In the second half of the 19th century, the first tourists, mainly from England and Germany, began to visit the popular Swiss tourist resorts in summer and winter. At that time, for example, Wagner Emanuel Heinz built the first sledges for tourists in his Wagner workshop on the Guggerbach in Davos. He is probably one of the first manufacturers of Davos sledges in today’s sense.
The first official sled race took place in January 1883 on the route from Davos Wolfgang to Klosters. The participants drove with simple but robust wooden sledges which were built by the Wagnerians in Davos.
Archive 3R AG
With increasing demand Emanuel Heinz had the problem to procure suitable wood for the production of the sled runners. His Wagner colleagues Ettinger, Branger and Angerer also faced the same challenge. Soon after, the Davos craftsmen at the Sahnwaldt steam bending plant in Frauenfeld had the blanks for the runners made of ash. The technology of steam bending was further developed by Michael Thonet in Vienna and was otherwise hardly known in Switzerland.
The tough-elastic ash is best suited for sledge construction. Soon wood will have to be purchased from lower regions. Ash wood is “ring porous” which means that the fast-growing tree provides the most resistant wood. The ash loves damp soils, the forests along Lake Constance and in the flat Thur Valley are ideal. Therefore the choice fell on wood from this region and was obtained together with the curved runners from the steam bending plant Frauenfeld.
Emanuel Friberg, the nephew of Emanuel Heinz- Friberg can take over the workshop of his uncle. In the following years he became a well-known racing sled athlete and developer of sledges.
At the age of 27, the Wagner journeyman Ernst Graf buys the present company property at Kirchstrasse 1 in Sulgen. The barn with stable attached to the house was converted into a bright wainwright’s workshop and from the beginning he also built sledges for sale from the workshop. The previous owner Emil Landenberger had founded and operated the Raiffeisenbank Region Sulgen there, still in his living room.
The wood bending plant in Frauenfeld had to close down due to the economic crisis, machines and inventory were auctioned off. The guild of the Thurgauer Wagner decides at an extraordinary general meeting that only the Wagner master count from Sulgen will make a bid and that nobody else would bid. The agreement is successful and the know-how of bending remains in the region.
The steam bending shop is set up in a specially constructed annex. The sled deliveries to the Davos Wagner such as Angerer and Ettigner can be taken over together with the customer base from Frauenfeld.
After the end of the 2nd World War, the short “renaissance” of Wagner products is over. The last wooden bridge car leaves the workshop in Sulgen. For a memorable picture one presents oneself once again to the photographer in front of the workshop (today’s office).
In the same year, an attempt is made to expand the added value by building a small gate sawmill. However, their operation was discontinued a few decades later due to underutilization.
In the Olympic year Ernst Graf junior works at the Wagnerei in St. Moritz as a ski wagner. At the ski service for the different athletes he learns a lot about the state of the art in ski construction at that time. The prospective young entrepreneur recognizes the future market of winter sports. But in the following decades, many Swiss ski wagons are overhauled by the new technology and are left behind by large companies. Modern coverings, steel edges and sandwich gluing will require industrial production.
But for the foundation of the ski and sports business in the 60s, the Graf family can rely on great know-how and experience. Which the customers appreciated very much.
