Gehlberg: Glass History and Poacher’s Trail

Gehlberg combines regional history with a distinctive hiking route and seasonal winter activities. Glassmaking and postal history take center stage at the Thuringian Museum Park; the Poacher’s Trail focuses on the history of poaching in the Thuringian Forest.

Glassmaking and Postal History at the Museum Park

The Thuringian Museum Park Gehlberg is a family-friendly regional museum with six museums or areas housed in two buildings. The site is located in the former Gundelach Glassworks and offers insights into traditional glassmaking. Across the way, the Postal Museum documents the history of the postal service. The themes are clearly distinct: glassmaking in the former glassworks and postal history in the museum opposite.

The museum park also includes landscaped grounds with a 350-year-old linden tree, a fountain, and children’s playgrounds. The linden tree provides a distinctive feature alongside the exhibitions on glassmaking and postal history; the fountain and playgrounds are other features of the park.

A Hike with a Historical Focus

The Poacher’s Trail circular hiking route starts and ends in the mountain meadow behind the Thuringian Museum Park Gehlberg. It is 9.2 km long and challenging in places. When planning, take both the route length and the challenging sections into account. Check the route and distance before your visit.

The trail conveys the history of poaching in the Thuringian Forest through reconstructed traps, information boards, and photographs at original sites. Unlike the museum areas, which focus on glassmaking and postal history, it combines the subject of poaching with a hike. This allows you to distinguish between the town’s historical highlights: the museum exhibits and a trail devoted to a specific theme.

Cross-Country Skiing, Ski Touring, and Winter Trails

Behind the Glass Museum in Gehlberg is a practice area for trying out cross-country skiing. Use in winter depends on conditions. The area is intended for anyone who wants to gain some initial experience on cross-country skis.

Gehlberg also has a ski lift with a toboggan run, as well as 33 km of groomed ski touring trails and 30 km of winter hiking trails. The distances refer to different types of trails: ski touring trails on the one hand and winter hiking trails on the other. The ski lift with toboggan run is another separate option. Check the ski lift’s current operating status and conditions for using the practice area before your visit.

Suhl: More Cultural and Scientific Highlights

Suhl has its own cultural-historical and scientific highlights. The Suhl Weapons Museum showcases nearly 600 years of Suhl’s small-arms manufacturing tradition across three floors. A separate department is devoted to porcelain production in Suhl, which played an important role between 1861 and 1930. The Suhl Vehicle Museum presents original Simson motorcycles ridden by European and world champions to win their titles, as well as the Greifzu racing car.

The planetarium and observatory also offer their own attractions in Suhl. The planetarium’s 8-meter dome can accommodate up to 56 visitors. The Zeiss Skymaster small planetarium projects around 6,000 fixed stars, as well as the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets. With expert guidance, the observatory offers views through a 40-cm Cassegrain reflector telescope and an 11-cm refractor. This makes Suhl’s focus on weapons, porcelain, vehicles, and science distinct from Gehlberg’s glass and postal history and the Poacher’s Trail.

Discover more destinations: Wolfsberg, Arnstadt, Großliebringen, Großbreitenbach, Stadtilm, Altenfeld, Elleben, Herschdorf

Back to the regional travel overview: Ilm District.