The Eco path mining in the Söhre runs around the Stellberg in the Söhre, a brown coal mining area operated from around 1800 to 1967. It should encourage you to deal with the history of mining and to save it from oblivion. The eco path leads mostly over unpaved forest paths as well as some viewpoints, not to forget the Stellbergsee, a popular excursion destination and bathing lake with large sunbathing areas.
Route profile
- Length: 9.5 km. The Mining Eco Path in the Söhre can be easily combined with a visit to Stellbergsee, a 1.4 hectare open-cast mine, also popularly known as the Mondsee.
- Mark: The mining eco path in the Söhre is marked with the typical symbol of mining, mallets and irons.
- Signposting: The signposting of the hiking trail can be described as good, the hiking sign can be found on wooden signs, large signposts and on trees.
- Suitable footwear: Since the eco path also leads over unpaved and natural paths, you should use sturdy footwear in appropriate weather conditions.
- Family suitability: Due to the sometimes poor condition of the paths in midsummer (sometimes slightly overgrown, but still perfectly passable), it is not advisable to visit with smaller children.
- Mountain bike suitability: Yes, the hiking route is usually accessible with mountain bikes.
- Best season: The mining eco path in the Söhre should preferably be used in dry weather conditions.
background
The eco paths in North Hesse should encourage you to deal with the varied and interesting history of the region. A total of 32 eco paths have been set up in the Kassel district and two in the Schwalm-Eder district.
In July 2010 the Eco path mining in the Söhre joined the extensive network of Eco paths North Hesse added. The hiking route was meanwhile from HWGHV awarded as a "certified hiking trail".
getting there
By car
The easiest way to get to Wattenbach by car is either from the motorway junction 
81 Guxhagen the 
(kassel-Fulda) over the district roads K 154 and K 155, as well as via the state road L 3460 or from the motorway junction 3 kassel-Industrial Park of the 
(kassel-Schwalmstadt) via the state roads L 3236 and L 3203 moves. The starting point of the Eco Path Mining in the Söhre is the 1 Brandt hiking car park, the 2 Hiking car park pool and the 3 Stellbergsee parking lot for hikers. However, there is no entry board on the latter.
With public transport
You can find them at the Brandt hiking car park 4 Forsthaus bus stop
Forester's house (Lines 36 and 37), which is also used regularly on weekends. The travel time with bus line 37 to the city center of kassel is about 40 minutes. Also the 5 Quarry bus stopQuarry (Lines 36 and 37) is located near the mining eco path in the Söhre.
Route description
The Mining Eco Path in the Söhre is marked in both directions; the counter-clockwise circular route is described below. For a detailed hiking map, please simply click on the POIs that will immediately direct you to the described position. The start of the eco path is at the Brandt hiking car park at the intersection of state roads 3236 and 3460 north of Wattenbach.
From the Brandt hiking car park, you hike slightly downhill on a gravel forest path past a clearing. After about 1.2 kilometers, the Eco Path Mining in the Söhre branches off into an unpaved forest path that runs a little steeper through a regrowing forest area. You turn right into the next paved forest path and via pastures you reach the former site of the Tiefenrod colliery, at the end of which is the first station of the eco path.
- 1 Coal mining on Stellberg - The brown coal layers under the Stellberg (495 m) were mined from around 1800 to 1967. Traces of mining can still be found in the area today, such as the buildings of the former Stellberg and Tiefenrod collieries, the masts and foundations of the cable car and, best known, the Stellbergsee, created by open-cast mining from 1962 onwards has a significantly higher calorific value. Until 1967, when mining became unprofitable due to the conversion of the Kassel power plant to hard coal and the difficult geological conditions, around 5 million cubic meters, about half of the total volume, were extracted.
You go back down the branch path to Wellerode and follow a gravel forest path back up the mountain. In the next crossing forest path you turn left and after about 100 meters after a bend you reach the next sign of the eco path.
