Police raid
in Bregenzerwald

Franz Fetz felt a little confined here in Schwarzenberg. As a young lad, he was drawn to remoter climes. But after working for two years on the Bermudas as a waiter, at some point his homeland became more appealing again and so he returned to his native Bregenzerwald region with lots of new experiences stowed away.

Now the Hirschen was being run by a real man of the world, something Franz also wanted to be clearly evident on the wine list. That’s why he decided to bring the much finer wines of the Burgundy region to the Hirschen. After an expedition spanning several days through the winegrowing regions of France, a fully stuffed MG was driven back to Schwarzenberg with the goal of bringing the wine list up to international standards.

Full of pride, one beautiful day at the end of the 1970s the young innkeeper presented his new treasures on the new wine list. Unfortunately, his not-yet-internationalized local guests weren’t quite as thrilled. A resistance movement grew. They wanted to have their popular local wines back, motivated primarily by economic reasons and not necessarily the taste.

And so a few days and weeks passed, until suddenly a gendarme from neighboring Egg showed up at the Hirschen reception. He was conducting investigations into a “profiteering matter”. The Hirschen’s wine prices had been reported to the authorities. Infuriated, Franz Fetz was compelled to open his books to the officer in order to avoid prosecution. Ultimately, the case was cleared up and the fine wines allowed to stay, while the regulars simply switched to beer. The table they used to gather around still stands there today. As for the innkeeper, he is still at large!