List of highest mountains of Germany

This is a list of the highest mountains in Germany. All of these mountains are located in the federal state of Bavaria. They lie within the Alps in the region known as the Eastern Alps and are part of the Northern Limestone Alps. The majority belong to the mountain ranges of the Wetterstein, Berchtesgaden Alps and Allgäu Alps.
Because the definition of a mountain is not universally agreed upon, a distinction is made between main summits and other peaks. Subsidiary summits or subpeaks are not counted. In the Alps a summit is classed as independent, according to the UIAA definition, if it has a prominence of or more. In order for a peak to qualify as an independent mountain, however, it must have a prominence of at least. Based on this definition only the main summits of entire mountain massifs are counted. All elevations with a prominence below are considered as subpeaks.
By these definitions, the highest mountains in Germany are the Zugspitze, Hochwanner and Watzmann. If all independent summits are counted, the Zugspitze is followed by the Schneefernerkopf and the Middle Wetterspitze in places two and three. Both are however, part of the Zugspitze massif and lie relatively close to the summit of the Zugspitze itself.
The highest mountain which lies entirely on German soil is the Watzmann with a height of, followed by the Hochkalter, the Großer Daumen and the Höfats. Likewise fully on German territory, but considerably less independent, are the Middle Höllentalspitze and the Hochblassen.
A majority of the summits were verifiably climbed in the 19th century; the Watzmann and Hoher Göll for example as early as 1800. The Zugspitze was officially climbed for the first time in 1820. However, there are many peaks of which it is suspected had been climbed in earlier times by unknown climbers.
Because the borders of Germany have often changed during the course of the centuries, there were different "highest mountains" in the past. For example, during the time of the Holy Roman Empire up to 1806, the Ortler in present-day South Tyrol, at, was the highest German mountain. During the colonial period to 1918 Mount Kilimanjaro in the colony of German East Africa, at, was officially the highest mountain of the German Reich. During the Nazi era from 1938 to 1945 this title went to the Großglockner which, at, is today the highest mountain in Austria.

Key

Ranking: The ranking of the peak within Germany in terms of height.
Photograph: Photograph of the mountain.
Peak: Name of the peak.
Height: Height of the mountain in metres.
Mountain range: Mountain range in which the mountain lies.
Massif: Gives the name of the massif to which the mountain belongs. If the massif is named after a linked main peak, the link is omitted here.
Location: DE = mountain lies entirely on German territory; DE/AT = mountain lies in the area of the border between Germany and Austria, but the peak at least is on German state territory.
Isolation: The isolation describes the radius of the area which the mountain dominates. Given in kilometres including the reference point.
Prominence: The prominence is the height difference between height of the summit and the highest point to which one must descend in order to climb a higher peak. Given in metres including the reference point.
First climb: Name of the first climber and date. Empty field indicates that the first climber or the date is not known.

There may be differences in data from other sources. The tables use the tables of the German height reference system, based on height above Normalnull in Amsterdam, and data from the Bavarian Survey Office.

The highest summits

Table 1 below shows the 30 highest independent summits in Germany. A summit or peak requires a prominence of over in order to count as independent.
By clicking on the symbols at the head of the table the individual columns may be sorted.

