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Return Mountain bike Over hill and dale You can also explore the Black Forest by bike. Especially for mountain biking, there are a variety of routes with different levels of difficulty, including challenging cross-country trails. As always when cycling, please watch out for pedestrians. In addition, as in all of Baden-Württemberg, please also observe the two-meter rule. It states that trails less than two meters wide are reserved for pedestrians unless they are explicitly signposted as bike trails. But have no fear: Trail signage in the Black Forest is exemplary, so hikers and bikers alike get their money's worth. For mountain biking, there are routes around the Feldberg or Schluchsee, as well as some that start from Freiburg. Very popular is the round from Kybfelsen to the lookout tower Schauinsland or the one from Rosskopf over the Kandelhöhenweg. In addition, you can also improve your skills in one of several biker parks, such as those in Bad Wildbad or Todtnau. Not only for mountain biking there is the Black Forest Panorama Bike Path, which stretches from Pforzheim in the north to Waldshut-Tiengen across the entire low mountain range. Most famous and popular, however, is the Bike-Crossing Schwarzwald, a route of about 440 kilometers that runs from Pforzheim to Bad Säckingen, but is quite demanding, as you have to overcome up to 16,000 meters of altitude here. The good thing about it is that it goes down almost as far again, so you can enjoy the magnificent landscape. Since many of the routes are anything but flat, you should be careful when going downhill, often it is quite dangerous. If you don't like to pedal much on the climbs, you can use an e-bike rental. There are charging stations almost everywhere in the region, 170 in total. In the valley of the river Kinzig there are also paths especially for inline skaters.

Return Shingle maker It takes forever for a whole farm. The roofs of the Black Forest farms had to endure a lot, in the truest sense of the word. Not infrequently, winters were extremely snowy, which is why a solid covering was indispensable. Since there were no tiles in past times, the roofs were mostly covered with wooden shingles. These had to be sturdy enough to survive the extremes of weather. Since the hipped roofs of the Black Forest farms are pulled down low, their surface area is large, which is why a considerable number of wooden shingles were required. There are said to have been up to 35,000 per farm. Their production was taken care of by the shingle maker, who made each shingle by hand during the long winter evenings. Such shingles are stable and last for several decades. Their basic material is spruce wood. Since wood stretches when it comes into contact with water, the shingle maker must take care to use only material from trees that are left-turning, that is, whose trunk twists in on itself to the left. This ensures that when the shingles dry, they all twist again in the same way. Due to the effect of stretching, the roof was tight when it rained because the shingles lay flat on top of each other, while when drying, small gaps were created between the shingles that helped the moisture to evaporate. Thus, the roof thinks with you and adapts to the weather. Wood shingles are obtained from the tree trunks after they are debarked and sawed into small round pieces. These round pieces are then split into the raw shingles. They are then still rough and must be smoothed with a special knife called a "drawing knife". This tool is quite wide and has two handles, so it can be used with both hands. Consequently, the raw shingle must be firmly clamped so that it does not slip away. The shingle bench, a narrow wooden trestle that the shingle maker places in front of him, serves this purpose. Shingle makers rely on an ancient knowledge of the quality and properties of wood. Thus, they primarily use wood felled in winter and pay attention to the days when the trees are felled. Here the phase of the moon plays an important role. Wooden shingles were cheap and easy to obtain in the Black Forest, because wood was always available here. However, this building material has the disadvantage of being easily combustible. This is actually also the reason why, after the eighteenth century, wooden shingles lost importance in roofing. The numerous city fires of that time led to a rethinking towards other materials such as slate or clay. Shingle maker was an early profession in the Black Forest, different from clock-maker, because the latter were farmers' people who assembled clocks on the side.

