Der Brenner

Abstract

With an altitude of 1370m, the Brenner (or Brennerpass / it. Passo del Brennero) is the lowest mountain pass of the eastern alpine ridge and connects the Austrian province of Tyrol with Southern Tyrol, which – as is well known – had to be ceded to Italy after World War I. Most likely this pass area had constituted a border already in pre-roman times, between two pre-roman tribes, the Breones and the Isarci. The border area was densely wooded, a kind of no-man’s land, and these woods existed up to the High Middle Ages. The actual border ran mitten im Wald ( “in the middle of the wood”). The oldest record is to be found in a mediaeval rent-roll, the Urbar Meinhards II of 1288, wherein a Prennerius de Mittenwalde is assessed as tributary. This would have been a man who either used slash-and-burn agriculture or worked as a charcoal burner. The farm of Heinrich Prenner became very important for the traffic using the pass, and, because of this, the farm name replaced the old geographical name Mittenwald. Since 1338, the name Brenner is used for the geographical position of the pass. Border woods and borders „in the middle of the woods“ can also be documented for other places of Old Tyrol. Prennerius is connected to the German verb brennen, “to burn” – “he who burns sth.”