02:55

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

Innsbruck

2008-08-20

Sylvia Manninger - Baumgartner

Nicole D ´Incecco

1908

For me, Andreas Hofer was really a hero who wanted to defend his homeland. In those days, as far as I know, the French were here and set fire to everything. In Vintl, where I'm from, the story goes that they would have set fire to the village too, that they also wanted to burn it. My ancestor Bartlmä Guggenberg, who was knighted later, went to the French. He spoke French and spoke to the general. He managed to prevent them from burning the village. Since then he is celebrated in Vintl. And that is where I'm from. I find it good to respect and defend your country. Today everything is so international. My children say: "What do we need Andreas Hofer for?" My daughter says: "He was stupid. He was simply stupid. Why give up your life for your country?" I answer her: "Tina, maybe you can't understand but at the time we really held our country in high esteem." Today there's the EU, that's easier, Europe is home. But in those days we had to defend ourselves against the Italians. Otherwise we would be French or Italian now. It was under Napoleon that the French locked up all the churches. It was forbidden to say Mass. But the peasants defended themselves. Everything was burned down. Nobody talks about that anymore. I only heard things by chance. For example: a girl from Spinges threw rocks down onto the French. That was her way of fighting back. They would have gone up and burned everything there too. It was a village at about 1500 metres altitude. So we were freed from the French and the Bavarians. At the time the Bavarians and the French were allies. I don't know that much about those days. I only know what my father told me. My father respected Andreas Hofer very much. He was a very educated man and a very good father.