PEASANT LIFE IN THE BLACK FOREST 



By Karl Frederick Geiser 



With photographs by the author 



THE Black Forest region, which 

 has given the world so many 

 beautiful legends, weird super- 

 stitions, curious stories, and folk-tales, 

 covers an area of nearly nineteen hun- 

 dred square miles. The Rhine forms its 

 natural boundaries on the south and 

 west ; its eastern mountain ranges are 

 bordered by the plains of the Neckar 

 and the Nagold, while its northern limit 

 is marked by Baden-Baden. 



A convenient entrance into the heart 

 of the northern district of the Black 

 Forest may be made from Freuden- 

 stadt, a city of some ten thousand in- 

 habitants, situated high on one of the 

 outer mountain ridges which forms the 

 northeastern boundary. From here an 

 incline railway descends toward the 

 northwest into one of the most beautiful 

 valleys of the entire region. 



Removed from the beaten path of the 

 summer tourist, unspoiled by frequent 

 contact with Americans prone to heavy 

 "tipping," here is a country where life 

 may be observed in its rustic simplicity, 

 a community undisturbed by invention 

 and improved machinery, a remnant of 

 the ancient Swabian race, whose political 

 importance has long since departed and 

 whose former warlike proclivities have 

 been changed with the mellowing influ- 

 ence of centuries into the arts of peace. 

 Here dwells a people abiding by the 

 same manners and holding the same cus- 

 toms which their fathers and grand- 

 fathers before them held. Germans they 

 all are, but unlike the north German in 

 nearly every respect save in the sturdy 

 qualities of honesty and continuity of 

 purpose — qualities common to the race, 

 speaking a dialect that is scarcely under- 

 stood by a Prussian or a Saxon. 



The dominant impression of this re- 

 gion is made by the forest which crowns 

 every hill and borders every valley. 

 There are no large cities, and hence no 



great collections or museums containing 

 treasures of art; there are no large es- 

 tates, and therefore no splendid man- 

 sions, as in rural England. 



However, the region is not without 

 historic interest. Here and there an an- 

 cient cloister that has lent its name to a 

 hamlet or village or stands in some iso- 

 lated retreat, converted into a dwelling, 

 reminds one of the days of the monks 

 and the vicissitudes through which gen- 

 erations have passed. Indeed, there is 

 scarcely a valley or mountain that has 

 not furnished a legend or folk-tale to 

 German literature. 

 • A few hours' walk to the northwest of 

 Baiersbronn leads into the deep recesses 

 of the forest, and a by-path up the moun- 

 tain to the weird Mummelsee, the abode 

 of the nixe ; and still farther up the 

 Hornisgriinde, the highest elevation of 

 the northern district, is to the Black For- 

 est what the Brocken of the Harz moun- 

 tains is to northern Germany — the abode 

 of witches. 



Upon this marshy, elevated plateau, 

 covered with low shrubbery, rush grass, 

 feathermoss, liverwort, and sundew, a 

 solitary watchtower has been erected to 

 guard the traveler from the alluring 

 will-o'-the-wisp, so the credulous inhabi- 

 tants of the region say ; but, as it was 

 built by the state in 1871, it is more 

 likely that its purpose is military, serving 

 as a point of observation in case of a 

 French invasion. However, it affords a 

 splendid view to the peacefully inclined, 

 as it is situated upon the great divide 

 between the Rhine and the Neckar. 



Immediately to the west the glassy sur- 

 face of a mountain lake reflects a castle 

 situated upon its opposite bank, while 

 beyond and below lies the Rhine Valley, 

 dotted with villages and hamlets, and 

 far in the distance, beyond Appenweier, 

 the minster tower of Strassburg, veiled 

 in smoke and haze, rises against the hori- 