- 2 Karlstollen / Tiefenrod colliery - At this point, no longer visible today, was the entrance to the 325 m long Karlstollen. Between 1921 and 1930, 70,000 tons of coal were mined in the Karlstollen, as was customary in the 20th century by hand. The "Deutsche Türstock" (German door frame) was used to secure it, a particular technique of carpentry for the pillars and crossbars. Furthermore, water tunnels, well shafts and weather shafts were created to drain the groundwater from the mountain and to provide fresh air and ventilation. The rising groundwater was a particular problem on the Stellberg.
Again you go a few meters back the same way, at the intersection where you have just turned left, continue straight ahead and follow a paved forest path north of the Stellberg. Soon you reach several benches, unfortunately in a poorer condition, and the former view from these has now partially grown over. But there is still a nice view of the Kassel basin at one point. Continue on the forest path until you follow the signs for the eco path over an unpaved footpath to the third station.
- 3 Cable car - With the opening of the Söhrebahn in 1912 the possibilities of transporting lignite improved considerably. If this was previously brought to the loading station in Wellerode by horse and cart, cable car routes were now built, for example between the Tannengrund pit and the Wellerode Wald train station, where there was an elevated bunker with the stored coal. For this purpose, the trolleys were hung on the steel cable of the cable cars. Before the mining industry was shut down, which also meant the end of the Söhrebahn, the railway had transported around 1.5 million tons of coal kassel.
Following the former route of the cable car, you walk on a path that is later slightly overgrown between the old foundations and uphill past the two remaining masts of the cable car until you meet the hiking trails Wildbahn (X3) and ARS Natura. The three hiking trails lead together on the Spangenberger path or Schuster path, an old connection between Spangenberg and kassel, on the large-leaved summer linden, the tree of the year 1991, planted in 2011 by the forestry department Melsungen, over to the Stellberg desert.
- 4 Medieval desolation Stelberg with church - Until the 14th century, the village of Stelberg was located on Stellbergstriesch, the large meadow area in the background, and partly in the adjacent forest. It was mentioned for the first time in 1155 in a document from the Breitenau monastery and for the last time in 1289. Directly next to the station's display board, clearly recognizable by the low ramparts, were the church of the village of Stelberg and, on two prominent hills, sunken ovens. In the 19th century, several legends grew up around the deserted Stelberg.
- The station Medieval Wüstung Stelberg with church was only set up later and is therefore not officially part of the Eco Path Mining in the Söhre.
After a few meters you come to the next crossing forest path past a smaller vantage point with newer benches, where the Eco Path Mining in the Söhre initially turns right, then later left into a gravel forest path. In a southerly direction you now hike steadily downhill, cross the route of the eco path (somewhat confusing signs) and reach the refuge "Bergmanns-Ruh", in which a cart and several information boards can be found.
- 5 Wiesenschacht - The Wiesenschacht was in operation from 1932/33 to 1962 and was originally about 300 meters long. There was also a 63-meter-deep weather shaft for the fresh air supply, known in mining as ventilation, and several branches leading away from the main shaft. From 1936 the owners of the Wiesenschacht mine were the company Henschel & Sohn, from 1941 the subsidiary "Hessische Braunkohlen- und Ziegelwerke GmbH (HBZ)" and from 1950 the Preussische Elektrizitäts AG (PREAG) Hanover. By the time the meadow shaft was closed, a total of 2.4 million tons of coal had been mined and transported down to Wellerode by cable car.
You walk on an uneven forest path through a coniferous forest to a clearing. The last few meters until you reach this can sometimes be more overgrown in midsummer, but this does not prevent you from getting further, but much more, especially in the opposite direction, the recognition of the correct path. Past a hunter's stall you walk on meadow paths, later partly asphalted, down to Landesstraße 3460. At this you keep to the right, walk up an older stone staircase and reach the south bank of the Stellbergsee, where you can also find some benches. Shortly afterwards you come to the next station of the eco path on the west bank.
- 6 Open pit - Although the water level in the Stellberg had sunk sharply after 130 years of mining, there were two water ingresses in the Tiefenrod colliery in 1958. Civil engineering had to be abandoned only four years later, which is why open pit mining began in 1962 as a replacement. The first coal was finally obtained after the so-called overburden had been removed in 1964, but it was shut down as early as 1967. In the three years around 223,000 tons of coal were extracted. Gradually the remaining open pit hole felt like it was filled with water and the Stellbergsee, also known locally as the Mondsee, was created.
