Lore’s story

Lore’s story I

t’s a sunny afternoon in late summer. In the corner of the cosy snug of the “Rose Wenzer” hotel and restaurant, four women are sitting at a table. They’re playing Watten, a traditional card game. Things are getting lively since, according to one of the women, the “shot” wasn’t played properly. Her friend just shakes her head, while their opponents are happy to win the points. The cards are reshuffled. Suddenly, a group of Italian hikers enters the hotel. An elderly gentlemen from the group spots the women in the corner and proudly announces in his Roman accent that his party has just come down from the Sciliar, a mountain he first ascended 50 years before. One of the women glances up from her cards, says “Buona sera” (“Good afternoon”) and then continues in Italian, “The first time I was up there was 74 years ago!” She then plays her card, gets up and goes to look after the guests. The woman is Dora Baumgartner, the owner of the “Rose Wenzer”. To all the locals, though, she’s simply “Lore”.

That time, 74 years ago, was the period of the infamous Option policy in South Tyrol. On 22 May 1939, the two dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed the so-called “Pact of Steel”, under which they agreed that no changes would be made to the border between Italy and Germany (including the recently annexed Austria). In addition, plans were made for the South Tyrolean people to be resettled in Germany. On 21 October of the same year, the Option agreement was therefore ratified: it specified that South Tyrol’s German-speaking population, as well as the Cimbrians (speakers of a German dialect living elsewhere in northern Italy), could emigrate to the Reich. The effects of this policy led to a division among South Tyrol’s German-speakers that is still felt today: those who decided to remain were condemned as traitors to their people, while those who opted to emigrate were vilified as Nazis.

Text: André Bechtold photo: Helmuth Rier

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Lore’s father, responsible for his wife Emma Atz and their children, was among those faced with this choice and was initially minded to emigrate. First, though, he was determined to take the ten yearold Lore with him on a trip up the Sciliar mountain.

Eduard Baumgartner wanted to ensure that his daughter – should they really take up the Option

The consummate hostess: Dora Baumgartner

of emigrating – had at least once ascended the Sciliar, the mountain that towers over their village of Fiè and a national symbol for the South Tyrolean people. So, with a picnic lunch of roast chicken packed in their rucksack by Lore’s mother Emma, they set off bright and early. Their route took them via the lake Laghetto di Fiè, the Prügelweg (Route of the Trunks) and the Teufelsschlucht (Devil’s Gorge) all the way to Monte Pez (2563m), the highest point of the Sciliar mountain. Lore and her father spent the night in the Rifugio Bolzano mountain hut (known as the Schlernhaus in German).

Previously it had been run by the village blacksmith Otto Egger and the landlords of three local inns: the Heubad, Kreuzwirt and the Rose Wenzer. On 24 January 1924, however, the refuge was handed over to the Club Alpino Italiano and in 1940 was taken over by the Micheluzzi family from the Val di Fassa in the Trentino, as native South Tyroleans were barred from working in mountain refuges. It was with tears in his eyes, then, that Eduard Baumgartner led his daughter up the Sciliar massif.

His real objective was not simply to climb the mountain, though: his main wish was for him and Lore to sleep in room number 6 at the refuge. Even now, Lore’s eyes gleam as she thinks back to that time. Her father had woken her in the small hours of the morning, before dawn. The window of their room faced eastwards. And so, as they looked out, Lore saw the sun rising. When asked about it, Lore still replies that it was one of the most beautiful moments of her life.

Back in the hotel bar, the ladies continue their card game without Lore. The game known as Watten was invented in South Tyrol during the Napoleonic wars. Bavarian and French soldiers, at that time allies, would play cards together in their quarters.

When the trump card was played, the French soldiers would shout “va tout”, a phrase that gave rise to the word Watten. When the dealer is asked for Schianere – “finer” cards in the local dialect – the cards are set aside and new ones dealt to the players.

On the wall above the card game hangs a painting that shows the head and shoulders of a pretty young woman dressed in traditional costume, her hair plaited. She’s also wearing the traditional ear- »

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rings of the Sciliar region. The picture has a mount and a simple frame. It’s not really a painting, rather a drawing made with brightly coloured pastels to give a painted effect – a halfway house, perhaps, between a painting and a drawing. To the right of the woman’s neck rests a curl of hair that’s mirrored by a single lock of hair on the left-hand side of her brow.

The bright red shawl she’s wearing is slightly open at the back, giving the viewer a glimpse of the nape of her neck. It’s clear that the artist could barely contain his delight at depicting such a lovely subject. The eyes of the Schöne Gitsch (Pretty Lass), as the subject of the picture is called, shine with inquisitiveness as they look out past the viewer. With her honest smile, even teeth and full lips, the woman’s face seems to shine with a living light. This half-drawing, half-pain­ ting is actually the work of the respected South Tyrolean artist Oskar Wiedenhofer (1889-1987). And its subject? Lore herself, just 19 years old, back in 1949.

The landlady of the Hotel Rose Wenzer, known to all as “Lore”, has plenty to relate, from her climbing adventures to tales of the film stars who came to the Sciliar region.