Return Beer brewery Beer and monks simply belong together – also in the Black Forest. From the eighth century onward, the Black Forest was settled primarily by farmers who opened up new areas for agriculture. Monasteries were also founded, such as in St. Blasien (858), St. Peter (1093), St. Georgen (1084), Alpirsbach (1095) and St. Märgen (ca 1100). The monastery of Hirsau in Calmbach near Bad Wildbad is already mentioned in the ninth century and was of immense importance at times, several other monasteries were founded from here. The monasteries not only administered the territories assigned to them, but also ensured the dissemination of written records by having the monks make copies of existing books. But that was not all. It was not uncommon for monasteries to have breweries that produced beer. But why? The reason was the fasting period. During fasting, monks were not allowed to eat solid food. Since the beer of the time was still quite thin, the monks tried to make it more nutritious. Hence, the art of brewing in the monasteries was refined more and more. Monastery beer thus became more superior than others, which is why the monks eventually began to sell it. Brewing is anything but a simple process, but requires several steps and, accordingly, a lot of time. First, you need grain, usually barley, from which brewing malt is made. This is ground, mixed with water and then heated. Part of it is then separated, namely the spent malt, which is not fermentable. What remains is the fermentable so-called "wort". This is heated in pans with the addition of hops and then filtered to remove suspended solids. Now the so-called "pitching wort" has been obtained. Yeast is added to this and allowed to cool down to a temperature at which it can ferment. During fermentation, which usually lasts about a week, the sugar contained in the wort is converted into ethanol. The resulting beer is usually stored for several weeks before bottling. Over time, other breweries have developed outside the monasteries. By far the oldest is the Fürstenberg Brewery in Donaueschingen. Much younger, but still venerable, are the Löwenbrauerei Bräunlingen (from 1783), the Privatbrauerei Waldhaus in Weilheim im Hotzenwald (1833), the Privatbrauerei Rogg in Lenzkirch (1846), the Löwenbrauerei O. Dold in Elzach (1856), the Brauerei Ganter in Freiburg (1865) and the Familienbrauerei M. Ketterer in Hornberg (1877). It is worth mentioning here that the Waldhaus brewery uses natural hops, a circumstance that is quite rare in breweries in Germany.

Return St. Nikolaus Church Buchenberg Small and modest, but ancient In Buchenberg, a small district of Königsfeld, stands a tiny church that appears very modest from the outside. In fact, however, it is one of the oldest in the Black Forest. The Church of St. Nikolaus has existed there since the eleventh century. To marvel at, there are wall paintings inside, which are very old and date back to the fifteenth century. They were uncovered and restored during extensive renovation work in the fifties. The choir contains a sculpted coat of arms of the von Falkenstein family, which had connections to Buchenberg in the fifteenth century. Over time, the little church has survived several earthquakes and a lightning strike in the tower almost unscathed. There were several plans to enlarge it. However, hardly anything of it was put into practice until the already mentioned rebuilding in the twentieth century. Next to the Church of St. Nikolaus there was a rectory. This was sold in the sixteenth century, after which an inn settled in it. On the subject of churches, the Black Forest has to offer not only such tranquil places as Buchenberg, but also very large, imposing buildings such as the Freiburg Cathedral or the one of St. Blasien with its huge dome. Since the region consists of a Baden and a Swabian part, there were not infrequent points of friction between the Christian denominations from the Thirty Years' War onwards, with individual communities changing their allegiance to one territory several times over the years and thus having to convert to another denomination. Several monasteries also developed early in the Black Forest. Among them, the most important is the monastery of Hirsau, whose prehistory goes back to the ninth century. In the eleventh century it was the largest monastery in the German-speaking area. It was not only the starting point of several other monastery foundations, but also of the "Hirsau Reform", through which already existing monastic communities were renewed. Another peculiarity of the Black Forest is the so-called Longinus Cross. It is a crucifix with a hipped roof, as the local farms have, and with an image of Longinus on a horse. He was popular among the peasants of Baden as a patron saint, which could be a reason for his presence on the crosses, especially since he is usually depicted there in a Baden uniform. But back to Königsfeld: the place is known mainly as a center of the Moravian Brethren community, which was founded in 1727 by Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf. On the territory of Baden-Württemberg, Königsfeld was the first settlement of the Brethren Community at the time of its earliest certification in 1806. Königsfeld also has an Albert Schweitzer Museum in a house named after the famous doctor that he built there. Not far from Buchenberg is the idyllic Glasbach Valley, where a stream of the same name flows. What is interesting about this stream is that it is its most water-rich tributary until it flows into the young Neckar river.

