When the participants of this year’s study trip to South Tyrol, organized as part of the P-Seminar "The Alpine War", boarded their air-conditioned coach southward on Wednesday morning, it was almost exactly 107 years ago that the soldiers of the German Alpine Corps climbed into their overcrowded train cars and embarked on the same journey—albeit at barely 40 km/h. Thanks to the comforts of modern times, from hot showers in hotel rooms to blister plasters, students were able to experience a glimpse of three years of war condensed into six days—mercifully without enduring the hardships faced by those who fought in snow-covered winters under the banner of their monarchs.
During the trip, we explored the towering peaks of the Dolomites, including the Lagazuoi, whose scars from explosive detonations are still clearly visible today, and the nearby Hexenstein, marked by trenches and intersected by tunnels up to 500 meters long. We also visited Monte Piano and Piana, where enemy Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers faced each other at almost point-blank range across the high plateau, as well as the Sexten Rotwand with its dizzyingly high machine gun positions.
The knowledge gained and the lasting impressions left by the trenches and guided museum tours will be used both in the W-Seminar research papers of the Q11 students and in an exhibition at the Technikum, which will make this part of history tangible for all students of Jakob-Brucker-Gymnasium at the start of the next school year.
Students of Q11, Jakob-Brucker-Gymnasium
