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Life on the Alpenstraße: Bavaria's most beautiful holiday mile - "The driver almost got hit"

2022-01-18T09:00:56.603Z


Life on the Alpenstraße: Bavaria's most beautiful holiday mile - "The driver almost got hit" Created: 01/18/2022, 09:57 A child of the Alpine Road: The bridge between Tatzlwurm and Bayrischzell is a favorite spot of Josef Kiesl. © Verena Moeckl We met people whose lives have always been inextricably linked to the German Alpine Road - the longest holiday route in Germany. Oberaudorf/Kochel am S


Life on the Alpenstraße: Bavaria's most beautiful holiday mile - "The driver almost got hit"

Created: 01/18/2022, 09:57

A child of the Alpine Road: The bridge between Tatzlwurm and Bayrischzell is a favorite spot of Josef Kiesl.

© Verena Moeckl

We met people whose lives have always been inextricably linked to the German Alpine Road - the longest holiday route in Germany.

Oberaudorf/Kochel am See –

Josef Kiesl chugs up the alpine road at Tatzlwurm in his red VW Touran.

"These crash barriers date back to Hitler's time," he says as he takes a steep bend.

"You have to drive carefully here."

Many motorcyclists have had accidents on the Alpine road, including a professional racing driver.

That was in 1968. The Italian Ludovico Scarfiotti died while training for the Roßfeld race.

70-year-old Josef Kiesl knows about the dangers lurking on the Alpine Road.

He is the third generation to run the traditional hotel "Feuriger Tatzlwurm" in the climatic health resort of Oberaudorf in the district of Rosenheim.

But above all he knows one thing: the street is also a wonderful, unique place.

Ludovico Scarfiotti (in the car) at the Roßfeld race.

The photo was taken in 1966, two years later he died on the track.

© The German Alpine Road

Mountain lakes, castles, health resorts: The German Alpine Road is Bavaria's most beautiful holiday destination

The German Alpine Road is the epitome of Bavaria.

25 castles and palaces, 21 mountain lakes and 64 health resorts are on your route between Lindau am Bodensee and Schönau am Königssee.

The route is 484 kilometers long.

Most of them go by car, others by motorbike or, if you have the time and enough money, by bike.

If you will, the Alpine Road was not built.

It was created in a process that lasted almost a hundred years.

And it's less the street that takes center stage than what surrounds it.

Sights and a panorama that make you forget everyday life.

(By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you about all the important stories from Bavaria. Register here.)

The German Alpine Road: Important axis point for the traditional hotel "Fiery Tatlwurm"

For Josef Kiesl, the street is his everyday life. That's why he doesn't see her quite as romantically as his guests. The family business dates back to a time when there were only field and gravel paths on the Tatzlwurm. “The Alpenstraße was the first paved road we had here,” Kiesl remembers. A high point in his childhood. He often roared down the paved road on his bike.

Kiesl's father pushed ahead with the construction of the road from Tatzlwurm to Bayrischzell after World War II.

"The Alpine Road is an important axis point for tourism." He has been running his hotel for 50 years.

Tourism has changed a lot during this time, he says.

Instead of going for walks on the Alpine Road, guests mostly only use the holiday route to get there and back.

The demands on the hotel have also changed.

"The guests want wellness and go hiking."

Kiesl pulls over to the right.

His gaze wanders up the steep alpine road.

"I used to rollerblade down here as a boy," he says with a grin.

"When I overtook a car, the driver almost got hit." But things ended well.

"I was able to brake somewhere."

At the Sudefeld there had recently been a large rush of winter sports enthusiasts.

The ski slopes were literally overrun.

Historic petrol stations on the Alpenstraße: the last of their kind in Kochel am See

The same street, about 100 kilometers further west in Kochel am See: the four red letters on the neon sign on the historic Esso gas station can be seen from afar.

"There are only two of this sign left in Germany," says Wolfgang Poll proudly.

However, the low roof of the gas station has often led to breakdowns.

The 53-year-old has needed a new gutter several times because a truck hit the ceiling.

Wolfgang Poll (left) took over the Esso gas station in Kochel am See from his father Werner (83).

It is located directly on the German Alpine Road.

© Verena Moeckl

30 years ago there were still six petrol stations in Kochel am See.

"We're the only ones here now," says Poll.

He's in the back room of the gas station.

Around 200 Carrera cars are stacked against the wall.

A cat is dozing on the leather stool, metal music is pounding out of the speakers.

Poll likes to go to Munich for concerts.

But he can't imagine living in a big city.

"I love this area."

What Poll also loves are cars.

In addition to the gas station, he also runs a garage, like Kiesl in the third generation.

He and his father Werner used to have a towing service.

"Once a woman went off the Alpine road and drove into the Loisach," Poll recalls, stroking his cat.

"The woman was trapped, but we were able to free her in time."

The family has given up the towing service, the same fate will probably befall the gas station and workshop, because none of their children want to continue the family business.

"The classic gas station is dying out," says Poll.

When he retires, there will be one historic petrol station less on the Alpenstrasse.

But until then there are still a few years.

The history of the German Alpine Road is told in a new book.

Most recently, the citizens' initiative "Project Alpenstraße" called for a traffic concept and the preservation of the biotope-like condition on the small Ascherbach.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-01-18

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