The Geisler family
When in 1906 the Tauernhaus passed into the hands of Simon Geisler, the great-grandfather of the present owner, a new era began for the “old Tavern in the Achen”.
Simon Geisler
Mayor of Krimml 1902 - 1912
Founder (1910) and Supervisory Board Chairman of the Krimml Raiffeisenbank 1911-1916
Member of the National Assembly of the First Republic of Austria 1919 - 1931
Freeman of all Oberpinzgau communities
Born in Gerlos, he acquired the Krimmler Tauernhaus in 1906 and worked with great diligence and enormous energy to transform it into a modern inn and mountain shelter. An additional upper storey and a meticulous conversion on the ground floor, taking pains to leave the 600 year old inn untouched, transformed the “old tavern”, offering guests more room and contemporary comforts. At the end of the First World War Simon Geisler built a small power station which provided the Tauernhaus with electricity. Overhead cables made it possible for him as a National Assembly member living in this remote location to keep in telephone contact with the outside world.
Friedl and Lisl Geisler
In 1931 Simon Geisler’s son Friedl took over the management of the Krimmler Tauernhaus. In 1932 he married Lisl and with her he rebuilt the Tauernhaus chapel, amongst other things. Both of them were hosts at the traditional Tauernhaus annual fair on Guardian Angel Day. This marked the end of the mountain summer with sheep shearing and a wrestling tournament. Friedl und Gundi Geisler, the current landlord and landlady, have continued to maintain this old custom with the wrestling tournament. When Friedl Geisler was killed in an accident at work in 1939, Lisl Geisler had to carry on running the Tauernhaus on her own until she married the skiing instructor Rupert Scharfetter years later.In 1947 she devotedly looked after persecuted Jews from Eastern Europe who had escaped from the Nazi extermination camps and via Krimml were taking the footpath to Italy in order to get to Palestine. The exhausted adults and children were provided by Lisl Geisler with what they desperately needed - a meal and a warm room for the night.
Adolf and Franziska Geisler
In 1961 Adolf and Franziska Geisler took over the management of the Krimmler Tauernhaus. They ran the inn until 1999, constantly modernising and improving the Krimmler Tauernhaus. During this time a road was also built giving better access to the Tauernhaus and the pastures of the Krimml Achen Valley. When the National Park Hohe Tauern was established in 1984, the Geisler family was running the only farm in the national park. Adolf und Franziska Geisler took the consequent obligations and constraints to heart and, with much empathy for the old building materials and regard for the landscape, created a harmonious interior and a new stable.
Friedl and Gundi Geisler
Friedl Geisler
Chairman of the Krimml Raiffeisenbank
Supervisory Board Member of the Salzburg Raiffeisenverband
Chairman of the Krimml Tauern and Alpine Paths Association
In 1999 Friedl and Gundi Geisler took over the Krimmler Tauernhaus. They were now the fourth generation to run the inn and farm and, with care, pride and dignity, continued to manage the cultural inheritance of not only the inn, steeped as it is in history, but also of the Geisler family. With full awareness of the fine line to be drawn between modernisation and preservation of the old cultural possessions and conservation of nature and the cultural landscape, they are trying to maintain old traditions such as the “guardian angel wrestling”, hunting, farming, the centuries old duty to be both inn and shelter and to fill it with life and carefully carry out necessary modernisations and improvements - so that the Krimmler Tauernhaus remains for the future a jewel of the Krimml Achen Valley.