Kammweg stage 16 "From the Burgstein area to Hirschberg"

At the hiking car park at the Burgstein ruins, you begin the hike to Mödlareuth. In nearby Krebes, the illustrator Hermann Vogel (illustrations in Grimm's fairy tale books) had his house, which can still be visited today.
Across the street you reach the Burgstein ruins after just a few meters, former pilgrimage churches of the Naumburg and Bamberg dioceses, whose diocesan boundaries ran over the Burgstein. From here, the Kammweg leads you along the forest edge to the Burgbach and through the forest into the wild romantic Kemnitzbach valley. At the Kienmühle, you will find the first resting opportunity. The decommissioned grinding and cutting mill is one of the last of its kind in the region. On the Kammweg in the Kemnitzbach valley, you have to be prepared for wonderfully overgrown paths, rooty forest trails, and always the gentle murmuring of the Kemnitzbach as background noise. The certified quality trail leads varied past the Unterkemnitz mill to a height above Gutenfürst with a beautiful view. After the idyllic forest pond with adjoining recreational facility, it goes to the former German-German border station in Gutenfürst. The extensive developed area still reveals its importance for the GDR today. What remains is a stop of the Vogtlandbahn. Past the station, a farm track leads you straight under the railway tracks, then uphill into a hollow way. Once at the top, a dreamlike panoramic view of the former border area opens up to you. The federal state of Bavaria is now within arm's reach. On the tracks of German-German border history, the patrol road, a concrete slab path, soon guides you. The Kammweg runs slightly above the Three Free States Stone, which marks the border of the federal states of Saxony, Bavaria, and Thuringia. Now you hike on an asphalted farm track to Gebersreuth. Occasionally trees and field shrubs line the path at the height; you leave the hamlet Straßenreuth on the left. After Gebersreuth, you meet the Saale-Orla trail in the woodland section, which mostly coincides with the Kammweg route to Blankenstein. Leaving the forest, you will soon see the small village of Mödlareuth. Divided by the Tannbach, the southern half belongs to Bavaria, the northern side to Thuringia. The German-German Museum impressively documents the history of "Little Berlin," as Mödlareuth is also called because of its border wall. At the guesthouse "Zum Grenzgänger" you have reached the end of the stage. In Mödlareuth, you walk from guesthouse "Zum Grenzgänger" along the outdoor area of the museum, past the ruins of the historic mill and the museum parking lot, until after a small orchard you meet the patrol road running parallel to the Tannbach. Shortly thereafter, you leave the concrete slab path and switch to a varied farm track, then path, which you follow to the Öhninger hut viewpoint pavilion. After the magnificent view, you descend again to the patrol road, which leads you along the impressive Saale bow with a view of Hirschberg Castle up to shortly before Hirschberg. The former border strip is largely characterized as a protected area "Green Belt" by numerous young birches, but also other landscape-shaping deciduous shrubs. A pleasant path leads variedly along the height on the slope bordering the Saale valley along the rather steep bank of the Saale to the beginning of the Hirschberg Hag. It goes gently uphill and downhill, through a deeply cut hollow of a brook with delightful views and outlooks into the Saale valley. Slightly downhill, you come ever closer to the Saale and thus also to the Hag nature reserve and the "Saale bench" with space for 97 people, whose seating and backrest are made from a single piece from the trunk of a 130-year-old tree. The bench was once known as the "Saale bench" as the longest bench made from one trunk in the Guinness Book of Records. Continuing towards Hirschberg, you walk over the hanging bridge firmly anchored in the rugged rock face. A stag on the rock slope proudly looks over the Saale valley.

weatherproof clothing and sure-footed footwear

www.moedlareuth.de

www.stadt-hirschberg.de

Information about accommodation is also available from FVV Rosenbach/Vogtl. e.V.

Tel: +49 37431 86200

www.muehlenviertel-vogtland.de

www.burgstein.de 

Burgstein:
Burgstein ruins near Krebes, Hermann Vogel House (illustrator of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale books) in Krebes, Burgstein educational trail, water castle in Geilsdorf, Kienmühle, well-preserved grinding and cutting mill in the Burgstein area, Kemnitzbach valley floodplain, former German-German border restricted area with still partially existing border fortifications (patrol road) and border station at Gutenfürst,

Gefell/Töpen:
"Green Belt Saxony" protected area, Three Free States Stone of the three Free States Saxony-Franconia-Thuringia near Grobau/Münchenreuth/Gebersreuth, village church Mißlareuth, monument to the learned farmer near Mißlareuth/Rothenacker, German-German Border Museum in the Thuringian-Bavarian village of Mödlareuth, historic Lower Mill Mödlareuth, former German-German border restricted area with still partially existing border fortifications (patrol road) between Mödlareuth and Hirschberg

Hirschberg:

Hag and hanging bridge, gondola station, Thuringian Slate Mountains / Upper Saale Nature Park, Museum of Tanning and Town History