As of: February 6, 2024, 2:11 p.m
By: Katharina Bromberger
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It was probably the storm.
At Christmas he tore off three rays from the summit cross on the Zugspitze - as he did in 2019. © Bayerische Zugspitzbahn/Streng
Something is missing from Germany's most famous summit cross.
Something crucial: Golden spikes have been lost on the Zugspitze.
The storm probably swept them away.
Now we need specialists to repair it.
Once again.
The storm damaged the summit cross on the Zugspitze in March 2019.
At that time the rays were missing at the bottom right.
© Bavarian Zugspitzbahn
Garmisch-Partenkirchen – The Americans shelled it.
Hurricane gusts of up to 335 kilometers per hour swept around its golden beams.
Snowstorms lashed them.
Lightning struck.
The cross on the Zugspitze has to endure a lot.
It is exposed to wind and weather at an altitude of almost 3,000 meters.
In the 1990s it could no longer withstand all of this.
The original from 1851 was retired.
It and its bullet extinguisher can now be admired in the Werdenfels Museum.
It just couldn't be fixed.
The storm came overnight and after Christmas the cross was damaged
It won't come to that this time.
The cross, re-erected in 1993 and touched and photographed millions of times since then, will return in all its glory.
Nobody doubts that.
But at the moment it shines in the sun, looking pretty battered.
One of its four prongs broke off.
Those responsible for the Bavarian Zugspitzbahn suspect that it was probably the storm.
Already on Christmas weekend he swept away the three lower left rays.
Now the BZB reports about it.
She goes public with initially good news.
Secured on a rope, Julian Fremgen rescued the broken rays of the Zugspitze Cross on January 9th.
© Bavarian Zugspitzbahn
It probably happened overnight, says BZB spokeswoman Verena Tanzer.
She doesn't know exactly when.
Because on Christmas Eve the railway was closed due to hurricane force winds.
By Boxing Day or Boxing Day the spikes were gone.
Employees discovered the damage; day after day they hoped to discover the golden cross ornament somewhere in the snow.
Almost 14 days later, on January 9th, this was exactly what happened. The broken piece lay on the south side of the summit.
Secured on a rope, Julian Fremdgen, deputy operations manager at the Zugspitzbahn, recovered the steel decoration, which weighs around five kilograms.
Now she is waiting to return to her place.
The BZB is currently clarifying how and where the summit cross will be placed.
Tanzer assumes that the work will take place at the summit and that no dismantling will be necessary.
In 2019 it worked perfectly.
Déjà vu: As early as 2019, a hurricane ripped through the Zugspitz summit cross
Some people are currently experiencing déjá vu.
On the night of March 3, 2019, the storm tore off golden spikes, at that time in the bottom right corner and not in the left bottom corner.
Back then, too, BZB employees found the valuable piece in the summit area.
Even then, it was immediately clear: the damage would be repaired.
By whom was also soon clear.
Julian Fremdgen from the Bavarian Zugspitzbahn is not the only one who is happy about the valuable find.
© Bavarian Zugspitzbahn
Zugspitze summit cross specialists are based in Eschenlohe.
Franz Würzinger was commissioned to build the new cross in 1993.
In 2017 he and his team appeared as Kreuzretter for the first time.
In the spring, a crane chain collided with the landmark during the new construction of the Zugspitze cable car.
All the lower prongs were damaged, as well as one in the upper corner.
At that time, climbers found the broken parts towards Eibsee.
Würzinger, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, put them all back in place.
A complex procedure that could only be implemented in the valley.
The cross was flown to his workshop especially for this purpose.
Which wasn't necessary in 2019.
At the end of April, Würzinger's team, including daughter Andrea, assembled the cross decoration on site - freshly galvanized, primed, varnished and painted, and finally gilded by Painting Ertl in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Apparently they did a good job: these three rays withstood the Christmas storm.