Panel 7 The Cradle of Winter Sports

In 1886, the first pairs of skis were built in Klingenthal: The head teacher Erwin Beck received a postcard from Norway on which skis were depicted. He had these replicated and from then on became an enthusiastic skier. He passed on his enthusiasm during his skiing lessons and so it was not long before many inhabitants of the snowy area on the Aschberg were pursuing this sporting pleasure, which was still new at the time.

In 1908, the winter sports club Klingenthal-Aschberg was founded. In 1913, the first larger ski jump was built in the Dürrenbach Valley. In 1921, the ski jump was given the name “Reinhold-Glaß Ski Jump” in connection with the holding of the Saxon Championships. On January 5, 1924, the C. A. Seydel ski jump was inaugurated. In 1928, Walter Glaß I was Klingenthal’s first participant in the Winter Olympics (St. Moritz/Switzerland). In 1929, Klingenthal hosted the German Ski Championship for the first time. A total of 21,730 passengers arrived at Klingenthal station by rail between January 31 and February 3, of which 15,800 on February 3 alone, the day of the jumping competition. On January 15, 1933, the inauguration of the Vogtland ski jump took place.

The Second World War brought skiing in Klingenthal almost to a standstill. The list of dead and wounded skiing athletes from the Aschberg area is long.

In 1949, Klingenthal hosted the first Saxon Championships after the end of the war.
In 1956, Harry Glaß from Klingenthal finished third in the special jumping event at the VII Olympic Games in Cortina d' Ampezzo (Italy), making him the first German Olympic medallist in Nordic skiing. On December 4, 1957, the SC Dynamo Klingenthal was founded.
On February 1, 1959, the Great Aschberg Ski Jump was inaugurated. The inaugural jump was performed by Harry Glaß. About 70,000 visitors watched the following jumping competition, which was won by Helmut Recknagel (Oberhof).

In 1960, Helmut Recknagel won the Olympic gold medal in the special jumping event at the VIII Olympic Games in Squaw Valley (Canada) with skis made in Klingenthal by Max Poppa.
Skis from Klingenthal have long been sought-after sports equipment. In GDR times, the once numerous private workshops became the PGH “Aschberg Ski Workshops” with the brand name “Aschberg Ski” (later “Germina”). Thus, the enthusiastic Klingenthalers understand each other not only in the successful practice of the sport, but also in the production of the necessary equipment.

The 1970s and 1980s were characterised by the successful athletes of SC Dynamo Klingenthal. Special highlights were Gerd Dietmar Klause's victory in the 1975 Vasa Race (Mora, Sweden), Marlies Rostock winning the first Olympic gold medal for Klingenthal with the GDR cross-country relay team in Lake Placid (USA) in 1980, Manfred Deckert's Four Hills Tournament victory in 1982 and Klaus Ostwald’s Ski Jumping World Championship title in Harrachov (ÄŒSSR) in 1983.


In 1989, the last GDR championship jumping took place on the Great Aschberg Ski Jump. The winner was Jens Weißflog from Oberwiesenthal ahead of Heiko Hunger from Klingenthal.

On September 26, 1990, the run-up of the “Asch” was demolished. From then on, committed winter sports fans strove for the modernised reconstruction.

After difficult years of reorganization, the Klingenthalers succeeded in securing the location of Nordic skiing. Since September 13, 1997, the merger of formerly three winter sports clubs has been called “Vogtländischer Skiclub Klingenthal” (VSC).
In 2002, the German Nordic combined relay team won a team silver medal at the XIX Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (USA). With Björn Kircheisen and Marcel Höhlig, two of the four team members had established their sporting careers in Klingenthal.
On December 21, 2005, Kevin Röder completed his inaugural jump on the new hill in the Vogtland Arena.

At present, Klingenthal is a federal base for Nordic combined and women’s ski jumping. The next generation learns in the “Elite School of Sport”.


Ski jump sites with special history/histories:

The Reinhold Glaß Ski Jump and the Dürrenbach Valley
are the cradle of ski jumping in Klingenthal. As part of the Saxon Championships held in Klingenthal for the first time in 1921, the ski jump in the Dürrenbach Valley was given the name “Reinhold-Glaß Ski Jump” in memory of the winter sports pioneer of the same name who died in the First World War in 1915. His younger brother Walter Glaß I was the inaugural jumper. From then on, the so-called Reinhold Glaß Memorial Runs took place, attracting thousands of enthusiastic spectators. The ski jump record was 25.5 meters in 1922. The Dürrenbach Ski Jumps were built in the immediate vicinity of the ski jump in the mid-1970s and were used as a children’s and youth ski jump until the 1990s. Since then, the site has no longer been used for sports, and the inrun facilities of both the Reinhold-Glaß Ski Jump and the Dürrenbach Ski Jump have been dismantled.

From the Böller Ski Jump to the Sparkasse Vogtland Arena
The Böller Ski Jump was supposed go down in history as a part of “Bad Mittelberg - the metropolis in the winter sports area Klingenthal Aschberg”.  “It really is time to create something outstanding, (...).” says the author of the manuscript, Howard Willie Meisel from Klingenthal. In 1932, he presented a concept to the Brunndöbra Local Council in which the Klingenthal district and the area around the Mittelberg were to be shaped into an internationally known tourist attraction. According to Meisel, the name “Böller Ski Jump” had been chosen “only for the sake of easier processing”.
Meisel had conceived of a large ski jump that was to be built in the area where the Sparkasse Vogtland Arena is located today. Meisel had a vision that Klingenthal would become a contender to host the IV Olympic Winter Games in 1936. The Böller Ski Jump was to go down in the history of skiing as a mammoth jump with record distances of up to 200 meters. Considering that the record in ski jumping at that time was just 84 meters, a bold goal.
The mayor at the time, Schraps, was in favour of Meisel’s concept, but the forestry commission was not, as it would have had to cut down large areas of forest for the construction. The concept ultimately failed due to their opposition immediately after its first publication.
Finally, on December 21, 2005, the inaugural jump took place on the large hill of the Vogtland Arena. Today, this facility is the largest of all the ski jumps in Klingenthal and the world’s Nordic skiing elite regularly compete here.