从广告专家到“Steeplejack”

学校的成绩和兴趣是一个障碍initially planned degree in electrical engineering, so Ulrich Sukup chose Media Psychology and started his career as an advertiser for a large agency. Why he was missing a "purpose in life" and how he ended up in the airy heights of the Vierungsturm of the Votivkirche church in Vienna in order to carry out cleaning work – an exciting tale.

Brushing not smoking

Actually the impetus had been set a long time before Ulrich Sukup started is dream job. "Tower plumbing", his father called it early on, "that's what you need to do." At a time, mind you, when industrial climbers were still in short trousers and this work was only done by a small group of eastern Tyrol "Church Steeplejacks" as they are still known in the local dialect. And so, after studying media psychology, Sukup first worked in advertising at a large agency, for tobacco products.

“作为一个不吸烟的人，为香烟广告发展创意是很奇怪的。”事情进行了一段时间，但乌尔里希·苏库普在这个世界上从来都不是很舒服。当他快30岁的时候，有一天，他正站在咖啡机旁工作，胃里有一种搜索的感觉，他在窗前发现了一辆扫路车。”他在做明智的工作，我心想，决定改变现状。”

深呼吸和空气高度

然而，要实现历史古迹保护的大规模秩序并非易事，因为当时奥地利还没有建立起脚手架。耐力和自信是乌尔里希·苏库普成功的两大特点。在与维也纳大教区建筑管理局进行了多次交谈之后，在那里工作的一位工程师终于发了慈悲。”苏库普回忆说：“这是从一些小项目开始的，比如修复牧师院的画之类的。

但有一天有一个指出未来的呼叫。“教会的风暴损坏必须被修复，租赁起重机和交通措施的成本将是100,000欧元。当我被问到我是否可以解决另一种方式，我说：是的：是的，我可以。”尊重这项任务是与相当高的时间压力一样重要，当然当然必须在这一刻做出错误的单独要求。“我们成功完成了该项目。”

当一个教堂塔必须覆盖时，突破2014年。来自东部蒂罗尔的着名水管工拒绝因为他认为这项工作过于暴露。“我说，我们可以做到这一点 - 然后我想：我只是说了什么？”，咧嘴笑着。但是，勇气是值得的，因为从那时起，充满了稳定的清洁和恢复工作，正是前广告商和塔登山者所做的。

Protecting history with dry ice

For this reason, Sukup was charged with the work on the Vienna Votivkirche church. In 2016 he climbed the tower for the first time in order to inspect the damage and to document it precisely. Based on this he was able to work out what extensive repairs to the damage had to look like. "On the Vierungsturm we had to work with lots of lead, which is really difficult to climb," reports Sukup. "On the other hand, it was important to us to retain the appearance: The tower above the intersection between the transept and nave has different patina layers, white-grey or black depending on the wind direction. Replacing individual elements would have made the roof into a patchwork rug."

Secrets of the Vierungsturm

During the work on the Vierungsturm the sacred building was revealed, along with one or two other secrets that had been well hidden until now – this even included historical facts. "Previously it was though that the vault of the nave had been erected in 1872. But inscriptions were revealed beneath the patina layers indicating that the first panels of the roof had already been laid by this time. The entire roof and skeleton of the tower therefore must also have been finished." In addition, Sukup found the names of workers, for example, who over time had carried out restoration and cleaning work and then eternalised themselves.

"Historical buildings tell innumerable stories," Sukup describes the fascination of his work. "You can even tell that air pollution in a city like Vienna was considerably worse than today because of the large amount of soot – the gilding was cleaned just thirteen years after it was completed, which is barely necessary today." It is not difficult to work out what Sukup loves about his work and why he devotes almost every fibre of his being to it. "When I am working on these buildings, I feel the passion and the blood that other craftsmen had spent over the decades – it is a unique feeling."