Ski jumping is the supreme discipline in winter sports today as it was then. The jumpers who courageously descend a steep hill are considered heroes. Benediktbeuern was once a stronghold of this sport.
Benediktbeuern - The exhibition about 33 former ski jumps in the Oberland in the Tölz district office has met with widespread interest in the region - and many memories have awakened. At that time there was also a ski jump in Benediktbeuern, which was known far beyond the region. Alfred Hundegger from Benediktbeuern still has an old photo album with pictures of his father Georg, who died in 1999. This was one of the jump pioneers in the monastery village.
The pictures that Hundegger has now shown to the Tölzer Kurier are rare and document the beginnings of ski jumping in the Tölzer Land. Today there is almost nothing left of the hill.
Winter sports was once the foundation of the club founded in December 1923, according to its chronicle. And there was a lot of interest, after just two weeks there were 76 members. The first event in January 1924 was a toboggan race, but then ski jumping and cross-country skiing were the focus.
After long drawn-out negotiations with the State Forestry Office and some landowners, the club was able to start planning and building the ski jump at the Windpass in 1929 with great financial expense, according to the chronicle of the 75th anniversary of the club in 1999. 1100 cubic meters of soil had to be moved - without bulldozer, of course. In January 1931, the “natural hill” was finally completed and inaugurated.
The longest jump was over 40 meters
In the years before and after the Second World War, the ski jump had its best years until around 1969. Martin Auer, Hans Rest, Georg Eberle and Josef Oppacher were the “stars” among the jumpers at the time, followed by the younger generation with Johann and Benedikt Zerluth, Karl Meier, Benedikt and Georg Stempfel, Otto Thalhuber, Benedikt Guggemoos and Georg Hundegger. “It was the highest thing for my father,” recalls Alfred Hundegger.
The skis strapped to the motorcycle: So it was back then to jump to Hausham. You can see more historical pictures in the weekend edition of the Tölzer Kurier.
© Alfred Hundegger
There were regular jumps at the wind pass, the spectator interest - as the pictures show - was quite large. "Springer is coming!" Resounded through the forest. Nowadays it is inconceivable that ski jumpers whiz through the trees. The furthest jump at the wind pass should have been 43 meters.
The judges were sitting in a wooden tower and watching the jumpers. In 1933 there was even a "triad" of downhill skiing, cross-country skiing and ski jumping.
At that time there was still the ski manufacturer Eberle in Benediktbeuern, whose “Eberle-G'schoße” were very popular. The winners mostly drove their brands. The family business existed until 1989. At that time the skis were 2.50 meters long and made of wood, often of ash.
German national team jumpers as guests
The exhibition in the district office made it clear that the “Springer scene in the Oberland” was well networked. Alfred Hundegger can also report that his father drove with friends to Hausham. They simply put the long skis over the motorcycle. "You have to imagine that today," says Hundegger. What the jumpers had done at the time was "insane". Almost nothing has been handed down about serious accidents. "I only know that a Heilbrunner broke both legs." In the 1950s and 1960s, well-known ski jumpers were guests in Benediktbeuern, in the chronicle Edi Heilingbrunner from the German national team and Roger and Bernard Dion from the American one Called national team. In 1967, the Werdenfels youth championships in Nordic combined were held at the Windpass (ski jumping and cross-country skiing). In the 1970s, the so-called landing slope began to slide, fewer and fewer jumps took place, and consequently the interest among jumpers and spectators fell.
The club had long since grown in other areas. Already in 1932, for organizational reasons, the gymnastics club and Bichl had joined forces, so that the club has since been called the Benediktbeuern-Bichl gymnastics and sports club. Today the divisions soccer, judo, swimming and gymnastics as well as skiing and mountain biking are offered.
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