Pilgrims: Searching for meaning over the Alps
1st commandment: You should enjoy
Awakening: in the morning at eight at the Riemannhaus. Next to it rises the 2308 meter high summer stone
Before it gets serious with the faith, Georg takes one last time to the gentian. He takes a sip. Coughs. Sighs. And put the bottle back on the cupboard. He is ready. For the day, the way and somehow for the Lord God. Like a massive whale his body throws himself into the noisy sea of people in the hallway of the mountain hut. Within the next second he is gone.
I stare after him. Then on the tea in my hand, which suddenly seems to me strangely ascetic. And notice again: I really have no idea.
It is the first pilgrimage of my life. My faith was so far Protestant-sober, my relationship with God pragmatic-distanced, my idea of the pilgrims nebulous to cliché-laden: lonely paths through barren landscapes. Silent people. Meditation, contemplation and a silent prayer every few miles. And now I'm sitting here, in the Austrian Riemannhaus on the edge of the Steinerne Meer near Salzburg, at 2177 meters altitude and feel like at the Oktoberfest just before the curfew. The air roars of laughter and the confusion of voices, bacon is exchanged for mountain cheese, Ulmer addresses against Salzburg mobile numbers.
And in the midst of it, Georg, 53, clarinet player of the Trachtenkapelle Maria Alm and for five years the precursor of the Almer pilgrimage, just tried to explain to me why this day is the unrivaled highlight of the year for him and the other musicians: "A strain, of course, we play in between, and as a forerunner I have to find my way over the mountains, but you will not find such a community anywhere! And together it loses itself easier."Then he unpacked a hip flask, filled it up and stowed it in his breast pocket again - if that was enough to stop him beating him.
It is seven o'clock in the morning, the fair will start in one hour, but I have already learned the most important rule of pilgrimage: Searching for meaning may be fun.
2nd Commandment: You should value the masses
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde author Kristina Maroldt at the Kärlingerhaus
My day started in the middle of the night. At three o'clock I had left the pension in the Austrian Maria Alm at the foot of the Steinerne Meer. Behind me a few hours of sleep, in front of me the oldest high mountain pilgrimage in Europe: 32 kilometers and 1500 meters of altitude through forests and gorges, over pastures and rocks. The first goal should be the Riemannhaus, at eight o'clock the pilgrimage will begin with a mass. Then we want to pull over the high plateau of the Stone Sea north, descend via Funtensee and Kärlingerhaus to Königssee on the Bavarian side and return after the evening closing service in the pilgrimage chapel St. Bartholomä by boat and bus to Maria Alm.
It is the attempt of a careful rapprochement. Religion and me - this is a very intimate couple that has disintegrated over time. Our last meeting, at Christmas three years ago, finally made me break the contact: bad-tempered masses, mock piety, a tired, lamenting pastor. Does faith have to be romped off as passionlessly as traffic jam traffic jams? What does that have to do with my life? This pilgrimage is therefore an experiment: Can I find anything during the next 15 hours that will inspire me again for religion, for God and faith?
Of course, I had not thought of the pilgrimage on the nightly pension parking lot. But exactly that was now rolling towards me. Old and young, noisy, and half asleep, all of them were jostling them as if at the garbage table to the taxis, which were to take us to the via ferrata in the direction of the Riemannhaus. How to find enlightenment when you do not even recognize the waymarks behind a wall of anoraks? But then, after an hour's ascent, I stopped to look down into the valley - and could not believe my eyes: the crowd had changed. A gigantic, silent serpent of light was now winding through the darkness up the mountain. Countless headlamps merged into a single radiant band, from the last lanterns in the valley to the one bright blotch high above that was to be the destination of our first leg: the Riemannhaus. I looked and wondered, goosebumps on my back. Half an eternity. Only when the sky turned pale on the horizon, the lights went out, the magic faded, could I tear myself away. I went on.
3rd commandment: You should stand by your conviction
The Maria from a church in the Upper Palatinate wanders with
Pilgrim Jam, and me in the middle. Ah, wonderful. It is only nine, we have just left the Riemannhaus, the most exhausting part is still in front of us: the crossing of the Steinerne Meer. But I'm stuck between sprightly windbreaker wearers and cropped teenagers, in front of me the wooden gauntlets of a backpack-sized statue of Mary sway. I would like to know why he carries the statue along with the man who carries the Madonna in a Kraxe on his back. "So that the children in our community know that we are on pilgrimage!" Normally the statue stands in a church in the Upper Palatinate. Only when the group of pilgrims is on the move, to Altötting or just over the Steinerne Meer, he will fasten a Kraxe with the Maria on the shoulders. I look Maria into her wooden eyes. I like the idea of carrying his conviction with him so clearly - no matter how hard it weighs and how many it could hit the nose. Would I dare too? No idea. I'm not even sure which message I would ever get on my back!
