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32-724: The mountain pass is located just on the Austrian-Slovenian border at 1,367 metres above the Adriatic (4,485 ft), east of the Stol massif. The mountain road ( Loiblpass Straße , B 91), one of the steepest in the Eastern Alps , winds up from the broad Drava valley in numerous hairpin curves to the top of the pass, parallel to the Loiblbach brook and the picturesque Tscheppa ( Čepa ) gorge with several waterfalls. From

64-666: A notary 's office and completed his doctorate in 1926. From 1931 he worked as a notary public in Klagenfurt. He married Ada Pflüger on 21 May 1932. The couple had five children: three daughters and two sons. Beginning in high-school, Rainer had been a member of right-wing organizations in Sankt Veit. He also participated in the armed Austro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia . Prior to his graduation from law school in Graz , he joined

96-590: Is closed for heavy traffic. Border controls were abolished when Slovenia joined the Schengen Area effective from 21 December 2007, but have been restored temporarily for entry to Austria in the wake of an increased number of illegal border crossings during the " European migrant crisis " of 2015–2016. Different trails were used since ancient times, connecting Virunum in the Roman province of Noricum with Emona (at present-day Ljubljana ). In medieval times,

128-646: Is the vertical datum used in Albania , Austria , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia , Montenegro , North Macedonia , Serbia , and Slovenia to measure elevation , referring to the average water level of the Adriatic Sea at the Sartorio mole in the Port of Trieste . The gauging station in the Port of Trieste was established in 1875 by the local observatory run by the military geographical institute of

160-689: The Austro-Hungarian Army . The average water surface elevation at Molo Sartorio became the datum valid for the whole Austro-Hungarian monarchy . Whilst the former Yugoslavian states still use it, the Eastern Bloc successor states of Austria-Hungary like Hungary and Czechoslovakia after World War II switched to the Kronstadt Gauge of the Baltic Sea , which is 0.6747 m (2.214 ft) higher. Whilst for Austria

192-648: The Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp , one on each side of the pass. They were put under the command of Obersturmführer Julius Ludolf , who served in Mauthausen since 1940 and was notorious for his excessive beatings. Tunnel construction started on the south side in March 1943. The first forced labourers arrived at Tržič in June and were immediately transported to Loibl Pass by SS personnel. Most of

224-669: The Nazi Gauleiter of Carinthia, Friedrich Rainer , to bypass the steep upper parts of the mountain road. Work was performed by the Viennese Universale Hoch- und Tiefbau construction company, employing 660 civilian workers, several posted by the Service du travail obligatoire of Vichy France , and 1,652 forced labourers supplied by contract with the SS . These prisoners were interned in two minor subcamps of

256-407: The 1875 gauge is used as the datum, the states of former Yugoslavia use the 1900 gauge ( Nadmorska visina, m/nv ). In Albania (normal-orthometric height) they also refer to heights as 'metres above the Adriatic', but use a specific tide gauge in the port of Durrës . The individual countries using this datum abbreviate it in different ways depending on their local language, as follows: 'Metres above

288-526: The Adriatic' may be abbreviated in English to m AA In Austria orthometric height is used, while its neighbours use other height systems, which leads to differences. On the state borders these differences are: (Differences: H Austria − H neighbouring states ) 45°38′49″N 13°45′36″E  /  45.646867°N 13.759867°E  / 45.646867; 13.759867 Friedrich Rainer Friedrich W. Rainer (28 July 1903 – November 1950)

320-709: The Austrian SA in 1923 and joined a Burschenschaft student fraternity. In October 1930, Rainer joined the Nazi Party establishing the local branch in Sankt Veit. A close friend of Odilo Globocnik , he joined the Austrian SS at the end of 1933. That same year he took up a post at the office of Nazi Gauleiter Hubert Klausner in Klagenfurt. As the Nazi Party had been banned by the Austrian government under Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1933, Rainer

352-570: The Carinthian estates had the former bridle path extended and a 150 m (500 ft) long tunnel built underneath the Karawanks ridge, an early example of modern engineering that later had to be removed due to lack of safety. Another attempt was planned in the 17th century; however, when in 1728 Emperor Charles VI toured the lands of the Habsburg monarchy , he still had to travel over

