The town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen lies at the base of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain, and is a town in the region of Oberbayern, in Bavaria, not far from the border with Austria.

The two towns were separate communities until Adolf Hitler forced the two mayors to merge the towns in 1935, in anticipation of the 1936 Winter Olympic Games. The two communities are visibly distinct. Garmisch being the younger of the two, with Partenkirchen tracing its roots back to the days of the Roman Empire. Partenkirchen, like many Roman towns, has characterised by its cobbled streets and numerous frescos. Whilst Garmisch has more modern look and feel about it. Much to the chagrin of the inhabitants of Partenkirchen the combined town is commonly referred to as Garmisch.

Apart from hosting part of the Skiing World Cup, Garmisch is also one of the venues for the prestigious Four Hills ski jumping tournament, traditionally held on New Year's Day.

The Zugspitze, the mountain where the skiing events take place, is located on the border between Austria and Germany.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is part of the ‘Club 5', a union of the leading alpine ski race organizers from all over the world created in 1988 by the Alpine Ski World Cup founder Serge Lang. This is an inner circle that includes the top level downhill venues (Val d'Isere, Wengen, Kitbühel, Val Gardena and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.) Although in recent years new venues, such as Schladming, have risen to prominence and have started to overshadow the traditional venues.

To date Garmisch-Partenkirchen has hosted 79 races, the first on the race was a part of the Ladies World Cup and was held on the 30th of January 1970. That race was dominated by the French ladies, who took first and third place, with an Austrian taking second spot. Francoise Macchi took the gold, Wiltrud Drexel came second and Michelle Jacot completed the podium.

The men's first race was held on the 1st of February 1970, which saw two Austrians on the top two steps of the podium with a German coming third. Karl Schranz took gold, followed by Karl Cordin and bronze went to Franz Vogler.

In just under 40 years since the first race Austrian skiers have dominated the Garmisch-Partenkirchen venue, winning on 26 occasions. Switzerland is the second most successful nation, having triumphed on 17 occasions. Quite far behind the two leading nations are France and Italy, both having won eight times. The host nation, Germany has only won their home race on four occasions.