In 1896 the mountain, then belonging to Austria-Hungary, was mentioned in the journal of the Österreichischer Alpenverein. The summit was reached for the first time in 1895 by Franz Hofer and Fritz Kögl. On 16 July 1904 the Italian nationalist, irredentist, and later fascist Ettore Tolomei climbed the mountain, proclaimed himself the first to reach its summit, asserted that it was the northernmost point of the Adriatic Sea's drainage basin and thus belonged to Italy, and named it Vetta d'Italia (Peak of Italy). However, the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) defines the northernmost point of Italy as the summit not of Glockenkarkopf, but of nearby Western Zwillingsköpfl (2841 m), which is slightly farther north and is in fact the northernmost point of the Adriatic Sea's drainage basin.