The Badener Höhe is a mountain in the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest () 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 by a line from Karlsruh ...

in the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...

. It lies within the borough of

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

and municipality of

Forbach Forbach ( , , ; ) is a commune in the French department of Moselle, northeastern French region of Grand Est. It is located on the German border approximately 15 minutes from the center of Saarbrücken, Germany, with which it constitutes a ...

. With a height of , it is the highest point in the borough of Baden-Baden.

Location

The mountain rises above the hamlet of Herrenwies near the Schwarzenbach Reservoir. Its western and southern region is part of the Black Forest National Park.

Observation tower and views

On the mountaintop, besides a refuge hut, is the 30-metre-high Frederick Tower (''Friedrichsturm'') built in 1890 by Anton Klein from red

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and inaugurated on 5 October 1891 by

Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden Frederick I (; 9 September 1826 – 28 September 1907) was the Grand Duke of Baden from 1858 to 1907. Life Frederick was born in Karlsruhe, Baden, on 9 September 1826. He was the third son of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden and Princess ...

. The lookout tower is a highly visible cultural monument.Friedrichsturm (Badener Höhe)
on the website of the town of Baden-Baden. From here one can see far over the northern Black Forest, ''inter alia'' to Herrenwies, the nearby mountains of Mehliskopf and

Hornisgrinde The Hornisgrinde, 1,164 m (3,820 ft), is the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest of Germany. The Hornisgrinde lies in northern Ortenaukreis district. Origin of the name The name is probably derived from Latin, and essenti ...

. To the north, on a very clear day, the

Großer Feldberg The Großer Feldberg ('Great Field Mountain') is, at a height of 879.5 metres, the highest elevation of the Taunus mountains, and of the entire Rhenish Massif. It is situated in the Hochtaunuskreis district in Hesse, Germany. The Feldberg/Taunus ...

, the

Taunus The Taunus () is a mountain range in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located north west of Frankfurt and north of Wiesbaden. The tallest peak in the range is '' Großer Feldberg'' at 878 m; other notable peaks are '' Kleiner Feldberg' ...

hills and the

Melibokus The Melibokus (also ''Melibocus'', ''Malchen'' or ''Malschen'') is at 517 metres (1696 feet), the highest hill in the Bergstraße region of southern Hesse, central Germany. It was also the name of a hill in Germania described by classical ...

in the

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the Germany, German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße Route, Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried' ...

Forest may be seen. To the north-northwest is the

Palatinate Forest The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a List of landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate, low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate (region), Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatina ...

and, in good weather, even the

Donnersberg The Donnersberg (; literally: "thunder mountain") is the highest peak of the Palatinate () region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen and Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after th ...

may be seen. To the west, in France, rise the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

. In extremely good visibility some

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

s of the

Swiss Alps The Alps, Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main Physica ...

may be visible to the far south-southeast. The panoramic view extends to the east to

Swabian Jura The Swabian Jura ( , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of Swabia. It is part of th ...

. The tower was built in 1884 on the establishment of the Baden-Baden branch of

Black Forest Club The Schwarzwaldverein (Black Forest Club or Black Forest Association) was founded in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany) in 1864, making it the oldest German hiking and mountaineering club. The Schwarzwaldverein has almost 90,000 members in 241 loca ...

. In 2002, the tower had to be closed for safety reasons. Thanks to a fundraiser, the necessary restoration works were carried out quickly and the tower was re-opened on 19 June 2003.

Tourism

The Badener Höhe is now a popular hiking and excursion destination that is well linked to many hiking trails (such as the West Way or ''Westweg''). The forest on the summit of the Badener Höhe fell victim to several storms, including Hurricane Lothar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badener Hohe Mountains and hills of the Black Forest Mountains and hills of Baden-Württemberg One-thousanders of Germany Baden-Baden