Reinhold Messner was born in 1944 in Bozen, South Tyrol. At the tender age of five years, he already climbed the Sass Rigais in his home region Villnöss. In his youth he climbed the big walls of the Dolomites and the western Alps. At the age of 26 he achieved his first eight thousand meter summit, the Nanga Parbat, where his brother lost his life. Twelve years later he reached the last of all 14 eight thousand meter peaks. Reinhold Messner was the very first person who succeeded in it – always without using oxygen bottles and sometimes solo. He is a cross-border commuter, author, lecturer, politician and museum director. No one has made a mark on modern alpinism more than Messner.