Ranking	Photograph	Peak	Height m	Mountain range	Massif	Isolation km	Prominence m	First climb
1		Zugspitze		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Acherkogel	West of the Fernpass	Josef Naus, Johann Georg Tauschl, Acolyte Maier¹
2		Schneefernerkopf		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Zugspitze	Schneeferner wind-gap	Hermann von Barth
3		Middle Wetterspitze		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Schneefernerkopf	Wind-gap to the Schneefernerkopf
4		Hochwanner		Wetterstein	Hochwanner	Zugspitze	Feldernjöchl	Hermann von Barth
5		Middle Höllentalspitze		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Zugspitze	Jubiläum arête wind-gap to the Zugspitze	Hermann von Barth
6		Inner Höllentalspitze		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Middle Höllentalspitze	Wind-gap to the Middle Höllentalspitze	Hermann von Barth
7		Outer Höllentalspitze		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Middle Höllentalspitze	³ Wind-gap to the Middle Höllentalspitze	Hermann von Barth
8		Watzmann Middle Peak		Berchtesgaden Alps	Watzmann	Hochseiler	Trischübel Pass	Valentin Stanič
9		Watzmann South Peak		Berchtesgaden Alps	Watzmann	Watzmann Middle Peak	³ Watzmann arête wind-gap	Peter Carl Thurwieser
10		Hochblassen		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Outer Höllentalspitze	Falsche Grießkar wind-gap	Hermann von Barth, Peter Klaisl
11		Wetterwandeck		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Southern Wetterspitze	Wind-gap to the Eastern Wetterspitze
12		Leutascher Dreitorspitze		Wetterstein	Dreitorspitze	Hochwanner	Western Wang wind-gap	Hermann von Barth
13		Eastern Plattspitze		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Wetterwandeck	Wetter wind-gap	Hermann von Barth
14		Hinterreintalschrofen		Wetterstein	Hochwanner	Hochwanner	Teufel arête wind-gap to the Hochwanner	Hermann von Barth
15		Hochfrottspitze		Allgäu Alps	Hohes Licht	Hohes Licht	Sock valley wind-gap	Hermann von Barth
16		Mädelegabel		Allgäu Alps	Hohes Licht	Hochfrottspitze	Wind-gap to the Hochfrottspitze	Oskar Sendtner⁴
17		Partenkirchner Dreitorspitze		Wetterstein	Dreitorspitze	Leutascher Dreitorspitze	³ Wind-gap to the Leutascher Dreitorspitze	Jakob Grasegger, Karl Kiendl
18		Alpspitze		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Hochblassen	Grießkar wind-gap	J. Burger
19		Vollkarspitze		Wetterstein	Zugspitze	Hochblassen	³ Wind-gap to the Höllentalspitzen	Ferdinand Henning²
20		Bockkarkopf		Allgäu Alps	Hohes Licht	Hochfrottspitze	Bockkar wind-gap
21		Hochkalter		Berchtesgaden Alps	Hochkalter	Watzmann	Wimbach wind-gap
22		Northeastern Dreitorspitze		Wetterstein	Dreitorspitze	Dreitorspitze	³ Wind-gap to the Dreitorspitze
23		Biberkopf		Allgäu Alps	Biberkopf	Hohes Licht	Große Stein wind-gap	⁵
24		Trettachspitze		Allgäu Alps	Hohes Licht	Mädelegabel	³ Wind-gap to the Mädelegabel	Urban, Alois and Mathias Jochum
25		Großer Hundstod		Berchtesgaden Alps	Großer Hundstod	Watzmann	Dießbach wind-gap	Karl Thurwieser
26		Hochvogel		Allgäu Alps	Hochvogel	Urbeleskarspitze	Hornbachjoch	Trobitus
27		Funtenseetauern		Berchtesgaden Alps	Selbhorn	Selbhorn	Hochbrunnsulzen	Johann Grill, Albert Kaindl
28		Öfnerspitze		Allgäu Alps	Großer Krottenkopf	Großer Krottenkopf	³ Wind-gap to the Großen Krottenkopf	⁵
29		Schüsselkarspitze		Wetterstein	Dreitorspitze	Leutascher Dreitorspitze	³ Wind-gap to the Leutascher Dreitorspitze	A. Moser, O. Schuster
30		Krottenspitze		Allgäu Alps	Großer Krottenkopf	Öfnerspitze	Wind-gap to the Öfnerspitze

¹ First recorded climb. Historic maps from the 18th century suggest that the Zugspitze had already been climbed before 1770.
² Year of the first complete crossing of the Jubiläums arête.
³ Exact value unknown as no survey has been carried out. Estimate based on contours from a topographical map.
⁴ First recorded climb. It is possible that it had been climbed during survey work in 1818 or work by a border commission in 1835
⁵ As part of a survey