The Mayralm

It lies there peacefully, the Mayralm. Nestled in a clear alpine valley - at the foot of the Sengsen Mountains. Like a little paradise, a world in itself. The location, the nature, the view – you immediately understand why you find an alpine hut here. Or rather, what's left of her. Today only the foundation walls of the former hunting, forestry, lumberjack and forest ranger's hut remain. The stone walls have collapsed and the wooden beams scattered all over the alpine meadow are rotten. Grasses make their way through the cracks in the wall. Moss grows on the remains of former ceiling posts. It's quiet here. Peaceful and lonely. With a sense of history.

The former alpine hut at the foot of the mountain pine-covered Mayrwipfel has now become quiet. Who would suspect that great bloodshed once took place here - where today the cattle doze comfortably on dewy grass? That the wide alpine meadow became the stage for a dramatic spectacle - a momentous shootout between hunters, gendarmes and poachers?

You know about it. The walls that still form the floor plan of the Mayralm today. They are stone witnesses to times long past. If they could speak, they would tell us in detail what once happened here. When the first shot was fired and claimed its first victim. Of poignant agonies and last breaths.

A clash between hunters and poachers took place on the Mayralm on October 29, 1923 at around 6 p.m. in the late afternoon, with the 33-year-old hunter Vinzenz Hobel and the poacher Johann Farnberger vulgo Sperl Hans being shot.

It is October 29, 1923. The hunter Vinzenz Hobel is doing protection work on the Mayralm in the Sengsen Mountains. Everything seems calm. Suddenly a shot rings out. Hobel can spot a group of poachers stalking near Mayralm. “They can’t get away with it like that!” He immediately sets off into the valley to get reinforcements. And then climbs back up to the Mayralm together with eight hunters and gendarmes.

What then happens on the Mayralm has serious consequences. An old conflict between poachers, hunters and gendarmes escalates. Shots keep shattering the silence of the night.

Then: the next morning. The collision on the Mayralm claimed two lives. Who was involved? Who shot? What really happened here on the Mayralm back then, over 100 years ago?

Questions about questions. Part of what happened will remain unexplained forever. As for the other part, now it's up to you.

Embark on an exciting journey through time to the Mayralm crime scene. Let the characters from back then come to life. And think through the mysterious events of the fall of 1923.

Johann Farnberger's part called "Sperl Hans".