Experiencing Germany

More than one million people come to Garmisch-Partenkirchen every year to enjoy the alpine panorama. Bavarian singer and cabaret artist Georg Ringswandl used to live there and has a story or two to tell.

Mr. Ringsgwandl, you lived and worked as a doctor in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Do you miss it there?

Yes, I especially miss it in winter; that uniquely beautiful weather they have there. When it’s foggy and misty in the flatlands and in Munich it can be absolutely stunning for weeks on end in Garmisch. It’s amazing. I do miss that.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a spa resort town whose climate is supposedly beneficial to your health. What is so healthy about the city?

Every town in the Alps is a spa resort town. If it doesn’t have hot springs, a beach or a moor then it must be a spa resort town.

Is there anything that visitors absolutely should not miss?

Definitely don’t miss the Bräustüberl. It is one of the few real Bavarian-style taverns that has kept its character – a truly beautiful, classic pub, not kitschy like the ones you see on TV. Otherwise, just standing in the middle of the valley and looking around at the mountains is superb. The landscape is all around you; it’s overwhelming. On a halfway decent day it’s simply breathtaking.

Do you have a favorite place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen?

We used to live in an absolutely magnificent place back then – in the Old Town in Garmisch. We had a villa from the turn of the 19th century right on the Loisach River, which runs straight through the city. To the south we had a view of the entire mountain range from Mittenwald to the Wetterstein Range and the Zugspitze and then off into the west. Behind the house the river would gurgle past. That was my favorite place, but there was another option: St. Martin’s Hütte, about three-quarters of an hour’s walk up the hill. The view from there was unbelievable.

Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen have put in a joint application for the Winter Olympics 2018, but there has been resistance among some of the farmers who are expected to make their land available. One of them is reported to have said that it wouldn’t make a difference even if Bavarian President Horst Seehofer came by and rang everyone’s doorbell personally. Is that a typical mindset for locals there?

The special character of the locals is a taboo topic in public. Richard Strauss didn’t even dare do it, and he lived there for a long time. Garmisch is just a special place. I mean that in a positive way, though. The real locals, to the extent that they even exist anymore – strictly speaking, people like the volunteer fire department, the gun club and the alpine farmers – have a gnarled and independent way about them. They are withdrawn and insular.

Not even Bavarian legend Franz-Josef Strauß was able to make an impression on them. Whenever he tried to meddle in their affairs, the people of Garmisch, and even more so of Partenkirchen, fought against him. They seem to have nothing to do with other Bavarians. I grew up in Bad Reichenhall, which is not far from here, and I really am a Bavarian, but in Garmisch that would never be enough to be a local. You would never be accepted as a local. Of course, a Bavarian has a better chance than someone from Hanover.

The good thing, on the other hand, is that this somewhat severe side goes mostly unnoticed by visitors. Tourists go home again before they notice how the locals deal with each other once the winter sets in.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is at the base of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany at 2,962 meters. What superlative would you use to describe this town?

Well, what can I say? It is the only city that had me as a doctor for 14 years. Or, it is the only remote city with a really high mountain that you can still reach with an InterCityExpress train. If you really want to play dirty you could say that Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the only city in the world that was home to such a famous composer, Richard Strauss, but still doesn’t want to admit it. They still hate him as much as ever. The international accordion rally is more important to them than the Alps symphony.

If you were to write a song about Garmisch-Partenkirchen what would it sound like?

It would be simple and funny.

At the beginning of the last century, Garmisch-Partenkirchen was a meeting place for literati like Kurt Tucholsky, Karl Kraus, Erich Kästner, Heinrich Mann and Lion Feuchtwanger. Who meets in Garmisch-Partenkirchen these days?

There are a few writers but they live relatively incognito there. Michael Ende is one example. Otherwise, the orthographic arts have been banned from the valley since the Third Reich. These days it’s more of a meeting place for hip-hop parties on the ski slopes.