Schweinfurter Hütte

The Schweinfurter Hütte is an Alpine Club mountain hut at 2,028 metres above sea level in the Stubai Alps, on the Ötztal side above Niederthai in the municipality of Umhausen, Tyrol, Austria. It stands at the head of the Zwieselbach valley, an extension of the Horlach valley, within the Stubai Alps conservation area and on the Central Alpine Way. The hut is owned and run by the Schweinfurt Section of the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein, DAV), which has operated it for decades and today markets it as a family-friendly base for hikers, climbers and ski tourers. The building began as a hunting lodge erected in 1912 by Fritz Rechberg, a hunting tenant from Hersfeld, and was initially known as the Hersfelder Hütte. It was later acquired by the Guben Section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club and opened as the Gubener Hütte in 1922. After the Second World War the hut passed through Allied confiscation and Austrian Alpine Club trusteeship before the DAV regained its huts. In 1956 the Guben Section, cut off in East Germany, was linked with the Schweinfurt Section, and a sponsorship agreement in 1957 gave the hut the name Guben-Schweinfurter Hütte. The Schweinfurt Section bought the property outright in 1973 and has since been solely responsible for its operation and upkeep; since 2008 it has been called simply Schweinfurter Hütte. The hut offers around 56 beds in rooms and dormitories, plus a winter room, and is run by the tenant couple Carmen and Andreas Jeitner, who serve regional dishes on a sun terrace and in a cosy Stube. Andreas Jeitner is himself a mountain guide and advises guests on tours around the hut. The Schweinfurter Hütte is a classic member of the DAV hut network, providing food, accommodation and a starting point for routes in the Stubai Alps, and it remains a popular destination for visitors from Schweinfurt and beyond.

The origins of the Schweinfurter Hütte go back to a hunting lodge built in 1912 by the hunting tenant Kommerzienrat Fritz Rechberg from Hersfeld, which is why it was initially called the Hersfelder Hütte. Rechberg chose a site on a scree cone below the Zwieselbacher Rosskogel (3,082 m) for the stone building in the style of an alpine farmstead. This followed an agreement between the Guben Section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club (founded 12 December 1894) and the Frankfurt an der Oder Section (founded 1885) to lay out and mark a path from Kühtai over the Finstertal lakes and the Finstertal Scharte to the Zwieselbachalm and over the Zwieselbachjoch to the Winnebachseehütte, built in 1900/01. This "Gubener Weg" soon became a much-used crossing to Niederthai, and the region fell within the Guben Section's working area. An agreement between the builder and the section provided for a room to be set up for mountaineers to spend the night. As early as a year later, initial negotiations took place about the section acquiring the hut through city councillor Richard Schlief. In 1918 Georg and Alois Leiter of Niederthai, both section members since 1914, bought the hut with funds from councillor Schlief; Hansjörg Leiter, known as Hittls, was the gamekeeper. The hut was inaugurated as the Gubener Hütte on 25 July 1922. In 1923 a purchase contract was concluded between Alois Leiter and the Guben Section, and the section was entered as owner in the land register on 17 February 1925. In 1930 the section carried out a conversion and extension into a simple mountain hut, following a land purchase from Ludwig Falkner (known as Jenneweins) and Andrä Grießer (Anderle) in the same year. The extended hut opened on 5 July 1931. Winter operation began in 1932; that year the Gubener Hütte counted about 400–600 guests, 600 in summer, with 180 overnight stays. In 1938/39 the Guben Section planned a new building, which did not materialise because war broke out. In the final months of the Second World War in 1945, scattered troops devastated the interior. Like all German huts in Austria, the Gubener Hütte was confiscated by the Allies after the war as enemy property, expropriated and later transferred to the Austrian Alpine Club (OeAV), founded in 1945, for administration. The OeAV regarded itself only as a trustee and waited with the German Alpine Club (DAV) for the day when the huts could be returned to German sections. In 1955 the German huts passed into the ownership of the Republic of Austria through the Austrian State Treaty, which later sold them to the OeAV for 600,000 schillings; the change of ownership had no practical effect on the huts. Because most of Guben lies east of the Lusatian Neisse, that part fell under Polish administration through the Potsdam Agreement. The Brandenburg remnant fell into the Soviet occupation zone and, from 7 October 1949, into the German Democratic Republic. Because of the ban on the DAV imposed in the Soviet zone and the closure of the GDR's state territory for travel from May 1952, the members of the Guben Section could no longer look after the mountain hut. In 1956 the presidium of the German Alpine Club put the section in touch with the Lower Franconian Schweinfurt Section. From 1 to 4 November 1956 a meeting of the boards of both sections took place at the hut for initial contact about cooperation. This led in 1957 to a sponsorship agreement between the two sections. The Schweinfurt Section took on quasi-responsibility for running the mountain hut. This commitment was expressed in the new name written into the sponsorship agreement: from then on it was called the Guben-Schweinfurter Hütte. In 1963/64 the hut was extended to its present size with 56 beds in rooms and dormitories. The Schweinfurt Section led the work because the Guben Section lacked the means at the time. In 1969 the DAV bought all its huts back from the OeAV for 600,000 schillings. In 1973 the DAV separated itself from hut ownership and sold the property with its land to the Schweinfurt Section, which from then on was solely responsible for its operation and upkeep. In April 1974 a smouldering fire caused by an overheated stove destroyed the upper floor and attic: when a wooden panelling from which smoke was coming was opened, the smouldering fire ignited. With snow still lying at the end of April, the fire could not be extinguished, and by the time the innkeeper's daughter had run barefoot down to the valley to fetch the fire brigade, the two upper storeys had burned out completely. Reconstruction took place the same year and was completed at the end of September 1974. Progress continued cautiously. In 1980/1981 a winter house with 16 beds was built. This was followed in 1983 by a new water supply, in 1986 by electrification and a telephone connection. The section gladly paid the cost of connecting the hut to the transformer station 1,000 metres away on the Almweg from Klein-Horlachalm, because electricity made life at the hut immensely easier. In 1990 there was a new spring capture for the drinking water supply. In 1996/97 a storage room for kitchen supplies was created, and in 1998 a small sewage treatment plant could be built. The hut has since been known simply as the Schweinfurter Hütte, the name change taking effect in 2008.

• 2008

  Renamed Schweinfurter Hütte.

• 1986

  Electrification and telephone connection.

• 1980

  Winter house with 16 beds built (1980/1981).

• 1974

  Fire destroyed upper floors in April; reconstruction completed end of September.

• 1973

  DAV sold the hut and land to the Schweinfurt Section.

• 1963

  Extended to present size with 56 beds (completed 1964).

• 1957

  Sponsorship agreement between Guben and Schweinfurt sections; hut renamed Guben-Schweinfurter Hütte.

• 1932

  First winter operation; about 400–600 guests that year.

• 1931

  Extended hut opened on 5 July.

• 1925

  Guben Section entered as owner in the land register on 17 February.

• 1922

  Inaugurated as Gubener Hütte on 25 July.

• 1912

  Hunting lodge built by Fritz Rechberg, initially called Hersfelder Hütte.

A family-friendly Alpine Club hut in the Stubai Alps, run by the Schweinfurt Section of the German Alpine Club.

• Mountain hut accommodation

  56 beds in rooms and dormitories.

• Winter room

  Winter house with 16 beds.

• Regional cuisine

  Local dishes served on the sun terrace and in the Stube.

1. 1DAV Schweinfurt - Schweinfurter Hüttedav-schweinfurt.de
2. 2Schweinfurter Hütte - Wikipediade.wikipedia.org
3. 3Schweinfurter Hütte - Wikidatawikidata.org