Essential emergency suitcase for the famous Ötzi comes from Upper Bavaria - "A treat"

Created: 12/16/2022, 12:15 p.m

By: Josef Ametsbichler

Company boss Maximilian Lörzel (left) and Ötzi's curator Oliver Peschel show the interior © Rossmann

The glacier mummy from the Ötztal Alps, affectionately known as Ötzi, gets a new suitcase, made in Upper Bavaria.

Oberpframmern/Bozen – backpack, belt bag, hatchet and bow and arrow: 5,300 years ago, Ötzi hiked across the Alps with a light pack.

Now the Iceman, whose world-famous mummy can be admired in the museum in Bozen, South Tyrol, is getting new luggage – from Bavaria.

A suitcase should bring Ötzi to safety in emergency situations

Ötzi was unable to save his survival equipment in the Copper Age: shot in the back with an arrow, he died high up in the Ötztal Alps, where the glacier preserved him for thousands of years.

Its discovery in 1991: a scientific sensation that partially rewrote Stone Age history.

Today, Ötzi's body is kept at a constant minus six degrees in a cooling chamber in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Scientists examine the glacier mummy "Ötzi".

(Archive photo) © M.Samadelli/dpa

But if a fire or an earthquake endangers the building there, the invaluable ice mummy has to be taken to the Bolzano University Hospital as quickly as possible, where a cold chamber is permanently available especially for this eventuality.

Transported in a tailor-made rescue box, manufactured by the model construction company Schröter in Oberpframmern (Ebersberg district).

Tailor-made case for ice mummy Ötzi

Where milling machines the size of a double garage otherwise form 3D models for car and aviation manufacturers, Ötzi's new piece of luggage was made from two millimeter thick lightweight aluminum.

It looks like the case for an unusual musical instrument.

Inside, the fire-resistant soft foam is precisely adapted to the body shape, based on a computer model.

So that the 1.54 meter tall ice mummy is not damaged if things get hectic during a salvage or the case gets bumped.

Ötzi comes in this suitcase.

© Rossmann.

For the eyelets, handles and clasps, the Schröter company obtained expertise from the fire brigade in nearby Grafing - if you need it quickly, two helpers can lift it, if necessary even one alone.

For emergencies, the box is available very close to Ötzi's museum cooling chamber.

The Bolzano fire brigade has a sophisticated access plan, packs the 13-kilo, 5,300-year-old corpse in sterile cloths and in the rescue box.

In this way, escape through the stairwell or the turntable ladder through the window is possible without breaking the filigree, frozen limbs.

Company head for case production: "Ötzi is a treat!"

The case was made for a friendly price of 5,000 euros, says company boss Maximilian Lörzel: "Ötzi is a treat!"

When Ötzi was being “transported home” from Innsbruck in 1998, he traveled on the Brenner Autobahn, which was closed to him.

And if he has to go to the nearby university clinic for medical examinations, then he is transported late at night with a police motorcycle escort, as was the case last time in 2021. Now Ötzi is traveling with new luggage in such a case.

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The contact between the Upper Bavarian company and the South Tyrolean museum came about through the forensic doctor Oliver Peschel (58) from Grafing, as Ötzi's curator something like the personal doctor of the ice mummy.

He is happy that there is now a replacement for the bulky Ötzi wooden box, which weighs a good 100 kilos and which probably would not have fit through the museum window.

"We sweated blood and water," says Peschel about the recent transport of the mummy to the CT scan.

Peschel will bring the new, 42-kilo aluminum crate to South Tyrol next week himself in the trunk of his Volvo.

With a delivery note, of course, so that if necessary he can explain to the police what he is driving around.