The woman, who had been missing for more than three days after being hurt while hiking, hooked the brightly coloured sports bra on a cable used for transporting logs to a valley below, hoping it would lead rescuers to her.
The 24-year-old outdoors enthusiast from Colorado was hiking alone in the Bavarian Alps hiking alone near Berchtesgaden, close to the border with Austria, last Monday.
She lost her way when the weather turned bad and she fell 18 feet down a crevasse, injuring her shoulder, ankle and head.
Hoping to attract the attention of rescuers, she sent the bra down the valley on the cable and hung out her underwear on a crag. She then waited, with only a small flask of water and some biscuits to sustain her.
The bra's owner, whose name has not been released by police, was found a few hours after the bra was spotted on Thursday by a helicopter crew. But, stuck on the crag, more than 4,000 feet up, winching her to safety was no easy task. Police described her rescue as a "tense situation."
"She was saved because she was really clever and in good physical shape," said police chief Adolph Gunther. "Hanging the bra out saved her life because a logger saw it, heard about the search for a missing woman, and called mountain rescue."
Her parents flew to Germany on Saturday to be with her. Authorities said she will make a full recovery.
