At the end of September, our author made an appointment with Colonel Erwin Fitz as part of a trip to Bregenz. You need one to visit the small but excellent Vorarlberg Military Museum housed in the Bilgeri barracks.
Since 1988, it has been the “child”, so to speak, of the author and military historian (see for example this report), who has retired since the visit, but is likely to remain loyal to the long-term project he has supervised since 1988. His “heart’s desire” for the BMLV for the future would be for the tradition rooms to be given access from the outside as part of a possible change of use (see below) – similar to that of the Air Force Museum in Zeltweg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsfwJSOIyys Georg Bilgeri was born in Bregenz in 1873, he was a colonel, alpinist and, until 1918, an alpine and ski instructor in the Imperial and Royal Army. Army. He invented the binding named after him, the goggles and boots and helped to bring about the breakthrough of the stem bow and the two-pole technique. One of the rooms is dedicated to him, and since 1979 the Vorarlberg Military Museum Society has also set itself the task of researching and processing the history of Vorarlberg’s national defense in all its facets and presenting it in a popular way as far as possible. Both guests and locals can immerse themselves in times long past. Those with a general interest as well as those interested in science and local history will receive a well-founded overview of the Kaiserjäger and Kaiserschützen regiments, the six Vorarlberg Standschützen battalions and other troop units of the Austro-Hungarian army, as well as the Federal Army of the 1st Republic and the B-Gendarmerie as the forerunners of the current Federal Army. But also about the often painful and sometimes problematic defense history of the country and the Lake Constance region since the Thirty Years’ War.
From 1986 to 2011, the museum in the upper town of Bregenz was housed in the so-called “Martinsturm” from the 15th century, before this – as Colonel Fitz describes it – unfortunately had to be abandoned “due to various unobjective media reports and as a result of unpleasant machinations by the city of Bregenz” in favor of what is now a permanent exhibition on the history of the city. The new installation in the Colonel Bilgeri command building was completed in June 2017 (see report), but is now only accessible by appointment. Incidentally, on October 9, the BMLV submitted a parliamentary question from the NEOS on the Colonel Bilgeri command building in the Vorarlberg provincial capital of Bregenz, in the introduction to which the direction of travel is immediately apparent. It states that “only around 100 people work on the 25,762 square meter site. A significant part of the barracks is therefore completely unused and thus an entire area close to the city center is cut off from sustainable urban development.” And with reference to the “local inspection” by the regional media Vorarlberger Nachrichten, “the impression is confirmed that potential is not being exploited here. Situated in the middle of a city with a great lack of space and limited in its growth by Lake Constance on one side and Berg on the other, an alternative use of the barracks would represent a great opportunity for the city of Bregenz and the entire Lake Constance region.” The response to the inquiry states: “The Vorarlberg military command including the supplementary department, staff company including construction pioneer platoon and military music is stationed at the Colonel Bilgeri command building; it is also used for training, operational preparation and operational command. An annual average of around 350,000 euros is spent on maintaining the property. I can also announce that a joint project is currently being developed between the state of Vorarlberg, the city of Bregenz and my department, which, in addition to the renovation of parts of the military property, also envisages joint use of the site.”
Here you can find further information.
