The First World War brings the tourist boom of the Belle Époque to an end. Following Italy’s entry into the war in May 1915, Meran’s spa business collapses. The town is transformed into a military hospital: many hotels are closed or requisitioned for use as officers’ quarters. Austria-Hungary prohibits tourism altogether in 1917.
In Switzerland a ban on hotel construction is introduced in 1915: from 1916, many hotels are used to house wounded soldiers or prisoners of war in need of care – the latter financed by their respective home countries. The number of visitors to the Engadin falls noticeably and many grand hotels encounter financial difficulties. Meanwhile, in the Arlberg, ski and mountain troops prepare for operations in the high mountains during the winter months.
Women conductors and soldiers on the Rufinplatz (today the Theaterplatz) in front of an ambulance carriage, part of the Meran tram network used for freight transport
Touriseum – Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Tourismus/Museo provinciale del turismo, Meran/o
Smothered
With the outbreak of war it becomes increasingly difficult to travel abroad for work. Migrant workers are now regarded as potential enemy spies. Compulsory identification, visas and stricter border controls become the new norm. Following Italy’s entry into the war, those natives of Trentino who live in Vorarlberg may be suspected of espionage.
Many of the men working in the Alpine tourist resorts are recalled to their home countries and conscripted for military service. At the front, former colleagues sometimes find themselves facing each other as enemies. Meanwhile, neutral Switzerland receives countless job applications from neighbouring countries. Even here, however, jobs are becoming scarce as many hotels close down or reduce staff numbers.
Captions
1 ) The well-established infrastructure of the spa resorts, with their plentiful beds, direct rail links, numerous doctors and medical equipment, take on a new significance in wartime: the towns now serve as military hospitals. Instead of chambermaids, nurses now look after the new arrivals – here can be seen doctors and nuns serving as nurses in an Austrian reserve hospital in Meran.
Palais Mamming Museum, Meran/o
2 ) As all able-bodied local men are conscripted for military service, by 1916 foreigners are once again working in Meran. These are Russian prisoners of war, conscripted to help with farmwork or, as in this case, with clearing snow from the spa promenade.
Touriseum – Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Tourismus/Museo provinciale del turismo, Meran/o
3 ) As they previously employed many skilled workers from abroad, the hotels of the Engadin also have losses to mourn. In 1914, Josef Tauchmann from Reichenberg in Bohemia takes up a post as gardener at the Grandhotel Waldhaus Vulpera. Two years later, his sister asks the head gardener for her brother’s personal effects – he was killed in Russia.
Archiv cultural Engiadina Bassa, Strada
4 ) After Italy enters the war, on 23 May 1915, those men fit for military service are only permitted to leave the country in exceptional circumstances. Gio Maria Dordi from Gandellino, in the province of Bergamo, is also affected by the new ruling: in 1915, this former servant at the Grandhotel Waldhaus Vulpera makes several attempts to return to the Engadin with his son and colleagues – in vain.
Archiv cultural Engiadina Bassa, Strada
5 ) During the war, soldiers replace guests as residents of the inns in Lech. The Arlberg’s excellent snow conditions make it an important training ground – and not just for the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1915 and 1916, the 23 officers and 838 men of the Württemberg Mountain Battalion conduct exercises in the snow here.
Gemeindearchiv Lech, Nachlass Walter Drück
Irma (? Meran) and Ludwig Hollmann (1863 Meran – 1930 Merano)
Married couple Irma and Ludwig Hollmann work as balneotherapists in their home town of Meran in winter, and at various hotels in Bad Ischl or St. Moritz in summer.
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