Hundert Jahre meteorologische Hochstation auf der Zugspitze - Der Deutsch-Österreichische Alpenverein als Förderer der alpinen Meteorologie

Abstract

The history of the meteorological station atop the Zugspitze reveals how the socio-cultural movement of alpinism acted as a catalyst to late 19th century meteorology. The foundation of the German and Austrian Alpine Club (GAAC) in 1873 prompted a major boom in alpine activities, especially in the Bavarian Alps south of Munich. Booming alpinism in southern Germany created a demand for weather information to facilitate mountain tour planning. Thus, meteorologists needed information from a central place in the German Alps, for which the observatories atop the Santis (Switzerland) in the west and Hoher Sonnblick (Austria) in the east were not sufficient. The initial stimulation for high altitude stations came from a recommendation of the International Meteorological Congress in Rome in 1879. The section Munich of the GAAC provided further stimulation toward a weather station when it planned a shelter on top of the Zugspitze in 1894, to which a meteorological tower should be added later. Acting in unism, meteorologists and mountaineers from Munich could inaugurate the high altitude station on the Zugspitze on July 19, 1900. At that time, the Section Munich of the GAAC handed the observatory over to the Bavarian state, which transferred it to the Royal Bavarian Meteorological Central Station Munich for further maintenance. The opening of the Zugspitz railway in 1926 ended the so-called romantic era of the weather station.