Sticker offenders contact railway after defacing Zugspitze cross
Thursday 27th August 2026 on 19:45 in
Bavaria
The people who placed stickers on the newly restored summit cross of the Zugspitze have contacted the Bayerische Zugspitzbahn railway, BR reported. The railway will work with them to remove the stickers and will not file a police complaint.
The stickers were attached despite a ban just after the 4.88-metre, 300-kilogram cross had been extensively restored and covered with fresh gold leaf. The offenders called one day after the railway appealed to them on Instagram, according to railway spokeswoman Laura Schaper.
The railway had posted a photograph showing two men, one apparently applying a sticker and the other filming or taking pictures. They had been given until August 31 to come forward. Otherwise, the railway said it would report the incident and pass on the images.
“Putting stickers on the summit cross is not harmless fun, but property damage and a criminal offence,” the railway wrote in its post, titled “Oida, euer Ernst?!”
The problem extends beyond the cross. Stickers have also been placed over the telephone number on warning signs along routes up the Zugspitze. The number provides important information about snowfield blasting. The railway said one sign had been laboriously scraped clean only a few months earlier, adding that the stickers could put visitors’ own safety at risk.
For people who insist on using stickers, the railway has installed a smaller indoor replica of the summit cross at the mountain station. It is intended for safe summit photos and for placing stickers.
Before the start of the previous ski season, workers removed three layers of stickers from the original cross. The cross was flown by helicopter to the valley and taken to the workshop of metal artist Andrea Würzinger in Eschenlohe. She spent two weeks removing the stickers and regilding it.
About 900 sheets of gold leaf, each measuring eight by eight centimetres, were needed to restore the cross. The railway said the restoration cost a low five-figure sum in euros, excluding the complicated transport.