A capacity in terms of customs maintenance is dead

After a fulfilling life, the well-known Ebensee crib carver, former employee at AMS Gmunden and consultant Franz Frey passed away on March 5th at the age of 93 after a long illness.

Frey came from a family of cribs and carvers in Ebensee. A Schwanthaler nativity scene owned by the family sparked his love for the nativity scene from an early age and, in later years, for carving and sculpting. For 20 years, Frey led carving courses for Upper Austria. Volksbildungswerk and for the Volkshochschule. For his services to the crèche system, he was awarded the title of consultant by the state of Upper Austria.

The carver, who always remained modest, passed on his enormous, extensive knowledge of the Ebensee landscape nativity scenes, which was also based on what his father had passed down and stories from old Ebensee nativity scene fathers, to many nativity scene friends and to future generations in his book “O Bruader,liebe Bruader mein”.

His family and the home crèches were of particular importance in the life of Franz Frey, who had been widowed for around two years. In addition, he had a close connection to the diverse customs of his home community and was very interested in what was happening in Ebensee: Hardly anyone described the Ebensee Glöcklerlauf more impressively than Franz Frey in his crib book.

In 2016 he picked up his pen again and told the story of the Ebensee carnival in his book “Hutz’n, Fetz’n, Lemp’m”, combined with descriptions of the inn and song culture of earlier times in Ebensee. (audio)