Frenzelsberg

The Frenzelsberg rises on the western edge of Seifhennersdorf, its basalt summit standing hard against the Czech border. A small stream called the Waldfluss flows south between this hill and the Konradberg. The slopes are covered with mixed woodland, while the lower meadows belong to the village’s open fields.

The hill is made of nephelinite-tephrite, a hard basalt once quarried for road metal and retaining walls. A disused quarry on the southern flank still shows the rock’s tall columnar joints. In 1770 the Rumburg authority took stone from here to build the road on the far side of the frontier. Geologists once used this rock as the standard example of its kind.

A wooden inn opened on the summit in 1877 and soon became a popular day-trip spot. Workers held their first May Day gathering there in 1890, followed by further celebrations in 1896 and 1930. After the First World War the local branch of the Naturefriends turned the inn into a hostel with dormitories. When the Nazis banned the organisation in 1933 the building was seized and later fell into ruin. Older villagers still speak of the mountain as a weather-maker and guardian against misfortune.