Already at the end of 1914 the Vorarlberg and Tyrol State Committee contacted the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry in Vienna. Interest was expressed in the POWs contained in Austria-Hungarian custody, and especially in the workforce of the enemy army soldiers. It was claimed that the POWs would be suitable for “cultivating the Inn flood plains” and “drying the swampy high valleys and carrying out clearing work on the streams and mountain rivers”. From 1915 onwards the POWs had to do extensive forced labour. They were put to use in various areas and frequently for infrastructure work. Around 200 Russian POWs for example were put to work on mountain stream control for the Mustergielbach in the community of Vandans in Montafon. The Austro-Hungarian military authorities housed them in an existing work camp located in the vicinity. The nearest main POW camp at Grödig near to Salzburg was much too far away from the work location, meaning that the prisoners could not be transported daily from there to the work site. In Vorarlberg, POWs were also used for road construction on the Bödele and the Bregenzerwaldstraße, with mountain stream control in Bürs, in the cement factory at Lorüns and in the Lutz oven factory at Bludenz.