A Carriage Ride Through the Black Forest
Mark Twain and Family Travel from Baden-Baden to Allerheiligen in 1878
The Black Forest Carriage Excursion
In April of 1878 Sam and Olivia Clemens took their family of two children, Susy six and Clara four, an entourage of a German nursemaid, Rosa Hay and a butler, George Griffin, and possibly two other people, to Europe. On April 24, They landed at Le Havre, France, on the 25th they were in Hamburg; May 2nd Cassel, May 3rd Frankfort. By May 5th or 6th they were in Heidelberg. They made excursions to Mannheim and Worms and by July 23rd, they were in Baden-Baden awaiting Joe Twichell’s arrival.
Indications are that they did not much care for Baden-Baden so they decided to take a carriage ride through the Black Forest. Sam followed the advice of Bædeker’s guide book, “The Rhine from Rotterdam to Constance”, 1873 edition. On July 24, 1878 they started for Forbach on the Murg River. Bædeker describes Forbach as “a thriving village, with a picturesque church on a hill, the finest point in the valley.” They had lunch there: “trout under a grape arbor, & 3 Germans eating in general room. The village assembled to see a tinker mend a tin boiler. School where they sang—something like our singing geography—one monotonous tune of ½ doz. notes.
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Beyond Forbach the Murgthal, or Murg Valley, described by Bædeker as secluded, but grand and beautiful, resembling some of the wildest Swiss valleys. About halfway to Schönmünzach the Rauhmünzach falls into the Murg. The Murg valley is one of the largest and deepest valleys in the Black Forest running in a northerly direction. It separates the precipitation-rich main crest of the Northern Black Forest, to the west, from the densely forested bunter sandstone plateau in the east.
From Forbach the entourage continued on to the village of Schönmünzach. Twain notes after arriving : Through fine gorge scenery by a brook to Post-inn at Schonmünd or some such name. Nice pictures on walls, nice paper, hand crocheted counterpanes. How can they have such nice inns in the woods.
There is no record but it appears that the Clemenses spent the night in Schönmünzach then took “the most frequented road from the Murgthal”. From Schönmünzach west to Zwickgabel, then ascending along the Langenbach, which at Zwickgabel unites with the Schönmünz ; passes Vorder-Langenbach, where there is a timber sluice, and at Hinter-Langenbach, ascends to the left. The village of Zwickgabel is a woodcutters' settlement from the 18th century.
The road now ascends more abruptly to the Eckle, a strip of wood on the mountain, where a stone marks the boundary between Wurtemberg and Baden, and a view of the Vosges is obtained. The road to the left descends to Seebach. There is no mention of the Clemenses visiting Mummelsee or the Hornisgrinde so they likely continued on to Allerheiligen.
Baedeker notes that travellers “coming from Seebach need not proceed as far as Ottenhöfen, but should diverge to the left at the Hagenbrücke, 3/4 mile from Seebach, and enter the Gottschlägthal.” Twain, however, notes in his journal on the 25th: An infernal cuckoo clock in hotel where we took dinner Offenbosen 1 1/2 hour before Allerheiligen. This hints that they may have gone to Ottenhöfen.
The carriage-road from Ottenhöfen to Allerheiligen ascends the Unterwasser-Thal towards the south. to the Neuhaus (Erbprinz). Here the new road describes a wide curve in the valley towards the left, while the old road ascends the steep slope on the right, on the summit of which the roads again unite. Fine retrospective views from the new road: 1 1/2 mile from the Neuhaus a way-post indicates the way to the Edelfranengrab by Blöchereck.
From the top of the hill the road descends in windings to Allerheiligen, or All Saints' Abbey, the first glimpse of which is very striking. The ruins of the abbey, founded by the Duchess Uta, occupies almost the entire breadth of the wooded dale.
According to the foundation legend, around 1192, Duchess Uta of Schauenburg wished to build a monastery in memory of her late husband, Welf VI. To decide on its location she tied a bag of gold to a donkey and set it to roam. At length the donkey threw off the bag at a remote and inaccessible spot where Uta constructed a wooden chapel, which was gradually extended to a Premonstratensian monastery.
In 1804, a fire started when a bolt of lightning struck the church tower, which caused irreversible destruction. In 1816 the ruins were sold for demolition and used as a quarry for stone and scrap for churches in the valleys of the Rench and the Acher. The altars and saints' figures are to be found in numerous local churches, for example in Bad Peterstal, Oppenau, Ottenhöfen and Achern. Three statues are above the gateway of the prince's chapel at Lichtenthal Abbey, representing Saint Helena, Uta of Schauenburg and Gerung.
Not until the end of the 19th century, when tourism finally reached the Lierbach valley and its waterfalls, were any steps taken to secure what was left of the ruins, which were then put into the condition they are in today.
There are notes in Mark Twain’s Journal for July 25 but it is very difficult to tell which, if any apply to the abbey or the hotel at the abbey. He did note “Hotel with nobody visible—one (very nice) room-girl for 3 floors—& an awful bell to call folks to supper . I wish I could hear myself talk German.”
Immediately below the monastery is a rugged cleft in the rocks, formed apparently by volcanic agency, through which the Grindenbach is precipitated over blocks of granite in seven falls, termed the ‘Sieben Bütten’ (Seven cauldrons), or Büttenstein Falls, some of them 50 ft. in height, into the valley beneath. A good path, cut through the rock at places, or supported by ladders, descends by the falls to the bottom of the valley, 300 ft. below. From the second ‘Rondel’, or platform, the double fall is best surveyed. The waterfalls, which are chiefly remarkable for their picturesque accessories, are seen to the best advantage in ascending from the valley below.
Twain notes that C "went down & visited the waterfalls." This was apparently Clara. She would have been four years old so was obviously accompanied, probably by their nursemaid Rosa Hay.
Bædeker writes: “At the finger-post by the bridge beyond the falls the carriage-road from Allerheiligen is reached and it now follows the bank of the Lierbach (as the Grindenbach is now called) high on the slope of the hill. At the Kreuz Inn, near Oppenau the road to Freudenstadt and Antogast diverges to the right. At the busy little town of Oppenau 'Kirschwasser' is largely manufactured.
Kirschwasser, German for 'cherry water', is a clear, colourless brandy traditionally made from double distillation of morello cherries. Because morellos were originally grown in the Black Forest regions of Germany, kirschwasser is believed to have originated there. Kirschwasser is colourless because it is either not aged in wood or was aged in barrels made of ash. It may have been aged in paraffin-lined wood barrels or earthenware vessels.
Mark Twain’s plan for returning to Baden-Baden was from Allerheiligen to Openau then to Appenweier . Bædeker notes that a diligence ran between these points twice a day and the trip was about two hours. Indications are that he intended to visit Offenberg and return to Baden-Baden from there. t
Offenburg, a small town on the Kinzig, contains a statue of Sir Francis Drake, ‘the introducer of the potato into Europe, 1586.’ Modern Gothic church in red sandstone with open tower. It was formerly an imperial town. Why Twain wished to visit is unknown.
By July 26 or 27, the entourage was back at their hotel in Baden-Baden. Joe Twichell arrived August 1st. He stayed in Europe until September 8 during which he and Sam made many excursions that inspired Mark Twain’s book “A Tramp Abroad”.