The Teufelsmühle () is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

south of

Loffenau Loffenau is a town in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Loffenau is located within a tributary valley of the Murg River in the western slopes of the northern Black Forest. History Loffenau enjoys a rich histo ...

in the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north b ...

. It lies between the valleys of the Murg in the west and the Alb in the east. The Alb rises near the eastern flank of the mountain (at the ''Albursprung''), before reaching

Bad Herrenalb Bad Herrenalb is a municipality in the district of Calw, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the northern Black Forest, 15 km east of Baden-Baden, and 22 km southwest of Pforzheim. The town is connected to the city of K ...

a few kilometres further north. Over the summit plateau of the Teufelsmühle, which runs in a north-south direction, runs the boundary between the municipalities of Gernsbach in the Murg valley and Loffenau, both of which belong to the

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

county of

Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50,000 (2011). Rastatt was a ...

Infrastructure

20200530 Panorama-Teufelsmühle2a Wikipedia

In 1910, the Teufelsmühle Tower was erected on the summit plateau, which stood 10 metres high. In 1952 the

observation tower An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, an ...

was raised to a height of 16.2 metres. In 1958, a building was added that was eventually expanded into a hiker's inn. Not far from the tower stand the Teufelsmühle mountain inn. Together the building and the guest house of Teufelsmühle form a hamlet in the municipality of Loffenau. It is accessible by motor vehicles on a minor road from Rißwasen. The mountain is a base for walks and mountain bike tours. Below the observation tower at a height of is a launch site for the Loffenau Hang Gliding Club (''Drachenflugclub Loffenau'') which it has operated since 1977 and is used by

hang gliders Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

and, today, also by

paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like ' ...

s. The landing zone is 550 metres below at Loffenau. On the Teufelsmühle Tower is a plaque with a picture of Hubertus Waldteufel, a local poet, whose real name was Emil Dietz and who lived from 1879 to 1957, ending his days in

-Zieflensberg. The Waldteufel Way (''Waldteufelweg'') in Upper Gaistal is named after him.Heinz Volz: ''Die Spur des Waldteufels'', in: ''Badisches Tagblatt'', Lokalausgabe Murgtal dated 7 March 2009

Name

The Teufelsmühle does not get its name (which means "Devil's Mill") from an actual mill, but a popular interpretation of the glacial stone run found here. In the absence of a nearby rock massif and without knowing about the transportation of large boulders by prehistoric glaciers, the existence of large boulders is difficult to explain. So according to legend the scattered boulders were blocks from a former mill built by the devil.

References

External links

*
Description of the hiking trail to the Teufelsmühle
on the official website of Bad Herrenalb
Description of the path to the Teufelsmühle

with zoomable panoramic photograph. {{DEFAULTSORT:Teufelsmuhle Mountains under 1000 metres Mountains and hills of Baden-Württemberg Mountains and hills of the Black Forest Rastatt (district)