From the Rhine River to Dortmund

After resting for a few days within the safety of the sturdy walls of Cologne, our traveller, Samuel Kiechel, decided to resume his journey. He had found new companions, a group of merchants heading to Münster in Westphalia. It was winter, and his fellow travellers had told him that walking was safer than riding, so Kiechel had sold his horse. Besides the cold weather, the journey ahead was perilous because of bandits and roving bands of mercenaries.

On 25 December, Samuel Kiechel and his new companions left Cologne. They crossed the frozen Rhine River to Deutz on the opposite bank. From there, the group trudged along a rough path that was covered with a thick layer of snow. No track had been carved into the snow by previous travellers. Progress was slow and tiring.

Most villages they passed were either destroyed or deserted. The travellers struggled to find someone willing to sell them food for lunch. Late in the evening, they arrived at a hamlet called Wermelskirchen. According to Kiechel, the place was in the Duchy of Jülich. It had an inn where they spent the night.

The destruction and devastation witnessed by the travellers resulted from the Cologne War. This conflict was not fought between large armies along a clear frontline. Instead, the Cologne War was a prolonged regional struggle involving small mercenary groups engaged in skirmishes, raids and assaults on minor towns. The mercenaries typically operated for profit, often sacking the towns they besieged without regard for civilian lives. Major cities, like Cologne, remained secure behind their thick walls. In contrast, villages lacked fortifications and did not have enough population to defend themselves. As Samuel Kiechel observed, those settlements either were plundered and destroyed or the inhabitants chose to abandon their homes.

In the inn in Wermelskirchen, Kiechel and his companions met a pastor who joined the group. The travellers continued their journey the following morning. The path had not improved, and the countryside remained unsafe. Due to those circumstances, the group walked only three miles to Gevelsberg. After spending the night there, they continued the next day (27 December) and arrived in Dortmund in the evening.

The road from Cologne to Dortmund passed through the Bergisches Land, a region of low mountain ranges, hills, forests and meadows. The route Kiechel took via Wermelskirchen and Gevelsberg was a major thoroughfare through this area. A map from 1635 shows the road beginning at Mülheim on the Rhine River, along with the surrounding landscape. Due to its frequent use by armies and mercenaries, it is not surprising that settlements along this road often suffered attacks.

The Dangers Around Dortmund

They walked on and met another woman who also warned them about the bandits near Lünen. Now, the travellers felt afraid to carry on and stopped at the next roadside tavern to reconsider their options. Inside, the locals told them that the bandits had been at this place the night before. They had been eating and drinking and left early in the morning.

Not far from the tavern was a small village. Two or three of the travellers went there to ask the Schultheiß (the village head) for advice. He offered the travellers a guide to lead them on a different, slightly longer route to Lünen.

Reading Samuel Kiechel’s journal, to our traveller, the line between mercenaries, bandits and peasants in a dangerous region seems to have been ambiguous. It was not unusual for people in desperate situations to make a living by collaborating with criminals, openly or secretly. Samuel Kiechel expressed this suspicion earlier while still crossing the Low Countries. With word of mouth being the main way of sharing local news, it was easy for personal opinions, stereotypes and exaggerated stories to foster suspicion, mistrust and fear, which could then grow into outright hostility.

Kiechel’s description of his stopover in the roadside tavern suggests that the man they had met outside Dortmund was indeed spying for the bandits who were supposed to wait around Lünen. He might have been tasked with leading the travellers straight into an ambush. Kiechel mentioned that the same group of bandits had spent the previous night in this inn, eating and drinking without interference from the tavernkeeper. In the about-to-turn-violent argument with the travellers, the tavernkeeper and his servants supported the man. So, maybe both he and the lone man from Dortmund were involved with the criminals.

On the other hand, facing seventeen armed bandits, the tavernkeeper might not have had a choice but to serve them. The man who had joined the group outside Dortmund might have been upset by being accused by Kiechel and his companions of being a spy. The innkeeper and his staff then supported him because they had heard such accusations before and were tired of being lumped together with bandits.

Whatever the truth was behind this encounter, Samuel Kiechel and his companions were glad to get away from the place. They followed their new guide along a different but safe route. It turned out to be a long detour on a rough path. The track was covered in deep snow, making progress exhausting.

They arrived in Lünen after lunchtime, even though the town was only a mile from Dortmund. The group took a break. After the tiresome trek through the snow, the travellers were hungry. In the afternoon, they continued and walked to Wehren (Werne?), where they spent the night. The following day, 29 December, the travellers walked to Münster. On their way, they were unable to buy any food, and in Münster, they had to search for a long time before finding an inn.