Bogentrakt Hostel Tour

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[{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitudeDelta":0.12969447409919654,"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421,"longitude":9.53451870000002},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fcamenisch.jpg?alt=media&token=e26d5084-853c-48da-a38a-aea352d2fb97","type":"img"},{"content":"A personality that divides like no other. Probably the most famous terrorist in Switzerland. To round off our series of notorious prisoners at the Sennhof, we take a look at the ‘eco-terrorist’ Marco Camenisch.\n\nMarco Camenisch originally wanted to become a farmer, but was unable to come to terms with advanced animal husbandry and the use of artificial fertilisers during his apprenticeship, so he dropped out and moved to an alp. He joined the anti-nuclear movement in the 1970s and became increasingly radicalised. Together with accomplices, he committed two explosive attacks on high-voltage pylons and transformers of the North-East Swiss power plants in 1979 and 1980 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.\n\nThus began a spectacular story: from the escape from Regensdorf prison in 1981, in which one guard died and one was injured (Camenisch was not the shooter, as was later discovered), to the 10 years that Marco Camenisch spent on the run and in hiding in Italy. When Camenisch was spotted at the grave of his recently deceased father in Brusio on 3 September 1989 and a border guard was found shot dead shortly afterwards, suspicion quickly fell on him.\n\nHe was then arrested in Tuscany in 1991 following a gun battle with the police. An Italian police officer and Marco Camenisch himself were injured. Extradited to Switzerland, Camenisch was imprisoned in the Sennhof in 2003. He was convicted of the murder of the border guard in a circumstantial trial. His defence always doubted the authenticity of the evidence and Camenisch himself always denied the murder of the border guard. At the time of his pre-trial detention and trial, there were numerous demonstrations in solidarity with Camenisch, in which his freedom was loudly demanded, including in Chur in front of the Sennhof.\n\nThe sad result: by 2008, Marco Camenisch sympathisers had destroyed two buildings as an act of solidarity, carried out an arson attack on a multi-purpose Swisscom hall, set fire to two coaches and damaged four other vehicles, and set fire to the car of a government councillor. Marco Camenisch's hunger strike and the government council's handling of it were cited as the reasons in a letter of claim.\n\nIn 2017, Marco Camenisch had served his sentence and was conditionally released. Since then, it has been quiet around Switzerland's most notorious ‘eco-terrorist’ and anarchist and his whereabouts are unknown.\n\nYou can find out more about Marco Camenisch in the Wikipedia article about his life and in the book by Kurt Brandenberger: Marco Camenisch. A life of resistance. These were also the main sources for our short article about him.\n\n","type":"text"}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitude":46.8491274169399,"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421,"longitude":9.53451870000002,"longitudeDelta":0.12969447409919654},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fvond%C3%A4niken.jpg?alt=media&token=08cf130c-da28-4b36-8254-eb865ca7d5f5","type":"img"},{"content":"The most famous and successful prisoner at the Sennhof was the author Erich von Däniken. His pseudo-scientific books about pre-astronautics (= extraterrestrials, UFOs and other extraterrestrial phenomena) are still selling today and have been translated into 32 languages. With over 60 million copies sold, von Däniken can call himself a best-selling author.\n\nBut how did Erich von Däniken come to the Sennhof? Von Däniken is actually a trained chef and hotel manager and he ran a hotel in Davos from 1964. There he also worked on his first book, “Memories of the Future.” Unfortunately, he didn't pay the 8,000 franc tourist tax (we've been warned...) and was therefore arrested at the end of 1968 and then sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. He was imprisoned at the Sennhof for 18 months and was released early for good behavior. According to the prison warden, he was one of the most polite prisoners he had ever met. Nevertheless, while in custody, Erich von Däniken was denied the chance to watch the moon landing live in 1969. It is said that von Däniken still complains about this fact to the prison authorities today.\n\nDuring his incarceration, his first book became a bestseller and von Däniken began work on his second bestseller, \"Back to the Stars.\" He wrote most of this in the Sennhof. When he was released from prison, the “Erich von Däniken” hype developed. His books were made into films, von Däniken produced several television shows and founded the pre-astronautical theme park “Mystery Park” in Interlaken. This attracted over a million visitors within the first 3 years, but then had to be closed due to financial problems.\n\nDäniken's best-known pseudoscientific theories include the idea that humanity descended from extraterrestrials who reproduced with the great apes on Earth and that well-known cultural buildings such as the pyramids of Giza or the monoliths on Easter Island were only created with the help of extraterrestrial astronauts could have been created.\n\nErich von Däniken's books had a great influence on, among others, the star director Roland Emmerich, who used some of Däniken's theories in his film \"Stargate\", and Hollywood director Ridley Scott, who was inspired by von Däniken for his film \"Prometheus\".