Luis Trenker

He attended the local primary school from 1898 to 1901, and then attended the Josefinum in Bolzano in 1902 and 1903. From 1903 to 1905, he attended the arts and crafts school in Bolzano, where he developed his skills as a woodcarver.

Luis Trenker (born in St-Ulrich, southern Tyrol (now Italy) as Alois Franz Trenker) was a film director, singer, author, ski champion and mountain climber, wood-carver, stage and film actor. He went to school in Bolzano to become a carver artist. From 1912 to 1914 he studied Architecture. He fought in WWI as an officier in the Dolomite.

From 1915 to 1918, he fought in the mountain war against Italy in the border fortress of Nauders. Later he fought in Trento.

From 1916 he served as a mountain guide in the Dolomites. At the end of the war he had achieved the rank of Lieutenant.

After that, he made a documentary film "Wunder des Schneeschuhs" (1921) with Arnold Fanck.

From 1922 to 1927 he worked as a self-employed architect in Bozen.

When Luis Trenker was called on as an Alpine consultant for the shooting of "Der Berg des Schicksals" (1923), he was engaged as a leading actor by director Arnold Fanck (1889-1974). Thereafter they shot the movies "Der heilige Berg" (26), "Der grosse Sprung" (1927) and "Der Kampf ums Matterhorn" (1928). The sound film continued fascinating the audience with spetaculars pictures from the mountain world. The music, mostly written by composer Giuseppe Becce - emphasized the whole scenario in perfection.

In 1924, Trenker participated in the Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix as a member of the Italian five-man bobsled team. Under the leadership of Pilot Lodovico Obexer, they ended up in sixth place.

He would write 23 books based on his war experiences, the most important of which were Fort Rocca Alta and Berge in Flammen, the latter of which was made into the 1931 film Mountains on Fire.

In 1934 he worked in Hollywood, but went back to Europe.

Because Luis Trenker saw himself visibly restricted by the National Socialism he went to Italy where he realized the documentary "Pastor Angelicus" (1942) and the movie "Germanin" (1943).

In the following years he shot normally short documentaries which dealt with the mountain but also Venice got his attention in "Gondelfahrt durch Venedig" (1950) and "Schönes Venedig" (1950).

At the end of the 50's he had a short comeback with his motion-pictures "Flucht in die Dolomiten" (1955), Wetterleuchten um Maria" (1957) and "Sein bester Freund" (1962), after that he concentrated again on documentaries.

In 1992, for the centennial of his birth, his native town of Ortisei dedicated a monument that shows him in mountaineer dresses while looking at the Langkofel, a mountain he liked to climb. In March 2004, the Museum Gherdëina displayed a collection of Trenker's belongings from a bequest of his family.