display

The path “across the seven mountains to the seven dwarfs”, as we know it from Grimm's fairy tale “Snow White”, leads through mixed forest.

Spruce, oak and beech trees line the marked Snow White Trail from Lohr am Main to Bieber.

Ferns fan out, resin beads glisten on trunks, rustling leaves.

Here, then, Snow White fled from the wicked queen, who was her stepmother, until she reached the dwarf house that saved her and felt safe.

But the monarch chased her and wanted to wipe her out, because the speaking “mirror, mirror on the wall” did not consider her to be “the most beautiful in the whole country”, but the “a thousand times” prettier Snow White.

If you cover the route today, one thing remains to be said: The “bad woman” sketched by the Brothers Grimm must not only have been insane, but also insanely fit.

There are 35 kilometers between Lohr and Bieber, which she conquered three times, there and back, in order to transport the stepdaughter to the afterlife with a laces, a toxic comb and a poisoned apple.

Why are Snow White and the dwarfs located here

display

Fairy tales cannot be located, the scenes can be anywhere - actually.

The panorama changed in 1986 when Snow White had three new fathers in Lohr.

A trio of so-called Fabulogen found out in a wine tavern under the inflow of plenty of grape juice that the fairytale figure must have been the aristocratic Maria Sophia Catharina Margaretha Freyin von Erthal (1725–1796), who was born at Lohr Castle, and the forest must therefore have been the Spessart.

Source: WORLD infographic

Since then there has been a hype, and city guide Bettina Merz spans the arc from fiction to reality.

A vain, conceited stepmother gave it, a valuable mirror from the local manufactory, as well as the mountains and the dwarfs.

“They were miners,” says Merz.

“Because there used to be mining in the Spessart.

The tunnels were very low, and small people and children worked there.

To protect against falling dirt, they wore pointed hats, you can see that on old wood engravings. ”The glass coffin in which Snow White landed after the fatal bite into the apple also fit in the Spessart -“ because we have always had glass here ”.

The robbers in the Spessart really existed

display

What is missing is the prince.

In the fairy tale he released Snow White from the evil magic and led her in front of the altar, while in real life the pious, almost blind Maria Sophia joined the institute of the English Fräulein in Bamberg.

This background illuminates the biography in Lohrer Schloss, where the Spessart Museum is housed and the "Snow White Cabinet" is to be interpreted as a concession to the curiosity of the visitors.

The Snow White Trail begins in the alleys of Lohr

Source: dpa-tmn

What does museum director Barbara Grimm think of it, whose last name is a bizarre coincidence?

“The topic naturally makes us known,” says the 58-year-old.

“But Snow White is only a tiny fraction of the history of the castle and the museum.

That is why it is important for us to look at the whole thing with a twinkling eye.

Fairy tales were loved to be told, but never believed. "

Nevertheless, there is no way around the fairy tale sound room designed by Ms. Grimm, in which the showpiece is located among all the exhibits: the Snow White mirror with two sayings in French, which are set in artful medallions and thus communicate with the viewer, i.e. speak to a certain extent .

display

The fairytale beauty has long since overshadowed the Spessart robbers, who also have their place in the museum as the “inn in the Spessart”.

The novella by Wilhelm Hauff (1802–1827) served as a template for the successful film of the same name from 1958, which was characterized by the charm of Lilo Pulver and unrealistic robber romance, but the robbers in the Spessart really existed.

"At that time, many slipped into the robber career out of social hardship," explains museum director Grimm.

"They came from families who were homeless and had to move around."

The raised bog provides information about the past

But as a leitmotif, Snow White is wonderfully strained in Lohr.

Leader Merz shows dwarf sculptures, ponders the polemical horror white monument in front of the town hall, explains the Snow White rally for children.

And even knows where the wicked stepmother got the poison for the apple.

The city also has a pool of actresses for all kinds of events. Among them is Julia La Ferla, secretary.

The 24-year-old dresses up stylishly and speaks with a smile about her rise: As a child, with a white beard, she was a dwarf at performances by Snow White - now she's the boss.

Back on the Schneewittchenweg you don't encounter the beauty itself or the legendary Spessart robbers, but a man of flesh and blood: Burkhard Büdel, professor emeritus for plant ecology.

The playgrounds of his childhood were the Wiesbüttsee and the Wiesbüttmoor, where he rode his bike as a boy, especially fascinated by the adders.

Later, as a scientist, Büdel explored the raised bog as an "irreplaceable data archive", as he says, with a fund of almost 4,000 years.

He knows that originally there were no spruce trees growing in the Spessart, which have recently suffered extremely from the summer drought.

The Brothers Grimm received fairy tales

All of a sudden, real fairytale backdrops appear on the final stretch to Bieber, at Lochborner Teich, formerly a reservoir for the mines.

