Floriani premiere in Lower Austria

This is the first all-female fire brigade in the state

The Krems fire department is moving with the times: many female comrades have been volunteering here for years - you can find the first "real" women's fire department in the article below.(Bild: Benjamin Flatschert)

Lower Austrian fire departments have been recording an increase in female members for many years. However, women in uniform have not yet been a reality in all of the 1700 or so local fire brigades in the state - and yet there was once an all-female brigade, as a fire brigade historian has now revealed.

Our fire department - and of course this is nothing new - is based on the commitment of volunteers. More than a hundred years ago, the Florianis were just as naturally an all-male force up and down the country. This makes the discovery made by fire department historian Peter Freßl, himself an active member in Rosenau im Ybbstal, in the Mostviertel annals all the more remarkable: he unearthed a well-preserved "team photo" showing only women in uniform.

FF historian: Peter Greßl explains the background.(Bild: Wolfgang Zarl)

But the background is easy to explain: the photo was taken between 1914 and 1918, i.e. during the First World War, when the men from Waidhofen an der Ybbs were sent to the front. However, because there were still emergencies at home, the first all-women fire department in the country was founded here. "They were called out to the fire at the Forsterbach inn in Redtenbachtal, for example," says the history-interested Floriani, referring to information from Berta Pilgrab-Zacharias' family.

Fresh, pious and cheerful: these were the firewomen of Waidhofen an der Ybbs.(Bild: Wolfgang Zarl)

Incidentally, the ladies in the photo are not carrying handbags - but fire buckets with the cross-shaped inscription 4F. "That stands for fresh, pious, happy and cheerful," says Greßl.