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Rappensee Hut

building in Oberstdorf, Swabia, Germany

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ2131646
Source-derived summary

The Rappensee Hut (German: Rappenseehütte) is an Alpine Club hut belonging to the Allgäu-Kempten Section of the German Alpine Club. With 304 bedspaces it is the largest of all the 327 huts of the German Alpine Club. It received a record number of guests on 19 September 1970 with 681 people overnighting. On average the hut has about 15,000 overnight stays per year.

Location

The Category 1 hut is situated in the Allgäu Alps in southern Germany, a few kilometres south of Oberstdorf on a grassy terrace near the lakes of Little and Great Rappensee. The most important summits in the vicinity are the Biberkopf and Hohes Licht. The well known Heilbronn Way begins and ends to the east and above the Rappensee Hut.

History

The Rappensee Hut was built in 1885. After several extensions it has become the largest hut in the German Alpine Club.

In August 2009 after drinking water over 100 guests at the hut complained of gastroenteritis and circulatory problems and some had to be evacuated by helicopter and treated in hospital.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Rappensee Hut” is building in Oberstdorf, Swabia, Germany. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Rappensee, building and Oberstdorf, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970, 1885, 2009—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Rappensee, building and Oberstdorf is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “building in Oberstdorf, Swabia, Germany” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2131646. Authority coordinates are 47.289, 10.255. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1885 and 2009.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rappensee Hut”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rappensee Hut primary sources, Rappensee Hut archive and Rappensee research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rappensee Hut”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Rappensee Hut” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.