Last week, the 'Poetry Trail' in Oberstein town center was officially opened by Lord Mayor Frank Frühauf, former District Administrator Wolfgang Hey and Joachim Schroetter as representatives of the Nahe Authors' Group. The themed trail leads from the market square up to the Felsenkirche church and then on to the 'Im Gebück' tower. Along the route there are 15 plaques on which thought-provoking, amusing but also critical poems by members of the authors' group can be read.
In his speech, Mayor Frühauf thanked the Nahe authors' group for their initiative in setting up what is now the third themed trail in the Oberstein district. The themed trails - the Edelsteinweg and Bengelweg trails have already been created - are the result of public participation as part of the federal and state funding program "Active Town Centres - Oberstein Town Centre". "One of the measures to make the town center more attractive at the time was to improve the design of the pedestrian zone, which should also include the adjacent inner-city areas and the path connections to the Felsenkirche church," explained Frühauf.
This gave rise to the idea of themed trails. On the one hand, they are intended to create an additional tourist attraction and, on the other, to provide the local population with new perspectives on their town. The realization of the poetry trail was severely delayed by the lengthy rock stabilization work in the area around the rock church. "But today is the day and I think that is good news," emphasized the mayor, because the poetry trail is an enrichment for the Oberstein district.
Former district administrator Hey pointed out that the original idea for the poetry trail came from Joachim Schroetter: "He put this idea forward in our group and it found a majority." He and Schroetter then pushed ahead with the project together with the city. Due to the delay caused by the rock stabilization work, the group of authors had feared that the project would disappear into oblivion. "But the city kept its word and today we are celebrating the inauguration," says Hey.
The former district administrator emphasized that, as far as he knew, there was only one other poetry trail in Germany. This is the Droste Landscape in Münsterland, which was created as a hiking trail and is dedicated to the poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. "With our inner-city poetry trail in this winding corner of Oberstein, which also contains texts by several authors, we are breaking new ground." The poets also want to use their texts to create space again for poetry, a literary genre that has become somewhat unfashionable. "We are aware that not all readers will probably like the texts," says Hey, "but we accept that." Hey himself contributed a poem about the town of Idar-Oberstein for the information column on the market square.
In addition to these comments, Joachim Schroetter pointed out that he would welcome the opportunity for readers of the poems to share their opinions. Mayor Frühauf promised to check whether this could be realized in the short term. Afterwards, the participants in the opening ceremony set off together along the poetry trail to take in the poems.