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In the end, Lore’s father Eduard decided not to exercise the Option and to stay instead. He felt that he belonged to South Tyrol and couldn’t understand why his people were expected to leave their land. Those were troubled times, indeed. After the war, there were very few men left. The roof of the Rose Wenzer was falling apart. Lore remembers carrying the tiles up herself and passing them to the roofer. From 1949 she became the manager of the Restaurant Laghetto di Fiè, an inn on the shores of the nearby lake. The famous mountaineer Luis Brunner was a regular there and in the summer

of 1950 he invited Lore to accompany him on an ascent of the Sciliar massif’s Santner peak. From the lake, the route first took them to the Piani di Sciliar, the plateau area, where they slept in a cabin. Then at 4am they began the ascent of the Santner, Luis leading with a rope, the only safety equipment the pair had. The best part of the trip, as Lore remembers it, was when they abseiled down! Then they followed the path back to the lake, where Lore, of course, had to get back to work.

Lore’s lakeside inn was visited by many tourists, by the great and good of South Tyrol, and by others too, including Henrik Ibsen’s descendants, who owned a villa in Siusi allo Sciliar. Another regular visitor was a man named “Migg”, who had returned from the war and spent the summers in a cave by the Rio Sciliar stream. Migg would come and ask for bones and scraps from the kitchen that he would give to the ducks and the cats on the lake shore. Later in the 1950s, a film crew came to visit. It’s said that Mel Ferrer, the well-known Hollywood actor, was one of those taking part, while a very talented young man sang and danced, and the English director of the film wanted to make a star of his pretty blonde lady friend, who was staying with a small child and her governess in the inn. But what became of the film?

So far, intensive research has failed to produce any­ thing more substantial than local people’s memories. One thing that does remain is the name of the talented young actor: a certain “Peter Alexander”.

Lore’s eyes sparkle as she remembers him.

Shortly before this article was copleted, Lore happened to be chatting about the film with Maria Kompatscher, her neighbour from the village of Fiè. Maria, who used to help at the inn up to 1955, also remembered the film being made and says that a few years ago she actually saw it, or at least its closing scenes, in which a group of singers from the Siusi male-voice choir rowed across the lake in a boat. And, she explains, the actor was not the famous Austrian entertainer, Peter Ale­xander, but instead a certain Pero Alexander. This other actor, Pero – born Hans Eduard Pfingstler on 6 April 1921 – first used the stage name Peter Alexander before changing it to Pero Alexander. He had roles in many famous German-language films, acting alongside stars of the day including Gert Fröbe, Heinz Rühmann, Heinz Erhardt, Willy Millowitsch, Karl Heinz Böhm, Paul Dahlke, Heinz Drache, Harald Dietl, Gerlinde Locker and Erika Remberg. He was sometimes nicknamed the Cary Grant of the German film industry. And what’s more, on some photos, he bears a strong resemblance to the nowadays much better-known entertainer Peter Ale­xander.

Even so, Maria Kompatscher is absolutely certain that it was Pero Alexander who played in the film made at the Laghetto di Fiè. She says that the locals all went up, out of curiosity, to watch the filming and were told to remain as quiet as church mice. She remembers that even her mother went to watch and that a man from the village of Siusi was given a small part but was very sad – almost inconsolable, in fact – as in the film he was taken away by two carabinieri. Hearing Maria Kompatscher talk about the film, Lore also remembered that she constantly had to go and feed the ducks.

But even with these details, research into the film has proved fruitless. There is virtually no record of Pero Alexander from the late 1960s onwards, and even specialist film websites give no further details about him.

If anyone has any further information on the film shot at the Laghetto di Fiè, we would love to hear from them.

The next 20 years flew by for Lore, so busy was she with her work. In 1967 her mother, Emma, passed away and shortly after that, between September 1968 and July 1969, the Hotel Rose Wenzer was completely refurbished. It became one of the first establishments in the Siusi area to offer rooms with en-suite sho­wers.

Soon after, Lore left the Restaurant Laghetto di Fiè and took over management of the Rose Wenzer. In 1970 she also lost her father Eduard. Since then, a lot has happened and she has many more tales to tell.

The Restaurant at the lake Laghetto di Fiè was once run

by Dora Baumgartner (third from right)

The cards are dealt again. In a game of Watten the players are not allowed to “point”: in other words, they can give each other no indication of the cards they hold. In South Tyrol, that’s forbidden, though of course who knows whether the rule is always obeyed. More walkers, tired from their exertions, come into the inn and proudly announce that they’ve scaled the Sciliar for the first time. Lore busies herself with the many fresh flowers that decorate her hotel and, as ever, greets her customers warmly. She has devoted her life to looking after her guests, with plenty of hard work and exciting adventures, and we hope that Lore herself has many more happy years to come. “Va tout,” as the French would say!

Postscript: the Name “Lore” has a special meaning.

Lore’s parents originally wanted to have her baptised “Dolores”, but the local priest refused, saying it was not a saint’s name. Without further ado she was therefore christened “Dorothea”, which translates as “gift of God” and which, in German, is often shortened to “Dora”. For the people of Fiè allo Sciliar, however, Dora Baumgartner will always be known as “Lore”. To finish, here’s one last interesting fact. The first hit by the more famous Peter Alexander – the Austrian actor, singer and entertainer – was a 1951 song whose title loosely translates as “Only Dolores has legs like that.” «

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