The ''Hochsprung mit Musik'' () is an annual indoor
high jump meeting which takes place in February in
Arnstadt,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
.
First held in 1977, the meeting began as a competition between mainly
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
athletes. Following the
Re-unification of Germany
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990, the competition became international and attracted athletes such as Olympic and World champion
Charles Austin and Olympic silver medallist
Alina Astafei. Both the
world record
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book '' Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizati ...
holders (
Javier Sotomayor
Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (; born October 13, 1967) is a Cuban retired track and field athlete, who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder. The 1992 Olympic champion, he was the dominant high jumper of the 1990s; ...
and
Stefka Kostadinova) have taken part in, and won, the meeting.
The ''Hochsprung mit Musik'' gets its name from the fact that music is played in the ''Sporthalle am Jahn-sportpark'' while athletes take their jump. It is used as a way of both building suspense and mirroring the steady rhythm needed by athletes to achieve a high jump.
The competition received greater exposure from the 2000s onwards as the winning athletes' jumps were of a significant height. This was exemplified by
Kajsa Bergqvist's winning jump in 2006 of 2.08 metres – an indoor world record for the event and second onl