Commitment to others

“I myself am the recipient”

Ernst Robol is known throughout Vorarlberg as "Quadro Ernst"

(Bild: Mathis Fotografie)

Vorarlberg is the "Land of Volunteering". In his new series, author Robert Schneider brings people who are committed to helping others in front of the curtain. To kick things off, he met Ernst Robol.

It's a hot summer afternoon. We have arranged to meet in the garden of the "Taube" restaurant in Rankweil, but the chairs are leaning against the tables. Nobody far and wide. The "Taube" is on vacation. Perhaps I've made a mistake about the meeting point, I think, as my interview partner comes into the garden with a few folders under his arm. He apologizes because he had completely forgotten that the restaurant was closed. But he had called Alex to see if we could do the interview here after all. It only takes ten minutes and the aforementioned Alex comes by in person, goes to the bar and offers us a drink on the house. Anyone who is treated so courteously must be a particularly well-known or popular person, I think. Ernst Robol, who will soon be 70 years old, obviously is. Here in the Oberland, all doors are open to him. Everyone knows him.