04:12

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

Galtür

2008-08-22

Sylvia Manning-Baumgartner

Nicole D´Incecco

1955

So, this Professor Busch from Innsbruck knew the French commander-in-chief well and told him: "We have to do something about the alpine huts. The Russians want them, the Americans not so much – they're too lazy to go mountain climbing. The British have enough high mountains in their occupation zones in Salzburg and Carinthia. We have to do something because the majority of German huts are in the French zone, in Tyrol and Vorarlberg. They'll all be lost if we don't do something." Then the French commander-in-chief talked to his colleagues of the occupying forces in Vienna and arranged to take over the management of all the German huts in Austria. The French commander-in-chief was called Pethoir. This general gave the trusteeship of the German huts to Hofrat Busch who was the president of the new Austrian alpine club. So, we tenants had someone to turn to again. Germans weren't allowed in yet and the Swabians didn't dare come via Switzerland. They didn't know how the French, the occupying forces, would react if there were Germans in the huts. So they sent us leaseholders messages-"Take care of our houses and take care that they don't fall into disrepair." and such. "Take care that the roofs don't leak that illegal border crossers don't break in." We took these messages to heart and Hofrat Busch renewed our old leases. As German-owned huts we had a partner again in the Austrian alpine club. When the Austrian international treaty was negotiated with the allied forces in 1955 the two fellows, Hofrat Busch and the French commander-in-chief, were smart. They managed to get a sentence included in the treaty saying that German property in Austria could be returned to the original owner if it was used for public, not for commercial, purposes. Without breaking Austrian neutrality. That led to the German sections regaining possession one day later, on October 27th 1955.