The Kilpensteig: A Comprehensive Book on the History of this Historic Road from Freiburg to Villingen

The Kilpensteige, or the road from the Gasthaus Engel in Obersimonswald over the Kilpen to Furtwangen, has recently stimulated the interest of several local researchers. Rolf Wehrle has now written the most comprehensive work to date. One could say that the project was born in his cradle, because Wehrle was born directly on the route, “auf dem Raben”, in 1952 and grew up in the “Ski Wehrle” house. So he knows the route, the farms and houses as well as the people who still live there.

An exhibition inspired the book

As he himself writes, Wehrle was inspired to work more intensively with the road by a 2021 exhibition about old paths across the Black Forest. The result is a book in A4 format with 248 pages. The first part is about the history of the Kilpensteig (or the Kilpensteig) as a trade route; the second part takes a somewhat deeper look into the history of settlement and ruling conditions in the region and the third part deals with “house stories – of disappeared and existing farms and houses along Kilpenstrasse”. There are also numerous maps, text excerpts, photos and references to sources in the three chapters and in the appendix.

Wehrle refers to extensive archive material when he comes to the conclusion that in the years between around 1650 and 1850 the Simonswald-Kilpen route was “probably the most important transport connection for the movement of goods between the Breisgau and the Baar, between the two up-and-coming Zhringer foundings in Freiburg and Villingen”.

But shortly after 1310, three trade routes between the two cities were mentioned in old writings at almost the same time: the Wagensteig route from Dreisamtal via Wagensteig/Thurner/Kalte Herberge and so on; the Hllental route and the Simonswald-Kilpen route. At 65 kilometers, the Kilpen route was the shortest connection between Freiburg and Villingen, but the steepest, “up to 25 percent in sections”.

Popular “secret route” for commuters

The Wagensteig route, on the other hand, was the most topographically balanced, but was 75 kilometers long. Until the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) it was the most important of the three connections – but it was destroyed by the fighting, was no longer navigable and was of no importance for a long time. Today the Wagensteig route is a popular “secret route” for commuters.

The connection through the Hllental is the longest of the three routes at around 80 kilometers (depending on the route from Lffingen) and originally also contained two steep climbs, writes Wehrle. The bottleneck at Hirschsprung was only passable for pedestrians and horses until the 18th century; It was only between 1755 and 1763 that rocks were blasted and the road was expanded to a width of over nine meters. Wehrle’s interesting anecdote: In 1770, Marie Antoinette’s bridal entourage crossed the Hllental from Vienna to Paris. In the second half of the 19th century, the gradient was corrected to a maximum of five percent with a new route and serpentines.

It is also interesting how Wehrle follows the traces in detail as to why the Kilpensteig had it so difficult. As early as 1316, the city of Freiburg paid 50 silver marks to Heinrich von Schwarzenberg-Schwarzenberg, then guardian of Waldkirch, in order not to allow the expansion of the road “now and in the future” and also to prohibit the “traffic with carts and merchant’s goods”. . Of course it was about money, the people of Freiburg wanted to secure the road toll on the Wagensteig and Hllental route. During the Freiburg regime, the road over the Kilpen was so undesirable that troops were sent out to destroy the Kilpensteige on several occasions – whenever many merchants had discovered an alternative there.

100 years of intensive use

A longer section in the book is also devoted to the construction of fortifications and redoubts for military purposes in the region. Wehrle also goes into detail about forest use, for example for mining, smelting and hammer mills, cooling and glassworks.

It was only in 1776, i.e. after the expansion of the Hllental route, that the Austrian government issued a decree ordering the “expansion of all Vicinal roads to promote economic development,” Wehrle writes. The route over the Kilpen became a commercial road – 100 years of intensive use followed.

For the year 1850, Wehrle names 300 residents of 39 houses, including restaurants, horse stables, craft businesses, bakeries – all kinds of service providers for the wagons passing through.

The loss of importance of the Kilpenstrasse came about as a result of the “new art road” opened in 1854 from Simonswald to Gtenbach, today’s country road. The Kilpental “emptied itself”; The residents switched to domestic trade and watchmaking, and many emigrated to Banat or later to America and England. According to Wehrle, 20 houses disappeared by 1920; Today, according to him, there are still six permanently or temporarily inhabited buildings. The reader learns as much about the traces of the earlier houses and their history as about the buildings that still exist and are inhabited.

A wealth of information

People interested in local history and regional history will find a wealth of information in the book, which is arranged in local and national historical contexts. You will definitely enjoy picking it up again and again.