Villages, towns and landscapes are changing rapidly: promenades and parks are being created, while large hotels are springing up in prime locations – thirty in St. Moritz alone by the outbreak of the First World War.
Residential construction is also flourishing. People from different regions and countries are settling in these up-and-coming areas, opening florists, fashion boutiques, hairdressers and photography studios. The population of St. Moritz rises from 228 in 1850 to over 3,000 in 1910: Meran grows from around 4,500 inhabitants in 1811 to more than 23,000 in 1910. Formerly rural localities are transformed into international meeting places.
St. Moritz around 1910
Rätisches Museum, Chur
Standing on one’s own two feet
Affluent visitors open the door to self-employment for many newcomers – as restaurateurs, spa physicians, artists or photographers. Some arrive with little in their pockets and work their way up, step by step. Others come from wealthy backgrounds, initially arriving as spa guests then deciding to stay. They bring with them not only capital and professional experience, but also their own cultures and faiths.
Not everyone welcomes this development. Conservative-minded citizens and church representatives are critical of this influx of people with their new lifestyles and different faiths. Yet many of the newcomers become involved in associations and committees, thus making a significant contribution to the economic and cultural opening-up of the Alpine spa towns.
Captions
1. Bild Harmonie Samedan
Bandmasters too have to find new engagements from season to season, for themselves and for their musicians. One such man is Ignaz Wacek, born in southern Bohemia, who trained at the Prague Conservatory. Having occupied various positions and suffered financial difficulties, around 1903 he comes to the Engadin. Here he leads brass bands in various villages – pictured here is the “Harmonie” of Samedan – and works as an orchestra conductor in hotels and spa resorts.
Archiv culturel d’Engiadin’Ota, Zuoz
2. Bild Virgina Schlykowa (Hier+Jetzt)
Born in Moscow into an aristocratic Russian family, Virginia Schlykowa studies medicine in Zurich and Bern then, in 1876, becomes one of the first women in Switzerland to qualify as a doctor: she is long denied the opportunity to practise, however. It is not until the boom in spa tourism during the Belle Époque that an opportunity opens up for her in Vulpera – at the Villa Silvana, as a specialist in therapeutic gymnastics and medical massage.
Monika Bankowski and Franziska Rogger: Ganz Europa blickt auf uns! Hier und Jetzt, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, 2010
3. Foto Aster x frikartii
From 1900 to 1907, Carl Ludwig Frikart serves as head gardener at the Hotel Waldhaus Vulpera. He enjoys the rare privilege of a permanent, year-round contract: earning 116 francs a month, he makes around four times as much as many of the hotel’s other seasonal workers. In 1908, he founds his own nursery in Stäfa in the canton of Zurich, where he creates the “Wunder von Stäfa [Miracle of Stäfa]”, the aster cultivar named after him as Aster x frikartii.
Wiki commons
4. Ansichtskarte Anglikanische Kirche (TM 4105329)
By the turn of the century, the predominantly Catholic Meran has seen the construction of Tyrol’s first synagogue, as well as Lutheran, Russian Orthodox and Anglican churches. Pictured here is the latter, photographed by the Munich-based photographer Bernhard Johannes, who moved to Meran in 1883 and there became involved in various activities, including the tourist authority and the mountaineering and gymnastics club.
Touriseum – Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Tourismus/Museo provinciale del turismo, Meran/o
5. Bild Pension Deutsches Haus
From 1866 onwards, Louise Klicka works in Meran as a housekeeper at the pension known as the Deutsches Haus. Following the owner’s death, she takes over as landlady and, along with her daughter Marie, runs the establishment, which has been equipped to modern standards. Her Bohemian origins leave their mark: particularly large numbers of guests are from her native region.
Touriseum – Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Tourismus/Museo provinciale del turismo, Meran/o
Ilka Révai (1873? – 1945 Budapest)
Hungarian photographer Ilka Révai moves to Meran in 1911 and opens a photography studio there.
Csaba Kajdi Sammlung, Budapest
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