Postal Robbery Route | Lahn-Dill-Bergland Nature Park

After six previously unsuccessful attempts, on May 19, 1822, eight poor farmers and day laborers from Kombach attacked the mail coach that drove monthly from Gladenbach to Giessen. The raid took place in the Subach, a ravine near Mornshausen. The booty amounted to 10,466 guilders. However, the sudden wealth was the poor farmers' undoing.

They were indeed convicted. Robber captain David Briel, whose idea was the mail robbery, escaped his arrest and the death sentence by fleeing to America. A second robber is said to have escaped to South Africa and lived there "in the lap of luxury". Two of those arrested committed suicide. The other four mail robbers died on October 7, 1824 in Giessen on the scaffold. In 1971, Volker Schlöndorff commemorated the post robbery in the Subach with the film: "The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach".

The Extratour post robbery route takes hikers past the original scene of the post robbery in the Subach. But the path offers much more. The lookout tower on the Erdhausener Koppe offers hikers impressive views of the Salzbödetal.

Also noteworthy are the forest fields "Weites Feld" and "Rodenhausen Nord", as well as the salt spring in the Salzbödetal with a rest area.

The Kornhaus with its dining room and beer garden at the end of the circular hiking trail invites you to stop off.