The partnership between Seefeld-Hechendorf and the South Tyrolean community of Brenner-Gossensass has existed for 40 years. However, the anniversary and the inauguration of the new fire station could not be celebrated due to the Coroan panic. But it was started.
Hechendorf - The partnership between Seefeld-Hechendorf and the South Tyrolean community of Brenner-Gossensass began 40 years ago. The four-day anniversary was to be celebrated for four days at the same time as the official inauguration of the fire station with a ceremony entitled "s'Dorf brennt". Corona intervened. But "postponed is not canceled," said Alexander von Dehn and announced on Pentecost Sunday that the festival will definitely be made up for next year. The chairman of the Hechendorf volunteer fire brigade and founding member of the d'Aubachtaler brass band did not want to let the anniversary fade away. Therefore, there was at least one small but fine celebration at the weekend.
With daughter Theresa (member of d'Aubachtaler) and son Maximilian (member of the volunteer fire brigade), he sat down in front of the fire station opposite the South Tyrolean fire brigade colleague Markus Mair with his wife Elisabeth and the musician and baker Alex Crepaz from Gossensee. Petra Crepaz was also part of the group. The partnership was life-changing for them, as Petra and Alex Crepaz got married six months ago. As reported, they had not been allowed to see the coronavirus for several weeks due to the closed borders. Now they are reunited and in a party mood with brown bread and obaztn, pretzels and butter, radishes, bacon and cheese and in addition light, red wine and sparkling wine.
For von Dehn, the cross-border friendship began with a goal he scored against the South Tyroleans when he was 16. Back when TSV Hechendorf contacted the village on the Brenner. In the first leg against Gossensass, the Hechendorf footballers went down mercilessly, he says - but when they had to kick in the return leg on Hechendorf's sloping ground, the superior Gossensasser lost 2: 4. In view of the slope, they only said, "We're building a ski lift there," grins von Dehn. That was 43 years ago. Today the mountain village has become a second home for the 59-year-old, where he and his four meanwhile grown children regularly go.
Mair pours home-brewed gentian on Sunday, the bitter aftertaste of which deregulates the facial features of one or the other. "Gsund" is the brew, grins Mair and gives you a "women's schnapps" made from blackberries - also distilled itself, but definitely gentler afterwards. It was a familiar get-together at the beer benches in the forecourt of the fire station. The two Alex cultivated the friendship of the villages, so Mair. A friendship that the Hechendorf painter Helmut Schwarz immortalized in 1990 with an eagle and a lion in a painting entitled "Boar-Tyrolean Liab".
"We are celebrating very nice parties," enthuses von Dehn - and can almost see how the 60-man chapel is marching along Hechendorf's streets in a pageant at that moment, behind it villagers in traditional clothes or everyday attire together with the guests from South Tyrol. "The weather would be perfect," the people sitting together regretted on Sunday. Instead of toasting with hundreds of visitors in the beer tent, the handful of representatives of the communities raised their glasses at Pentecost 2021, at which the ceremony was to be rescheduled.
Michèlle Kirner
