FATHER-SON DIALOGUE

FRANZ POCK GFS 1989

Stefan Pock in an interview
with his father, Franz Pock

Dear Dad, what was your favourite school or boarding school event?

Hello, first of all from my side. Well, that’s a difficult question. It’s been a while’. There were many very nice and funny moments. Our skiing week, for example. I’m sure I’ll always remember that. Our community in the second class was simply warm, everyone stuck together and it was a real pleasure to do things together. That’s why I also have fond memories of our boarding school services. It has to be said that in my day, it looked different to today. We had to serve all the students their meals and it was a laborious task to get from the kitchen up the stairs to the dining hall. It wasn’t something you enjoyed doing as a student, but thanks to our group dynamics, we had a great time. One particularly nice memory happened once at Christmas. One of my classmates, who was still in the pupil’s house Venedig at the time, stood at the top of the stairwell and started playing a Christmas carol. The echo in the stairwell, which reverberated through the entire boarding school, caught everyone’s attention. Everyone came out of their rooms and listened attentively. It was already late in the evening and it was quite cold outside. This created a special pre-Christmas atmosphere that touched us all.

That sounds very nice. What was the worst event you can remember?

Worst school event…well, at the beginning it was an extreme change over to boarding school life. I’d never known anything like it before. It was like jumping in at the deep end. Suddenly you were on your own and everything was unfamiliar. Contact with home wasn’t like it is today either. We didn’t have a mobile phone and going to a public telephone wasn’t much fun either. We also had lessons on Saturdays. Only religion and sport, but that meant we didn’t get home until Saturday lunchtime. Sunday evening we went back to the boarding school, so there wasn’t much time left at home. But after a few weeks you got used to it and it became easier to deal with. Of course, studying wasn’t always fun either. Who likes learning or does it voluntarily, but I can’t remember a really bad experience.

What were your previous stations in your professional life?

There aren’t that many. Because of school, I did two internships at the ‘Altes Fassl’ restaurant in Weinitzen, near Graz. It was a very instructive but also exhausting time with a lot of work. Back then, it was normal for us to have several weddings in one weekend at the restaurant. Yes, and then after school I joined my parents’ business straight away. Back then, the inn was more of a side business. We also had a small farm with pigs.
Over time, the work in the inn increased and at some point in early 2000 we decided to stop the farm business completely. In 2001, I took over the inn business and since then things have really only gone uphill.

What other plans do you have for the future?

Now I’m 50 years old, I no longer have any far-reaching plans, I’ve already fulfilled some of them. But I never get bored, there’s always something to improve, renovate, remodel or try out. There will always be smaller projects and one or two are already planned.
So the to-do list won’t run out of things to do any time soon. I also hope that I’ll continue to get more support from you in the future, because we’re already planning a few things. But the most important thing is to stay healthy and have fun.

Yes, true words. Thank you