Return Freiburg Cathedral Not only the largest church, but also the largest city in the Black Forest: Freiburg Even though Freiburg officially carries the suffix "im Breisgau" in its city name, it is the major city most closely associated with the Black Forest, also its largest city. In fact, in its eastern environs, the mountain slopes rise steeply and one can see the forested peaks towering all around the city. Freiburg's local mountain, the Schauinsland, rises particularly clearly at 1,287 meters. Its peak can be reached from Freiburg by cable car. Freiburg was founded around 1120 by the Zähringers under Berthold II. As a result, like many other Zähringer towns, it has also acquired an oval shape. The old town has been preserved in large parts to the present day, although two of the former four city gates are missing. One of the landmarks of the city is the cathedral. It was built between 1200 and 1513 and has the second highest tower in the Black Forest. It is 116 meters high. It is surpassed only by a 246-meter elevator test tower in Rottweil. The cathedral tower has a viewing platform at a height of seventy meters. It was completed around 1330 and has remained largely undamaged since then. During construction, iron anchors embedded in lead were inserted in the tower's spire to connect the individual parts, which contributed to its high stability. Since then, the Minster tower has served as a model for other church towers in the neo-Gothic style. The oldest work of art within the Freiburg Cathedral is a cross made of oak wood, dating from around 1200, with a height of 2.63 meters and a width of 1.45 meters. It is decorated with several silver palettes and has been placed in the chancel since 2009. Also, one of the total nineteen bells of the cathedral dates from the thirteenth century, more precisely from 1258, and bears the name Hosanna. It is interesting that in the period from 1843 to 2008 it was struck only by itself. There was a musical reason for this: compared to all the other bells, the Hosanna was out of tune by a quarter tone, so ringing it together would have been dissonant. Only since 2008, when a renovation of the entire belfry including a redistribution of the bells was completed, has the Hosanna been able to ring together again. Freiburg has another special feature that is not very common elsewhere: Its Bächle ("brooklets"). Throughout the old town, narrow watercourses can be found along the edges of the streets, with water flowing in them from the Dreisam river. The Bächle are very old, already mentioned in documents around 1220. They are artificial canals with a total length of 16 kilometers, which in the past served to supply water to the inhabitants as well as to the fields. It is assumed that they were created because the groundwater in the city area was very deep and therefore there were only a few wells. Today, the streams serve more for the pleasant cityscape. Sometimes, however, they cause displeasure when tourists accidentally step into them and get their feet wet. But the good thing is that a legend proclaims: Whoever unintentionally steps into a Bächle while visiting Freiburg will soon marry a Freiburg citizen. Well, if that's not a reason to come to Freiburg … The city has a relatively warm climate. However, a special mountain wind ensures that it cools down quickly in the evenings in the city center, the so-called "Höllentäler", which takes its name from the Höllental. However, its air comes mainly from the Dreisamtal. On days with high-pressure weather, it starts about an hour after sunset and brings gushes of cool air from the valley slopes into the city.

Return Treetop path Bad Wildbad At eye level with the birds Hiking in the treetops? Yes, you can. On the treetop path in Bad Wildbad in the Northern Black Forest, which has been there since 2014. The total length of the walkable path is 1,250 meters. You move at a height of between four and twenty meters above the ground and therefore have a fascinating view. But that's not all. The treetop path consists not only of the route itself, but also contains a number of intermediate stations, which encourage climbing as well as learning and provide information worth knowing about the flora and fauna of the area. The trail is located on the mountain Sommerberg in a mixed forest at about 750 meters above sea level. Since it has only a very slight incline, it is quite manageable with a stroller. But first you have to climb the mountain. For this you can use the funicular railroad Sommerbergbahn, which was opened back in 1908. It goes from the city to its local mountain, overcoming a gradient of up to 53% on its route. The highlight of the tree top walk comes at the end. What looks like a cup standing on its head is an observation tower. It is mostly made of wood and offers a platform from which you can see as far as the Rhine Valley in the west and the Swabian Alb in the east. If you want to return to the ground, you don't have to walk. There is a tunnel slide with a length of 55 meters, which takes you down much faster. Bad Wildbad is a spa town on the Enz river. It is located in the valley at about 424 meters above sea level, which means that it gets a little less sun than its neighboring towns. The Sommerberg, on the other hand, is not affected by this, hence its name. You can also climb to heights elsewhere in the Black Forest, namely in high ropes courses. You can find them in Schiltach, Höchenschwand, Schramberg or Triberg, for example.

Return Titisee Just jump into the cool water! Lake Titisee is located at 846 meters above sea level in the Bärental valley near Titisee-Neustadt. It is 750 meters wide and about 1.9 kilometers long. At its deepest point, the water level measures 39 meters. A small river flows through it, which is called Seebach at the confluence, but Gutach at the outflow. It is the later river Wutach, which falls into a breathtaking gorge behind Titisee-Neustadt. Lake Titisee was formed naturally, i.e. it was not dammed. It was formed by a moraine of the former Feldberg glacier during the last ice age and is the largest natural lake in the Black Forest. It is known for its excellent water quality. Numerous species of fish can be found in the lake, and you can even see a gray heron on the shores. Moraines, by the way, are deposits of debris and rubble that a glacier pushes along with its movement. In contrast to Schluchsee, you can ice skate on Lake Titisee in winter because the water here freezes. However, the winds in the valley keep it moving in such a way that a longer time is needed before it is safe to walk on. If it is not frozen, a boat trip is a good option. There is a very famous boat rental for that. And of course you can swim or even surf here. On the lake lies the town of Titisee-Neustadt, a spa town that is also widely known for its great importance in winter sports. Its territory extends over an altitude ranging from 780 to 1,197 meters, with the highest elevation being the peak of the mountain Hochfirst. The town has had its present name only since 1971, when the towns of Titisee and Neustadt and a number of smaller surrounding villages were merged to form the new municipality of Titisee-Neustadt. Titisee-Neustadt also includes the district of Waldau, the very Waldau where the Kreutz family built the first balance beam clock in the Black Forest in the seventeenth century. Titisee-Neustadt was also important for the further development of the Waldau clocks. You must have wondered where the unusual name of Lake Titisee comes from. In any case, it has nothing to do with Lake Titicaca. What it means exactly is not clear at all. It could come from a dialect word for "child" or from the name of the Roman commander Titus.