On gravel forest paths you hike back uphill towards Stellberg together with other hiking routes and cross the already covered route of the Eco Path Mining in the Söhre north of the refuge "Bergmanns-Ruh" with the already mentioned signs, which at first glance are somewhat confusing. On slightly sunnier unpaved roads, as the forest has to grow back here after a storm, you first walk parallel to state road 3460, but then finally down to this and to the Lache hiking car park. Passing a glass information board on the ARS Natura hiking trail, you reach open terrain and hike along the former edge of the forest, much of which is no longer there due to a storm, along meadow paths. Not far from a barn, keep diagonally to the left and walk with a view of Wattenbach to Kohlenstraße, which you go downhill into the district of Sohrewald follows into it.
- 7 Wattenbach coal works - The Wattenbacher coal mine operated the so-called Alte Grube, which was built in 1860 south of the Hambühlskopf with a tunnel with a length of 180 m and in which around 300,000 t of coal had been mined until it was closed in 1907, as well as the In der Lache mine, which was laid out in 1910 as a replacement for the old mine on the road to Wollrode, was opened up by a 700 m long tunnel and in which around 760,000 t of coal were extracted until it was closed in 1933. A chain lift was used in both pits, for the first time in 1900 in the old pit; at that time the first in the German coal mining industry.
From the seventh and last station of the Eco Path Mining in the Söhre with a small rest area, you hike over the Kohlenstraße and the Wattenbachsweg together with the Welleröder Grenzweg back to the edge of the forest. A gravel footpath that is easy to walk on begins at this point, and you follow it up the Hambühlskopf back to the starting point, the Brandt hiking car park on state roads 3236 and 3460, which you will reach again after 9.5 kilometers.
trips
Söhrebahn
The Söhrebahn operated from 1912 to 1966 between kassel and Sohrewald-Wellerode Forest. Today you can find a beautiful gravelled track on the former railway line Footpath and bike path. If you follow this over Lohfelden to the federal autobahn 7 and from there the Wildbahn (X3), a section of the ARS Natura hiking trail, along the Wahlebach, you can take pleasant paths off the beaten track into the Karlsaue of kassel hike. The length of the route is just over 12 km, so it is more recommendable for mountain bikers.
Helsa industrial and cultural history eco path
The Helsa industrial and cultural history eco path leads around the municipality for a length of ten kilometers Helsa. Stations are the Helsa train station and basalt mining in Stiftswald, From the Niedermühle to the tank truck construction, the church and community of Schenke, the Helsa sawmill, the Obermühle in Helsa, the Kaskaden, Helsa, the Lappenloch glassworks and From Genesis to the Therapy Center. Can be reached Helsa industrial and cultural history eco path from Wattenbach by car on the state road L 3460 and the federal highway 
, as well as with public transport only with change in kassel.
Eco path cultural history Lohfelden
The eco path Kulturgeschichte Lohfelden runs over a length of ten kilometers through the community Lohfelden. Stops are the carriage and carriage museum, the Crumbach Evangelical Church, the settlement, the Fernsicht camp, the Ochshausen Evangelical Church, the Vollmarshausen cemetery, the Vollmarshausen Evangelical Church, the Schöppenstuhl and the Obermühle. The eco path Kulturgeschichte Lohfelden can be reached from Wattenbach by car via the state road L 3236 and by public transport with the bus routes 36 and 37.
Eco path cultural history Guntershausen
The Eco path cultural history Guntershausen connects all the places of interest over a length of less than five kilometers Baunatal-Guntershausen. Stations are the train station, the bridges over the Fulda, the Protestant church, the schoolhouse, the giant stone and the mill in the Baunatal. Can be reached Eco path cultural history Guntershausen from Wattenbach by car via Wollrode, Guxhagen and Grifte (state roads L 3460 and L 3221) and with public transport only with change over kassel.
Web links
- Official website via the eco paths from the Kassel district.
