Oberstdorf Ski Jump (Schattenberg-Schanze)
From the valley floor, the Schattenberg-Schanze reads as a concrete ribbon pinned to the northwestern flank of a 1,845-metre mountain — steep, purposeful, a little severe. Stand at its base and tilt your head back: the inrun tower climbs 140 metres above you, and the town of Oberstdorf fans out below like a map someone left in the sun.
This is the opening stage of the Four Hills Tournament, the oldest and most-watched ski jumping circuit in the world. More than 40,000 spectators pack the 24,000-capacity arena for that January competition, spilling onto every available slope. In summer, the place belongs to whoever shows up to look.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who've done the guided tour mention the same moment: stepping onto the observation deck at the top of the K120 inrun and looking straight down the hill. The two-minute inclined elevator ride up is unremarkable; what waits at the top is not. Book the 11 a.m. tour in advance — groups must be at least eight, so solo visitors should check whether a group already has a slot.
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Book directly at the providerHow Oberstdorf Ski Jump (Schattenberg-Schanze) came to be
The first ski jump in Oberstdorf went up in 1909 on the Halden hill, where Bruno Bieler from Freiburg covered 22 metres. The Schattenberg-Schanze itself came later, designed by architect Hans Gschwender and set in motion by spa director Hermann Schallhammer; it opened on 27 December 1925. Enlargements followed — for the German Championships in 1930, then Olympic qualifiers in 1936 — and after the war, three local jumpers (Heini Klopfer, Toni Brutscher and Sepp Weiler) revived the facility. Weiler set a hill record of 82 metres in 1950.
The Four Hills Tournament held its first competition here on 4 January 1953. A reinforced concrete inrun tower went up in 1972, the 1987 Nordic World Championships came and went, and a €16.6 million modernisation in 2002 expanded the complex to five hills: K120, K90, K56, K30 and K19. The normal hill was rebuilt again in 2011. The arena has traded commercial names several times — Erdinger Arena, Audi Arena, Skisprung Arena — and currently goes by ORLEN Arena Oberstdorf.
Who and what shaped it
People who shaped it
Landmark buildings
Plan your visit
On the map
When to go
July through September gives you mild days (up to around 22°C) and the best odds of a dry visit, though the Allgäu is one of the wettest corners of Germany and a shower can arrive without much warning. If you're coming for the Four Hills Tournament in early January, expect temperatures well below freezing and dress for a long afternoon in the stands.
Right now
Background & history adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · specs from Wikidata (CC0) · weather from Open-Meteo · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · photos from Wikimedia Commons / Unsplash with per-image credit. No third-party reviews or social posts reproduced.