Hermann Buhl

Hermann Buhl (21 September 1924 – 27 June 1957) was an Austrian mountaineer. His accomplishments include the first ascents of Nanga Parbat in 1953 and Broad Peak in 1957. He is one of the pioneers of the alpine style. Buhl was the father of Austrian-German writer, publisher, and freelance journalist, Kriemhild "Krimi" Buhl.

Personal life

Buhl was born in Innsbruck, Austria. He was the youngest of four children. At the age of four, he was taken to an orphanage with his half-brother Siegfried after his mother Marianne, who came from South Tyrol, became mentally ill and was institutionalized. His father Wilhelm, who was overwhelmed with looking after the four children, told the children that their mother had died. However, Marianne actually became a victim of Nazi euthanasia in Mauthausen years later. Two years after moving into the orphanage, Hermann was taken in by his aunt and uncle. In the 1930s, the boy, who was considered weak and sensitive, undertook his first tours in the Tux Alps, the Wilder Kaiser and the Karwendel. In 1939, he joined the young team of the Innsbruck section, which belonged to the German Alpine Club (DAV) from 1938 to 1945. Later, together with his friend Kurt Diemberger, he was a member of the Bergland section of the DAV in Munich. Through the mediation of Luis Trenker, he was supported by the founder of the section, August Schuster, and was given a job in his sports shop.

After finishing secondary school, Hermann Buhl began an apprenticeship as a forwarding agent. World War II interrupted his commercial studies, and he joined the Alpine troops, as a mountain infantryman, in 1943. Buhl participated in the Monte Cassino, in Italy. 1949 he was founding member of the mountain rescue in Innsbruck.