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384-584: The Kleiner Loibl ( Sapotnica ) pass, a small road branches off to the remote Bodental valley. Since 1963-64 the traffic passes through a two-lane tunnel at 1,069 m (3,507 ft) underneath the mountain crest. South of the pass, the road (No. 101) runs down via Podljubelj to Tržič in the Sava valley and further to the A2 motorway . Nearby mountain passes are Wurzen Pass in the west and Seeberg Saddle in

416-566: The Loibl summit, stopping by the Deutscher Peter tavern north of the pass. Thereafter he ordered the expansion of the mountain road as part of the long-distance route from the Austrian capital Vienna to the Port of Trieste . Two obelisks were erected at the top of the pass to commemorate his stay. During World War II , a 1,570 m (5,150 ft) meter long tunnel was built at 1,068 m (3,504 ft) above sea level by command of

448-596: The Nürnberg Trials for Yugoslav authorities. On 10 July 1947, he was brought before a military court of the Yugoslav 4th Army at Ljubljana . He was found guilty of crimes against the people and sentenced to death by hanging on 19 July 1947. His widow received a death certificate from Yugoslavia after the war, which showed that same date. For decades afterward, the date of his execution was unknown and could only be speculated. In 2010, documentation came to light in

480-729: The Slovenian National Archives in Ljubljana which may well have answered the question. An entry in the diary of Boris Kraigher, former interior minister in Slovenia, indicates that Dr Rainer was executed with a number of other prisoners in late November 1950. He would have been 47 years old if this is correct. The long delay in Rainer's execution is reportedly due to Tito 's secret police having utilized him as an informant. Upwards of 3,000 pages of his words, written from

512-640: The early 1960s to two lanes in November 1963. The old road over the summit of the mountain pass has been closed for motorised traffic since 1967. In summer, the old road pass provides access to hiking routes along the main ridge of Karawank Mountains. Almost every winter a sled run set up on the southern (Slovenian) side of the pass. Metres above the Adriatic Metres above the Adriatic ( Italian : Metri sopra l'Adriatico , German : Meter über Adria , Serbo-Croatian : Metara iznad Jadrana )

544-609: The east. Formerly one of the most important road connections between the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt and Kranj in Carniola, the significance of Loibl Pass has diminished since 1991, when the 7,864 m (25,801 ft) long Karawanken Motorway Tunnel , connecting the Austrian Karawanken Autobahn (A 11) from Villach with the Slovenian A2 motorway to Ljubljana, was opened. Today the pass road

576-543: The highest party and governmental offices in his jurisdiction. Rainer remained in these offices at Salzburg until 27 November 1941, when he was succeeded by Gustav Adolf Scheel . On 27 November 1941, Rainer was appointed as the Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Reichsgau Carinthia , which also involved ruling over the adjacent occupied Yugoslavian territories in Upper Carniola . On 16 November 1942, Rainer

608-487: The inmates were POWs and political prisoners . They were interned with German and Austrian criminals who assumed Kapo functions. Under inhumane conditions, about 40 forced labourers died either from starvation and exhaustion, or were killed by mistreatment, work-related accidents and rockfalls. By August, Ludolf was removed from his post after the construction company complained about the number of inmates that became incapable of working due to beatings and torture. To keep

640-537: The monks had to rival with claims raised by the local Lords of Hollenburg (Humberk) Castle, who took over the possessions by 1488. Since 1335, both the Carinthian and Carniolan Imperial estates in the north and south were ruled by the Habsburg dukes of Austria . The pass became an important trade route after the City of Trieste went under the umbrella of the Habsburg archdukes in the late 14th century. From about 1560

672-623: The mountainous area around the Weißensee lake in Carinthia. After being given leads by the local population, British occupation troops arrested Rainer and transferred him to Nuremberg Prison in October 1945. On 12/13 June 1946, he appeared at the Nuremberg Trials as a defence witness for the former Austrian chancellor Dr Arthur Seyss-Inquart . On 13 March 1947, Rainer was extradited to Yugoslavia. Here he wrote an 80-page work on

