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The Zugspitze (Zug="draught", Spitze="peak") is the highest mountain in Germany. It is located at the Austrian border in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria. There is a cog railway (Zugspitzbahn) leading from the tourist resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen to the peak. There are also two cable cars that go to the peak from the base: one ascends from the German side of the mountain at the Eibsee, and the other ascends from Austria. The peak is regularly crowded with tourists.
For those wishing to reach the summit more honestly, various hiking and ski trails can also be followed to the top. Hiking to the top from the base takes two days, and you can eat or stay at various lodges depending on the trails you take.
The border between Germany and Austria goes right through the mountain, and there is even a border checkpoint at the summit where visitors may cross back and forth between the two countries.
The Zugspitze belongs to the Wetterstein range in the northern Kalkalpen. It gets its name from the many snowslides (Lawinenzüge in German) on its steep north slopes.
On the Zugspitze's massif lie two of Germany's few glaciers, the Schneeferner and the Höllentalferner.
At the Zugspitze's summit is the Münchner Haus, well known in Germany as an Alpenvereinshütte, a facility used by the mountain-climbing association (Alpenverein). For more than a hundred years now, the summit has also had a weather station, which nowadays also gathers data for the Global Atmosphere Watch.
As far as is known, the first people to reach the Zugspitze's summit were a team led by Lieutenant Josef Naus and consisting also of two men named Maier and G. Deutschl on 27 August 1820. It is, of course, possible that the Zugspitze had been climbed earlier by local people, but history does not record this.
On 7 January 1882 the first successful wintertime assault on the Zugspitze was accomplished by F. Kilger, H. and J. Zametzer and H. Schwaiger.
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