Mountain legend Reinhold Messner: No new summit crosses in the Alps! | Regional

2023-07-05 06:58:20

Munich – They belong to the mountains as well as to the churches: crosses!

On the vast majority of mountains in the Alps there are summit crosses at the top, closest to the sky – made of wood or iron. According to the Austrian Alpine Club ÖAV, there are around 4,000 in the Alps. But how long?

Because: Now there is resistance to the summit crosses – after heated discussions in Austria and Italy, the greatest mountaineer of all time, Reinhold Messner (78), now says in BILD: It’s enough!

Knows mountains: Legendary alpinist Reinhold Messner

Foto: picture alliance / imageBROKER

︎ Messner to BILD: “It crosses everywhere”. What he means: there are summit crosses everywhere – and it’s about time to stop with the cross madness. Messner: “On the whole it’s enough.” Messner even speaks of a “mania for putting a cross on every hill or mountain”.

Messner in no uncertain terms: “I would prefer it if there were nothing left on the mountain peaks.” Even as Christian symbols, he would prefer to do without the summit crosses: “No one has the right to occupy a mountain for their religion.”

Hikers at the summit cross of the Großer Arber in the Bavarian Forest

Foto: picture alliance/dpa

However, Messner does not want to dismantle existing crosses again: “You can leave the crosses that are already there. Even those that rot should be replaced.”

But according to Messner, new crosses should no longer be erected – not even in Germany.

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This puts the South Tyrolean in line with his colleagues from the Italian and Austrian Alpine Clubs.

▶︎ The Italian Alpine Association “Club Alpino Italiano” described the summit crosses as religious symbols that were no longer up-to-date.

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The Austrian Alpine Association (ÖAV) has also been against the erection of new summit crosses for more than 30 years. ÖAV President Andreas Ermacora told ORF-Tirol at the end of June: “The Alpine Club decided 100 years ago not to build any more new paths and huts.” This also applies to summit crosses: “There are enough”.

With such statements, Messner is at odds with many Kreuz fans! CSU General Secretary Martin Huber (45) to BILD: “The summit cross belongs on the mountain like the white-blue sky in Bavaria.”

Huber continues: “Every mountaineer knows the fulfilling feeling of reaching the summit cross at the high point of a strenuous hike and looking down into the valley. The summit cross is a sign of home and tradition that must be preserved.”

CSU General Secretary Martin Huber

Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa

Summit crosses as a tradition? Messner disagrees: Historically speaking, you are quite young: “In the past, crosses were not placed on peaks, but rather in places where lightning had struck – to defuse this danger.”

So there are no more new summit crosses in Germany? According to the President of the German Alpine Club, Roland Stierle, there is hardly any space left anyway. He said to the “BR”: “I think in Bavaria, in Germany there is a cross on almost all significant peaks or vantage points.”