High stone (Odenwald)

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View to the south of the boundary stone "Hoher Stein" (copy) and the later smaller boundary stone on the plateau of the Grenzberg with mini moor around the two boundary stones, colloquially called the " Muhle ".

The Hohe Stein at today's border between Bavaria and Hesse is a distinctive boundary stone . It is located in the northern Odenwald on the original medieval border triangle of Kurmainz , the Breuberg estate and the Umstadt condominium . Next to it is a smaller, later set boundary stone.

Geographical location

Heraldic images of the landmarks
Border stone Hoher Stein (Odenwald) 03.jpg
Eastern side: Left: Kurmainzer coat of arms of Archbishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn from 1668; right: Coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt from 1810
Border stone Hoher Stein (Odenwald) 06.jpg
Western side: Right: Coat of arms of the Electoral Palatinate and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1668, Left: Weathered Hessian Lion of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (1810)


The two stones, each with a coat of arms , of which the larger and older should actually be designed as a three -man stone, are located on the 281 m high Grenzberg and on the Hessian-Bavarian state border that runs here in a north-south direction. Curiously, the survey point has the same number as the height of the Grenzberg: 281. Today, the districts of Wald-Amorbach and Hainstadt (both districts of Breuberg in the Odenwaldkreis ) and Mömlingen ( Lower Franconian district of Miltenberg ) meet here. A few dozen meters further to the north there is still the border area of Dorndiel (district of Groß-Umstadt in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district ).

The Grenzberg is a mountain of a rare west-east running red sandstone cross bar from the Breuberg massif towards the Main . The boundary stones stand on the flattened plateau of the mountain, which has formed a very small bog around the stones that stand on a small elevation .

There are two passes to the west and east of the Grenzberg . The western one is today's L 3413 from Wald-Amorbach to Hainstadt. The eastern Pass is the elder originally from Amorbachtal into Mümlingtal running pass road and today only as forest walkable or drivable.

A few meters to the west lies the Bingerloch, a sandstone doline that arose from the weathering in the sandstone . Others lie like a string of pearls to the east to the Schwedenschanze , which was viewed as a fortification of the Thirty Years War by the Archaeological Spessart Project (ASP) until the excavations in 2007 . It was not until the excavation that its purely geological , natural structure was revealed as an approx. 300 meter long fault zone .

To the south of the two boundary stones, the Grenzberg falls steeply into the Mümlingtal. Here, the Starkenburger via ferrata , which was laid out in 1984, leads through old Hainstadt sandstone quarries .

history

Information board about the history of the two boundary stones

Presumably there was a border here as early as the early Middle Ages . The name Grenzberg indicates this early demarcation and can be traced back to 1303 at the latest as Grensenberg in feudal deeds of the Kommende Mosbach for the Amorbach bell .

The three-markers built in the early modern times - the oldest and previously almost man- high Hohe Stein is marked 1668 - stand on a border triangle of the then Kurmainz ( Bachgau ), the Breuberg rule and the Umstadt condominium . Here the borders of the Mainzischen Bachgau (Dorndiel and Mömlingen) collided with the Löwenstein-Wertheimer property around the castle Breuberg and the common property of the Electoral Palatinate and Hesse in the condominium Umstadt, whereby the Hessian property 1668 to 3/8 with the Landgraviate Hessen-Darmstadt and 1/8 was in the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel , but this is not reflected on the coat of arms on the stone.

The older, larger sandstone, rounded at the top, the actual Hohe Stein , has on its eastern side the coat of arms for Mainz in a version for the Archbishop of Mainz Johann Philipp von Schönborn , with his heraldic animal , the Schönborn lion in the heart shield , surrounded twice by the Mainz wheel ( at 12 and at 6 o'clock), the Franconian rake (three opposing points in red and white) at 10 o'clock and the Franconian flag at 4 o'clock and the Worms key (at 7 and 2 o'clock). Schönborn was also Bishop of Würzburg and of Worms at the same time . The crossed crosier and a sword protrude from the baroque coat of arms . The year 1668 is carved into the upper curve of the boundary stone . On the western opposite surface are the Umstadt condominium coats of arms for the Electoral Palatinate (heraldic right) and the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt (left). The Hessian coat of arms shows in the breast shield the red and white Hessian lion surrounded by the coat of arms for the Principality of Hersfeld (field 1), the county of Ziegenhain (field 2), the county of Katzenelnbogen (field 3), the county of Diez (field 4), the County of Nidda and Isenburg-Büdingen (field 5) and the county of Schaumburg (field 6). The coat of arms of the Electoral Palatinate is divided into three parts and has the original Palatinate lion turned left in the upper right field, the blue and white Wittelsbach diamonds in the upper left field and in the lower center the electoral dignity , here as a three-pointed hat, normally in gold on a red background. The coat of arms is crowned, heraldically incorrect, by a bishop's crown . This larger stone is a copy of the original stone, but is already partially weathered. Amazingly, there is no coat of arms of the Breuberg rulership, at that time owned by Löwenstein-Wertheim in alternating lines. A GHB designation for the name of the community of Breuberg at that time, which can be found on many boundary stones in the area, can no longer be determined. The original boundary stone was probably even painted in color or was painted in later times.

The second smaller boundary stone reminds of the eventful history after the occupation of the territory in the Napoleonic Wars . In 1810 the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt was formed by Napoleon . On the front, the Mainz wheel is depicted in a coat of arms, surrounded by the letters "GFMP", which stand for "Grand Duchy Frankfurt Mainz (or Main) Primus". The description on the notice board is not entirely correct in this regard. An "O" for Aschaffenburg Department , Obernburg District is no longer legible. The back is heavily weathered and can hardly be deciphered. The Grand Ducal Hessian lion was probably located on this side in the past, as Breuberg had been part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse since 1806 and Umstadt since 1803 . In 1813 this boundary stone was already out of date, as the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt disintegrated again after the Battle of Leipzig ; the Aschaffenburg share went to the Kingdom of Bavaria .

The boundary stones still show this borderline today, as the state borders of Hesse and Bavaria run here.

A wide variety of hiking trails cross the Hohe Stein and its 150-year-old "younger brother", either as local hiking trails or regional hiking trails.

The culturally and historically significant boundary stones have not yet been designated as a Hessian or Bavarian cultural monument .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Wüstamorbach - a place in the Electoral Palatinate in the Breuberger Land Online document of the Breuberg City Archives (PDF file; 1.28 MB); accessed on April 22, 2021.
  2. ↑ Today the elevation is given as Eselsberg , but in earlier times it was recorded as Grenzberg , Gränzberg or Grenzesberg . Today a lower elevation of 251 m approx. 500 meters further east is recorded as the Grenzberg.
  3. ↑ HStAD. Stock P 4 No. 2572
  4. ↑ See: Volcanological and geoarchaeological investigations in the lower Mümlingtal near Mömlingen , website of the Geo-Naturpark Bergstrasse-Odenwald ; accessed on April 22, 2021.
  5. ↑ Information board on the examination section of the Schwedenschanze .
  6. ↑ Holidays and excursion destinations on wald-amorbach.de ; accessed on April 6, 2021.
  7. ↑ As an example: Heidestock - Hoher Stein Runde von Dorndiel on komoot.de ; accessed on April 6, 2021.
  8. ↑ The boundary stones are not listed as monuments in the Hessian monument viewer DenkXweb or in the Bavarian monument viewer. Status: May 20, 2021

Web links

Commons : Hoher Stein  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 50 ′ 33.5 ″  N , 9 ° 2 ′ 15.8 ″  E