Unlike the rest of Tirol, the north-west corner that constitutes the Ausserfern region was settled by the Alemanni, and its culture therefore has much in common with Vorarlberg in Austria and Swabia in Germany. The Ausserfern is a mountain region of austere beauty. Its valleys communicate northwards so that the people of Ausserfern have always looked to the pre-Alps across the Austrian border for their cultural orientation, and the region was in fact long ruled by the Bishops of Augsburg.
Well before that, the Romans built the Via Claudia Augusta to permit rapid troop movements along the north-south axis, and from about 50 to 200 AD the Roman road was the main link from Meran in what is now South Tirol over the Reschen Pass and Fern Pass to Reutte and on to Augsburg. It was only later that the trade route over the Brenner started to grow in importance. On the east-west axis, trade followed the Via Decia, which was still used in the Middle Ages to carry salt from Hall near Innsbruck to Bregenz.
The wealth of the region in the Middle Ages and the treasures of art and architecture of that period were largely destroyed in the course of the Thirty Years War, from which the Ausserfern suffered far more than the other regions of the Tirol. Among the noteworthy items that survived are the late Gothic St. Sebastian's Chapel in Holzgau and St. Ulrich's Chapel in Pflach with its famous winged altarpiece, which marks the transition to the Renaissance.
By the 18th century the Ausserfern had become a region of unemployment and every year about 2000 migrant seasonal workers, including children, sought to escape from the poverty at home by taking employment across the border in Bavaria and in Baden-Wurttemburg. Paradoxically enough, the Ausserfern owes many of its treasures to this poverty, as the many skilled masons, stucco artists, wood carvers and marblers returned with money to spend.
Many of the merchants actually became quite rich. With their mixed assortment of foreign wares and local products, including whetstones, violins, scythes, linen, wool and down, the Ausserfern merchants travelled as far as the Netherlands. Back home they took pride in displaying their new affluence, which is reflected in particular in the splendid painted facades of the houses in the Lech Valley.
Famous Ausserfern Painters
The wealthy Zeiller family from Reutte produced a number of notable artists, starting with Paul Zeiller (1658-1738) and followed by the "Imperial Court Painter" Johann Jakob Zeiller (1710-1783) and the "Court Painter to the Prince Bishop of Brixen" Franz Anton Zeiller (1716-1794).
The Zeiller dynasty is associated with the ceiling frescos in the Breitenwang Mortuary Chapel and Bichlbach Guild Church, altar paintings in the Church of St. Anna in Reutte, in St. Ottilie's Chapel in Wängle, and in the Parish churches of Elmen, Holzgau, Elbigenalp and Berwang, with decorations in the churches in Elbigenalp and Bichlbach, with the painted facades in Reutte and with the vault frescos of Stams Parish Church.
In addition to the members of the Zeiller family, Josef Degenhart from Telfs (1746-1800) and Josef Anton Köpfle (1757-1843) also made a name for themselves with their illusionist style of architectural painting, and especially fine examples of their work can be seen in Reutte, and in Holzgau and Elbigenalp in the Lech Valley.
One of the most famous artists of his time was Josef Anton Koch (1768-1839) from Obergiblen near Elbigenalp. The son of a farmer and lemon trader, his first job while still a boy was minding his father's cows. At the age of nine he was promoted to assistant to the well-known cartographer Blasius Hueber, who at the time was surveying the Lech Valley for the famous Anich Map. Later he was sent to study at the Karlsschule in Stuttgart, but he was unhappy there, and at the age of twenty-two he took off for Strasbourg in a typical display of the Tirolean spirit of resistance, i.e. "he cut off the mandatory plait of hair and sent it to the academy by post". In 1794, with the help of an English patron, he travelled to Italy where he made contact with the Nazarenes in Rome. Back in Austria, he joined the circle around Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt. The main motif of his Romantic style of painting is the heroic landscape, usually alpine in character. With precise delineation and bright illumination, he reveals realistic details within a strict composition. In spite of the time he spent out in the field, Koch was not concerned to produce a topographical record but to create "ideal landscapes". Paintings by Josef Anton Koch are to be seen in the Ferdinandeum Museum in Innsbruck and elsewhere.
Famous Ausserfern Musicians
In the world of music the Ausserfern became famous for the Engel Family from Reutte. Fritz Engel travelled around the world with his seven children performing a mixed repertoire of folk and light music, and their fame quickly rubbed off on the Ausserfern as well. In more recent years the centre of musical activity in the region has shifted to Elbigenalp where the Koch Digital Disc company, the global market leader in CD test equipment, has a state-of-the-art CD production plant. The company is headquartered in Höfen at the entrance to the Lech Valley.
15th Kaiserwinkl Egascht Festl
© 2012 Tirol Werbung
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