The walk through the manufacturing plant takes only a few minutes. You pass by the circular saws, cutting machines, grinding or planing machines and walk past the giant CNC machine which processes raw wood beams at lightening speed and extreme precision. 33 people are busy at the plant and seven others in the offices around the corner. “I took over the business in 1985” says Walter Meiberger. “There were six of us at the time.” The father, the grandfather and the greatgrandfather – they were all called Sebastian – chose the carpentry trade. With packs on their backs, they used to walk up to the pastures where they built chalets – the so called “Kaser” – and timber huts. In the early 1920´s the grandfather, Sebastian, eventually built the first timber hotel at Loferer Alm. It became a hangout for the Munich high society who learnt to ski up there. The grandfather was a genius craftsman who made himself flexible. His workshop was always there where his services were required. It was only the father who settled in a fixed location as he set up as his home base, a small plant in Lofer.
Wood itself does not have influence on people, but the love for wood does. For Walter Meiberger, who is now 51 years old, there has never been an alternative. Together with his father he worked as a carpenter on chalets, church roofs or footbridges washed by the raging waters in the Vorderkaserklamm and Seisenbergerklamm valleys. Sebastian Meiberger died in 1985, much too young. He left behind a successor for the company who had thousands of new ideas. Walter wants to be innovative and constructive and build “proper” timber houses. He does not believe in prefabricated log houses or industrial houses in general but rather in light frame construction on the base of an individual planning and on a low energy level, which he pioneered. If you are breaking new grounds you have to beat through undergrowth. In this case it meant meeting all the legal requirements. And this has happened. The breakthrough was finally achieved thanks to a place of pilgrimage. The Meibergers built the Mesnerhaus in the beautiful Maria Kirchental valley, and from then on things went very fast – in the true sense of the word.