Return Costume pair Almost every place has its own traditional costume. In the Black Forest, costumes have a great tradition, which is still actively cultivated today. It is noticeable that the wealth of variations from place to place is quite high. In total, there are said to be 120 different traditional costumes in the Black Forest. Traditional costumes probably originated in the sixteenth century, as a result of various dress codes that were related to the respective social classes. The affiliation to religious denominations played an essential role, as well as the marital status. However, traditional costume areas are largely based on the dominions, as they were in pre-Napoleonic times. Nevertheless, the Black Forest traditional costumes are also part of the ecclesiastical tradition. In the Black Forest, the colors black, white and red as well as purple dominate the traditional costumes. The men usually wear a wide, white shirt, over it a black vest with red lining, and with it black pants and a hat of the same color. The stockings are either white or red, and the shoes are black. The women wear basically the same set, instead of trousers a long skirt in black, which is heavily pleated and therefore quite weighty. The white blouse has half-length puffed sleeves. Over it comes a velvet bodice embroidered with small floral motifs, especially tinsel on the collar. This is then accompanied by purple ribbons and white stockings and black shoes. In 1894, a first traditional costume association was founded in Hausach. Many other towns and communities followed this example. If you want to get an overview of all the traditional costumes known in the Black Forest, you should take a look at the Black Forest Costume Museum in Haslach, which was founded in 1980. More than a hundred life-size figures display a wide variety of traditional costumes. You can also buy original costumes from the Black Forest in some stores in the region. However, the pieces are not exactly cheap, because their production is expensive.

Return Charcoal burning Poor charcoal Peter … Charcoal burning also has a long tradition in the Black Forest. In many respects it behaved with it quite similarly as with the glassblowing. In the Black Forest, not only was quartz for glass production sought early on, but also copper, iron and even silver. For their further processing, great heat was needed, for which the burning of bare wood, as the glassblowers did, was no longer sufficient. For this purpose, there were charcoal burners, who prepared the wood in such a way that it was charred, its energy density was increased, so that it radiated higher temperatures when burned. The charcoal burner built a kiln from a cone-shaped pile of logs, which was then covered with brushwood and sealed with earth and moss. Only one opening remained, through which some embers were pushed into the interior of the charcoal kiln. This ember then had to gradually spread to the wood in the pile and smolder it. It was important that the temperature inside remained constant. The wood was not allowed to burn, but only to smolder in order to become coal. Since charcoal burning was a very dirty trade, charcoal burners usually enjoyed a rather bad reputation, for which, however, they could not help. This circumstance was taken up by the writer Wilhelm Hauff in his fairy tale "The Cold Heart". In this fairy tale, the poor charcoal burner Peter Munk has three wishes from the little glass man, a good forest spirit. He squanders two of them on wealth, which is why the third is initially denied him. Therefore, Peter turns to another, evil spirit, who grants him even more money, but puts a stone instead of a heart as the price. As Peter becomes increasingly stingy and callous, even neglecting his mother and killing his wife in anger, he wants his heart back, but does not get it back from the evil forest spirit. Instead, the good one helps him with some advice. So Peter seeks out the evil spirit again and accuses him that the cold stone heart is not working properly. The evil forest spirit does not want to believe this and gives him back his real heart as a comparison. No sooner has this happened than the good forest spirit grants Peter protection and reunites him with his mother and his revived wife. By the way, there is a Hauff Fairy Tale Museum in Baiersbronn, which is dedicated to this fairy tale and to the author himself. The charcoal burners soon had a similar fate as the glass blowers. Since they needed a lot of wood for their work, they had to clear more and more forests and adapt their charcoal kilns to the location of the available forest. Thus, they too caused the almost complete clear-cutting of the Black Forest towards the end of the nineteenth century.

