FORCHTENBERG

Great photogenic Swabian village on the Kocher river, a few miles north of the E50/A6 motorway in the Hohenlohe, between Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Wuerzburg.

To find it head for Oehringen, then track north as if going to Jagsthausen, forking right on the L1048. Or continue to the L1045 to approach it along the valley. Its incredibly pretty country, and easy driving if you're touring.

Forchtenberg has an amazing history but information on the web so far is only in German, although there's a good summary in English of the history of Swabia to be seen here. It's plain that Swabia must not be identified with Germany: it has its own separate history, its own dialect and sense of separateness. They're not even really Bavarian as any Swabian will tell you. Its people migrated east to west, as H. G. Wells said in his 1921 Outline of History, from as far as Hungary, along the border of Switzerland (where modern-day Swabia now is), as well as through Alsace, southern France and to north-west Spain. There's a story around from the old days too, that Swabians originally came from the southern tip of Scandinavia, a story that matches that of the Saxons, who settled in the area south of Denmark before spreading west to England. Who knows, maybe the Swabians are Saxons?

Don't be put off by what follows. Get over there, go and see it, you'll love it, especially if – as in my own case – your people came from there way back, in fact right back to the start of parish records. Nothing in Forchtenberg is handed to you on a plate, but seek and ye shall find. Ask and people fall over themselves to be helpful. They're just not yet equipped for streams of non-German speakers who are nosy about their ancestry.

Famous for being the birth place of Sophie Scholl and the anti-Hitler White Rose resistance movement, Forchtenberg is surprisingly little visited by anyone from outside who isn't German. In consequence the approach to foreigners is a touch bemused, but very friendly, even informal (if you make yourself known to the police – some of whom actually do speak English – they maybe won't even prosecute you for overstaying your parking time!) The grapevine works like wildfire, but that's an advantage.

As I said earlier, their website, unfortunately, is only in German, but all the information you want is there, and it's worth having a look, if you can make it out http:/www.forchtenberg.de/

If you like cycling, walking, drinking the local wine (the Winkler wine bar between the walls and the river does food, but book ahead – Winklers Weinstube, Frank Winkler, Bahnhofstr 25, tel 07947/366) prowling up and down among old houses, photographing gorgeous views, looking over historic churches (it has two), scrambling over castles (there's a ruin on the peak), viewing museums (it has a small well-set-out specialist exhibition), houses piled high on lofty town walls, then this may be for you.

There used to be an alabaster mine in the cliff behind the village used for the famous Baroque Kern stonework and statues (the museum has an excellent exhibition on this aspect of Forchtenberg life). The pulpit in the 'new' church on the hill is an example of this work, and pretty stunning, frankly.

Below is a detail from another work, found on the web. These people knew how to live with luxury.

During the war the alabaster mining caves were used as shelters. Remnants of the SS holed up in the village but left for the forests, were chased out and eliminated by the Allies. A aircraft factory nearby was targetted pretty roughly, as can be imagined, wiping out the east end of the village. Nevertheless, much of the old town survived, which is marvellous as it is very pretty, very German, marvellously tidy and makes super photographs.

The village is on the 'barbarian' side of the famous Roman Limes wall (the upper German-Raetian border wall, the ultimate outer limit of the Roman empire). It used to be 5 metres high with a 3-metre ditch and the usual regular towers for watching both sides of the ridge that tracks roughly north-south to the west of Forchtenberg. The Limes once had 1000 towers and is the largest architectural monument in Europe. It's a surveying masterpiece, remarkable for the way it clambers up and down the landscape with unerring precision.

The valley around Forchtenberg, steep with vineyards, carries the Kocher river into the Neckar. The old railway line, brought to Forchtenberg along the valley by Sophie Scholl's father (he was the local burgermeister and she was born in the Town Hall – known as the Rat Haus) has been converted to a cycle track and there are regular gaggles of athletic Germans peddling through.

It's all endearing, very scenic and very Swabian, with the locals tending their own vines, tilling productive vegetable plots, and filling the bars in the evenings. It's an easy drive from Wuertzburg, Nuremberg and Stuttgart, so you can fly in and drive.

Although there are several places to eat, there's only one place to stay inside the old town. Bei Oma Pennsion is a tip-top B&B, even if it's a little tricky to get a response and the website doesn't always work. When we were there, the doorbell was relayed to the local wine bar. You can ring ahead on 07947/366, or 0171/87 88 111, Fax:/2040. Fortunately, we waited, and were then greeted in German, the owner bustling up the hill to show us round. The place is big and has superbly kitted-out new rooms, most ensuite and all with TV. They offer top-notch German breakfast, boiled eggs (perfectly done) and free Internet access. Here's the address, right behind the huge arch into the old town through the walls: Bei Oma Marie, Penn-sion, Am Würzburger Tor 2, Forchtenberg.

If your family name is Wohlmann, Haag (you might call Forchtenberg 'Haagville'), Rapp, Hopf, Reuter, Popp, you can either look at the microfiched archives in Stuttgart at the Baden Wurttemburg collection in Stuttgart, or you can see the actual parish registers by making an appointment with the Vicar in Forchtenberg to see the real thing at the vicarage. From the website: Evangelische Kirchengemeinde, Forchtenberg, Kirchengasse 17 (probably meant to be no. 11), Pfarrer Wilhelm, Tel.: 07947/316. The alley-way is very steep and the vicar's house is diagonally opposite the main church doors.

Don't expect anyone there to speak English (although we were greeted in English at the wine bar, and the police responded in English when they were trying to find the source of smoke) or perhaps necessarily Hoch Deutsch. Go prepared for this with a German-speaker at your elbow, or have everything written on a list that you can place in front of them, again in German or your best effort at it. Mostly, though, you'll be left to sink or swim with what help they can offer, but it's rivetting stuff, an amazing experience to see the kind of material that was locked away long ago in Britain. The microfiche version is in Stuttgart at the state collection (see link above).

The town hall (where Sophie Scholl was born) is on the Hochstrasse, and despite its huge heavy doors, if you push the one on the left and go upstairs, they hold records on the inhabitants of Forchtenberg that go back to the early 1800s. You'll need to make an appointment to see these, perhaps for the next day. The Town Clerk will take you, again if you make an appointment, and show you round the marvellous little museum which is up by the old market place and gaol (Thieves' Tower).

In nearby Neuenstein (to the south east across the A6 motorway and on the railway between Stuttgart and Nuremberg), with its astonishing castle, the local archives are stored in optimum conditions (see http:/www.lad-bw.de/hzan/index.htm). You won't find the usual accoutrements that exist in Britain, ie microfiche viewers, Internet access, lockers for your bags, white gloves, security cameras, line upon line of earnest amateurs. It's a quiet storage place, and a study centre for locals and experts. But there are countless piles of local documents going back centuries and a fund of knowledge, if you can speak German, to draw on. Again, you will need to make an appointment.

Gwyneth Daniel, July 2004