Karin Kaltenbrunner

In September 1915 the Tyrolean Max Jud, just eighteen years of age, wrote a forces letter to his stepbrother Franz Plattner in which he described his current experiences on the Southern Front. His enthusiastic descriptions of the fighting against the Italians testify to a profound euphoria and patriotic ardour for the military conflict with the “Welsh (meaning Italian) brats”. Max Jud fell as a lieutenant of Imperial-Royal Tyrolean Alpine Corps Regiment No. 1 in June 1918 in one of the last battles near Sant’Andrea on the Piave.

During the First World War First Lieutenant Rudolf Richter from Vienna was stationed among other locations in Kötschach-Mauthen and fought in the mountain war against Italy in the Carnic Alps. Numerous photographs document the circumstances of warfare at an altitude of over six thousand feet, where the topographical and climatic conditions alone were frequently a threat to the lives of the soldiers. Indeed, Rudolf Richter was buried in an avalanche, but survived this accident without harm.