Around Osterode - Part 2 (South)

A part of the "Pferdeteich" where the hike begins was filled in to create the parking lot for the ALOHA swimming pool. It belonged to a former blank smithy. Fish farming was practiced in summer and after severe frost, the ice was "iced", i.e., cut into blocks and used by brewers to cool their cellars.

We turn right and pass the railway crossing. Past the vocational school, after about one hundred meters, we reach the "city wall", first mentioned in 1233. It was built from roughly hewn large river cobbles from the Söse, which are composed of quartzite from the Acker-Bruchberg. Gypsum was used as a binder. In the gypsum mortar joints of the city wall, plants typical for the rock vegetation of the Osterode gypsum areas settle.

Further on, passing the "Kaiserteich" on the left, we reach the viewpoint of the former "Augustental Gypsum Factory". Before World War I, up to 20 workers were employed. The operation was shut down in 1940.

Descending the path, passing a fire-fighting pond and carefully crossing the road, we arrive at the "Devil's Baths". Ponds and marshy depressions are remnants of intensive leaching of Werra anhydrite. Today, these ponds and swamp areas form valuable biotopes. The area of the Devil's Baths with the Quellerdfall Devil's Hole is under nature protection. Please stay on the path.

Since 1839, the "Papenhöhe" was used as a rest stop for cart drivers and a popular destination for walkers and school classes from nearby villages and Osterode. After the road from Herzberg to Osterode was relocated in 1937, the house became practically irrelevant as an inn. The path leads over a hill to the Aschenhütter Pond or "Black Pool" (to the left of the shooting range): about 120 m long and 50 m wide. Two-thirds are silted up. The sinkhole pond has no above-ground inflow or outflow. In the area of a retaining wall is the largest "seepage area of the Sieber system". Beneath about 15 m thick lower terrace gravels lie the karstifiable Werra anhydrite and downstream to Hörden the equally permeable main dolomite.

In dry periods, the Sieber loses its water here permanently. Various water markings have proven that the sunk Sieber water emerges at the Rhume spring, 9 km away. On the limestone hill above was an old castle complex. It was first and last mentioned in a document in 1337. It is doubtful if this castle was ever completed.

Along the Sieber, you go to Hörden, where a stop at the Eulenhof is possible. Through the village past the Edelhof, a former knight's estate of the von Berkefeldt family, the Karstwanderweg leads to the "hornbeam stand on the Südburg". The trees were formerly "snipped", trimmed down to the trunk. The branches were used as firewood and for livestock keeping.

The Karstwanderweg leads into the Hainholz nature reserve with well-developed karst phenomena on a very small area: karst spring, cave, episodic sinkhole pond, karst cone, sinkholes, karst springs and swallow holes.

Just before Düna, turn left and over the panorama path on the Rötzel, passing the Beierstein gypsum massif. On the right of the path, a system of ditches and embankments is clearly visible: remains of the old Osterode landwehr. It was built in the 14th century by the city to protect possessions and grazing livestock. The embankments were planted with thorn bushes. If enemies or cattle thieves approached, the message was passed via watchtowers to the city.

Further on over the former Osterode training ground, up to the Feldherrenhügel. In northern direction, the route leads back down over the former training ground to the starting point at ALOHA.

ALOHA Aqua-Land Osterode, Schwimmbadstr. 1, 37520 Osterode am Harz

Bus stop "Osterode am Harz Swimming Pool"