From the Rhine River to Dortmund

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.

The villages they passed mainly were destroyed or deserted. The travellers had difficulty finding someone to sell them food to eat at lunchtime. Late in the evening, they arrived in 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 the travellers witnessed were a result of the Cologne War. This confrontation was not fought between large armies along a recognisable frontline. A protracted regional conflict, the fighting in the Cologne War was conducted by small mercenary armies through skirmishes, raids and attacks on minor towns. The mercenaries regularly operated for their profit, sacking the places they besieged without regard for civilian lives. Large cities, like Cologne, were safe behind their thick walls. Villages, on the other hand, had no fortifications and lacked the population to defend themselves. As Samuel Kiechel witnessed, those places were plundered and destroyed, or the people decided 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 was not safe. 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 ran through the Bergisches Land, an area of low mountain ranges, hills, forests and meadows. The route Kiechel travelled via Wermelskirchen and Gevelsberg was a major thoroughfare through this region. A map from 1635 shows the road starting at Mülheim on the Rhine River, along with the surrounding landscape. Due to its role as a frequently used route by armies and mercenaries, it is no surprise that the 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 were fearful of continuing and went to the next tavern located on the roadside to reconsider their options. In the tavern, the locals told them that the bandits had been in this place the previous night. They had been eating and drinking and left in the morning.

Not far from the tavern was a small hamlet. Two or three of the travellers went there to ask the Schultheiß (head of the village) for advice. He offered the travellers a guide to lead them by a different and 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 openly or secretly collaborating with criminals. 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 inn 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 innkeeper. In the about-to-turn-violent argument with the travellers, the innkeeper and his servants supported the man. So, maybe both this lone man and the innkeeper were involved with the criminals.

On the other hand, facing seventeen armed bandits, the innkeeper 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.