In theMiddle Ages,Hellweg was the official and common name given to main travelling routes inGermany. Their breadth was decreed as an unimpeded passageway alance's width, about three metres, which the landholders, through which the Hellweg passed, were required to maintain.
In German scholarship and literature, however,Helweg, i.e. when employed without anadjective, usually refers to the well-researchedWestphalian Hellweg, the main road from the region of the lowerRhine east to the mountains of theTeutoburg Forest, linking theimperial cities ofDuisburg, at the confluence of the Rhine andRuhr rivers, andPaderborn, with the slopes of the Sauerland to its south. At Paderborn, it very probably continued into at least two other main imperial roads leading further east and north to theHarz mountains and the middleElbe river, and the lowerWeser and lower Elbe rivers, respectively.[1]
The Westphalian Hellweg, as an essential corridor that operated in overland transit oflong-distance trade, was used byCharlemagne in hisSaxon wars and later was maintained under Imperial supervision. In the 10th and 11th centuries this Hellweg was the preferred route of theOttonian andSalian kings and emperors travelling at least yearly between their main estates inSaxony and the imperial city ofAachen, when they were not inItaly or on campaign; very importantimperial palaces were located in both Duisburg and Paderborn.[2]
From theEarly Modern period, with the rise of the coal and steel industries, medieval towns founded along the trading route, e.g.Gelsenkirchen,Bochum,Essen orDortmund, evolved into industrial hubs and absorbed most of the population growth of the region.[3]
The nameHellweg, connoting the wide "bright" clearway (heller Weg) through the forest, derives fromLow Germanhelwech with this same significance. Another etymology forHellweg is fromSalzweg, the "Salt road", on the ancient rootshál-s (Greek), andhal (Celtic), "salt". Yet another meaning connotes a "Way of the Dead"; e.g., in Grimm'sWorterbuch,Helvegr is the route toHel, theUnderworld.
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