Via Romea Germanica Day 21: Neustadt - Münchenlohra

Ich weiß nicht, wohin Gott mich führt, aber ich weiß,  dass er mich führt.

(I know not where God leads me, but I know he leads me).

- Johann Kinau, Germann writer (pseudonym Gorch Fock, 1880-1916)

God may have led me out of the mountains, but not out of the hills just yet! Today was a long series of ups and downs, as I crossed one high ridge after another.

In one of the valleys between these ridges, 9 kilometres into the day's walk, I came into the city of Nordhausen.

Nordhausen

First mentioned in 927, Nordhausen was one of the most important towns in central Germany in the late Middle Ages, located in the fertile Goldene Aue (golden floodplain) to the south of the Harz mountains. In the early 13th century it became a free imperial city: an independent and republican self-ruled member of the Holy Roman Empire. 

The city's Catholic cathedral was built between 1180 and 1400 in Romanesque and Gothic style. The roof and a number of other parts have been reconstructed following damage from British air raids during World War II. When I went into the church, the organist was practicing.

Romanesque crypt, c. 1130

Like Neustadt, Nordhausen still has its Roland figure standing in front of the old city hall. This one dates from 1717 and stands in the classic pose with drawn sword. 

At one time the city of Nordhausen had a thriving tobacco industry, and it is still known for its Nordhäuser Doppelkorn distillery. The construction of the Harz narrow-gauge railway at the close of the 19th century linked the city with Wernigerode and with the mining towns of the Harz mountains, and in the early 20th century it became a centre of engineering and the armaments industry. 

During World War II, the Nazi government operated the KZ Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, housing 60,000 prisoners of war and persons from occupied territories, used as forced labour in the weapons factories. About 20,000 people died due to the conditions in the camp. A monument stands where the camp was, to the northwest of the city centre; it was not on my route. 

In April 1945, most of the city was destroyed by Royal Air Force bombings, resulting in 8,800 casualties: more than 20% of the population. Almost all the city's historic buildings were destroyed; it suffered the most damage during the war of any city in Thuringia. But the Via Romea took me through the pretty streets of the town's surviving old centre, where I bought a plate of Asian noodles and vegetables from a street vendor and sat to eat them on a bench. 

Nordhausen fell within the Soviet zone of occupation after the war, thus becoming part of East Germany. Hundreds of German scientists and their families from Nordhausen were deported to the Soviet Union after the war to work on advanced rocket engineering and armaments projects.

Today, Nordhausen has a population of 42,000; its heritage of engineering expertise survives in the city's university of applied technology. Modern buildings such as the new city hall fill in the gaps where buildings were destroyed in the war.

I exited the old city through its ancient walls, then became briefly disoriented in a supermarket parking lot after going in to buy a cinnamon bun for tomorrow's breakfast. Regaining the Via Romea, I crossed over the railroad tracks on a long viaduct, finally saying goodbye to the Harz narrow-gauge railway network. Then I passed through a warehouse district, by a veterinary clinic and a horseriding establishment and was back out in the open fields. 

Several hills and dales later, I turned off the Via Romea Germanica route at the village of Wolkramhausen. I had been hoping to catch a bus from here to my accommodation at Kloster Münchenlohra, seeing as it's off the route anyway, but there were no buses coming for an hour and a half. It was only another five kilometres, so I figured I could walk it before the bus even came. Which was true, but... the five kilometres that come between 25 and 30 kilometres are not the same as the five kilometres between five and ten.... or even like the five kilometres between fifteen and twenty! 🥵

The towers of the Kloster came into view well before I was near them. I tried not to look at the church towers for a long time, so that they would appear closer when I did! By the time I actually arrived below the towers I was exhausted. I was, however, delighted to find the church still open, even after its official closing time of five p.m.

St. Gangolf, built around 1170, was a Benedictine convent until 1546. It was then abandoned and many of the buildings demolished, until the late 19th-century reconstruction under architect Karkl Schäfer. Since 1989 use of the church has been revived by the association "Fördervereins Kloster Münchenlohra", not only for religious services but for concerts and social events. The adjacent house, which housed the bailiff of the estate in past centuries, is now being renovated, with a meeting room and coffee room downstairs and rooms for pilgrims and visiting musicians upstairs. Two of these rooms are currently available for use; I had one, and in the other was Gunther, here to work on the renovation of the third room. A work in progress! 

Neustadt - Kloster Münchenlohra 30 km