Ski Club Arlberg and Stuben

On 3 January 1901, enchanted by nature and enthusiastic about the sport, skiing enthusiasts founded the Ski Club Arlberg in the Hospiz St. Christoph to create a meeting place for friends of this noble pleasure on the Arlberg.

Founding members:

• Club chairman: Carl Schuler
• Deputy chairman: Dr. Rybizka
• Treasurer: Josef Schneider
• Clubwart: Oswald Trojer
• Members: Beil (assistant), Med. F. Gerster, Liesl Trojer, Rudolf Schuler

Entry in the guest book of the St. Christoph Hospice (1901)

The Ski Club Arlberg is one of the oldest clubs of its kind in the Alps. Seven visionary men and one woman - Liesl Trojer, the daughter of the hospice landlord - recognized the great potential of skiing for the Arlberg region. By organizing ski races, they quickly gained like-minded people for their project. After just five years, the club had almost 150 members.

The logo that is still used today was also drawn in the guest book in 1901.

Boys and girls also regularly took part in the Ski Club Arlberg ski races. Among the participants was the talented Johann Baptist Schneider from Stuben, who soon became an outstanding ski jumper and fast downhill skier as Viktor Sohm's most studious pupil. The members of the club actively supported him and praised him as the "best Arlberger".

In the summer of 1907, Schneider's father, road maintenance worker Josef Schneider, spoke to postmaster Carl Schuler about an inquiry from Switzerland: they wanted to hire Johann Baptist as a ski instructor there. Schuler consulted club chairman Rudolf Gomperz, who decided: "What the Swiss can do, we should be able to do too." With the support of the club, Johann Baptist Schneider was hired as the Ski Club Arlberg's first paid ski instructor - a decision that laid the foundation for the Arlberg's subsequent worldwide fame.

The club's first ski races took place in St. Anton in 1904, after the race planned for 1903 had to be canceled due to the weather. Viktor Sohm, a formative figure in the club, led the ski jumping competition and was made an honorary member in 1908. His best pupil, Johann Baptist Schneider, demonstrated his exceptional talent in numerous ski races. His appointment as a ski instructor at the Hotel Post in St. Anton in 1907 was a milestone for the development of skiing on the Arlberg.

Even before the First World War, the Arlberg region had established itself as one of the most famous ski resorts. The work of the Ski Club Arlberg, which promoted skiing with ski races, courses and events, played a significant role in this.

Idyllic Stuben was particularly highlighted in travel descriptions of the time. As Vorarlberg's first winter sports resort, it attracted skiers with its unique location and the strong attraction of the Arlberg. St. Anton was already known as a famous winter sports resort, while Zürs and St. Christoph established themselves as a base for beginners and experienced skiers alike.

Winter life on the Arlberg included ski courses, races, balls and guided tours - a diverse offering that made the Arlberg the epitome of a winter sports paradise. This tradition continues to this day, and the region remains one of the most popular ski resorts in the world.

The First World War brought major changes for the Arlberg and Hannes Schneider's ski school. While military billeting and ski courses took place in St. Anton and St. Christoph, Schneider was far from home and initially served in the artillery. In 1916, he was assigned as an "Instructor for Alpine and Skiing", where he was able to further develop his teaching methods under the command of Lieutenant Passini.

Passini gave Schneider a free hand in teaching, which enabled him to intensively research and improve his system of skiing. The rapidly changing military ski courses gave him ample opportunity to test and refine different approaches. These experiences significantly shaped his later teaching and skiing methods in the 1920s.

Before the war, Schneider had already successfully taken part in ski races as a member of the Ski Club Arlberg, but he was banned from doing so due to Austria's amateur regulations. This led to a lengthy debate in the magazine "Der Winter", in which Bernhard Trier and Rudolf Gomperz vigorously defended Schneider's position.

The experiences of the First World War made a decisive contribution to the development of modern alpine skiing and made Schneider's teaching method an internationally recognized standard.

In the 1920s, the Stuben ski club became an important player in the promotion of ski racing. Under the leadership of dedicated personalities, the club sent teams and individual skiers to numerous races in Vorarlberg and beyond. A notable success was achieved in 1926, when the team of Walch Willy, Walch Anton and Riezler Ludwig won first prize at the youth ski day on the Pfänder after a calculation error was corrected.

A driving force behind skiing in Stuben was Friedrich Schneider (1898-1987), the youngest brother of Hannes Schneider. His Stuben am Arlberg ski school, founded in 1924, played a central role in the development of skiing and contributed significantly to the establishment of winter tourism.

The Stuben ski club remained a permanent fixture in skiing and had a lasting impact on the region with its passion and promotion of young talent.