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704-543: The strategic importance of Loibl Pass increased again, when in the 11th century Emperor Henry III separated the southeastern March of Carniola from the Carinthia . The Patriarchs of Aquileia , governing the margraviate from 1077, entrusted the maintenance of the pass road to the Cistercian monks of newly established Viktring Abbey , who had a hospitium and a chapel dedicated to Saint Leonard erected. Nevertheless,

736-496: The survivors had in effect 'freed themselves', theirs were the only subcamps of Mauthausen-Gusen not to be either evacuated or liberated. An American military court sentenced commandant Julius Ludolf to death on 13 May 1946. He was executed on 28 May 1947. British military courts sentenced two other SS commanders of the camps, Jakob Winkler and Walter Briezke, to death on 10 November 1947, and sentenced camp physician Sigbert Ramsauer to life imprisonment on 10 October 1947. Ramsauer

768-468: The very tight tunnel on 4 December 1944. Military traffic, German soldiers retreating from the Yugoslav Front and refugees used the tunnel until it was closed in 1947. At the end of the war, on 7 May 1945, the surviving 950 prisoners from the two camps were largely abandoned by the guards and began marching down to Feistritz im Rosental , where they met Yugoslav Partisans on the following day. As

800-472: The work force efficient, hundreds of injured or sick prisoners were sent back to the main camp, or if unable to be transported were murdered on-site by camp physician Sigbert Ramsauer  [ de ] by petrol injection. The breakthrough of the tunnel happened in December 1943. Rainer and several high-ranking SS members came to inspect the project. The first Wehrmacht army vehicles passed through

832-789: Was a member of the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei/DDP) , and later the Greater German People's Party (Großdeutsche Volkspartei/GDVP) . He attended the Realgymnasium in Klagenfurt and, having obtained his Matura degree, studied law at the University of Graz while he earned his living by working in a local banking institution or in general labour. After successfully completing his law examination, Rainer began working in

864-399: Was an Austrian Nazi politician, Gauleiter as well as a Reichsstatthalter of Salzburg and Carinthia . He is the only Austrian governor who has ever held the same office in two separate states . Rainer was a native of Sankt Veit an der Glan in Carinthia, the son of a German nationalist vocational teacher at a municipal Bürgerschule (secondary school). His father, Norbert,

896-564: Was appointed as Reich Defense Commissioner of Wehrkreis (Military District) XVIII, headquartered in Salzburg, which comprised his Reichsgau along with Reichsgau Carinthia , Reichsgau Styria and Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg . This gave him control of civil defense matters over a very large area. On 15 March 1940, he was additionally appointed as the Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Salzburg, thus uniting under his control

928-559: Was in August 1935 sentenced to one year in police custody, presumably for high treason . He was released early for good behaviour the following March, nevertheless like Klausner and his deputy Globocnik he had to step down from his administrative role in the party, transferring sole leadership to the rival Austrian Nazi leader Josef Leopold . In the course of the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany on 13 March 1938, Rainer

960-657: Was made Reich Defense Commissioner of Carinthia. On 21 June 1943 he was promoted to SS– Obergruppenführer . After the Kingdom of Italy signed an armistace with the Allies on 8 September 1943, Rainer took over the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral as High Commissioner. On 7 May 1945, eight days after Hitler's suicide, Rainer transferred his official functions to an executive board and fled to

992-662: Was recruited to serve as the organizational staff leader in the office of Josef Bürckel , the Reichskommissar responsible for the annexation of the Austrian lands. On 22 May 1938, Rainer was personally appointed by Hitler as Gauleiter of the Nazi Party in the Reichsgau Salzburg . Upon the 1938 elections , he also was elected a member of the Reichstag in Berlin . When World War II broke out, Rainer

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1024-558: Was released in 1954, however, and soon obtained an employment at the Klagenfurt state hospital. Today plaques at the Austrian tunnel portal and a memorial on the Slovenian side, erected at the site of the southern Loibl camp, commemorate the injustices. A joint memorial service was held on 13 June 2015. The tunnel reopened as a border crossing between Austria and the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1950 and expanded in

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