Winterberg and Hallenberg
Kahler Asten, Ziegenhellen, Heidekopf and Bollerberg - nowhere else in the Sauerland are there so many outstanding viewing towers in such a small area. The steep mountain slopes of Winterberg and Hallenberg form the borders between Wittgenstein, Hessen and the Sauerland - and from the towers on the border mountains, you can see into all of these regions.
Winterberg and Hallenberg - border crossers door tour
Are there more popular hiking destinations than lookout towers? Perhaps a serviced mountain hut. On the Kahler Asten there are restaurants, a tower and from there the Sauerland Höhenflug leads to other highlights.
In Winterberg, people push themselves to their limits. A world-class bobsleigh run, the largest ski carousel north of the Alps, breakneck mountain bike trails - everyone can test their limits here. I too am a border crosser today - on foot along the Sauerland border with Wittgenstein and Hessen.
You can't get any higher in the Sauerland than the starting point of my tour. There is no tower on the Langenberg, the highest mountain in Westfalen, and the radio tower on the Hunau is of course closed to hikers. This makes the viewing platform on the Kahler Asten the highest point in Westfalen that we can reach on foot. "This is a very special place to work," says Gerhard Kappe, weather observer for the German Weather Service at the Kahler Asten weather station. "I've been here on the mountain since 1990. The hikers always look at me with envy that I get to be here every day, where they spend the best hours of their vacation. But when you have to be here for work every day at five in the morning, you sometimes have to fight your way through. In winter, I sometimes have to leave the car down by the main road. And it snows much more up here in winter than in the valleys. Or during storms! You think the tower is about to fly away." The Kahler Asten is certainly no ordinary workplace.
When I ask Gerhard Kappe whether I can expect a great sunset, he shrugs his shoulders: "I wouldn't bet on it. There are still a few showers coming from the west today. There could also be a small thunderstorm. But I can't say for sure. We only collect the data here. The forecasts are made in Essen and Offenbach. But if you want a tip: Take the Sauerland Höhenflug up to Hesborn and then up to the Bollerberg. In this weather, you're sure to get some great scenery on this scenic route."
Of course, I'm not going to miss out on that. I ride along the Wittgenstein border to Ziegenhellen. I just make it to the shelter in front of it to save myself from a heavy shower. When it's dry again, dark clouds are still gathering in the sky. It's a good thing I have a flash with me. It allows me to take a few mysterious pictures of the tower on the Ziegenhellen. And suddenly the sky is blue again. This rapid change is of course a photographer's dream.
From the balcony of the Sauerland, the Heidekopf tower above Hallenberg, I look out over the borderland between Sauerland and Hessen a little later. Culture, politics, religion, language - those who want to find borders will find plenty of opportunities to do so, but so will those who want to break down borders. In Hallenberg-Braunshausen, I visit Dorle and Albe Schmidt's farm with a rose garden and an art studio. The property boundary has been removed and the garden is open to everyone: a mixture of fresh flowers and decay, young shoots growing around old garden furniture, historic garden and medicinal plants, old fruit trees and an ancient farmhouse that has only been very carefully modernized.
"Our garden and studio are open to anyone who knocks on our door," Dorle Schmidt explains to me. You have to take that literally, by the way. The Schmidts' door doesn't have an electric bell, but an old door knocker. "There are so many places to linger here, to simply shut down with all your senses and reflect on yourself again. We didn't just want to keep this to ourselves, but also share it with others." Art exhibitions, readings and other events as part of the Spiritual Summer program make up the offer. "We're pretty much on the edge of Sauerland here," adds Albe Schmidt, "but that's what it's all about. The Spiritual Summer is not just about one village offering something on its own. You have to perceive the whole region as something that offers and connects - especially beyond its borders."
And creatively, my border-crossing hike continues to probably the most unusual observation tower in the Sauerland: the Sauerland-Stabil-Stuhl between Hallenberg, Liesen and Hesborn, a tower in the shape of a giant chair. From this interesting specimen on my door tour, the view falls mainly on the gentle, open meadow landscape in neighboring Hessen. Behind the back of the chair, however, looms a real Sauerland mountain, the end point of my hike, the Bollerberg.
Gerhard Kappe from the German Weather Service didn't promise me too much. As I stand on the Bollerberg tower, a strong, icy wind blows towards me from the northwest. A dark blue, almost black cloud is building up behind the Kahler Asten. "Something's coming!" say the people of Sauerland - and the first drops are already flying into my face. But behind the cloud, a strip of golden sunlight appears again and so I persevere. And I am rewarded for my steadfastness: the sunlight pours out from under the cloud like golden honey and flows into the valleys around Züschen - a magical moment - images of spiritual power on the Grenzgängerweg.
Klaus-Peter Kappe