LA LOUPE Lech Zürs No.6 - Summer Edition

ead and we needed plenty of potatoes, Randig (red beets), maize
meal, yellow turnips and sauerkraut in barrels. I remember well:
contrast to today we had to make sure in advance we’d have enough
when we needed it.
L.L. ⁄ And what trade did you learn then?
B.W. ⁄ Back then we never got out of Lech and in the mountain
villages there were no trades. You grew up with your family and you
always helped out, there was nothing else to be done. We were nine
brothers and sisters, four boys and five girls. The two older brothers
already went to work as day labourers in the valley but I had to stay
at home and help my father when I wasn’t in school. At 6 in the
morning we went off to the stables, then there was breakfast made up
of semolina pudding and coffee, then school. That’s how we got used to
the hard life. From 1933 to 1934 I attended a two-year commercial
school in Feldkirch where I stayed at the boarding school of the Christian
brothers. The road to Feldkirch was tiring: we had to walk from
Lech to Langen which took us about 3 hours, in bad weather up to
5 hours. Then we took the train to Feldkirch. That’s a journey we only
took upon us at Christmas and Easter because it was time consuming
and expensive. At that time I visited my aunt who was a garden nun
in the women’s order of the Holy Cross. She gave me apples and my
first strawberry – that’s something I’ll never forget because even today
I really like strawberries! Back home I worked at the post office until I
was called into the military service in November 1938, as a Gebirgsjäger
(a member of the mountain troops) I came from the Bavarian
region Oberammergau nearly all the way to Sotschi. Later I worked
as a skiing instructor too, of course, from 1951 to 1994.
L.L. ⁄ You witnessed the development of Lech from a mountain
farmers’ village to a top tourism destination. Are you proud of your
home today?
B.W. ⁄ I wouldn’t say proud, but we did participate in the economic
upturn. It’s nice that Lech has become and internationally renowned
place. On the other hand I don’t see the future as all bright, because
we’ve reached the zenith or maybe we’ve even passed it.
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L.L. ⁄ What were the biggest changes in Lech Zürs?
B.W. ⁄ Change is mostly connected with the economy. When the econo-