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Rosegger’s Birthplace Alpl
Childhood home of a poet
The Kluppeneggerhof, the place where Peter Rosegger was born, lies at 1,150 m above sea level, surrounded by green meadows and forest. Here the ‘forest peasant lad’ spent the first 17 years of his life. The people around him, his experiences and those of his family inspired him to write stories and poems that he began to record while still a youth.
Many of his best-known stories concern events at, and around, the home farm. Offering insights into peasant life in the mid-19th century, they tell of a time that seems strange to us today: of festivities and joys, of poverty and the simplicity of the rural peasant population. The birth house with the large room and ‘Rauchkuchl’ (scullery or smokey kitchen), the ‘Umadumstall’ (wall to wall outhouse) and the ‘Brechelhütte’ (crusher hut) help visitors learn about the austere life lived by people in Rosegger’s day.
A walk of around 30 minutes leads up to the Kluppeneggerhof. Age-appropriate workshops are on offer to groups of schoolchildren, which also take in the surrounding natural environment.
Peter Rosegger remains one of Austria’s most popular poets. He was born the eldest of seven children in this simple 18th-century Alpine farmhouse on 31 July 1843. Living conditions were modest, to say the least: the cooking was done over a hearth in the scullery (a kind of smoke room which served as a kitchen) while the central room was used for eating and sleeping—and as a work room, too. Here, visitors can observe numerous furnishings and fixtures which testify to simple rural life in the 19th century.
Even today, the only way to get to Rosegger’s birthplace is on foot: after a half-hour walk through the Alpl woodland, a path eventually leads up to an ensemble of buildings consisting of a home, outhouses, a barn, a rural storehouse and a dried flaxen hut.
Rosegger’s texts often draw on memories of his childhood on the Alpl; in time he coined the notion of ‘Waldheimat’ (‘forest home’) for this magical place. His birthplace was also where he took his first tentative steps towards becoming a writer, an endeavour which later grew into an extensive body of literary works.
Impressions
The history of Rosegger’s Birthplace Alpl
In Peter Rosegger’s childhood days the “front Kluppenegger” – a property covering just over 58 joche (33.4 hectares or 82.5 acres) – was considered a medium-sized farmstead. It consisted of a farmhouse, stalls and pens for some 20 cows, 8 pigs, 25 sheep and chickens as well as several farm outbuildings such as granary barns, hay and straw stacks, a flax scutching hut and a grain mill.
The central beam in the main front room indicates that the original building was completed in 1744. And the first Roßegger arrived on the scene a short time later – the original document uses “ß” instead of “s”. This particular gentleman was Peter’s great-grandfather, who acquired the “front Kluppenegger” (first mentioned in historical records in 1493) through marriage. His son Ignaz Roßegger died at an early age but had bequeathed the farm to Lorenz Roßegger, who had yet to reach the age of majority, in 1829. Peter was born on 31 July 1843 as the son of Lorenz and Maria Roßegger.
Over the course of years, poor harvests, animal disease and sickness forced the farm into ever greater debt. Eventually, it had to be sold in 1868. The parents moved with their two youngest children into the living room at the back of the house and later on into a cottage – one traditionally kept for a farmer after passing the farm over to his heirs – by the Freßnitz stream. This little farm featured fields, meadows and agricultural buildings.
The farmstead was transferred to a number of different owners in the course of the years. On the occasion of Rosegger’s 70th birthday his friends made an unsuccessful bid to buy back his house of birth as well as the surrounding property. The attempt failed because of an asking price which they were unable to afford.
The Province of Styria acquired the Kluppeneggerhof in 1927. By that time the farmhouse was completely dilapidated and the outhouses little more than ruins. The estate manager’s house was built two years later using stones taken from the house where Rosegger was born. In the 1970s the Brechel hut and Umadumstall (“wall-to-wall outhouse”) were reconfigured and rebuilt on the basis of the remains of walls and Rosegger’s sketches in time for the 1993 Styrian Exhibition.
Requests for guided tours
We are always delighted to accept your requests for mediation and educational programmes (guided tours and workshops, etc.). Please ensure you contact us a week before your preferred date and location (Alpl or Krieglach). You can contact us during our opening hours. Phone: +43-3855/2375 and E-Mail: info-rosegger@museum-joanneum.at
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Also visit the Rosegger Museum in Krieglach!
The permanent exhibition in the Rosegger Museum shows letters and documents as well as pictures and writings which show among other things that Rosegger was in close contact with numerous artists of his time.
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Austrian Open-Air Museum Stuebing
As the largest and only national open-air museum in Austria, it displays the formative historical architectural styles of the various federal provinces.
more...Peter Rosegger Birthplace & Museum
Geburtshaus, Alpl 42, 8671 Alpl
& Museum, Roseggerstraße 44, 8670 Krieglach, Österreich
T +43-3855/2375
info-rosegger@museum-joanneum.at
Opening Hours
April to October
Tue-Sun, public holidays 10 - 17 Uhr