The Arlberg-Kandahar race, founded in 1928 by Hannes Schneider and Arnold Lunn, marked a milestone in the history of international ski racing. This race, named after the organizing clubs Arlberg and Kandahar, was the first alpine combination and contributed significantly to the establishment of alpine disciplines, which Lunn strongly supported at the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Among the 45 competitors were around 15 professional ski instructors, including Friedrich Schneider, one of the best all-round racers in Europe and brother of Hannes Schneider. Friedrich impressed with his versatility and high technical standard. He won the first downhill race from Galzig, even though he had come directly from Stuben to the start and had not visited the race course. He came second in the slalom, which also earned him second place in the combined behind Benno Leubner.

As a prize, Friedrich Schneider received an annual ticket for the Austrian Federal Railways. This race not only demonstrated the high level of the participants, but also the importance of the Ski Club Arlberg as a pioneer of alpine racing.

Emil Walch (1902-1967) was one of the outstanding skiers from Stuben am Arlberg and the second after Friedrich Schneider to celebrate great success in the renowned Arlberg-Kandahar race. Walch won the slalom at the third competition in St. Anton in 1930 and secured third place in the prestigious combined.

Walch also took part in international races in the following years, including in Mürren. In 1932, at the age of 30, he reached another high point in his career when he came second in the Parsenn downhill in Davos. He took part in his last race in 1933 and then devoted himself to other activities. As a stove builder, ski instructor and later as a hotelier, he remained closely connected to his homeland and skiing.

His achievements not only contributed to the international reputation of Ski Club Arlberg, but also to consolidating Stuben's role as a talent factory for outstanding skiers.

Rudolf "Rudi" Fritz (1901-1951) was an outstanding skier who achieved numerous successes for the Ski Club Arlberg in the 1920s and 1930s. His talent was particularly impressive, which he demonstrated in competitions such as the Tyrol and Vorarlberg Ski Championships at Bödele in 1931, where he completed one of the fastest runs with an impressive time of 6:44.2.

As the son of postmaster Franz Fritz, Rudi showed exceptional skills on skis from an early age. It is reported that he skied from the Ulmer Hütte, which his family managed, to the Gasthof Post in just three minutes - an achievement that underlines his speed and precision. After the death of his father, Rudi took over the management of the hotel together with his mother, the well-known Post landlady Fanny Fritz.

Rudi Fritz died in 1951 at the age of just 50 in a tragic accident while waterskiing on Lake Zurich. His legacy as an exceptional skier and his connection to the history of the Arlberg remain unforgotten.

In January 1939, a proposal by Dr. Theodor Rhomberg, Dornbirn, to found an independent ski club for Lech, Zürs and Stuben was discussed. However, the representatives of these villages rejected the proposal and decided to intensify cooperation within the Arlberg Ski Club. Each section was to operate independently with a committee and raise funds for participation in ski races through events, donations and collections.

After the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938, the NSDAP also took over the Arlberg Ski Club. Members who did not fit in with their ideology were ostracized and persecuted, including long-time supporter Rudolf Gomperz, who was murdered in the Maly Trostinec extermination camp in 1942. Hannes Schneider was able to emigrate to the USA with his family in 1939, thanks to his international contacts.

Despite the political changes, the Arlberg Ski Club continued to exist. The structure introduced in 1939 with sections for St. Anton, Lech, Zürs and Stuben still forms the basis of the club today and shows the cohesion of the region in difficult times.

Willi Walch (1912-1941) from Stuben was one of the most successful skiers of the Arlberg Ski Club and was one of the most important winter sportsmen in Vorarlberg before the Second World War. His elegant skiing style and his successes made him internationally renowned.

In 1937, Walch won the silver medal in the slalom at the Alpine Ski World Championships in Chamonix. Two years later, he was runner-up in the combined at the World Championships in Zakopane and took bronze in the slalom. As one of the few who could keep up with French world champion Émile Allais, Walch was praised by experts as an outstanding racer.

National Socialist propaganda portrayed Walch, like other successful racers from the Arlberg ski club, as an idol of German youth. On the first day of the Russian campaign in 1941, Willi Walch fell in the Second World War, leaving behind an impressive sporting but tragic life story.

Rosa Riezler (1914-1990) was the most successful female racer in the history of the Arlberg Ski Club in Stuben. Before and during the Second World War, she dominated numerous national ski races, including the prestigious Madloch race in Lech, where she emerged victorious in 1937.

