Oral traditions on the construction of the trenches

Some Teisers remember the stories of their parents:

Paula Messner (1933-2016) knows from stories of her mother Katharina Roalter (1908-1998), daughter of Kofler: At the beginning of the construction work, a simple field kitchen was set up above the Kofler for the men who worked on the trenches. The Teiser children got to hear foreign languages and taste unknown food: Plent with sugar, fried potatoes ... The children were forbidden to contact the foreign workers, but they were attracted to them by their kindness and generosity. The ‘Russians’ sang beautiful songs. They slept in the shooting range. Later, a base kitchen was built at today's Wetterkreuz.

Katharina Roalter's son Siegfried (born 1947) recalls how the mother told about the ‘Russian’ construction workers on the hood, whom the children encountered when shepherding the cattle there. Sometimes they followed them, and the children fled downhill. It was only during the race that they felt safe.

According to Alois Wieland, Pliederer, (1903-1968), barracks for ‘Russian’ construction workers also stood in the trench behind the Nafner Wetterkreuz, where trail No 11 now runs. The workers of the lower section of the building were probably housed here.

Note: The fact that the workers were Russians can be ruled out according to today's knowledge. Apparently, everything that sounded foreign was simply referred to as ‘Russian’ by the locals. The workers in question were most likely Ruthenians, the Eastern Slavs of the Habsburg Monarchy, from Galicia and Ukraine, the border area with Russia.