The Hohenberg is a high hill in the
Palatinate Forest, in the municipalities of
Birkweiler
Birkweiler is a municipality in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Location
The municipality is a typical wine village on the German Wine Route
The German Wine RouteScheunemann J., Stewart J., Walker N. an ...
,
Queichhambach and
Siebeldingen
Siebeldingen is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country ...
. At its summit is an
observation tower, a
refuge hut
Refuge is a place or state of safety. It may also refer to a more specific meaning:
Safety
* Area of refuge, a location in a building that may be used by occupants in the event of a fire
* Bunker, a defensive fortification designed to protect pe ...
and starting ramps for
hang gliders.
Observation tower
On the site of the present-day observation tower a
telegraph station
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
was erected during the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
in 1794, one of a chain of such stations from Paris via Metz to Landau. The station was abandoned following the transfer of
Electoral Palatinate to
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
in May 1816.
From August to September 1879 an observation tower, just under 9 metres high, was erected at the summit by the conservation societies of
Annweiler and
Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...
. It was built as a cone-shaped pyramid using dry mortarless construction. The core of the tower was mostly made of rubble. A staircase led up the western side of the tower to the viewing platform on the top.
In the 1960s the first stones worked loose as a result of age and in 1970 the eastern side of the tower collapsed. In 1971, DM 30,000 was invested in the building of an access track for motor vehicles and the rebuilding of the tower.
In 2002 the observation tower collapsed again. A construction site fence prevents access to the tower remains. Restoration costs are estimated at € 120,000. The municipality is trying to obtain
EU funding.
[DIE RHEINPFALZ, No. 77, Südwestdeutsche Zeitung, 1 April 2010]
Sport
At the western end of the summit are the Schumacher rocks. Two starting ramps for hang gliders have been built here. From the rocks there are clear views of the three castles of
Trifels,
Anebos and
Scharfenberg.
File:2012 Pfälzerwald 363 Hohenberg 552 m.JPG, The Hohenberg seen from the Rehberg Tower
File:Hohenbergturm.jpg, The collapsed viewing tower on the Hohenberg
References
{{reflist
Mountains and hills of Rhineland-Palatinate
Mountains and hills of the Palatinate Forest
Südliche Weinstraße