The route to the top is steep. The climb takes 73 minutes – and starts with an electronic beep and machine wheezes. At the train station in Garmisch-Patenkirchen the automatic doors of the Bayerische Zugspitzbahn close and the trip on the blue-and-white rack railway begins. The passengers this morning, almost all of them dressed for skiing and snowboarding, have a common destination: the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain, at 2962 metres, and the emblem of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The whole town is enthusiastic about winter sports. The World Ski Championships are taking place here in February 2011, and in July there is even the prospect of another, bigger sports event: the 2018 Winter Olympics
Slowly the rack railway ascends the 19-kilometre- long stretch through the snow-covered landscape. On the left through the treetops there are glimpses of the massif, in the valley on the right Lake Eibsee gleams in shades of turquoise. Then the mountain swallows the train. The last leg of the journey is through a tunnel to the Zugspitzplatt – the terminus. The doors open, skiers and snowboarders file out into the snow. The Zugspitze is Germany’s highest skiing region. The glacier has 22 kilometres of ski pistes, a snowboard park and an igloo village. Above the skiers and lift installations and past the environmental research station Schneefernerhaus, the glacier cable car glides the last 282 metres up to the actual “Top of Germany”. On this November day, the snow on the viewing terrace of the Zugspitze crunches underfoot, the wind is ice cold and the thermometer reads minus 10. Germany’s highest beer garden, and highest hut, the Münchner Haus, are closed at this time of year. In Germany’s highest chapel however, consecrated by the current Pope Benedict XVI, religious service is held on Sundays. At an altitude of almost 3000 metres, the air is thin, the view wide. In clear weather you can enjoy a panorama of 400 mountain tops in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, something that attracts and enthrals about 450,000 tourists every year. On this particular day, a couple from Berlin is here on a visit. They are standing at the “Zugspitze Photo Point” with the golden cross on the summit as a backdrop, laughing and kissing. The self-timer goes click. A scene of high-altitude bliss!
Back down in the valley, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Thomas Schmid has his own mountain panorama. The office of the first mayor is on the first floor, room 39, of the Town Hall. On the wall behind Schmid’s desk is a painting showing the Alpspitze, the Waxenstein and the Zugspitze. Before he was elected mayor in 2002, Schmid used to be a diplomat; his last posting was in the embassy in Canada. Since his election he has been polishing up the somewhat lack-lustre image of this market community with its 27,000 inhabitants which is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2011. A lot of money has been invested in the tourist infrastructure, for example, in modernising the mountain railways. And since late 2007 there has been a new jewel, the ski-jumping hill, the venue of the New Year’s Ski Jump in the Four Hills Tournament.
“It was certainly worth the investment. Our skiing regions have become competitive again, and the number of hotels bookings has increased,” says Schmid. He emphasises that Garmisch-Partenkirchen is actually a holiday destination all year round. For the first time in summer 2010, tourists were able to enjoy the AlpspiX – a spectacular viewing platform, ten metres of which juts out over a ravine 1,000 metres deep. A thrill that guaranteed the Alpspitzbahn even more passengers.
This is a source of great satisfaction for Mayor Schmid, who wears the pin of the 2011 Alpine World Ski Championships on his lapel. For the second time since 1978, Garmisch-Partenkirchen will host the largest winter sports event in 2010/2011. From 7 to 20 February, under the motto “Festspiele im Schnee”, the town is expecting 400 athletes from more than 70 nations. “The World Championship fever is rising and ticket sales are going very well,” says Schmid. And the town is well prepared for the World Championships: a clock on Richard-Strauss-Platz counts the remaining days to the start of the event; a little further on, the World Championships information pavilion is open; and about 70 shops in the town are using their display windows to advertize, with the World Championships logo and posters not only of the local German matadors, Maria Riesch und Felix Neureuther, but also of course international stars like Bode Miller from the United States. The idea was Gerd Rubenbauer’s, media director of the World Ski Championships. A lot of people in Germany know this sports journalist from television. He was a World Cup Ski Racing commentator in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for 25 years. Now his desk is piled high with documents – handwritten notes and print-outs of emails. Rubenbauer underscores the special character of this particular World Championship: the complementary aspect of sport and culture. In addition to the competitions and an atmospheric opening ceremony, concerts and exhibitions are planned. “Garmisch-Partenkirchen should be throbbing,” says Rubenbauer. Then he has to leave for his next appointment, which has to do with the cultural programme.
The World Ski Championships are also the dress rehearsal for an even bigger winter event which Garmisch-Partenkirchen is hoping to host: the 2018 Winter Olympics. Together with Munich it has made a bid and intends to organize environmentally-friendly and sustainable games. However, not everyone is as enthusiastic about the prospect. Some critics think the Games are too expensive, and that they will destroy the landscape. But a first important compromise has already been found: No buildings are to be constructed for the Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen’s so-called Green Belt. In the case of a positive response to the Olympics bid, all the snow competitions would take place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which held the Winter Games once already, in 1936. The decision will be made on 6 July 2011. So the World Ski Championships are taking place at just the right moment in time. If Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the scene of rousing festivities in the snow, then this will increase the chances of a winter fairytale in 2018.////
