Route between Hüpstedt and Rüdigershagen
After departing Mühlhausen on their way from Gotha to Braunschweig in April 1795, Caroline and Auguste became involved in the following episode traversing the short but steeply elevated forested area between the villages of Hüpstedt and Rüdigershagen:
“The horses genuinely did get stuck in a sunken, deeply rutted, narrow road leading down a sizable mountain. We scarcely had enough room to get out of the coach and then also scarcely enough to proceed ahead on foot. A hunter came along and assisted the driver, though we stood at the foot of the mountain for probably half an hour before even being able to hear the coachman’s voice again. Gustel became extremely fretful, weeping for the horses because she could not imagine they would ever be able to get up again. But get up they did, and at midday we then stopped in the city of Worbes.”
(Topographische Karte (Meßtischblätter), 4628 [1872]; Ndr. Orschla. [1853] [Berlin: Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme, 1872], Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden.)
Here a 1929 postcard of the forest road along which Caroline and Auguste were traveling.
Entering the forest with Hüpstedt behind in the distance
Note: The following photos view the route of Caroline and Auguste’s behind the coach. That is, what the viewer sees is the stretch of road along which the carriage has just traveled rather than the stretch ahead of the carriage.
All following photographs © Marc Herzig and courtesy of the quaeldich cycling group and website GmbH Berlin. With kind permission; many thanks for this group’s generosity.
Initial stage of the route through and over the forest
The route proceeds north into the forest.
Coming out of an ascending curve within the Hüpstedt Forest
Yet another ascending curve.
More curves along the Route
About to cross the county line from south to north
Remember the carriage would be traveling toward the viewer.
More curves.
Somewhere over the next several photos Caroline and Auguste’s carriage gets stuck.
Carriage traveling through a dense forest, 17th–18th century.
(Adam Frans Meulen, Waldinneres mit Kutsche [ca. 1688–1724]; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum; Museums./Signatur JC Hafner AB 3.10.)
Here passengers on foot waiting for the carriage to catch up on the difficult and hilly terrain, essentially as Caroline and Auguste did.
(Taschen-Kalender auf das Jahr 1811, mit sechs Fabeln von Lafontaine [1811]; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung.)
Passengers climb out of a carriage accident.
Caroline and Auguste’s experience seems to have been similar to that of the passengers in this illustration.
(Anonymous nineteenth-century engraving.)
The carriage emerges from the forest
Now looking forward (to the northwest) toward the Eichsfelder Valley or “Basin” approaching Rüdigershagen
Descending eastward toward Rüdigershagen
Note the sign at left indicating the town limits of Rüdigershagen and the directional arrow back to Hüpstedt.
Town limit of Rüdigershagen
Sign indicating the town limit of Rüdigershagen and the route back to Hüpstedt.
Coming from the direction of the village Oberdorf
Route coming from the east into Rüdigershagen
Arrival crossroads in Rüdigershagen
Note the elevated forested area behind the houses. To follow Marc Herzig’s original cycle route from Rüdigershagen to Hüpstedt, click on the “back” arrows at left.
Rüdigershagen 1916
Rüdigershagen against the backdrop of the elevated forested area out of which Caroline and Auguste have just emerged.
(1916 postcard.)
Rüdigershagen
Caroline and Auguste then continued their journey on through the village of Rüdigershagen, here on an early postcard.