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Return Schauinslandbahn If you want to enjoy the view, you have to get to the top. Southeast of Freiburg lies the Schauinsland, a mountain with an altitude of 1,284 meters. It is about ten kilometers from the center of the city, which is why it is also called Freiburg's local mountain. It rises directly from the Upper Rhine Graben, which is why strong winds sometimes prevail, especially on its western side. Because of its height, it is of course a wonderful vantage point. From here you can see the Vosges and the Alps. The view of Freiburg is equally fascinating. To the north, you can also see the Hornisgrinde, the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest. To make the climb easier, there is a cable car that is 3.6 kilometers long in total. This makes it the longest cable car in Germany. From the Horben valley station in Freiburg, it climbs a total of 746 meters. For this purpose, the lift has 37 cabins. In addition to people (700 per hour), the cable car also transports bicycles and ski equipment. If you don't want to take the cable car to the top, you can also hike the Schauinsland and enjoy the fantastic view of the Rhine Valley from the top. The top of the Schauinsland is unwooded, a fact that goes back to mining. In the Middle Ages, silver as well as lead and zinc were mined in this mountain, which is why wood was needed to stabilize the tunnels. The wood was taken directly from the top of the mountain, which led to a real clear-cutting. Mining was stopped here in 1954. Since 2002, the entire peak area has been under nature protection. What you don't see on the outside of the Schauinsland is what is inside, and that is quite a lot. First of all, there are the tunnels that originate from mining. There are twenty-two in total and together they have a length of about a hundred kilometers. Today, no more mineral resources are mined and the Schauinsland serves as an excursion destination. Here you can visit a part of the former mine since 1997. Even more interesting is what can be found in the so-called Barbarastollen, which is located in the Hörnergrund near Oberried. Namely, there are film reels. Yes, you haven't misread, the gallery is full of reels. In fact, since 1975, it has housed an archive of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, in which documents of the Federal Republic of Germany copied onto film reels are kept, which are of important significance for history and culture. They are recorded using a special, high-resolution technique on special polyester thin film that lasts for a very long time. Within Europe, the Barbarastollen is the largest archive of its kind and is under special international protection by UNESCO.

Return Capercaillie A quite rare bird, not only in the Black Forest A rather shy fellow is the capercaillie, the largest chicken bird found in Europe. It can be recognized by its typical gurgling mating sound as well as by its considerable size. It is native to the Black Forest, as it is generally found at high altitudes. The capercaillie is a so-called resident bird, which means that it remains in one region throughout the year, i.e. it is not a migratory bird. Unfortunately, the capercaillie is on the Red List of endangered animals in Germany. In the Northern Black Forest National Park, however, its population has been stabilized and preserved. This is no wonder, because it is primarily forestry that is changing the forests in such a way that they are unsuitable for the capercaillie. But why is this so? For one thing, the capercaillie needs lots of light, broken-up forest areas. Since it is very heavy, it needs some run-up to get off the ground. Secondly, its diet consists mainly of berries, although in winter, when there is snow, it has to resort to the needles or buds of trees. Unfortunately, forestry increasingly afforests small clearings where the berries can grow, so that the capercaillie no longer finds a suitable habitat. This is not the case in the Northern Black Forest National Park. Established in 2014, the forests here are largely left to their own devices over a total area of 10,062 hectares. This leads to the formation of small clearings, which are beneficial for the capercaillies. These are not only important for the birds, but also allow many plants to grow unhindered. As with many bird species, male and female capercaillie can be clearly distinguished from each other. A rooster can grow up to one meter tall and weigh five kilograms, the hen only about half that. The plumage of the cock is gray to brown and shimmering green on the breast. The hen has brown plumage on the back and wings, interspersed with silver and black stripes. On the underside of the animal the coloring is lighter and goes more into the yellowish. The chicks resemble the hen in appearance. By the way, a capercaillie egg looks almost like a hen's egg. However, it has distinct brown spots. Capercaillies leave clearly visible and typical tracks in the snow, because their feet are built similar to snowshoes and have horn pins that grow sideways to the toes. Thus, the animals have good footing even in the snow. This is especially important because capercaillies cannot fly very well and move primarily on the ground. The courtship display, during which the rooster makes its characteristic gurgling sound, takes place during the spring months. The dance that the rooster performs is complex, consisting of various processes. He has his feathers erected into a fan, similar to a peacock. The roosters also defend their territories against competitors, occasionally even against humans. There are usually four animals per hundred hectares. You can gather interesting information about the capercaillie while hiking on the Wichtelpfad Feldberg. In addition to the capercaillie, the Black Forest is home to the cuckoo and the crossbill. The red kite has also returned to the area. There are gray herons and cormorants, hawks and owls.