The famous golden peak cross on the Zugspitze no longer shines in its glory. It is covered with hundreds of stickers that visitors use to immortalize themselves on Germany’s highest mountain. Now it needs to be restored.
Unloading and transporting the 4.88 meter high and 300 kilogram cross to the valley was tiring. The helicopter picked him up at the peak at an altitude of 2,962 meters. In the valley it was taken by truck to Andrea Würzinger’s blacksmith workshop in Eschenlohe. According to Bavaria’s Zugspitzbahn, the restoration alone will cost five figures euros.
The Zugspitzbahn and the blacksmiths hope the work will be finished and the cross returned to its place by November 28, the start of the ski season.
Stickers are not glossy
Würzinger will carefully remove the thick layer of decal, sand the surface, then apply new varnish and gold leaf.
Würzinger said he ordered 500 pieces of wafer-thin gold leaf measuring eight by eight centimeters. Cost: about 1,500 euros. Gold prices are high. “We wanted to try gilding only where there was no longer any gold.”
Visitor anger at stickers has increased in recent years. When the cross, made by her father Franz Würzinger in 1993, was gilded for the first time in about 15 years, there were three stickers affixed to it, her daughter reported. When the new gilding was done at the start of the new Zugspitze cable car in 2017, there were about 70 – and now hundreds of stickers are stuck to the cross in three layers.
The selfie craze and the risk of falling
Guests had to stretch further up the narrow peak near the ravine with acrobatic exercises or even climb to attach their stickers – at great risk of falling.
The path from the mountain station to the actual cross is also – although short – not without danger. There is often snow on the short sections of the climb, the rocks are gently scraped by the many visitors and sometimes slippery. And some even wear sneakers or even footwear that no longer fits.
On sunny days, there are lots of people on the narrow peak: selfies with spectacular backdrops are also popular.
Second cross
To provide a safe and accessible opportunity for guests to attach stickers, the Bavarian Zugspitzbahn has now erected a second, smaller cross at the mountain station based on the original image, which can be decorated as desired.
“We hope that guests will use the second cross and thus it is a safe option,” said Zugspitzbahn spokeswoman Laura Schaper. So far nothing has happened. However, many visitors have not prepared well for the journey to the cross.
Cross with history
Würzinger will also observe the four rays of the cross closely. One of them has broken up twice in the past. The blacksmith suspects that in winter, when the snow was high enough, visitors would hang out the rays to take photos. This can result in small cracks, so that later a strong storm will be enough to tear the nails apart – especially as apart from wind, extreme temperature fluctuations also affect the material at high altitudes.
The Würzinger family has been Zugspitze summit crossing specialists for decades. Father Franz was commissioned to build a new cross in the 1990s because the original 1851 cross could no longer be repaired. The original can be seen at the Werdenfels Museum. There are bullet holes. On April 28, 1945, according to former museum director Josef Kümmerle, American soldiers were taken to the top and shot on crosses.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251111-930-275604/1
