Querkela-Weg OS 12

The starting point is the parking lot at Gasthaus Haide, which is unfortunately no longer open, in the Helmbrechts district of the same name. The typical street village was first mentioned in a document in 1801 as "Hayd". In the following years, it benefited from its convenient location and quickly grew into a sizeable village. However, this favorable traffic situation later became an increasing burden for the population. It was only after the new route of the state road between Helmbrechts and Münchberg was built that Haide became a quiet residential area.

On the now almost car-free village road, we descend into the Selbitztal valley. We now cross the still young river on the three-bay Selbitz Bridge, which was built in 1734 from gneiss rock and was rebuilt in 1999. The Zimmermühle mill is located on the right-hand side of the stream - and thus belonged to Meierhof until the territorial reform.

It is also known as the Götz or Götzenmühle. Hannß Götz is named as the owner as early as 1633. After 1815, Nikol Riedel took over the grinding and sawmill, which has been in the family ever since. After the Second World War, the mill ceased operations.

Immediately after the former mill buildings, we leave the road and follow the Selbitz up the valley. But first we pass the large, natural mill pond, whose enormous dimensions are a reminder of the mill's former glory. Further up the stream, the large quarry bears witness to the hustle and bustle of days gone by, when stones were quarried to build roads. Today, only the hornblende and mica-bearing gneiss rocks still fascinate the observer. Some very pronounced faults that can be seen on the high quarry face are also striking. Proof of the immense forces in the earth's interior that moved the huge clods of rock against each other.

About 150 m further on, we come across another relic from the past: the Quarkloch (legend board). An old mouth hole can be seen on the slope above the Selbitz, which leads only minimally into the mountain; it was probably not worth mining.

Zum Querkela: 

Although miners may have once worked here, the name is reminiscent of the Querkel, forest spirits and dwarves who once teased unsuspecting wood collectors and sponge seekers with their mischief. One such Querkela stands in front of the cave entrance. Is it guarding the mysterious realm of the little goblins? Perhaps the Querkela also feasted on the fresh water from the nearby "Brünnla", which gushes out from under a tree root. It is probably the drainage ditch of an old mine. The Querkela can be seen from the trail and can be reached via a marked mountain path. Wooden goose sculptures point the way with their beaks shortly before reaching the small forest ghost.

After a short stretch through the forest, the hiking trail leads us through the open meadow with a beautiful view over to the Geigersmühle mill. When the field path forks, we keep to the left. However, if you continue straight ahead on the path, you will see a large apple tree with a broken trunk at the side of the path before the first farmhouse at Meierhof. It is estimated to be 350 to 500 years old. It was probably already blossoming and bearing fruit when the Thirty Years' War was still raging - a witness to a dark chapter in Europe that is fortunately far behind us. And throughout all this time, it has persistently tried - year after year - to preserve its species.

As already mentioned, however, we keep to the left and continue along a dirt track towards the village of Meierhof. We first turn right directly next to the large electricity pylon and then immediately left along the main road into the village. As a typical radial forest village, it was not built before the 11th century. In 1367, Burgrave Friedrich V of Nuremberg bought the village of "Mayerhofleins" from the brothers Hans and Albrecht Schlegler. Until 1811, Meierhof was part of the Siebendörfer community. Today, the Münchberg district has a gymnasium with a sports hall. An intact village community therefore also guarantees great sporting success.

We turn right at the fire station and leave the sporty village. Past the former school building and a vigorous ash tree at the end of the village with a view of the Fichtelgebirge mountains, we follow the field path up to Gollershöhe.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the village was already called "Zur Schmiedin" (panorama tableau). Today, it still bears the same name, although it has changed from the former "Schmiedin" to today's "Schmitta". However, it is not only the name that is worth mentioning, but also the beautiful panoramic view, which extends from the mountains of the Franconian Forest (Kriegswald, Hohberg) over the undulating heights of the Münchberg gneiss massif to the Fichtelgebirge (Waldstein, Schneeberg, Ochsenkopf).

The field path to Laubersreuth is also clearly visible, but we leave it again at the first fork in the path. We now follow the forest path that branches off at an acute angle up to the 655 m high Spitzberg (information board). However, its summit area is anything but "pointed", but rather resembles a flat plateau. Nevertheless, there is a beautiful view of Helmbrechts and the Döbraberg.

Always along the edge of the forest, we come to a road that led from Laubersreuth, Edlendorf and Volkmannsgrün and connected the former margravial offices of Münchberg and Schauenstein. Passing the four scattered houses of the Münchberg district of Rabenreuth, we reach the Schwarzholzwinkel inn at the junction of the Ämterweg and the Meierhof-Ahornberg local road.

The Schwarzholz forest area begins immediately after the inn. The trees here are not blacker or at least darker than elsewhere, but the name means border forest (black and white are former border designations). The straight Ämterweg also runs through the Schwarzholz, which was typical of these old transport links. If you wish, you can extend the route a little further along the Franconian Mountain Trail. It later leads back to the main trail. After crossing the Helmbrechts-Ahornberg road, we leave the forest and treat ourselves to a view of the eastern part of Helmbrechts - over some of the roofs of Absang. The Döbra (794 m) rises strikingly above the other heights of the Franconian Forest.

The route now descends slightly - past Lochholz, with the Rauschenberg in front of us - to the "twin village" of Edlendorf/Günthersdorf. Edlendorf used to belong to the Münchberg district and Günthersdorf to the Schauenstein district. The border is formed by the Edlendorf stream. Today, both villages are districts of the town of Helmbrechts. At the crossroads, we leave the Ämterweg, which continues via Volkmannsgrün to Schauenstein, and follow the village road to the well-known "Wadeck" restaurant.

We continue along the road for a short distance, then turn right shortly after the first house in Absang. We walk down the Edlendorfer Steig trail to the idyllic pond in the Selbitztal valley. In front of us lies a typical meadow valley of the eastern Franconian Forest: shallow, somewhat marshy, with the Selbitz flowing leisurely through it. The beautiful valley view is bordered by the 460 m high Thonberg with Schauenstein.

We cross the Selbitz and immediately afterwards the Goldbächlein and walk past the former Helmbrechts sewage treatment plant and numerous ponds to a food market at the beginning of the town of Helmbrechts. Opposite, at the fence of the light and power plants, a wood-carved signpost with a hand weaver with a fully loaded wheelbarrow reminds us of the times when the total distance of almost 40 km to Hof and back was covered by the "gamberen Gestalten" in a single day. 

We walk to the traffic circle and continue on a footpath towards Münchberg. We pass through an underpass and past the "Weinberg" development area and a petrol station. Now it's not far to the starting point of our circular walk in Haide.</p