Garmisch-Partenkirchen — History
Garmisch-Partenkirchen was formed in 1935, on the eve of the 1936 Olympic Games, by merging two old settlements, Garmisch and Partenkirchen. The merger took place against the wishes of the residents, and the old toponyms are preserved — Garmisch is the western part of the community, and Partenkirchen is the eastern part. The parts of the community are separated by a railway, connected by car and pedestrian tunnels built under the railway line. The older part is Partenkirchen, founded on the site of the ancient Roman military camp Partanum.
In 1936, the IV Winter Olympic Games were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen . The 1940 Winter Olympic Games could also have been held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but were cancelled due to the outbreak of war . The local ski jump traditionally hosts the New Year’s stage of the Four Hills Tournament .
During the Nazi regime, the elite mountain rifle division «Edelweiss» was based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , which raised the German flag over Elbrus in 1942. On the territory of Garmisch-Partenkirchen there was a hospital where General Friedrich von Mellenthin , the author of the famous book in the USSR «Tank Battles 1939-1945», was treated .
The town is also famous for being the home of the great German composer Richard Strauss for many years . He built a house in Garmisch in the early 1900s. The scores of many of his compositions are marked «Garmisch». The composer lived here during World War II and died at the age of 85 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where he is buried.
From 1964 until the end of the Cold War , Garmisch-Partenkirchen was home to the US Army Russian Institute (USARI), a NATO center for the study of the Soviet Union , which was effectively an intelligence school.
In 1968, the first of two NATO conferences on software engineering was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , where more than 50 leading Western programmers and scientists of the time discussed the problems of creating software, laying the foundations of software engineering .
