It all began with a wonderful holiday…

 

It all happened when my mother (Uli Hompesch from Krefeld in Germany) decided to take a holiday in the mountains. In San Martino di Castrozza (in the Dolomites) she met our father, Heinz Wolf (†2016) who was a ski instructor from Bruneck. It soon became clear that he was the man of her dreams. A ski jumper in the Italian national team who took part in the 1956 Olympics in Cortina, afterwards he earned his money as a ski instructor in winter and a hairdresser and pool attendant in summer.

Before long they were married. In 1966 they built a small café "das Kaffee zum Onkel Heinz" at what was then the newly built valley station for the Kronplatz cable car. Mum worked in the café, and in summer Dad worked in the open air pool in Bruneck and in winter as a ski instructor on the Kronplatz. Gradually, every 5 years or so, our home was altered and extended. Mostly it was Papa Heinz and me with the trowels in our hands. Eventually, the small “Kaffee zum Onkel Heinz” became today’s “Hotel Heinz”. Incidentally, the Kronplatz Ski School was also founded by him and two of his best friends, Hansjörg Weissteiner and Hermann Holzer.

I was born in 1965. Suora Angelina was my kindergarten teacher in Bruneck. After completing my basic education I attended the hotel vocational school in Bolzano and later a school for private pilots in north western Texas in the USA, my father having handed down his enthusiasm for flying to me. The only time I was unable to help my parents in running the business was during my military service, when I was out and about on Corvara’s ski slopes as a paramedic.

Since 2008 my wife Katrin and I have continued the life’s work of my parents. Eventually our children came into the world, starting with Felix on 23 April 2009, Anna on 12 February 2011 and now our little Franzi, who saw the light of day on 15 May 2014.

Who knows what might begin here next with us in the mountains?

Bruno Wolf