German Figure Skating Championships
recurring figure skating competition
The German Figure Skating Championships (German: Deutsche Meisterschaften im Eiskunstlaufen) are an annual figure skating competition organized by the German Ice Skating Union (German: Deutsche Eislauf-Union) to crown the national champions of Germany. The first official German Championships were held in 1891 in Munich. Pair skating was added in 1907, an event for women in 1911, and ice dance in 1937. Between 1949 and 1990, East Germany held separate championships from West Germany; the West German Championships are considered the official German Championships.
Medals are awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance at the senior and junior levels, although not every discipline is held every year due to a lack of participants. Werner Rittberger, the man credited with inventing the loop jump, holds the record for winning the most German Championship titles in men's singles (with eleven), while Ellen Brockhöft and Nicole Schott are tied for winning the most titles in women's singles (with seven each). Aljona Savchenko holds the record in pair skating (with ten), although these were not all won with the same partner. Three teams are tied for winning the most titles in ice dance (with six each): Angelika Buck and Erich Buck; Kati Winkler and René Lohse; and Nelli Zhiganshina and Alexander Gazsi.
History
While unofficial German figure skating championships were held from 1887 to 1889 in Hamburg, the first official championship event was held in Munich in 1891. A. Schmitson won this inaugural event.
“German Figure Skating Championships” enters the record as recurring figure skating competition. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what German, Figure and Skating can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q552835. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1907, 1911 and 1937.
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This entry incorporates text from “German Figure Skating Championships” 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.