Thüringenschanze or Thuringia ski jump, known as Hindenburg ski jump until 1945, was a ski jumping hill in Oberhof in the Thuringian Forest. The large hill, which was built between 1925 and 1927, was one of the largest ski jumps in Germany for over 50 years in terms of jump distances. It was located on the western slope of the Wadeberg next to the youth ski jump on the outskirts of Oberhof. It hosted the ski jumping competitions of the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1931 and numerous other ski jumping competitions with international participants. The construction point (K-point), the size for which a ski jump is designed, was last at 82 meters after several conversions and extensions and the hill record, set by Jens Weißflog in 1981, was 83.5 meters. It was demolished in 1986.
Location The ski jump was located on the north-western outskirts of Oberhof on Crawinkler Straße, the state road 1128 from Oberhof to Ohrdruf. It occupied the south-western slope of the 827.3 meters high Schloßbergkopf on the Wadeberg and was located around 750 meters above sea level.Thüringer Landesvermessungsamt (Hrsg.): Oberhof und Umgebung. 1:25.000. Erfurt 2002. . The inrun of the Wadeberg bobsleigh run was located right next to the ski jump.
Description For spectators, there were ground stands in the outrun area and wooden stands on both sides of the upper landing slope. The standard point of the ski jump (P-point) was 66.5 meters after the last conversions. The landing area started at 47 meters with a slope inclination of 38° and changed into the outrun after another 36 meters. The achievable jumping distances were 80 meters with average take-off speeds of 80 to 90 kilometers per hour. The ski jump had a 24 meter high inrun tower in wooden construction, which accommodated the 97 meter long inrun track. In contrast to the artificial inrun area, the landing area was located entirely on the natural slope. The total height of the ski jump was 99, the total length 325 and the height of the take-off 4.3 meters.Department of Physical Culture and Sport: Thüringen – Schanze Oberhof. 30. November 1964, Suhl. The landing area was covered with plastic mattings, so that jumping without snow was possible. The mats were moistened before jumping and therefore had similar gliding properties to snow. The multi-storey wooden judges' tower had four balconies, with the top one reserved for the judges. The ski jump was "property of the people"; the legal owner was the council of the Oberhof municipality.
History The first ski jump in Oberhof was set up in 1906 and was located on Tambacher Straße. At Wadeberg, the first ski jump was set up in 1908 with today's junior hill (HS 69). This was completely rebuilt in 1951/52 and covered with plastic mattings in 1954. It was the site of the world's first plastic covered ski jump. At the beginning of the 1920s, the junior hill allowed top jumps of almost 30 meters.Jan Knapp and others: 100 Jahre Wintersport in Oberhof.
Hindenburg ski jump(1925 bis 1945)
The first years In order to be able to host larger ski jumping competitions in Oberhof, plans were made for a larger ski jump. For this purpose, the Oberhof winter sports association leased a forest area of around 0.5 hectares from the Thuringian forestry office in Crawinkel from October 1, 1924. Construction of the ski jump began in 1925.Rolf Hackel: Oberhof – Vom Hospiz der Johanniter zur Stadt am Rennsteig. p. 90, 92. It was inaugurated on December 22, 1927, as Hindenburgschanze. The ski jump was named after Reich President Paul von Hindenburg. The landing area of the ski jump was between 25 and 60 meters, the steepest part of the landing slope between 50 and 58 meters. The inrun length was 97 meters and the outrun 118 meters. The total height of the ski jump was 81 meters. The ski jump had a new type of jump distance display at the 50-meter mark. This display, which had been tested at the Holmenkollen Ski Games, had been obtained from Norway and was the first in Central Europe. The inauguration was to take place during a ski jumping competition for the honorary prize of His Excellency von Hindenburg. However, a thaw that had set in days beforehand meant that jumping was not possible. The international opening competition finally took place on February 5, 1928, with the Thuringian Championships in front of around 30,000 spectators. The Norwegian Sverre Jensen won with the first hill record of 45 meters. Gustav Scherschmidt from Oberschönau came second with a distance of 39 meters.Roland Sänger: Chronik des Thüringer Skisports. p. 51.
Venue of the 1931 World Championship Oberhof was chosen by the FIS Congress in Oslo in 1930 to host the FIS races (later the Nordic World Ski Championships). During the competitions, the town was decorated with snow figures, welcoming arches at the street entrances and house decorations. From February 13 to 15, 1931, the jumping competitions of the FIS races took place on the Hindenburgschanze. The special competition on February 15 was watched by around 30,000 spectators, who arrived by 2000 cars, 26 special trains, ten shuttle buses, horse-drawn sleighs, skis or on foot.Jan Knapp et al.:100 Jahre Wintersport in Oberhof. p. 27. The Mitteldeutsche Zeitung wrote about it on February 17, 1931: "Oberhof had the biggest day in its resort history on Sunday. Oberhof's name resounds throughout the world today." Roland Sänger: Chronik des Thüringer Skisports. p. 52. The Norwegian Birger Ruud won the special jumping competition with distances of 58.5 and 56.5 meters ahead of Fritz Kaufmann from Switzerland and Sven Eriksson from Sweden.Rolf Hackel: Oberhof – Vom Hospiz der Johanniter zur Stadt am Rennsteig. p. 95. In the Nordic combined, Norway's Johan Grøttumsbråten had won the previous day ahead of Sverre Kolterud and Arne Rustadstuen.