Dead trunks rise ghostly out of the water and inspire the imagination at dusk.

Are they not faces with tufts of hair on them, with wild beards hanging from them, with eye sockets?

Just get out of here quickly.

The old tree trunk protrudes from the Lochborn pond like a mythical creature

Source: dpa-tmn / Andreas Drouve

The final destination in the valley floor falls away: Bieber is slumbering.

In contrast to Lohr, there is no marketing offensive where Snow White found shelter with the dwarfs.

No dwarf museum, no dwarf house, no dwarf café.

Therefor two pizzerias.

display

Fairy tales have not let go of Burkhard Kling since childhood.

In the past, remembers the director of the Museum Brothers Grimm House in Steinau, like Hansel, he laid tracks in the forest in order to find his way back later - albeit from pine cones.

In Steinau, Father Grimm worked for a few years as a bailiff, and two of his sons romped through the room: Jacob and Wilhelm, the founders of German studies and publishers of the world-famous “Children's and Household Tales”.

Kling corrects the idea that the Grimms moved around as collectors of fairy tales, rather that contributions were made to them.

He admits, however, that there were stories that the Grimms "may have heard in their childhood".

Frau Holle dragged a feather pillow with her

The halls are drawn up with attention to detail - and full of curiosities.

Kling was not afraid to order an outfit from the erotic shop for the Little Red Riding Hood section.

On the other hand, the dress code for the fairy tale city tour with Ms. Holle alias Renate Ulrich is conservative: long skirt, hood, knitted stockings.

The 64-year-old carries a feather pillow with her.

You don't have to be afraid of her because she has "such big teeth" - as guaranteed in fairy tales.

The fairy tale city tour in Steinau also leads past the fairy tale fountain in front of the town hall

Source: dpa-tmn

Stations are the fairy tale fountain, the castle and the Katharinenkirche, next to whose portal strange grooves in the sandstone stand out.

According to the vernacular, they come from the devil, scratched in by anger, because a man escaped him here who had promised his soul to the prince of hell.

"Since a church is a holy, consecrated place, it was impossible for the devil to follow him," explains Ms. Holle, alias Ms. Ulrich, and provides the actual explanation for the grooves: "In the past, the gentlemen carried a sword or a saber, but they were not allowed to worship with a sharp weapon.

Then they ran their blades along the side of the entrance.

The weapons were symbolically defused - and they could get in. "

Water buffalo tend the landscape

Fairy tales are one thing, the magical worlds in the Spessart Nature Park are another.

Fog envelops centuries-old giant trees, moss pillows glow, woodpeckers hammer, the rushing of a brook rushes in.

Anyone in the Hafenlohrtal who thinks they have lost their minds because colossi suddenly appear that are more likely to be located in Asia - don't worry, the water buffalo really exist.

The water buffalo in the Hafenlohrtal fulfill important functions for the ecosystem

Source: dpa-tmn

display

The Buffalo Project has a multiple purpose.

The heavyweights act as landscapers and create habitats for other animals, but are also meat suppliers.

In the peaceful atmosphere of the valley or in the paddock near Bergrothenfels, some of them chew on their fate.

The lead cow is in charge, the role of the bull is reduced to reproduction and guarding the herd.

The perfect experience to finish off is a night in the tree house hotel near Gräfendorf.

As soon as the evening falls over the forest and the last engine noise dies in the distance, you listen to the black silence in the tree house and feel serenity.

In the morning there is haze in the Waizenbachtal until the sun breaks through the trees and a breakfast fairy appears with her abundantly filled basket.

Fairytale.

Exotic camp for a winter night in the Spessart: the tree house hotel near Gräfendorf

Source: dpa-tmn / Andreas Drouve (3)

Tips and information

Arrival:

Lohr can be reached by train from Berlin in around five hours, Steinau in four;

from Frankfurt the RE 55 takes one hour to Lohr (bahn.de);

the Spessart can be reached by car in around five and a half hours from Berlin and Hamburg, and in four from Munich.

Excursion destinations:

The Spessart Museum in Lohr (spessartmuseum.de) and the Brothers Grimm House and Museum Steinau (brueder-grimm-haus.de) are worthwhile.

Due to the lockdown, the houses are closed until at least January 31st, but the Grimm House can be visited virtually on a 3-D tour.

display

Accommodation:

In Lohr, for example, the hearty “Hotel Spessarttor”, double rooms from 70 euros (hotel-spessarttor.de);

High-priced alternative: “Baumhaushotel Seemühle” in Gräfendorf, overnight accommodation for two people in a tree house from 520 euros (das-baumhaushotel.de).

Information:

spessart-mainland.de

More tips for a vacation on your doorstep: