Wien

Himmelhof

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Sprungschanze am Himmelhof:

K-Point:	45 m
Hill record:	42.0 m (Klaus Fichtner , 1960)

Year of construction:	1949
Further jumps:	no
Status:	destroyed
Plastic matting:	no
Ski club:	Ski-Union-Wien

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History:

At about the century turn there were ski jumping hills in Greater Vienna at Kaltenleutgeben, Hütteldorf and Grinzing, and smaller hills at Pötzleinsdorf, Neuwaldegg and on the Schmelz.
In 1931 the Wiener Arbeiterturnverein (Workers athletic club) hosted an international competition on the Cobenzl-Schanze ,which was attended by nearly 20,000 spectators who watched jumps up on 38 m. In 1940 the ski jumping hill at Hadersdorf-Weidlingau was converted in a way which made jumps up to 70 meters possible.
The “Ski-Union-Wien” built up a jump at Himmelhof in Ober St. Veit / Hietzing in 1949 which made jumps of 45 meters distance possible, and in the following years there were several well-attended competitions. For example in 1953, when 20,000 spectators watched the Vienna ski jumping championships, or 1956, when 5,000 people of Vienna cheered to the jumpers.
After some winters with little snow, in 1969 the idea came up to build a new 50-meter-hill on the area of the already dilapidated old jump at Hadersdorf-Weidlingau and support it with artificially made snow from the Hohen-Wand-Wiese. But this ski jumping hill was never really constructed.
In June 1980 vandals ignited the Himmelhofschanze. Only two years before Hans Rinnhöfer set up a final unofficial hill record of 46 meters during a practising jump. The nearly completely destroyed facility was then totally removed and since there hasn’t been an own ski jumping hill for the state capital.
Some years ago there was the idea to build up a completely new winter sports centre at Vienna, including a plastic covered hill at Cobenzl. But the plans have been thrown away already. In January 2009 Vienna’s major Michael Häupl came again up with the idea of constructing a new ski jumping hill at Vienna.

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Map:

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Comments:

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1) Fred Fettner wrote on 2011-02-02 at 20:52:

Congratulations...

to this article. I grew up nearby Himmelhof - but a little to late, to attend the crowd of 20.000 spectators. I've been there passing by, in the later 60s and 70s, I can remember the wooden inrun, but I cant believe, that there were jumps up to 78. Anyway: the only very small mistake i have seen: The village next to Vienna is correctly to spell KALTENLEUTGEBEN. And the latest idea is to build up a new jumping hill there. But I dont think, that it will ever happen.

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