Johann Georg Mahl is one of the most significant historical personalities from Bruneck and is considered a pioneer of tourism in the town.

Born in 1823, Johann Georg Mahl completed an apprenticeship with the Felician Rauch printing house in Innsbruck and spent several years working as a typesetter in Bolzano. In 1849 he opened his own printing firm in Bruneck together with a Christian book shop. This was the first printing firm in the Pustertal Valley. In the same year, the entrepreneur married the daughter of a Bolzano artisan, Maria Anna Senoner, with whom he had seven children.

In 1850, Mahl launched the “Pusterthaler Boten”, the first regular newspaper in the region. Some years later he founded the Voluntary Fire Brigade in Bruneck and eventually, in 1870, the first improvement society (Verschönerungsverein) in historic Tyrol. In so doing, the future mayor and freeman of Bruneck laid one of the foundation stones for the development of tourism in the town.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the improvement society, the society’s board dedicated a fountain to Mahl. Initially this stood at the head of the Kühbergl track. Since 2017, the Mahl fountain has been located by the entrance to the Waldfriedhof cemetery.

When Johann Georg Mahl died in 1901, his son, Hermann, took over the printing press. He too became known as a Pustertal Valley pioneer, in his case of colour photography.