Salzmannstrasse
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The Salzmannstraße is an ancient trade route through the Thuringian Forest leads. This 13-kilometer driveway to the Rennsteig was built with a slight gradient so that it could also be driven by carriages without a leader . Mainly salt, but also other goods such as potash , woad , ores , and cured fish were transported on the road. However, the street does not get its name from the transported salt, but from its builder Ernst Julius Theodor Salzmann (see below).
It was built because the old road from Elgersburg to Ilmenau, which led through the so-called Steigertal , was too steep for teams of horses without a leader . This path led from the Elgersburger church over the Steigerstraße to the Steigereck (693 m above sea level) at the Waldgasthof Schöffenhaus . From here paths led to Manebach, past the Hangeberg to Ilmenau-Sturmheide (formerly known as "Schmücker Straße" or, even earlier, "Suhler Landstraße") and over the Mönchhof to the Schmücke. Salzmannstrasse is about 2 km longer than the old connection.
The Salzmannstrasse, built to relieve the Steigerstrasse, begins in Elgersburg at the church. The trade route Lübeck-Nürnberg (today approximately the B 4 ) ran through Roda , which leads from Erfurt via Ilmenau to Eisfeld and was called Frauenwalder Strasse on this section . It leads up, today as Schmücker Straße , past today's Hotel am Wald and further about 200 m below the summit past the Hohe Warte , then on the eastern slope of the Rumpelsberg ( Mönchswald ) to the watershed between Ilm and Gera . This is followed by the Mönchhof , a forest restaurant that has been on Salzmannstrasse for several centuries. Here she meets roads to Ilmenau, Manebach and Gehlberg . The height above NN is about 750 meters on this section.
The next section leads to Zwei Wiesen , a spring meadow near the Großer Rödel , where a path joins the Meyersgrund from the Ilm valley from the south . There is a soldier's grave here. On the section between Mönchhof and Zwei Wiesen, Salzmannstraße is the municipality boundary between Ilmenau in the east and Geratal in the west. The hiker now enters the municipality of Gehlberg .
At the next crossing point, at Paradies at 769 m , the path to Gehlberg turns north.
Behind it follows the ascent to the Schmücke along the northern edge of the Freibachtal , past the Aschbach ( 768.2 m ), the Spielmannsleite ( 784 m ) and the Sachsenstein ( 915.3 m ). The Schmücke at a height of 940 meters is the end point of Salzmannstraße. Here she met the Rennsteig and several trade routes that led down to Suhl .
Today the Salzmannstraße from Elgersburg to Mönchhof is classified as Schmücker Straße (formerly L 2645 ), then as a driveway or forest road . The surface consists of asphalt up to the Mönchhof, then fine gravel. The road is particularly popular with cyclists and skiers, as it is a relatively easy (with a low gradient) climb to the heights of the Thuringian Forest. The sections of the route that are marked as forest roads are not permitted for cyclists and horse-drawn carriages that may occasionally be encountered ( traffic sign 250 in conjunction with 1026–37).
Naming
Salzmannstrasse is named after the chief forestry man Ernst Julius Theodor Salzmann (1792–1855), son of the German educator and Protestant pastor Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744–1811). Ernst Salzmann achieved great merits in earlier years, for example in the surveying of the Gothic domain forests. He laid the first foundations for the excellent forest road construction in the Gotha Thuringian Forest. In doing so, he benefited from his amazing ability to orientate himself and his memory.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Geraberg municipal administration: Old trade routes in our region , 2010, photos and design: Klaus Fischer, text: Klaus Fischer and Rüdiger Krause