Commemoration of Andreas Hofer and the 1809 Defenders in St. Leonhard

Tyrol.

St. Leonhard in Passeyer, June 18. Yesterday, a rare celebration, never before held in our valley, was celebrated on the Sand, which well deserves to be made known for its dignity and significance. On the occasion of the joyful return to his native land of Professor Dr. Jos. Ennemoser from Bonn, a former comrade-in-arms of Hofer, several surviving defenders of the homeland hosted a frugal midday meal at the inn am Sand to commemorate Andreas v. Hofer, Supreme Commander of Tyrol, who lives on in glorious memory in our patriotic history, and his brave comrades who fought the honorable battle for their homeland during the fateful era of 1809. Twenty-eight years have passed since that time, and by chance exactly twenty-eight guests gathered, among whom former leaders and captains, including the 70-year-old Johann Hofer, castle captain of Tyrol, the 80-year-old Karl Thurnwalder, Johann Illmer, and others, still in full health and strength, shared numerous war anecdotes and helped empty many a glass in memory of Hofer and the defenders of the homeland departed at that time. Professor Ennemoser spoke a few words recalling that world-historical year of 1809, when young and old took up arms out of love for the fatherland and the ancestral imperial house, when a small number victoriously drove an enemy ten times stronger from the land three times; when the Tyrolean, through courage and bravery, led the way for his fellow German brothers, who later helped bring the work he had begun to completion. The year 1809, he said, should forever remain an example to our descendants of how to follow us in defending the freedom of the fatherland and freeing it from the foreign yoke, proving loyalty and devotion to the father of the land, and ultimately attaining the divine blessing of peace through courage and unity. With a calm peculiar to the people of Passeier, yet with deep-felt cordiality, cheers were raised to the beloved homeland, to the Emperor, and to the whole German fatherland.