It was in the second half of the 1960s when the municipalities of Ramsau and Berchtesgaden were about to build a cable car to the Watzmann. Local politicians didn’t care that the world-famous massif was already a nature reserve. They wanted to attract winter vacationers to the region and therefore planned a ski area above the Watzmannhaus. The conservation groups raged. Finally, the Prime Minister at the time, Alfons Goppel, gave in. In 1968 the municipalities were banned from the plans. Today the Watzmann is the center of the Berchtesgaden National Park. Just the thought of a cable car and ski area there seems bizarre and out of date.
Nonetheless, the dispute remains significant. Because he provided the impetus for the Bavarian Alpine plan. “If the Alpine plan didn’t exist, it would have to be invented,” says Würzburg geography professor and Alpine specialist Hubert Job. “It is the most important instrument for protecting the Bavarian mountains.” Hanspeter Mair, who is responsible for Alpine regional planning at the German Alpine Association (DAV), says that the Alpine plan cannot be valued highly enough. “We owe him that there are still mountains in Bavaria without cable cars, reservoirs or fun parks.” These praises will surely be followed by more these days. Because on this September 1st, the Alpenplan celebrates its anniversary. It has been in force for exactly 50 years to the day.
As much as the Alpine plan is praised, it is as simple as it is structured. It divides the mountain world in Bavaria into three zones – A, B and C. In zone A, mountain railways, ski areas and other tourist projects are permitted in accordance with the relevant building regulations. In Zone B, they must be carefully examined and decided individually. And in Zone C, which has the largest share at 43 percent, they are categorically forbidden. Zone C was not only the guarantee that the municipalities of Ramsau and Berchtesgaden finally buried their cable car plans on the Watzmann years before the national park was established. But also that peaks like the Geigelstein, the Rotwand near Miesbach or the Alpspitze above Garmisch were spared from similar projects. “The Alpine plan has a very significant impact on alpine nature conservation,” says Job. “And without restricting the economic factor tourism, which is so important for Bavaria.”
A Lower Franconian official had the idea for the Alpine plan
The idea for the Alpine Plan came from Helmut Karl. The horticultural engineer from Schweinfurt in Lower Franconia was an official at the Bavarian State Office for Nature Conservation in the 1960s. That was the name of the highest nature conservation authority in Bavaria at the time. Karl, who died in 2009, often said that the plans for the cable car on the Watzmann “broke the camel’s back” for him. Because there were already “two rack railways, 20 gondolas, 36 chair lifts and 288 drag lifts” in the Bavarian mountains. He wanted to slow down this boom. That is why he worked out the Alpine plan.
The circumstances of the time suited Karl well. Conservation was en vogue in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first “European Year of Nature Conservation” took place in 1970, and in the same year the decision was made to set up the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment. The first Minister of the Environment was Max Streibl, who later became Prime Minister. According to Karl, the CSU politician immediately took up the idea of the Alpine plan and implemented it.
So far there has only been one well-known CSU politician who wanted to get his hands on the Alpine plan. This is Prime Minister and CSU leader Markus Söder. It was 2017, and the dispute over the ski area on the Riedberger Horn caused a stir nationwide. Söder, who was home and finance minister at the time and was therefore responsible for the Alpine plan, was determined to enable the Oberallgäu communities of Obermaiselstein and Balderschwang to have the new gondola lift and ski slope. The Riedberger Horn is in the middle of Zone C. Söder didn’t let that stop him. At his instigation, the state parliament removed parts of the Riedberger Horn from Zone C. As soon as Söder was prime minister, he reversed the change – apparently for fear of losing votes in the 2018 state election. Because the horror of the tens of thousands of members of environmental organizations and the DAV was huge.