Vogtendorfer Weg KC 62

The Kronach district of Vogtendorf, first mentioned in a document in 1325, lies in the wide valley of the Rodach, where the Fischbach flows in. Vogtendorf is only separated from Höfles by the Rodach bridge. The village hall, a two-storey half-hipped roof building from 1763, which the hiking trail leads past, is worth seeing. It is worth mentioning that it is the birthplace of Johann Caspar Zeuß (1806-1856) and Willi Schreiber. Willi Schreiber made a name for himself as a writer on local history, a deserving district curator in the district of Kronach and the main cultural administrator of the Frankenwaldverein. Johann Caspar Zeuß gained importance and recognition as a scholar of European standing as a researcher of antiquity and political scientist. He was a pioneer in the field of German antiquity, founded Celtic philology and earned great merit with his Grammatica Celtica. The Kronach grammar school bears his name.

We start the circular walk at the Rodach bridge separating Vogtendorf and Höfles.

Both places are located on an old army road and in the area between Kreuzberg and Höfleser Berg, where the Rodach once broke through the shell limestone. Otto Knopf writes that river boulders of diabase and graywacke can still be found on both mountain saddles. Wayside shrines and crosses in the villages and the surrounding area bear witness to the faith of the people then and now.

We walk alongside the former rafting water to the end of the village on the road to Fischbach. There we take a look at the charming, venerable, two-storey parish hall on the right-hand side of the road. However, we turn left, but immediately right again out of the village and enter the charming Stübenbach valley and soon, gently ascending, reach the idyllic hamlet of Stüben. We walk past the houses and then along the narrowing Stübenbachgrund into the charming Stübengraben gorge. We walk past well-kept ponds in the forest in the very narrow valley floor and continue slightly uphill until we come to the FrankenwaldSteigla Stübengraben-Weg coming from the Weißenbrunner Spinne.

We cross the Stübenbach stream and follow it uphill to the left on a forest path until we come out into the open before the hamlet of Dobrach. There you have a beautiful view of the Rodach Valley and the surrounding Franconian Forest heights. We walk past Dobrach for a short distance on the connecting road. At the crossroads, we turn right and follow a slightly ascending forest road up to the heights. Now we keep left and walk along the edge of the forest. On the right below us we can see Wüstbuch and the hill opposite. We cross the connecting road to Fischbach and follow the forest path straight ahead. After around 400 m, we turn left and walk slightly downhill past the Hetzenbrunnen fountain until we reach the road to Fischbach again.

We walk through the village to the former castle and church of Fischbach and continue along the local road to the hollow. There we turn left and walk along Martin-Luther-Straße past the cemetery on a paved farm track up to the hamlet of Obere Allern, where we can enjoy the view of Kronach and the Kreuzberg area. From the apex of the trail, we follow the main hiking trail "Fränkische Linie" and continue downhill along the farm track with beautiful views until we reach Vogtendorf again at the Schützenhaus. On the nearby main road, we turn right and return to our starting point.