Although she received no recognition at international level, Riezler left a lasting impression on Austrian skiing. After her active racing career, which she ended in 1946, she dedicated herself to a new challenge as a ski instructor on the Arlberg. She was also a pioneer in this field and set standards for training in skiing.

Rosa Riezler remains a symbol of the strong role that women have played in the history of the Arlberg Ski Club and a role model for future generations of female skiers.

Rudi Riezler (1921-1942), inspired by his older sister Rosa, began skiing at a young age. In the 1930s, he developed into one of the most promising young racers on the Arlberg. In addition to alpine competitions, the young Stubner also took part in Nordic competitions and won a ski jumping competition in Lech in the winter of 1939.

At the age of just 18, Riezler achieved impressive results in 1940: He won a giant slalom in Lech and achieved top placings in regional races. His greatest success was a fourth place at the Greater German Championships in St. Anton, where he left established athletes such as Rudi Cranz and Franz Zingerle in his wake.

However, Riezler's promising career was abruptly interrupted by the Second World War. After the "Anschluss" of Austria, he competed in regional races for the Hitler Youth, but was unable to take part in international competitions due to the war. In 1941/42, he suffered a serious wound at the front, which led to the amputation of one of his legs. Rudi Riezler died of pneumonia just a few days before his 21st birthday. His tragic story is a reminder of an extraordinary talent who never had the opportunity to develop his full potential.

On March 26, 1950, with April 1 as a replacement day, the Arlberg Youth Ski Day was planned in Stuben. Participants between the ages of 10 and 18, including girls aged 12 and over, competed in a giant slalom. The number of participants was limited to 50, with St. Anton and Lech each providing 20 starters and Stuben and Zürs filling the remaining places.

The course of the day was precisely organized:

• 9:30 am: Joint mass in Stuben
• 10:30 am: Lunch at Gasthof Post
• 12:00 pm: Start of the race

Race director Rudi Fritz from Stuben was supported by officials from St. Anton, Lech and Zürs. The race led through a challenging course with 30 gates.

After the Second World War, the Arlberg Ski Club resumed its work with young talent, with the youth ski day playing an important role. This support contributed to the international successes of the athletes, such as the victories of Trude Jochum-Beiser and Othmar Schneider at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. The Arlberg Youth Ski Day was a milestone in the development of the Arlberg as a hotbed of skiing talent.

"I spent the happiest time of my life on the Arlberg," declared the famous sports photographer Lothar Rübelt at the 1955 general meeting of the Arlberg Ski Club and warmly recalled the time he spent together with Hannes Schneider. According to Rübelt, Schneider's spirit should continue to shape the club.

After the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938, Hannes Schneider was removed from office, but after the Second World War, the Arlberg Ski Club rehabilitated him and appointed him Honorary Chairman. Schneider remained closely associated with the club until his death in the USA in 1955.

After Schneider's death, many club members, including Lothar Rübelt, campaigned for the erection of a memorial in honor of the skiing pioneer. Rübelt, who was already in close contact with the Schneider Ski School in St. Anton before the Second World War, was the still photographer for the legendary film "Der weiße Rausch" in 1930 and documented the Arlberg and Schneider's work in numerous photographs. Hannes Schneider's legacy lives on in the Arlberg Ski Club and in international skiing history.

In 1957, the Albonabahn company planned the construction of a chairlift in two sections to open up the popular ski slopes on the Albona and Kaltenberg slopes. The route ran from the bottom station behind the church in Stuben (1410 m) via the middle station (1846 m) to the top station on the Albonagrat (2364 m). This lift, a single chairlift, was primarily used for winter sports and heralded a new era of lifts in Stuben am Arlberg.

From 1949, the first ski lifts made training and race preparations for the Arlberg Ski Club considerably easier. In 1956, Adolf Walch built a T-bar lift, which still exists today. In the same year, construction began on the Albonabahn, which was put into operation in spring 1957 despite a number of challenges. A partnership was established with the Muttersbergbahn in Bludenz to secure operations.

The Albonabahn was an important step in the modernization of winter sports in Stuben and made a decisive contribution to the development of the region as a ski destination.

A special moment for the Skiclub Arlberg (SCA) was the acceptance of Norwegian skier Ole-Christian Furuseth as a new member. During the 2001 Ski World Championships in St. Anton, Furuseth's parents were staying at the "Mondschein" hotel in Stuben, where the weekly SCA regulars' table of the Stuben local group was also held. Hotel manager Werner Walch took the opportunity to recruit prominent Norwegians for the ski club - with success: SCA local representative Franz-Josef Mathies welcomed the 34-year-old slalom skier as a new member of the world's most renowned ski club.

