Ofterschwang

Ofterschwang
Coat of arms of Ofterschwang Coat of arms
Ofterschwang
Location of Ofterschwang within Oberallgäu district 250px
Coordinates:
Country	Germany
State	Bavaria
Admin. region	Schwaben
District	Oberallgäu
Government
• Mayor	Alois Ried
Area
• Total	19.54 km2 (7.54 sq mi)
Population (2013-12-31)
• Total	1,919
• Density	98/km2 (250/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	87527
Dialling codes	08321
Vehicle registration	OA
Website	www.ofterschwang.de

Ofterschwang is a municipality in Oberallgäu, in Bavaria, Germany. It is a professional winter sports venue, regularly used for Alpine skiing World Cup events.

Ofterschwang is actually an agglomeration of several small villages in the foothills west of Sonthofen and east of the Austrian border. All are nestled in the rolling, grass and forested covered Alpine foothills, where one will find a place that seems ripped out of the pages "Heidi," or, "The Sound of Music," with cow bells ringing in the distance and authentic Bavarian mountain residents, often still wearing native dress and celebrating still the return in September of the cows from grazing in the summer highlands.

Ofterschwang proper is the place to find the Dorfsabend, or village evening, where traditional, authentic Bavarian culture including costume, dance, food, and beer, of course. A much more thoroughly ethnically, "German," location would be hard to find.

The area is mostly agricultural, producing lots of milk. But tourism is also a growing trade, with skiing in the winter and lovely strolling, hiking, mountain biking, parachute flying and other summer mountain sports both made accessible by chair-lifts and extended improved trails. There is a famous large hotel situated roughly in between the villages called Sonnenalp offering a private golf course, as well as many, many vacation apartments that are built into or built to resemble authentic houses of the area.

There is a fascinating main church with a memorial to those from the area lost in the Second World War, as well as small, one man size Chapels which appear as mini churches. The village clock-tower chimes every 15 minutes from 6 am to 6 p.m., regulating village life.

In popular culture

In 2009, the German record label Kompakt released a track called Ofterschwang by minimalist electronic DJ Jürgen Paape. The piece was inspired by traditional German brass music.