Großer Heuberg or Grosser Heuberg, often simply called Heuberg, is the name of a sparsely populated plateau in the southwestern Swabian Jura with mountains of about 1,000 metres above sea level or even higher. The word beginning Heu is German for hay, which was the major income source for the inhabitants in recent times and is until today formative for the landscape of the Heuberg. The word endingberg means mountain.
The Überbündische Meeting took place 1977 and 2017 in Allenspach near Böttingen courtyard of the evangelical church youth, Jungenschaft Horte. A total of 3.400 people took part in at least 45 different societies and institutions of scouts and youth movement.
Climate
The climate of the Heuberg is harsh and cold; precipitation averages annually.
Legends
Wangen
Places now lost are remembered in legend. A town called "Wangen" between Hossingen and Meßstetten has now disappeared. An as-yet undiscovered Celtic town of Pyrene was mentioned in ancient sources. The identification of Pyrene would bring special honor to researchers, since it is the oldest town in the Upper Danube region known from written sources. The locality "Neu-Wangenhausen", mentioned in a document from 1477, could be no other place in the district. The microtoponyms of the mountaintop "Weng" in the Heuberg Training Area and "Wangen" by the radar installation are in common use.
Antiquities
During the construction of a drainage ditch Alfred Ludwig Oetinger, pastor in Meßstetten und Hossingen from 1856 to 1868, discovered a bronze cauldron and potsherds near the Weichenwang. To the great derision of the workmen he secured the finds and forwarded them for scientific evaluation. Around 1850 the area was a frequent target of grave robbers. The pastor then carried out systematic excavations, first on his own, and later on behalf of the "Staatssammlung vaterländischer Alterthümer". The investigators documented unique finds of Celtic wagon burials with preserved wooden pieces and jeweled harness fittings. In 1869 it was impossible to exactly date the finds. Without evidence a very extensive, but short-lived, settlement was postulated at the time of the burials.
Hemmadhäddler
An old story talks about the Hemmadhäddlers, which are said to appear at certain times. A bold teamster from Tieringen was driving an empty wagon over the Weichenwang to Baienberg with a group of men from Hausen am Tann. At midnight he chanced to invoke the Hemmadhäddlers. All passengers survived the encounter with the apparitions, but they had to cut the traces of the skittish horses and abandon the wagon stuck in the deep loam.
Schimmelreiter's secret love-affair
Another old tale tells of a spectral rider on a white horse, who secretly visited his lover on the Weichenwang. Many times in stormy autumn weather a Schimmelreiter is said to be seen riding toward the Weichenwang from the old castle of Burtel near Hossingen, the remains of which are visible today. Regarding the couple, there was a recorded relationship between a knight and the daughter of the lord of the castle, whose homes are said to be the castles of Hossingen and Tierburg. In 1898, Emil Schweizer included a version of this story in his article on the Balingen Mountains. More vague evidence occurs in an old document: the noble knight Kunz acquired a castle in Meßstetten on July 14, 1327, from the Lord of Bubenhofen. It may be that lord of Castle Hossingen in financial difficulties so that he had to pawn his fiefdom to the rich lord of Bubenhofen. Perhaps the Schimmelreitier was Kunz, from Neuentierberg Castle, and had he acquired for his beloved her father's castle in Hossingen.