The path over the high plateau is narrow. And treacherous. Sharp-edged rocks line it right and left, from a distance they actually look like a huge churning sea. It stretches for miles to the horizon, and the Schönfeldspitze rises in the middle like an island.
Once again I feel annoyed not to have marched off half an hour earlier. So I would have the way for myself alone! On the other hand, I would have had to do without the mountain fair: Hundreds of pilgrims, as draped in a monumental painting on the rocks surrounding the Riemannhaus. Right in the middle: wooden cross, pastor, traditional costume band. And the 28-year-old Annelies from Altötting, a brunette pilgrim-babe with a baseball cap and sunglasses, which summarized the scenery concisely, but aptly: "A madness!" Between Kyrie and intercessions, she then quickly introduced me to her mother-in-law - and her new pilgrim friend Sepp. "He comes from our neighboring town, but we got to know each other during the ascent just yesterday and since then we have been walking together." Sepp, still a bit pale under his mountaineering tan, added with a grin. Not only did they go on a pilgrimage, but they had already spent the night together in the Riemannhaus: "Belong to it." Then the conversation stopped, the three wanted to sing along. They actually knew all the old hymns by heart. Despite the hangover and obvious worldliness.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde author Kristina Maroldt
Maybe, I'm pondering in a traffic jam now, should I take such a spiritual matter of course just as a model - against the doubts at home. But the effect would not be as disappointing disappointing as the wine from the last Italian vacation, which drove in the exuberance of enthusiasm box by box to Germany - to find that he tasted fader there than on the beach at Luigi?
4th commandment: You should trust the way
It's midday. The sun burns. For almost two hours we march and see rocks, nothing but rocks. Every now and then a few flowers, like scattered smarties, they flash in the stone gray: Alpine bush, gentian and silver thistles. In between, a sleepy chewing mountain sheep watching our train.
I too would like to stop. Better yet, put me somewhere in the shade. But there is no shadow. Only light. And if I do not want to brood the rest of the day in this heat, I have to keep walking, on and on, until it gets easier. Life wisdom as a physical experience - no psychologist could come up with a more effective coaching concept.
Charity: Many young couples and cliques go hiking
Slowly I realize why this path has been so fascinating for more than 400 years. Originally only about a dozen pilgrimage, tells me the 72-year-old Hedwig, who climbs much faster than me with their brightly colored walking sticks as I over the stones. People wanted to say thank you for being spared the plague. Today, between 2000 and 3000 people go over the mountains every year - always on the Saturday after Bartholomew's Day. As repentance, meditation, time out or just for the sake of tradition. The motives are as different as the pilgrims themselves. "For example, I am going to make my neighbor healthy again," explains Hedwig, "because she has cancer."
I'm silent, my pilgrim motif seems to me terribly banal. How naive my Saul-Paulus experiment is. How should such a short way make me a suddenly believing person?
Descent. Finally. The first tree that gives shade, the first trickle that cools the feet. At the Funtensee, the Almsegen would actually have to start: a big event with a sermon and a stand concert. When I arrive there an hour later, no musician can be seen anymore. Too late. Again. Amazingly, I do not care. I finally met Maria for that. Salzburg native, Way of St. James and "absolute pilgrim fan". Even in everyday life, the 39-year-old looks for every day a Bible saying and meditate on it.
"Can 32 kilometers change us?"I wanted to know about her.Maria, who was traveling with another woman and an old man, then told me her miracle of pilgrimage: It was as if bewitched today, she said, constantly she and her sister-in-law came too late, even to Mass, at some point they would have the sense of doubted whole pilgrimage. But then they met this old man, completely exhausted from the heat. They had provided him with water and glucose, he was feeling better. "And guess what my Bible saying said today!" - "No idea." - "You should serve each other!" Maria is beaming at me. "What I'm trying to tell you is, just wait and see, there's something for everyone, maybe not what you expect, but you always take something with you!"
5th commandment: You should take your time
Beatitude: The Funtensee is considered the coldest place in Germany. On the pilgrimage he is the green oasis
It gets hotter, my temples throb, and my knees feel almost as wobbly as the chocolate pudding that I ordered extra for dessert last night - you have to make sure you have energy reserves. But they are now finally used up. With the last of my strength, I wander past the rich green alpine hollow on Funtensee, the water surface glistens like a mirage. I drag myself under the umbrellas on the terrace of the Kärlingerhaus, let myself be flopped on a wooden bench. Why am I doing this?
After two apple spritzers and a big piece of cheesecake I feel better. Of course, most pilgrims have moved on. But again my snail's pace has something unexpectedly good: For the first time on this day I have the way for me. He leads me first through a canyon in which I hear each of my lonely footsteps echoing. Then I dive into a shimmering magic forest. Tree giants lolling next to mountain pine gnomes, the stream gurgling like a tipsy faun. A flash between the spruces: the Königssee, as if from another world. I step by step, watch, listen, sniff. Allow me, so close to the finish, finally the time I always tried to catch up before. Not this time, because traffic jams or heat force me to wait, but on purpose.
