Franz Friedrich Wallack (24 August 1887 – 31 October 1966) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

. He mainly designed and built mountain pass roads, in particular the

Grossglockner High Alpine Road The Grossglockner High Alpine Road (in German ''Großglockner Hochalpenstraße'') is the highest surfaced mountain pass road in Austria. It connects Bruck an der Großglocknerstraße, Bruck in the state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg with Heilige ...

across the

High Tauern The High Tauern (pl.; german: Hohe Tauern, it, Alti Tauri) are a mountain range on the main chain of the Central Eastern Alps, comprising the highest peaks east of the Brenner Pass. The crest forms the southern border of the Austrian states of S ...

range between

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

and Carinthia.

Life

Born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Wallack studied engineering sciences and began his career at the building planning authority of the Carinthian state government. In 1924 he was commissioned to draw up a general project for the construction of the Glockner Road. Wallack's technical endeavor - to build this first modern high alpine road - has long counted among the most significant historic events of this century. Construction began in August 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression. Wallack laid out the road so that it harmoniously accommodated the landscape, giving the least possible damage to nature. On 22 September 1934 he and the Salzburg governor Franz Rehrl first travelled the Glockner Road driving a

Steyr 100 The Steyr 100 and 200 were a series of medium-sized cars built by the Austrian manufacturer Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG from 1934 to 1940. The four-door streamlined body designed by engineer Karl Jenschke was manufactured in Steyr, a 1933 prototype was ...

, about one year before the official opening. Franz Wallack joined the board of the Großglockner High Alpine Road stock company. In the 1950s he also designed special snow thrower vehicles for the annual snow removal in spring. He became an honorary citizen of

and was awarded the Karl Renner Prize in 1952. Up to the completion of his life's work, Wallack crossed the main alpine crest more than 250 times on foot. At the age of 73, Wallack was still able to direct the new building of the

Gerlos Alpine Road Gerlos is a municipality with 793 inhabitants (as of Jan. 2019) in Schwaz district of the Austrian state of Tyrol. The village is popular with skiing tourists, mainly families, as there is easy access to Zillertal Arena Centre on Isskogel. The ...

Legacy

The mountain hut

Wallackhaus The Wallackhaus is a mountain hut located on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road in the Austrian state of Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and ...

is named in his honor.

External links

Official Homepage of the Glockner Road

References

Salzburg Wiki Franz Friedrich Wallack
in German
About the Grossglockner Trophy

Grossglockner High Alpine Road: Franz Wallack
in German {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallack Franz 1887 births 1966 deaths Austrian civil engineers