Personalities

What do Luis Trenker, Reinhold Messner and Andreas Hofer have in common? All of them have written history and all three are South Tyrolean’s. In many different fields of life inhabitants of South Tyrol have been very successful: in culture, politics, church life, research, sports and economy.
Some examples are Margarethe of Tyrol alias “Maultasch”, the freedom fighter Andreas Hofer and Silvius Magnago who is also known as the “father of the South Tyrol Paket”. All three have been of great importance for this region.
There are also numerous “men of faith” on the list of famous South Tyrolean personalities. Think about Josef Freinademetz, Kanonikus Michael Gamper or the bishop Wilhelm Egger. In the field of culture and art well-known names are: Oswald von Wolkenstein, Luis Trenker, Giorgio Moroder or Norbert Rier. South Tyrol is also the home country of some successful athletes: in the 70s Gustav Thöni used to be one of the world’s best ski racers, Armin Zöggeler was several times nominated tobbogan champion of the world and Reinhold Messner was the first man to climb Mount Everest without extra oxygen.
As important as all the above named persons might be there is one South Tyrolean who is even more widely known than them: and you should definitely pay him a visit during your Italian vacation in South Tyrol: the Ötzi. This glacier mummy is about 5.300 years old and was found in 1991 in the Alpine Ötz valley and can nowadays be seen in the South Tyrolean Museum of Archaeology.