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K-Point: | 27 m |
Ernst Hofmann, born in 1929, was one of the sports enthusiasts who revived sports activities in Adelmannsfelden after the end of the war. He was chairman of TSV Adelmannsfelden from 1958 to 1969 and founded the skiing division in 1963. His great love was for Nordic disciplines such as cross-country skiing and ski jumping.
Under his supervision and with the participation of club members, the Rottalschanze was built in autumn 1970, close to the Albvereinweg Adelmannsfelden-Ellwangen. Engineer Vollmer from Königsbronn planned the ski jumping facility as the ski jumping consultant of the Swabian Ski Association at the time. With the help of the construction company Reck and many hours of voluntary work by the club members, the natural ski jump was built. There was a long natural inrun, the large take-off was concreted and the critical point was 31 metres. The Rottalschanze was located not far from the paper mill and was inaugurated on 6 January 1971. In the beginning, recreational jumpers reached distances of around 16 to 18 metres. At that time, a lot of earthworks were necessary to make the take-off of the ski jump steeper and to achieve greater distances.
As Hoffmann recalled years later, ski jumping back then was more for fun than for breaking records. Most of the jumpers back then jumped with normal alpine skis because they trusted their safety bindings more. Of course, with the rigid bindings you couldn't go into the pattern like that, but nothing ever happened. In summer, he did the necessary work on the slopes himself, such as cutting the grass with a scythe. In winter, it was volunteer helpers who always worked hard to tamp down the snow on the ski jump before events and training sessions.
In 1986 the radius of the ski jump was re-profiled and the construction point was reduced to 27 m. In addition, the upper inrun was equipped with a wooden frame. The jumpers of the ski department of the TSV, which was led by the long-time director Ernst Hofmann, were dependent on the snow conditions in the winters for training and competitions. Night jumping events that were announced at short notice were always well received by the spectators. However, a planned plastic covered hill could not be realized.
The last official competition took place on 19 January 2002, with the guests from Degenfeld and Königsbronn providing all the winners in the junior classes. The later Olympic champion and multiple world champion Carina Vogt from Degenfeld jumped 24 and 21 metres as a 10-year-old girl! The lack of interest in ski jumping went hand in hand with the insufficient snow conditions in winter, so that the only ski jumping hill in the Ellwangen area was closed in 2004 and the ski section was later dissolved. The Swabian Ski Association set conditions for investments that the club was unable to fulfil (fencing off the ski jump area, removal of trees in the surrounding area that had become too large in the meantime).
Back then, the winners of the ski jumping competitions in Adelmannsfelden attached great importance to the hand-carved prizes that the trained master wood and stone sculptor Hofmann carved in his spare time. These were usually wall plates on which he did not mark the date, as he had learnt that the competition could not take place due to the lack of snow, which meant that the prize was not awarded at the time. Some of these wall plates, which were not awarded due to the cancellation of an event, can be admired in his living room today.
Rottalschanze, the only natural jump in the Ostalbkreis district, was finally demolished in 2009.
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