Series on the state election

Only a “heartbeat” felled the “lärchenen Stipfl”

"Krone" series on the Styrian provincial election 2024: Josef Krainer I: The legendary governor had his ear to the ground with the "little people", but was also at the center of high politics. The "lärchene Stipfl" died in office - on a hunting trip.

"It's too far for me," Josef Krainer senior is said to have said on November 28, 1971, a frosty first Sunday in Advent, before lowering his rifle. The pheasant he had been aiming at had escaped into the November gray sky. Then the governor fell into the snow. When his companions tried to help him up, he was already dead. "Sudden heart attack", was the story at the time. Today there is a memorial in Allerheiligen near Wildon at the exact spot where the old Krainer died.