The Olympic Trail
A culturally and historically fascinating walk will take you back in time to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympics which took place in 1936.
The Olympic Ski Stadium was the impressive backdrop for both the opening and closing celebrations. On the left-hand side, above the small jump, the first Olympic flame burned here. The main ski jumping event also took place here on the Olympic ski jump, which was originally a wooden construction, and it was on the Gudiberg – the slope behind the stadium to the right – that the Alpine slalom events took place.
The Olympic Ice Stadium was one of the first ever artificial ice stadiums and was originally built without a roof. More than 10,000 excited spectators watched the ice skating events here. Germany won the gold medal in the pairs skating event, thanks to Maxie Herber and Ernst Baier.
The Riessersee (Riesser lake) was adapted in 1936 as the location for the speed skating events and the preliminary rounds of the ice hockey tournament. A bob-sleigh course had existed on the upper part of the lake since 1910. The remainder of the Olympic course was constructed by sawing ice blocks from the lake and fitting these together. The “Bavaria Curve” in the middle section of the course became infamous, and much of the original course is still clearly visible today.
The finishing line of the Olympic downhill race was situated at the valley station of the Kreuzeckbahn cable car. The men's downhill course began at the Kreuzjoch and was 3,8 km long, the women's course was 0.5 km shorter. The women's combination gold medal was won by the German Christl Kranz, the silver medal went to Käthe Grasegger of the local Partenkirchen skiing club.
For a more detailed description of the tour, please refer to "PDF Print" above.
