FrankenwaldSteigla Süßengut-Weg

Understand the forest - aisles on forest slopes, fords through rivers: Hike through the cultural landscape in the Franconian Forest Nature Park and read the traces of its history! How did people live from and with the forest? Understanding grows step by step: People change their environment and the environment changes people.

"I'll tell you one thing: Come to my age first! May I introduce myself? I'm the yew tree and I'm around 900 years old - at my age, the exact year really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that I am exceptionally old. So old that they even named a village street after me in Bernstein am Wald! And what I haven't experienced...
Walk along the beautiful, wooded "Süßengut-Weg" and I'll tell you a few things about my life and the surrounding area! Because you have to imagine: Eight centuries ago, when the first logs were tied into rafts and brought south across the Rodach, I was already there! Well, rafting no longer exists; it's just for fun. If you come to Schnappenhammer, why not take a raft trip!
Or take a look at the Geotope on Galgenberg in Bernstein: I spent a long time watching how they mined the diabase there. When St. Michael's Church was built not far away in the 17th century - I was there! Well, a lot has disappeared in that long time: only two houses of the Streusiedlung Süßengut still stand today - you'll see them when you pass by. Now let's start walking. I'll tell you more on the way!"

Wegbeschreibung

We start at the village square in Mittlere Schnaid. Past the church, our hike leads uphill until we reach the Schanzenbinderweg. We follow this to the left until we reach the (rear) Mittlere Schnaid.

There we stay on the road to the left for a short while and turn right again onto a meadow path that leads straight into the forest. Follow the easy forest path until you reach a forest road, which you follow to the left until you can see the Lorchenmühle mill in the valley. We cross the road and descend into the Thiemitz valley. We can stop for refreshments at the Lorchenmühle mill before crossing the road and the unspoilt Thiemitz valley. We walk past well-kept ponds on the left, then turn right in the forest up the Götzengrund a few meters to a forest road.

We then walk to the right, with occasional views of the Thiemitz valley, past one of the three houses of the Süßengut individual estate. Before a sharp left turn in a clearing, we see the site of the second, former Süßengut-Einzel on the right. We continue until we reach the power line spanning the valley below the Breitengrund single farm. Only after approx. 100 m do we leave the path sharply to the left uphill to the highlight of our hike, to the approximately 900-year-old yew tree, which we reach shortly before the first house on a short detour (20 m) sharply to the right.

We walk back the few meters, past the two houses uphill and hike to the right in the high forest up the forest path quite steeply, reach the open field and walk up the slope with beautiful views at the edge of the forest. On the way, the views become wider and more impressive with increasing altitude. After the height, our hiking trail joins the village road "Zur Eibe" and takes us downhill past the cemetery and cemetery chapel to Bernstein.

At the church, we take the main road briefly to the right, then left downhill, choose the left-hand local path and soon reach the open meadow, where we walk along the plateau with beautiful views and, always straight ahead, downhill in the forest to Fels/Schübelhammer. First mentioned in 1785, the Trupfhaus, the former inn with its castle-like appearance, was taken over by Georg Lehner from his father-in-law in 1805 as the Trupfhaus im Schübelhammer. It remained in the Lehner family for almost 200 years (until 2002). At that time, the Wilde Rodach separated the Margraviate of Bayreuth from the Wildensteiner dominion, today the districts of Hof and Kulmbach.

As we continue our hike, there are occasional views of the widening valley of the Wilde Rodach, the Thiemitztal and the hamlets of Kleinthiemitz and Schnappenhammer (starting point for raft trips on the Wilde Rodach). We reach Kleinthiemitz when we leave the rafting trail to the right after a long stretch (3 km) and walk across the Wild Rodach and its valley to the footpath and cycle path on the B 173. From here, it is worth taking a detour to the rafting site in Schnappenhammer.

However, the path itself leads along the cycle path on the right until we cross the B 173 at Kleinthiemitz. Another detour is worthwhile - this time with the DÖ 62 about 200 meters to the Bamberg bridge. In the middle of the stone arch is a boundary stone with the Bamberg lion and an inclined rail on the outside. We recommend viewing the bridge - built in 1730 - from the side, where you can see the aforementioned boundary stone. This bridge once separated the territory of the margraves from that of the Bamberg prince-bishops and today the districts of Hof and Kronach.

Our path now leads straight through Kleinthiemitz to the old church path and we hike up the "Fechtn" (spruces) through various sections of forest and the "Kla-Bächla-Tal" to the Voglerei. This is another highlight of this hike with the Maria Himmelfahrts chapel and the idyllic cemetery. In late autumn, the artistically decorated graves are impressive. After the cemetery, we stay on the road and follow it back to the Mittlere Schnaid, where we soon arrive at our starting point.

Tips and further information

In summer, raft trips for tourists start on Saturdays in Schnappenhammer.