Competitions during the National Socialist era
In 1932, the ski jumping competitions were held on the hill at the Thuringian Ski Championships. At the New Year's competition in 1934, Paul Henkel from Oberhof reached an unprecedented distance of 65 meters, but fell. The longest jump achieved was 55 meters by Oskar Weisheit from Oberschönau.Roland Sänger: Chronik des Thüringer Skisports. p. 57. The Thuringian Winter Sports Association was renamed Ski-Gau VI in 1933, and later winter sports were also militarized.Jan Knapp et al.: 100 Jahre Wintersport in Oberhof. p. 28. In 1937 and 1938, the ski jump was converted for the Nazi Winter Olympics by moving it back and raising it, and the inrun was made higher. The cost of the conversion work amounted to around 31,000 Reichsmark. The ski jump then allowed jumps of around 70 meters.Tribünen für 70,000. In: Innsbrucker Nachrichten, December 16, 1938, p. 18 (online at ANNO). At the same time, the stands were considerably extended and could now accommodate around 70,000 spectators. From February 18 to 20, 1938, the Winter Games were held on the Hindenburgschanze with a special competition. From February 3 to 5,Alpine and sport. In: Salzburger Volksblatt, February 3, 1939, p. 9 (online at ANNO).Berauer and Bradl triumph in Oberhof. In: Salzburger Volksblatt, February 6, 1939, p. 8 (online at ANNO). 1939, the Wehrmacht ski championships were held on the ski jump.
In 1939, the German Ski Championships were held in Oberhof, where Josef Bradl from Salzburg won the ski jumping competition and Gustav Berauer the Nordic combined and became Greater German Champion. On New Year's Day 1940, the last competition of the Second World War took place on the ski jump, in which the top German jumpers took part, with the winner being Rudi Gering (from Gehlberg) ahead of Hans Marr from Oberhof. In 1941, the ski jumping competitions of the Thuringian Ski Championships were held on the ski jump, with Private Heinz Holland from Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig winning.Roland Sänger: Chronik des Thüringer Skisports. p. 54. After that, no more sporting events were held in Oberhof; more and more war wounded were sent to the local military hospitals until 1945. However, ski jumping competitions were still held at the end of December 1941, in which members of the national team took part: Josef Bradl was the winner with jumps of 65 and 68 m; together with Josef Haslinger and Franz Mair, he also won the team title.Bradl nicht zu schlagen. In: Neues Wiener Tagblatt. Democratic organ / Neues Wiener Abendblatt. Evening edition of the (")Neues Wiener Tagblatt(") / Neues Wiener Tagblatt. Evening edition of the Neues Wiener Tagblatt / Wiener Mittagsausgabe mit Sportblatt / 6-Uhr-Abendblatt / Neues Wiener Tagblatt. Neue Freie Presse - Neues Wiener Journal / Neues Wiener Tagblatt, December 29, 1941, p. 4 (online at ANNO).
Thuringia ski jump (1945 bis 1986)
Reopening in post-war Germany After the end of the Second World War, the ski jump was renamed Thüringenschanze.History of the town of Oberhof. Retrieved November 9, 2019. After several years of inactivity, the ski jump had become dilapidated.Rolf Hackel: Oberhof – Vom Hospiz der Johanniter zur Stadt am Rennsteig. p. 131. Residents of Oberhof had used the planks of the inrun tower as firewood. The Thüringenschanze was renovated from fall 1948 onwards, which amounted to around 5090 working hours and costs of around 15,000 DM. A fortunate circumstance was that the substructure of the ski jump had not become rotten despite years of lack of maintenance. On the other hand, the reconstruction of the hill profile, which had been washed out from 32 degrees to 25 degrees, took up a large part of the work, during which a total of 100 cubic meters of earth were moved. The main problem for the 50 workers and ten activists proved to be the transportation of the earth, as only horse-drawn vehicles were available.Neues Deutschland, Issue from December 24, 1948, p. 4
From February 11 to 15, 1949, the 1st Championships of the Soviet Occupation Zone (East Zone Championships) in winter sports took place with 450 participants, which had been prepared with great effort.100 Jahre Thüringer Wintersportverband 1905–2005. (PDF; 3.2 MB) Thüringer Skiverband, p. 50, retrieved on January 5, 2009. After the 1931 World Championships, this was the largest sporting event in Oberhof. Wilhelm Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, Otto Grotewohl and Erich Honecker, the leading politicians of the Soviet occupation zone, as well as representatives of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) were present.Rolf Hackel: Oberhof – Vom Hospiz der Johanniter zur Stadt am Rennsteig. p. 132. Franz Knappe from Geschwenda won the ski jumping competition on the renovated Thüringenschanze in front of around 15,000 spectators. The winner in the Nordic combined was Herbert Leonhardt from Mühlleithen.Jan Knapp et al.: 100 Jahre Wintersport in Oberhof. p. 30.
Venue of the GDR championships