Bavarian Forest: A new book leads to 15 unknown peaks – Bavaria

Of course, the Bavarian Forest has already been extensively sung about, praised or even condemned with lamentations. Only the poet Adalbert Stifter is quoted here, whose massive existence was inseparably linked to the Waldheimat. “My whole soul is attached to this area,” he wrote to his friend Franz Xaver Rosenberger in March 1865, “if I can fully recover anywhere, it’s there…”

The urban public and tourists, on the other hand, took a long time to approach the Bavarian Forest. Her wanderlust drove her more to the Tegernsee and to Bad Reichenhall than to Zwiesel and Viechtach. Because back there the poverty was rampant, which continued after the war. A visit to the Finsterau open-air museum still gives an idea of ​​the misery that once plagued the people here.

In general, the Bavarian Forest was mostly an underestimated area. It is true that timber stocks were already being exploited in the Middle Ages, but otherwise in this “German Siberia”, as a Berlin newspaper blasphemed a hundred years ago, much was hidden that still applies here and there today. Not even the painters were particularly interested in this forest and mountain region.

Interestingly, the photographer Evi Lemberger also had this experience, although she grew up in the Lamer Winkel, i.e. in the middle of the Bavarian Forest. From there she traveled half the world as a photographer. But when she hiked with friends on the Falkenstein in the summer of 2019 and spent the night in a refuge, only then did she realize that she didn’t know her immediate homeland that well. “I’ve hiked a lot before, but mostly in my region on the Osser, Arber and Kaitersberg,” she says. And now she was actually out and about somewhere else in the Bavarian Forest for the first time – “actually crazy, right?” Lemberger thought the multi-day hike was great. “At the same time, I was quite embarrassed because I had completely underestimated my homeland.”

At that moment, she decided to pay homage to this magnificent landscape. Of course, the experiences gained in the great outdoors should not be included in a conventional hiking book, but in a work that broadly reflects all the experiences that this area awakens.

Lichtung Verlag, based in Viechtach, was ready to go down this path. There were three teams of two, one author and one photographer each, who made their way to 15 peaks. The term “summit” was used in a relatively broad sense, because the hikers not only climbed the highest mountains in the forest, but their paths also led them along rivers and through remote villages, and sometimes they aimed for prominent places such as the Triftsperre near Passau.

Open detailed view

One of the authors, the former SZ journalist Katharina Schmid, says she is now much more aware of how many villages have now been reclaimed by trees. And she met 94-year-old Stilla Moritz, one of the last surviving residents of the village of Leopoldsreut am Haidelkamm, which had been abandoned for 60 years, who spoke openly about her hard but ultimately beautiful life in the 1,100-meter-high town where in the winter the snow was eight meters high. So the book not only picks up the best hiking trails, but also, with a keen sense, the history and culture of the region and its people, who had so much to tell.

Open detailed view

The book also offers 15 interviews with special people from the area, including Charlie Hess, who once did his service at Hohenbogen on behalf of the USA. This is probably the most mysterious mountain range in the Bavarian Forest, where the activities of the Warsaw Pact were spied on. Nicole Roth, one of the first female ski jumpers, and Martin Zoidl, the weatherman of the Bavarian Forest, also answered questions. Michael Gruber, one of the authors, says he was surprised by the wild and remote beauty of some places, especially the Rift Hole and Hochfalls tour. Evi Lemberger’s insider tip is the area around the Haidel and the Brotjackelriegel. “Both get lost between all the spectacular peaks and yet are so enchanting,” she says.

The 300-page book is certainly suitable to take with you, but it is still a reader’s book that also gives you a nice reading experience at home. All tours can be followed, in addition to maps and directions, QR codes help with orientation. Information boxes also indicate places to stop and stay overnight. The summit hikes can be combined and extended to multi-day tours. In addition, three excursions for hiking with children are included.

The work is ennobled by the photographs by Evi Lemberger, Marina Dobrusky and Benedikt Seidl, who also do not ignore the often brutal existentialism of the area. The fact that it is sold in an open thread binding suits the look and feel and the content.

15 peaks. Reports and tours for hiking in the Bavarian Forest. Edited by Evi Lemberger. Lichtung Verlag, 304 pages, 26 euros. The book will be presented in Munich on Sunday, July 24 (5 p.m., Cafébar Mona, Maria-Theresia-Str. 23/Siebertstraße 2, Monacensia).