Back into my walking boots
After our trip to Plessenburg last year – which everyone had been eagerly looking forward to – it was finally time once again to swap our office outfits for hiking gear.
Between history and nature – ‘Halberstadt’s Switzerland’
Three routes had previously been put to the vote, and the decision was made to go on the walk around the Klusberge and Spiegelsberge near Halberstadt, also known as ‘Halberstadt Switzerland’: An exciting sandstone rock formation featuring cliffs, caves, beautiful viewpoints, places to stop and rest, and peaceful paths through the lush, verdant forest.
The route, which took a total of 2.5 hours, led us – in perfect hiking weather – past the Klusfelsen, the Fünfingerfelsen and a First World War air force memorial. This commemorated the crash of a so-called ‘giant aeroplane’, the Linke-Hoffman R-type, with a wingspan of 36 metres.
As the walk continued, the natural landscape was complemented by traces of the region’s history. Along the route, we passed the ‘Makrele 1’ bunker system, situated in the forest. Here, a former rock-cut cellar was converted by forced labourers into a network of tunnels to be used as a bomb-proof production facility for the armaments industry.
Between May 1944 and April 1945, the Dessau Junkers Works relocated the production of wings and fuselage sections for various Junkers aircraft to the ‘Makrele 1’ tunnels. The use of this code name followed the principles of the Nazi armaments industry’s strict camouflage system, in which, for example, names of fish and amphibians were used for existing tunnel systems. Later, the tunnel was used as a military hospital and emergency shelter before being completely razed to the ground and partially blown up by Russian occupying forces.
Our walk then came to an end at the Spiegelberge Landscape Park, where our 11 staff members from the offices in Wernigerode and Magdeburg rounded off the day with a group lunch, games of Frisbee and a go on a digger.
