The Bergstraße (, ) is an ancient

trade route A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over land or water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a singl ...

in the south-west of Germany, running north‒south from

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

via

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

to Wiesloch. The route and the area around it is a mountainous " theme route" running north–south along the western edge of 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 in southern

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

and northern

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 ...

. The route passes through the Bergstraße administrative district, and independent viticultural regions of Hessische Bergstraße and Badische Bergstraße. Between the cities of

and

Weinheim Weinheim (; ) is a town with about 43,000 inhabitants in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, approximately north of Heidelberg and northeast of Mannheim. Weinheim is known as the "Zwei-Burgen-Sta ...

the Upper Rhine Railway Company (OEG) tram route runs alongside.

Route

The route goes almost straight from north to south at the spot where the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

lowlands meet the western edge of the

. The name comes from the road's route along the foot of the mountains, the Rhine lowlands once being too damp to build a road there. The route mostly follows the modern B3 road. It begins in

and, after passing through Eberstadt, splits into the "Old Bergstraße" and the "New Bergstraße", which goes somewhat further to the west. The two routes meet again at Zwingenberg. In Weinheim-Lützelsachsen an old and a new Bergstraße once more form, the new one passing west of the old route as far as Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim, where the two meet once more. The route carrying on after the

Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar ...

from

to Wiesloch is still usually known as the Bergstraße, even though the type of country and climate typical of the Bergstraße is no longer as pronounced. The Bergstraße passes through three rural districts and two urban districts:

Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis (district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach, Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Bergstraße, Groß-Gerau, and the district-free city of Darmstadt, which it surrounds. Hist ...

, Kreis Bergstraße,

and the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis. The northern part belongs to

and the southern part to

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

. The border between these two '' Länder'' is between Heppenheim and Laudenbach. The Bergstraße was used as a trading route as far back as Roman times. The name ''bergstrasen'' was first recorded in 1165. A Latinised form of the name (''strata montana'') did not arise from the Romans but during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

. Older names are: ''strata publica'' (795), ''platea montium'' (819) and ''montana platea'' (1002). The route has changed slightly in places across the centuries. In 1955 traces of the old paved

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

were discovered during work on the drains in Heppenheim. They were moved to the Ferdinand Feuerbach Unit (on the corner of Karlstraße and Karl-Marx-Straße) and can still be seen there today. They cover an area of about 20 m².

Places along the route

The Bergstraße travels through the following towns (from north to south): *

**Darmstadt ** Darmstadt-Eberstadt *

Seeheim-Jugenheim Seeheim-Jugenheim is a municipality in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of approximately 17,000. Seeheim-Jugenheim consists of seven villages: * Balkhausen (population 693) *Jugenheim (population 4,448) *Mal ...

''(Old Bergstraße)'' **Malchen **Seeheim **Jugenheim * Alsbach-Hähnlein ''(Old Bergstraße)'' **Alsbach * Bickenbach ''(New Bergstraße)'' * Zwingenberg * Bensheim **Bensheim-Auerbach **Bensheim * Heppenheim * Laudenbach (Rhein-Neckar) * Hemsbach *

** Weinheim-Sulzbach **Weinheim ** Weinheim-Lützelsachsen ** Weinheim-Hohensachsen * Hirschberg an der Bergstraße **Großsachsen **Leutershausen * Schriesheim * Dossenheim *

** Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim ** Heidelberg-Neuenheim *:''

'' **Heidelberg ** Heidelberg-Rohrbach * Leimen (Baden) * Nußloch * Wiesloch

Countryside

The countryside directly along the route is also named after the road. The weather in the region is typically particularly mild and sunny, with around 1500 hours of sun every year. Spring starts earlier here than anywhere else in Germany. This and the good soil conditions (a fertile

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

soil) make the Bergstraße one of Germany's richest fruit-producing areas, with grapes, other fruit, almonds, sweet chestnuts and walnuts. The Bergstraße is famous for its

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

trees which thrive in the area and bloom as early as March. Other Mediterranean plants such as figs and

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

trees also grow there. Because of the mild climate,

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I, ...

(1765–1790), pausing at the Bergstraße on a trip back from

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, is said to have exclaimed "This is where Germany starts to become Italy". As part of the conurbation at the point where the

, Main and

rivers meet, the Bergstraße is highly developed and industrialised. But tourism is also of some importance there. Apart from the countryside, the most important sights are Heidelberg with its castle and old city; Darmstadt, the center of Jugendstil art, with its artists' colony; the chain of castles on the edge of the Oden forest (Castle Frankenstein, Alsbach Castle, Auerbach Castle, Starkenburg above Heppenheim, Wachenburg and Windeck above Weinheim, Strahlenburg above Schriesheim), as well as the picturesque old town centers in many cities and towns, especially the almost completely preserved (except for the city walls) town of Heppenheim with its splendid city hall, marketplace, "Bergstraße Cathedral", and numerous medieval half-timbered structures; and in addition the old town centers of Zwingenberg, Bensheim and Weinheim. An extraordinary sight in the immediate vicinity of the Bergstraße is the Carolingian-era entrance hall of the one-time Lorsch monastery, designated by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site.

Population history

The Bergstraße area was settled in early times. Numerous excavations have uncovered finds dating back to the times of the Linear Pottery c. 5500 BC and

Corded Ware culture The Corded Ware culture comprises a broad archaeological horizon of Europe between – 2350 BC, thus from the Late Neolithic, through the Copper Age, and ending in the early Bronze Age. Corded Ware culture encompassed a vast area, from t ...

s, who tilled the land and herded cattle there in around 2500 to 1500 BC. The population grew in Roman times and settlements were built in different sizes, '' villae rusticae''. These were the dominant economic units of the mountainous country along the Bergstraße between 120 and 260 AD.

References

:''Much of this article was translated from the German version of 2006-03-28''

External links