engineering

Schneefernerhaus

Schneefernerhaus is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Schneefernerhaus rather than just read about it. In short: The Schneefernerhaus is a former hotel in the Alps, that is now used as an environmental research station. It lies immediately below the summit of the Zugspitze at a height of 2,650 m and was opened on 20 January 1931.

Key takeaways

Schneefernerhaus belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Schneefernerhaus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Schneefernerhaus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Schneefernerhaus is a former hotel in the Alps, that is now used as an environmental research station. It lies immediately below the summit of the Zugspitze at a height of 2,650 m and was opened on 20 January 1931. It used to house the top station of the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway as well as a tourist hotel. There was then a cable car from the Schneefernerhaus to the Zugspitze summit. In 1938 a gallery for pedestrians was opened from the ridge station of the Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car to the Schneefernerhaus. From 1945 to 1952 the hotel was commandeered for use as a "recreation facility" by the US Forces. On 15 May 1965 an avalanche, that swept over the sun terrace of the hotel and the lifts on the Zugspitzplatt, claimed 10 lives and injured 21. This tragedy was the impetus behind the introduction of a state avalanche warning service and local avalanche commissions. In 1988, after the new station of the Zugspitze Railway was opened on the plateau and, in 1989, the SonnAlpin restaurant there was extended, the hotel and restaurant operation at the Schneefernerhaus finally closed on 14 January 1992. The trackage of the Zugspitze Railway is still there but is now only used to serve the research station.

Construction After the tunnel had been driven for the rack railway and the line itself had been finished (laying of the tracks and installation of catenary) on 20 June 1930 it was possible from then on to transport larger quantities of building material and heavy items up the mountain. Once huts for the construction workers had been erected, blasting operations on the plateau could begin. After these and other preparations had finished it was important to begin passenger services as quickly as possible. As a result, there was only a short period of time from the first delivery of construction material to the opening of the line, during which the first construction stage for a wooden building with lighting, heating, water supplies and drainage had to be completed. With that the first guests could be received and fed (initially without any overnight stays). The new building was open to the public on 8 July 1930, just 39 days after the rack railway had opened. Once the wooden building was up and running, work could begin on the actual Schneefernerhaus. Again only partially, because on the site blasted out of the rock, part had to be used for the stacking of building material, machinery, etc. On the side of the mountain, which sloped at about 45 degrees and, in places, was even steeper, no more work space could be made available apart from that created by the blasting operation. In Christmas 1930 the second stage of the present-day Schneefernerhaus was completed. The intention was that the third stage of construction, i.e. the rest of the hotel building, would be carried out to the extent that the wooden hut could remain and continue to provide basic tourist accommodation. In its place, in the fourth stage, the last part of the planned hotel was to have been built. But events turned out differently: the hotel was not extended and the wooden building was demolished after the devastating avalanche in 1965.

Research The Free State of Bavaria has rented the Schneefernerhaus long term from the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway and converted it into an environmental research station that was opened in 1996. The original left wing of the hotel no longer exists. The station houses scientists from the following institutions:

German Met Office DWD Umweltbundesamt German Aerospace Center DLR Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Helmholtz Zentrum München Technical University of Munich LMU Munich Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization The physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere, global climate, medical influences and many other areas are researched at the Schneefernerhaus. A project led by the University of Würzburg will build the Wetterstein Millimeter Telescope (WMT) on top of the Zugspitze, near the Schneefernerhaus. The new radio telescope will be part of the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA), as the German contribution to the ngVLA. The ngVLA will have its core in New Mexico, USA. The WMT will also be able to do observations on its own.

References

External links

Official homepage „Dem Himmel so nah“ - Report at Spiegel Online by Max Hägler about the research at the Schneefernerhaus (in German) Technical data on the Gletscherbahn Technical data on the Hangbahn

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Schneefernerhaus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Schneefernerhaus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Schneefernerhaus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Schneefernerhaus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Schneefernerhaus

In research: Schneefernerhaus appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Schneefernerhaus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Schneefernerhaus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 establishments in Germany, Buildings and structures completed in 1931, Buildings and structures in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (district), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Schneefernerhaus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Schneefernerhaus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Schneefernerhaus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Schneefernerhaus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Schneefernerhaus in simple terms?

Why does Schneefernerhaus matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Schneefernerhaus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Schneefernerhaus.