Steinknickle Tower

The Steinknickleturm stands on the Steinknickle, a 527-metre hill on the northern edge of the Mainhardter Wald in Baden-Württemberg. It overlooks the village of Neuhütten, where the settlement begins just east of the slope. The hill is part of the Hinterer Mainhardter Wald natural area within the Schwäbisch-Fränkischer Wald nature park. Several small streams rise on its flanks, including the Hagenbach and Dachsbach, which feed the Brettach and Fichtenberger Rot rivers. The first wooden tower was built in 1913 and replaced in 1957 by the present 30-metre structure after war damage and storms destroyed its predecessor. The Schwäbischer Albverein took over the site in 1935 and still maintains it today. On clear days the tower’s viewing platform reveals the Weinsberger Tal to the west, the Hohenloher Ebene to the north, the Waldenburger Berge to the east and the Mainhardter Wald to the south. A grill site and children’s playground were added at the base in 1995. Beside the tower stands the Naturfreundehaus Steinknickle, opened in 1913 as the first such house in Württemberg. It provides dormitory beds for about eighty guests in four-bed rooms and three large halls, looked after at weekends by volunteers. Marked trails lead to the house from stations at Heilbronn, Obersulm-Eschenau, Öhringen and Sulzbach an der Murr, inviting longer walks through the surrounding forests.