And suddenly it happens: My thoughts become as easy as George's gentian could never have done. The pondering about pilgrim motifs is losing importance as well as the idea that I will certainly miss the service in St. Bartholomä at this rate. All of a sudden, I do not even care what I have to do as a Protestant on an arch-catholic pilgrimage with pastor, brass band and Madonna statues. I already found it.
Information about pilgrimage in Europe
Almer pilgrimage. Every Saturday after St. Bartholomew's Day (24th of August), 32 kilometers from Riemannhaus near Maria Alm (Austria) to St. Bartholomä am Königssee (Germany). Tickets for shipping and bus transfer are sold during the pilgrimage. Arrival: by train to Saalfelden or Bischofshofen, from there regular bus service to Maria Alm. Or by plane to Salzburg Airport, from there transfer service to Maria Alm (35 Euro / person). Accommodation: Pension Struber, Griesbachwinkel 3, A-5761 Maria Alm, Tel. 00 43/65 84/77 62).
Information: Tourist Office Maria Alm, Tel. 43/62 16/202 02 72 70, www.hochkoenig.at
Other pilgrimage routes in Europe
St. James. Network of paths throughout Europe, all leading to Santiago de Compostela (Spain), so basically anyone can walk away from their own front door. The most famous part is the Spanish (Camino Francés), it leads over a distance of 755 kilometers from the Pyrenees to Santiago. Info: z. B. about www.deutsche-jakobusgesellschaft.de, www.jakobus-info.de
Frankenweg. Also known as Via Francigena, the oldest Western pilgrimage route, over 1650 kilometers from Canterbury (United Kingdom) through France and Switzerland via the St. Bernard Pass to Rome. Information: www.viafrancigena.com (in English). Book tip: "Via Francigena" (Conrad Stein Verlag, 14,90 Euro).
Marie pilgrimage. Central European counterpart to the Way of St. James, 1000 kilometers from Czestochowa (Poland) via Leutschau (Slovakia) to Mariazell (Austria), on the route are also Krakow and Vienna. Book tip: "On the Marienpilgerweg" (Tyrolia, 19.90 Euro). St Francis. For about 500 kilometers, it traces the footsteps of Francis of Assisi from Florence to monasteries and places like Assisi to Rome. Book tip: "Franziskusweg" (Conrad Stein Verlag, 12,90 Euro).
Ecumenical pilgrimage. Opened only a few years ago way leads over 450 kilometers from Görlitz (Saxony) via Leipzig and Eisenach to Vacha (Thuringia) in the footsteps of the medieval trade Via Regia. Information: Tel. 036 43/50 28 97, www.oekumenischer-pilgerweg.de
Via Nova. Also recently opened: 250 kilometers from Metten in Bavaria to St. Wolfgang in Austria. Information: www.pilgerweg-vianova.de
Hostels
Along the Way of St. James, there are numerous pilgrimage hostels, most of which are run by monasteries or communities. Reservation is not possible, beds will be allocated according to arrival time, free or for a small donation.Do not forget sleeping bag! For the overnight stay you need a pilgrim pass (available at the Deutsche St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft, s.o.). The Ecumenical Pilgrimage also has a good hostel network. Other addresses for cheap pilgrim accommodation in Germany at the Kolping Society (www.kolpinghaeuser.de), the Association of Christian Hoteliers (www.vch.de) and the Christian Association of Young People (www.cvjm.de).
Read
Pilgrims. Beautiful illustrated book with stories about places and ways in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Moewig, 14.95 Euro).
On the Way of St. James. In diary form tells Paulo Coelho of his own hike to Santiago de Compostela in 1986. A classic of pilgrim literature (Diogenes, 8.90 euros).
Get started to arrive. The fascination of pilgrimage described in a collection of historical and modern pilgrimage stories, from "Treasure Island" author Robert Louis Stevenson to actress Shirley MacLaine (Malik, 14.90 Euros).
The dream of pilgrimage. 14 famous places of pilgrimage in Europe are vividly described. With additional tourist information and Internet addresses (Diederichs, 19.95 euros). - Jakobswege in Germany. Art-historical illustrated book about the most important ways of Jakobswege in Germany (Theiss, 29,90 Euro).
Pilgrims in Germany. Great treasure trove for practical information, current addresses and specific tips (Merian, 8,85 Euro).
I'm off. The bestseller by Hape Kerkeling (Malik, 19.90 Euro).
Info
Bavarian pilgrims office. Organizes trips to places of pilgrimage worldwide (Dachauerstrasse 9, Munich, Tel. 089/545 81 10, www.pilgerreisen.de).
Eurovia. Austrian Pilgrim's Association with very informative website (www.eurovia.tv, Tel. 00 43/650 71/663 33).