The 120-year history of the Arlberg Ski Club is characterized by conviviality. The club was founded in 1901 in a cozy atmosphere at the Hospiz St. Christoph. To this day, SCA club evenings are held regularly in Stuben, where locals and guests come together in a relaxed atmosphere and new members are welcomed.

The Skiclub Arlberg combines top sporting performance with a strong sense of community that has shaped the region for decades.

In the 1980s, Willi Mathies, the ski school director of Stuben at the time, founded the Hannes Schneider Memorial Run to keep alive the memory of skiing pioneer Hannes Schneider, who was born in Stuben. This event quickly developed into a traditional celebration of skiing, in which the Arlberg Ski Club played a central role.

The opening ceremonies in 1986 were accompanied by the Klösterle brass band, while the Stuben ski school marched to the Albonabahn valley station under the direction of Willi Mathies. The award ceremony brought beaming faces: former "ski aces" such as Trudi Jochum-Beiser, Gerhard Nenning, Karl Cordin and Alfred Matt were back on skis.

One of the guests of honor was Friedrich Schneider, the 88-year-old brother of Hannes Schneider, who watched the celebrations with great interest. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands also mingled with the spectators.

The Hannes Schneider Memorial Run combined sporting excellence and tradition. Many former racers, including world and Olympic champions, were at the start and made the event an integral part of Arlberg skiing history.

In December 2012, a life-size bronze sculpture was unveiled in Stuben am Arlberg in honor of Hannes Schneider. The idea was born in February 2012 when, through the mediation of gallery owner Kurt Prantl and under the direction of Martin Rhomberg, an intensive exchange with the artist Udo Rabensteiner began.

Rabensteiner decided on a depiction that showed Schneider as a down-to-earth person with close ties to his homeland, who was more closely connected to his Arlberg and the mountains than to the glamor of the big wide world. After months of work, a model was created from 400 kg of clay and cast in bronze in northern Italy. The sculpture, deliberately designed without heroization, shows Schneider as a skier and a man - with his trademark cigarette and just a few metres away from the house where he was born, the "Fuchsloch".

The monument stands by the parish church in Stuben and shows the ski pioneer on his way home from a ski tour, wearing the badge of the Arlberg Ski Club. The memory of Hannes Schneider is kept alive through various projects and exhibitions. Since 2016, the Foundation Friends of Hannes Schneider association has been committed to preserving the legacy of this great son of the village.

Nadine Wallner, from Klösterle am Arlberg, is one of the Arlberg Ski Club's outstanding athletes. She was the youngest athlete to win the world championship title at the Freeride World Tour in 2013 and defended this success impressively in 2014. But despite her international successes, the Arlberg is much more than just a well-known powder mecca for her - it is her home, "mi Daham", as she calls it in dialect.

The mountains of the Arlberg are both a source of motivation and a haven of peace for Wallner. She loves going off the beaten track and discovering the many hidden facets of the Arlberg. From minigolf lines and big mountain runs to hidden couloirs reminiscent of the Dolomites, the Arlberg offers her a unique blend of adventure and nature.

She particularly enjoys skiing in Stuben, where the old Albonabahn double chairlift offers a relaxing break from the skiing frenzy. Pillow lines can be discovered directly under the lift, while long, snow-sure runs open up on the north side of the Albona in good weather. However, the Albona demands respect - the wind, the master builder of avalanches, makes it particularly susceptible to snow slabs.

Nadine Wallner enjoys the peace and seclusion of the rear basin, which she often explores on touring skis. In summer and winter alike, the mountains of the Arlberg give her a sense of home - a place that combines flexibility, snow and countless possibilities. Nadine Wallner remains loyal to the Arlberg and is a living example of the connection between sport and nature.

Andreas Gohl, from St. Anton am Arlberg, began his freestyle skiing career at the age of twelve. The two-time Olympian achieved an impressive eighth place in Pyeongchang in 2018. In his own words, the Skiclub Arlberg (SCA) laid the foundation for his sporting career.

In 2018, Gohl completed one of his most spectacular projects on the serpentines of the Flexenstrasse. For the film "On Tracks of the Legend", he jumped the twelve-metre-wide road four times - a technically and physically demanding undertaking. Despite a short and unpredictable run-up, the feeling he had trained for years gave him the certainty that the jump would succeed. "The first time was crucial. After that, I knew it would work," explained Gohl.

The film project is not only a tribute to the Flexenstrasse, but also an impressive portrait of the athlete. The premiere took place at the St. Anton am Arlberg film festival and showed how Gohl sets new standards in freestyle skiing with training, experience and courage. Andreas Gohl remains an outstanding figurehead for the Arlberg Ski Club and the region.