Sälzer Weg
The Sälzer Weg , also Sälzerweg , was a salt trade route in Hesse that connected the salt mining town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf with the Rheingau . Today the Sälzer Weg is a hiking trail.
history
Numerous archaeological finds prove that the Sälzer Weg was used as a trade route long before the birth of Christ.
On the Sälzer Weg, salt was transported from Bad Sooden-Allendorf, then along the southern end of the Meißner via Hessisch Lichtenau through the Rietforst to Melsungen . Here the Sälzer Weg found a connection to the trade route “Nürnberger Strasse” and the trade and military route “Through the long Hesse” . In Treysa, a branch turned west from the "Lange Hessen" and led over the Gilserberger Heights , Heimbach and Wohra to Mellnau and further west.
The carters who delivered the Sooden salt on the trade route with hand-drawn carts and on donkeys were called Sälzer or Hainer . They mostly came from the villages of the grove, which means that they came from the mountainous area between Meißner and Bad Sooden-Allendorf , which is unfavorable for arable farming .
A particularly large number of carters came from the villages of Orferode , Kehrenbach , Dudenrode , Hilgershausen , Hitzerode , Frankershausen and Frankenhain .
For every load of salt that they picked up from Bad Sooden-Allendorf, the carters had to bring a load of wood for the operation of the salt works . After the lignite works on the Hohe Meißner were put into operation towards the end of the 16th century and this coal was now used to boil the salt, it was officially determined that every salter would initially accept 12 measure of coal for a pan of salt that he wanted to collect Fuhrlohn had to start. Later the carters brought wine from the Rhine on their way back . There was a flourishing trade in wine in the villages of Orferode, Hitzerode, Wellingerode , Abterode , Weidenhausen and Allendorf . In the 19th century, the wine shops announced in the Casselische Policey- und Commercien Zeitung that the elector had " exempted them from paying the loss tax and that they could therefore keep the same prices as the foreign wine dealers".
With the accession of Kurhessen to the German Customs Union in January 1834, a different type of salt tax came into effect and thus a higher tax for the truckers. The wagoners therefore switched to peddling and traveled all over Germany with walnuts , beans, dried fruit and Limburg cheese . The Sälzer Weg lost its former importance as a trade route and is only partially used today as a hiking trail or part of the Ars Natura art hiking trail .
literature
- Eduard Brauns: Hiking and travel guide through North Hesse and Waldeck. A. Bernecker Verlag Melsungen, 1971. S. 464 u. 465