\n\nFurther information about Erich von Däniken can be found in his books and on Wikipedia. From there and from the tour of the Sennhof by Chur Tourismus, we also got most of our sources for this.\n\n","type":"text"}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitude":9.53451870000002,"longitudeDelta":0.1641157563245757,"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fstoffel.jpg?alt=media&token=5a3b9592-52df-4558-af4b-9e0b86121238","type":"img"},{"content":"There are numerous legends and myths surrounding the next infamous prisoner at the Sennhof. He is also known as the Graubünden “Robin Hood”. We shed light on Johann Stoffel.\n\nMuch of the life of \"Stoffel\", as he was known to locals, is only known through hearsay, which makes his story all the more entertaining. Johann Stoffel was born in poor conditions in Vals in 1899. Since his mother was not married, his birth was already under a bad star. The family soon moved from Vals to Zurich, where his criminal career began. He made a name for himself as a thief but also as a burglar and escape king who skillfully outsmarted the authorities and police over and over again.\n\nHe probably stole primarily to support himself, as he was also a bit of a bon vivant who enjoyed traveling with various lovers and giving them either stolen or purchased jewelry. But there are also reports of his generosity towards the poor. He once simply left his loot in front of the poor children in Vals. Legends and a real “Stoffel cult” emerged. The comparisons with Robin Hood were obvious. In 1971 a children's book was even written about him. More or less fictitious, Stoffel steals the clothes of a clergyman in the bishop's seat after his escape from the Sennhof and begins his escape towards the Graubünden Oberland, disguised as a Catholic priest.\n\nIn fact, Stoffel escaped from the Sennhof twice at the height of his criminal career. And even broke in once. In 1929 he managed to break into the prison director's office and steal CHF 417.63, stamps and a revolver. The break-in into the prison naturally showered the Sennhof prison authorities with ridicule and scorn throughout Switzerland. An indictment speech from 1929 attests that Stoffel committed a total of 18 thefts in Graubünden alone. There were a few more across Switzerland. He never used violence against people. He immediately confessed to most of the burglaries when questioned.\n\nAfter being imprisoned again in 1931, he managed to resocialize and even achieve entrepreneurial success. He became a master tailor and then owned a flourishing uniform factory that, among other things, made police uniforms.\n\nFor further stories about Johann Stoffel, we recommend the book “From popular thief to qualified master tailor” by Jürg Simonett, which was also used as a source for this tour.\n\n","type":"text"}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"longitude":9.53451870000002,"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421,"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitudeDelta":0.1641157563245757},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FDavidfrankfurter.jpg?alt=media&token=52668df5-a205-4ecd-ae76-919470c95f8a","type":"img"},{"content":"David Frankfurter grew up as the son of a district rabbi in the former Yugoslavia and fled to Bern in 1933 due to growing anti-Semitism. In Switzerland he learned, among other things, from the press about the murder of 36 Jewish citizens in a concentration camp and about the increasing mistreatment of German Jews and supporters of democratic parties. To visit his family, he still traveled to Germany at Christmas 1934 and had to witness how anti-Semitic Germans mistreated his uncle.\n\nHe then felt obliged to send a signal of Jewish resistance against the actions of the National Socialists. Frankfurter also noticed the anti-Semitic activities of the Swiss NSDAP regional group in Davos, which were much discussed by the Swiss public at the time, and so he bought a pistol and set off for Davos with it in February 1936. There he went to the apartment of the NSDAP regional group leader Wilhelm Gustloff and shot him with three bullets.\n\nFrankfurter actually wanted to execute himself after the attack, but since that didn't work, he turned himself in to the police shortly afterwards. The following court case was of course extremely delicate for the Graubünden criminal court. Numerous international journalists had to deal with the political influence of the Nazi regime; represented by their lawyers; Hearing how the court case was used to spread anti-Jewish incitement and to portray the killed regional group leader Gustloff as a martyr. David Frankfurter's defense that he committed the crime as a political murder because the fate of the Jews in Germany affected him so deeply was not believed. It could have helped Frankfurter get mitigating circumstances. In December 1936, David Frankfurter was sentenced to 18 years in prison, which he was supposed to spend at the Sennhof in Chur.\n\nThe Grisons and Swiss authorities can probably be credited with the fact that David Frankfurter was never extradited to Germany, despite numerous interventions by the Nazi regime. So it never fell into the hands of the Nazis, even during the Second World War. Frankfurter behaved in an exemplary manner at the Sennhof and only had to serve half of his sentence. He was pardoned from prison in 1945, but was nevertheless expelled from the country and moved to Israel, where he died in 1982.\n\nAfter his release, David Frankfurter stated that he had actually toyed with the idea of ​​killing Adolf Hitler, but that this was unachievable. Gustloff was then Plan B.\n\n","type":"text"}]}]