Menachem and Fred Hiking Trail
A special memory of the life and fate of the Mayer family is the Menachem & Fred – hiking trail . The trail follows around eight kilometers from Hoffenheim via Zuzenhäuser and Eschelbronn district to Neidenstein and is dedicated to Fred and Menachem.
The brothers regularly walked this route with their parents in their childhood when they visited their relatives in Neidenstein. Both Fred and Menachem have lasting memories of these hikes and many years later they remembered details, such as the voices of the birds in the forest, the herds of cattle in the meadows or the pretzel consumed on the way.
Three boards, at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the hiking route, inform the hiker about the life of Fred and Menachem, the Jewish history of Hoffenheim and Neidenstein as well as regional features of the places along the route.
The trail is also equipped with geocaching stations, which also inform the hiker about the life story of Fred and Menachem, the Jewish history and special features of the area.
The impulse for the trail came from Werner Diefenbacher from Neidenstein. In addition to Anpfiff-ins-Leben eV and the homeland associations from Hoffenheim and Neidenstein, the association Jüdisches Leben Kraichgau eV, the Odenwaldclub eV, the agency for Jewish cultural mediation Altenburg & Graf and the Mühle Kolb adventure center were involved in the implementation.
The youth players of the then U14, U15 and U16 of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim carried out the extensive marking work of the hiking route and equipping the hiking trail with geocaching with their coaches and supervisors from Anpfiff-ins-Leben eV.
The Youth players were previously trained in workshops by Manja Altenburg, Dr. Esther Graf, Michael Heitz and Michael Winter who informed them about former Jewish life in Germany and the Kraichgau region in particular and worked with them to develop the content of the geocaching stations.
The official inauguration of the hiking trail took place on July 12, 2012 in the presence of Fred and Menachem as well as the participating youth players from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and met with great public interest. There was extensive coverage of this special event on TV (SWR) as well as in the regional and national press.
