Karl Ruepp

After graduating from high school, Karl Ruepp studied theology at the Canisianum College for Priests in Innsbruck and at the Pontificium Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum in Rome. He was ordained a priest at Easter 1937 and celebrated his first Mass in Breitenwang near Reutte in the same year. He was then appointed as a cooperator in Fulpmes. He was then transferred to Schwaz.

In November 1939, he was imprisoned in Innsbruck for some time. From 1941 to 1945, he worked as a provisional pastor in Breitenwang and experienced the end of the war here.

Together with the guardian of the Reutten Franciscan monastery, Father Amantius Bilgermeir, Karl Ruepp supported the local resistance movement: some sabotaged war production at the Breitenwang metalworks, while others managed to win over the site commander to support the resistance. Karl Ruepp learns that the Lech bridge between Reutte and Lechasehau is to be blown up in order to stop the advance of the Americans. The resistance fighters managed to throw 22 of the 24 ammunition boxes into the Lech in time and cut the fuses for the remaining two. After a lieutenant of the German Wehrmacht was able to repair these cords, part of the bridge was blown up, but this could no longer stop the advance of the US Army. Karl Ruepp and the resistance fighters were able to hand Reutte over to the Americans without a fight.