Wintersport Vintage Skiing Poster Germany – Karl Biebrach
This poster must have been one of the earliest German posters to feature a downhill skier. In fact, it must be one of the earliest anywhere. In 1924, when this fantastic poster was originally created downhill skiing was still in its infancy. Downhill or Alpine Skiing didn’t enter the Winter Olympic Games for another twelve years! Skiing downhill was considered the preserve of the idle rich, eccentric Englishmen with lots of money and lots of time on their hands.
Before ski lifts were introduced, the sport required decamping in remote Alpine locations for weeks or even months at a time. Early skiers considered the mountaineering ascent of the hills as important and nearly as interesting as the descent. The sport was exhausting and not for the faint-hearted. It could take days to climb a mountain with skis strapped to your back before you could make your blissful descent. Alpine skiing was notoriously dangerous. Safety wasn’t a consideration, there were no safety concerns, no crash helmets or safety gear. It was man against the mountain on Telemark skis. As this vintage Winter Sports poster shows, skiing was just fun for the participating daredevils and diehard thrill-seekers of the 1920s.
Well, ok! You can’t see the gentleman in the poster smiling, but you know he is having the time of his life as he makes his descent. The Winter Sport vintage skiing poster was created by the German poster artist Karl Biebrach. He has depicted the maverick skier dressed in black, carving through the snow at speed down the snowy mountain slopes of the Bavarian Alps on original wooden skis. The poster reads Wintersport in bold stylised, hand-drawn lettering.
The poster has a raw, almost crude appealing quality to it, especially compared to many later ski posters. However, it doesn’t stop this one from being popular, with people paying upwards of £2,500 for an original copy. If that price sounds as steep as the mountain slope on the poster, we have an alternative option. Our superb reproduction Winter Sports Downhill Skier print is available for a fraction of the cost, it can be with you faster than you can ski down a mountain and it’s available in a variety of sizes to suit any blank space you have. Best of all, they look bloody fantastic when they’re framed and hung on a wall.
Does Germany have any ski resorts?
It’s a fair question. Germany may not have the giant ski areas of Austria or France or as many big-name resorts as Switzerland, but the Germans are passionate about their skiing and have many decent ski resorts, complete with picturesque villages and panoramic views of the Bavarian Alps.
It may come as a surprise but Germany has more skiers than any other country in Europe. Almost 15 million of them enjoy the sport every year. And many of the resorts offer more than just skiing on the pistes. Tobogganing, ice skating, curling and more are all popular activities.
A few of the countries best and most popular ski resorts include Winterberg, Oberstdorf – Nebelhorn, Berchtesgadener Land, Reit im Wink and, of course, Zugspitze – Garmische Partenkirchen.
Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.
The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £15. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.
