In memory of the Zella-Mehlis "Mattenfuchs" Hans Renner (1919 - 1970).
Many attempts around the turn of the century to make summer training possible for ski jumpers, for example on pine needles, rice straw and similar materials, failed to produce the desired results.
The almost accidental discovery of the gliding properties of plastic bristles gave ski jumping coach Hans Renner an ingenious idea. Hans Renner found a partner in the then VEB Elaston Friedrichroda, which produced the plastic mats consisting of tufts. In the summer of 1954, the small natural ski jumping hill built by the Zella-Mehlis winter sports club on the Schwarzer Hügel am Regenberg was used for the first time for ski jumping without snow - but with these plastic mattings. Thus, on August 25, 1954, the facility, which still exists today, became a historic venue for the world's first, albeit still unofficial, plastic covered ski jumping event. With the first public performance on November 21, 1954 - a historic day for skiing in Zella-Mehlis - a new era of ski jumping began on the junior hill on Oberhof's Wadeberg, which was crowned by many successes for Thuringian athletes. Hans Renner's invention is still used all over the world today.