Oberhof, Germany
Oberhof is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district of Thuringia, Germany. Located in the Thuringian Forest mountain range, it is a winter sports center and health resort. With 1,625 inhabitants (December 2016), it is visited by 144,000 tourists every year (2016). The town obtained its official city status in 1985. History Oberhof was first mentioned in a document in 1470. The village in the Black Forest department belonged to various Ernestine duchies, most recently to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1826 to 1918. In 1830, Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had a hunting lodge built. In 1861 the first vacation guests came to the village. With the completion of the Brandleite Tunnel of the Neudietendorf-Ritschenhausen railway, Oberhof received a railroad connection in 1884, which enabled the expansion of tourism. After the founding of the Oberhof Winter Sports Association, on the initiative of the Oberhof physician Kurt Weidhaas, in February 1904, the town developed into a center of winter sports. In 1906 the first bobsleigh run and the first ski jump were inaugurated. In 1931, world championships were held in the town for the first time, in two-man bobsleigh and Nordic combined on the Hindenburg ski jump.