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Pioneer journey across the Alps
90 years ago, the first automobile crossing of the Alps was achieved on the still unfinished Großglockner High Alpine Road.
Pioneer journey across the Alps
90 years ago, specifically on September 22, 1934, the Hohe Tauern mountain range was crossed by automobile for the first time. The then Salzburg Governor Franz Rehrl was behind the wheel, and Franz Wallack, planner and builder of the Großglockner High Alpine Road, was in the passenger seat. Rehrl, who was in office from 1922 to 1938, recognized early on the tourist importance of the combination of high culture and alpine natural beauty: guests to the city of Salzburg should be able to experience the breathtaking mountain world via the Großglockner High Alpine Road. In addition, Rehrl was an enthusiastic car lover and announced that he wanted to be the first person to cross the Hohe Tauern in an automobile.
Road planner and engineer Franz Wallack was initially skeptical about this project, as at that time only a footpath had been blasted out of the rock at the Mittertörl Tunnel. But work was underway to make the road passable. In his memoirs, Wallack recorded: "He should just come, and if everything doesn't work out somewhere, then we will carry the box - as long as it isn't too heavy." Franz Rehrl had his own “Steyr 100” converted specifically for the upcoming first descent, as the road at that time still largely consisted of coarse subsoil. A fortunate circumstance was that the convertible, which was only 1.58 meters wide, barely fit through the narrowest parts of the road at 1.65 meters, so the clearance was only 7 centimeters. With great skill, Rehrl mastered the adventurous journey from Heiligenblut over the Hochtor and back. The breakneck, but at the same time extremely promotional tour lasted almost seven hours - five hours from Ferleiten to Heiligenblut and almost two hours for the return journey. This sporting challenge, which primarily demonstrated the state governor's driving skills, went down in history. The construction work then continued and intensified. The road was finally officially opened in August 1935 and the dream of an Alpine connection between Salzburg and Carinthia came true.