A Brief History of the ÖAV
by Allan Hartley
The Österreichischer Alpenverein (ÖAV) was founded in Vienna in November 1862 to foster and encourage the sport of mountaineering. ln 1869 a number of German and Austrian Sektions got together to establish the Deutscher Alpenverein (DAV) which is largely credited to Franz Senn, the village priest in Vent (Ötztal) then later in Neustift (Stubai). His associates were Johann Stüdl, a wealthy Prague businessman, and Karl Hofmann, a young lawyer from Munich. Franz Senn maintained that the two clubs should work together and issued a joint statement of intent in 1871, later ratified as the DuÖAV in 1873.
The ÖAV was the first alpine club to be established in mainland Europe, celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2012. Presently the ÖAV has over 500,000 members in 210 Sektions including Sektion Britannia. The main strength of the Alpenverein is that membership is open to everyone who has a love of the mountains, regardless of age or ability.
After formal amalgamation with the DAV in 1873 much wealth was created resulting in competition between various towns and Sektions to build a network of huts right across Bavaria and Austria, particularly in the mountains of North and South Tyrol. After the First World War the Austrian South Tyrol was handed to Italy as war reparations including the forfeiture of 42 huts.
The intervening war years saw the rise of German and Austrian nationalism in the 1930's and the resurgence of the DuÖAV. When Austria was annexed in 1938 the DuÖAV simply became known as the DAV with many huts being used to train mountain troops. By the end of the Second World War the DAV was again disbanded leaving many huts abandoned to the elements or simply plundered for whatever utilities or goods could be carried away. Indeed, at this time the occupying Allied Armies wanted the huts to be blown up to prevent them being used as bases for guerrilla operations.
During this time a young British Army Major found himself back in the beloved Austria of his youth, processing and decommissioning Austrian soldiers returning to their homes. This man was Major Walter lngham who opposed the suggestion that mountain huts should be blown up; he believed the Austrians should be encouraged to return to the mountains and the huts so common to their culture and landscape, arguing that it would give the local people and occupying soldiers somewhere to go and something to do.
Prior to the war Walter lngham had been running a travel company specialising in skiing holidays in Austria and France. During this time he came into contact with Heinrich Karl Krausz, to be known after the war as Henry Crowther. Henry was from Graz and a member of DuÖAV Akad S Graz, working at the time for the Austrian Tourist Board in London.
Some time around 1947 Walter lngham and Henry Crowther floated the idea of forming a British Sektion of the Österreichischer Alpenverein as a means of fostering post-war Anglo-Austrian relationships, and also to encourage British mountaineers to visit the Eastern Alps where both men had grown up. On 27 July 1948 the United Kingdom Sektion was established. This Sektion was initially known as Sektion England but later changed its name to the Sektion Britannia.
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