The best cycling routes around Gräfenthal

At the Schildwiese rest stop, there is a very special piece of Rennsteig history: a small customs house that is reminiscent of the former division of Germany. It was created by Günther Schmidt from Spechtsbrunn. With a lot of humor, he has designed a place here that recalls the time when the Rennsteig was actually divided by the border. Today, you can hike here without any passport control.

Through the construction of the GDR border facilities in 1962, the residents of Kleinlichtenhain found themselves in the curious situation of having to live in no man's land between the two German states. The Thuringian village with three houses and twenty inhabitants officially belonged to the GDR. However, because it was located in the narrow "Kleintettauer Winkel", which protruded like a spur into Bavarian territory, it was separated from GDR territory by the newly created death strip. The GDR citizens of Kleinlichtenhain could move freely to the West, but there was no way to get into the "Eastern Zone". The memorial with information boards and documentary photos commemorates this unusual situation.

The border between the Free States of Bavaria and Thuringia is around 400 kilometers long. During the division of Germany, this was the most heavily guarded and deadliest part of the Iron Curtain, with sharp dogs on long leashes, landmines, and self-firing systems on meter-high border fences. Today, the border can only be recognized by a line of paving stones in the asphalt. The former death strip has become the "Green Belt", a unique nature reserve that stretches across Germany from the Baltic Sea to the Fichtel Mountains.

During the Rennsteig Church Day on June 20, 2009, the memorial at Schildwiese was inaugurated. The metal cross, over four meters high, was designed by the builders from original parts of the old border fence. In front of it, a plaque on a stone block commemorates the people who died in this section of the inner-German border, and all victims of the wall and barbed wire during the German division.

The "Zollhaus" at the Rennsteig border monument is not a restored historical building. The hut was erected and equipped in autumn 2016 by the Frankenwaldverein Kleintettau. It is intended to commemorate the vibrant customs history of this border region and the era of German division. The monument also includes a historical border stone and two posts with the coats of arms of the Free State of Bavaria and the district of Kronach on one side, and the Free State of Thuringia and the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt on the other.

Very nice place for a break

Rest stop at the old Griffelschiefer slate quarry. Although the black rock has not been mined there for decades, the surreal landscapes of sharp edges and steps, the huge dumps of black slabs still bear witness to the work of generations of Spechtsbrunn residents. The rock was processed immediately on-site by the quarry workers in huts into raw griffels, then turned, ground, and packed in the village – home work primarily for the women and children of the place.

The historic customs house on the border between Bavaria and Thuringia near Kleintettau (Markt Tettau) is a reconstructed historic customs station. It is located directly on the legendary Rennsteig hiking trail on the so-called Schildwiese. Today, the small building serves as a historical site and border memorial, commemorating the decades-long inner-German division.