards [...] "

Otto Welter was buried on August 1st in a family grave at the Melaten cemetery with a large public attendance. He was 40 years old. In 1894 the von Welter family visited the disaster on the Neveser Ferner, as Otto Welter jun. reported in his memories. He would have liked to talk to witnesses of the accident himself, but his uncle and grandmother insisted on staying “incognito” so as not to be “harassed”: “In reality, everyone must have known [...], our name is that Surely people noticed. "

Welter's fatal accident was a topic in numerous German and Austrian daily newspapers and in national and international alpine literature. Among other things, it was one reason why mountain guide regulations were more strictly regulated in the Alpine countries, for example regarding the training of mountain guides and the criteria for the material and its use.

literature

• Reinhold Kruse: Otto Welter - Death in the crevasse . Edition Nippes, 2019, ISBN 978-3-9804119-4-3 .

Web links

Commons : Otto Welter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The history of the Cologne section. In: dav-koeln.de. January 1, 1980, accessed August 9, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 15/16.
2. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 18 f.
3. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 20 f.
4. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 25 f.
5. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 35 f. Various information is available about the department in which Welter held office, once the Marne and then the Somme department . Information from the family that Welter was involved in the formulation of the Treaty on the preliminary peace of Versailles could not be verified.
6. ^ Bernhard Mann (with the collaboration of Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh and Thomas Kühne): Biographical manual for the Prussian House of Representatives 1867–1918 . In: Hans Booms , Rudolf Morsey (ed.): Handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties . On behalf of the Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties. tape 3 . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-7700-5146-7 , p. 409 .
7. ↑ abroad. In:  Deutsche Zeitung , November 7, 1874, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).
8. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 43 f.
9. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 242 f.
10. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 56.
11. ↑ List of foreigners from August 27th to 30th. In:  Bozner Zeitung / Bozner Wochenblatt. News for town and country / Sheets for Agriculture and Economics / Constitutionelle Bozner Zeitung (formerly “Bozner Wochenblatt”) / Announcements from the horticultural association in Bozen / Bozner Wochenblatt. Sheets for entertainment and charitable interests , September 4, 1867, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).
12. ↑ List of foreigners to Merano. In:  Meraner Zeitung (weekly newspaper for town and country) , August 5, 1868, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).
13. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 240.
14. ↑ Dachstein rides. In:  Ischler Wochenblatt. Organ for the inner Salzkammergut , September 17, 1876, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).
15. ↑ ^{a b c d e} An accident in the Alps. In:  Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung , August 6, 1880, p. 18 (online at ANNO ).
16. ↑ ^{a b c} Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 267 f.
17. ^ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 269.
18. ^ Emil Zsigmondy, Wilhelm Paulcke: The dangers in the Eastern Alps. 1922, p. 207f ( online )
19. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 268f.
20. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 274 f.
21. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 278.
22. ↑ Kruse, Otto Welter , p. 274 f.