Winterberg

Winterberg is a town in the Hochsauerland district of North Rhine-Westphalia in central Germany, covering about 148 square kilometers at the source of the Ruhr and Lenne rivers in the Sauerland region, with 13,124 residents as of the end of 2025. Declared a city around 1270 by Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden, it belonged to the Hanseatic League from the 13th to 17th centuries and lay along important medieval trade routes. Today it is a major winter sports resort, home to a bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track and part of the Wintersport Arena Sauerland, and its Kahler Asten peak is the second highest mountain in the Sauerland.