Graubünden's Prättigau is characterized by an eventful past: blue News takes you back to the old days when the Nazis were a stone's throw away and smugglers and muleteers were still on the move in the mountains.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- blue News goes to the border, part 2/4: We travel to Prättigau on the Grisons border with Austria. Our route takes us from Klosters to St. Antönien - and back down to Fideris.
- We follow in the footsteps of muleteers and smugglers.
- We also find out what it was like when the Nazis were lurking on the border in the high mountains - and explore one of the many bunkers in the region.
The border between Montafon and Prättigau is 53 kilometers long. Around 20 passes connect the region in the north of Graubünden with Austria. 53 kilometers of border along which many stories have taken place over the years.
In the second part of the autumn series, blue News travels to the valley with its idyllic, somewhat sleepy villages, nestled in a rugged and impressive landscape. It was probably not without reason that the Walser people discovered it for themselves centuries ago.
The fact that a rough landscape can also be accompanied by rough weather is something we already notice on the journey. "Mule rides take place in all weathers," says Reto Niggli, who today tries to preserve the tradition with organized mule rides.
"There's no excitement in hemming"
We set off with him from Klosters-Serneus on a section of the Via Valtellina, the long-distance trail between the market town of Schruns in the Austrian Montafon and the northern Italian town of Tirano in Valtellina. For centuries, muleteers brought goods - especially salt and wine - over the mountains and across the borders on the backs of pack animals.
It was and still is important to keep a cool head, especially in exposed passages: "You can't get excited, otherwise it will be transferred to the animal," says Niggli.
The Swiss soldiers who were stationed on the border in Prättigau during the Second World War were not allowed to lose their cool either. After the forced annexation of Austria by Germany in March 1938 following Hitler's invasion, the "Third Reich" was suddenly just one summit away.
The story of the smuggler Thöny
We move to St. Antönien, where bunkers still bear witness to the threat of that time. "People watched each other with binoculars," says Peter Baumgartner. The military historian knows all about the Prättigau bunkers - and leads us through a typical example for this region.
Smuggling also flourished in the period between the world wars. Certain products were in short supply. And anyone who, unlike the muleteers, didn't want to pay the required duty became a smuggler. "The most notorious was the smuggler Thöny," says Hans Flütsch. The shingle maker grew up in the remote Prättigau municipality of St. Antönien, a village that was known in the region for its smugglers.
To be able to tell us the old stories of the smuggler Thöny, Flütsch has his laptop with him - made of wood. You can see and hear what other stories are stored there in the video.