The Sauerland has many powerful and spiritual places to offer, which are becoming increasingly important in the perception of guests and locals alike. The Sauerland hiking villages, the Sauerland hiking inns and the network "Wege zum Leben. In South Westphalia." have therefore initiated a project that puts these places in a new light.
As part of the EU-funded project "Sauerland. Inspiration." actors from tourism, churches, local history and cultural work have set out to do this. They represent the eleven communities of the Sauerland hiking villages (Schmallenberg, Eslohe, Brilon, Olsberg, Diemelsee, Medebach, Willingen, Lennestadt, Kirchhundem, Winterberg and Hallenberg). Over the past 12 months they have taken a closer look at more than 40 of these special places and collected and documented the stories associated with these places. Now a complete narrative (meta-story) for the region will emerge from this, which will also be the basis for a new marketing concept.
On 16.2.2018, more than 50 participants of the project "Sauerland. Inspiration." met in the Wood and Tourism Centre in Schmallenberg to draw a first conclusion of their joint work and to look together into the future. "The aim of the meeting was to provide an overview of the powerful and spiritual places in the entire region and to highlight their diversity and quality," said cultural scientist Susanne Falk, who is accompanying the project. All the places involved were presented in an atmospheric picture presentation and a small exhibition. The hardly known slate cave in Diemelsee was shown to its best advantage, as were the time-honoured Borberg in Brilon and the Hollenfelsen in Bödefeld.
The meeting also served to establish connections among each other and to jointly tackle the next steps in the project. One of these steps is the topic of storytelling: Hubertus Schmidt, Managing Director of Kur- & Freizeit GmbH Schmallenberg as well as co-initiator and leader of the project is pleased that a highly qualified journalist is now on board for this challenging task: "In Michael Gleich we have found an author who will develop a complete story for the Sauerland hiking village region from the stories collected on site The award-winning journalist, who lives in Berlin and grew up in Oberhundem in the Sauerland region, also gave an insight into his working methods at the meeting and used the opportunity to make initial contacts.
The representatives of the region's major hiking and tourism institutions, who were present as guests, were impressed by the initial results of "Sauerland. Inspiration." and the great commitment of the actors involved.
