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| all photos (2024) courtesy of Hannes Bürgelin |
The image above shows the decorated house of Herbert Mossmann as it looked in 2024
It is located in Seelbach, a commune of around 5,000 people in the area well-known as Black Forest (Schwartzwald) in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
It is located in Seelbach, a commune of around 5,000 people in the area well-known as Black Forest (Schwartzwald) in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
Life and works
Herbert Moßmann (1950-2024) became known for the sculptures he placed along a local walking trail.
He was born on March 5, 1950, and had a job for which no information is available on the internet, except that he retired in 2013, when he was in his early sixties.
With his wife Gerlinde he lived in a house outside the built-up area of Seelbach. located along a walking trail that started at a campsite near Moßmann's house.
As a pensioner he was at home a lot and so it could happen that during the day he met people who were walking on the hiking trail. He noticed that they often complained about the small number of benches that were available along the path to rest or enjoy the surrounding landscape.
Herbert Moßmann decided to do something about this and he hand-crafted a bench that was placed along the walking trail.
One thing led to another and in the summer of 2017 he came up with the idea of making wooden sculptures to install as decoration along the walking trail.
He got to work and after a few months his initiative had become so well-known that the regional newspaper Schwarwälder Bote on November 16, 2017 had an article about Moßmann's project, entitled
A 'dream path' full of loving characters.
Indeed, as the surrounding images of some of Moßmann's sculptures show, he made a number of sculptures depicting animals that feel at home in a wooded environment, such as owls.
Other creations he made by working pieces of tree trunk in such a way that a friendly human character or animal appeared
A striking use of an old tree trunk can be seen in the second photo from the top, where Moßmann poses by an upside-down tree, with the root system at the top now functioning as kind of an umbrella.
Working on the sculptures over a number of years, Mossmann experienced a certain development in the processing of the wooden material from the nearby forests.
Unfortunately, he did not get to enjoy the decoration of the walking path itself for long: Herbert Mossmann passed away at the age of 74 on August 14, 2024.
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Other sculpture trails in Germany:
* An 8.5 kilometer walking path with some eighty sculptures made by non-professionals, situated between Neuler and Niederalfingen, communities located 70 km south of Frankfurt.
* An arrangement of dwarfs created by Jürgen Farklas, located in a wood near Burbach, some 90 km west of Cologne.
Documentation
* Article (November 2017) in regional newspaper Schwarzwälder Bote
* Article (July 2023) on website Hay Anni, with a series of photos
* Article (January 2024) on website Senioren Treff
Video
* A short video (November 2023, 0"27', YouTube) by Traveltino
Herbert Moßmann
Herberts Traumpfad
Unterdorfstraße 24
77960 Seelbach, district Ortenau, federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany
sculptures can be seen from the road
Google Streetview with a variety of photos
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