MI-Petershagen: Sterntour 3 zum Wasserstraßenkreuz

This tour starts at the Old Government on the Weserglacis. The Alte Regierung building is the former district government of the Prince-Bishopric of Minden and currently houses parts of the city administration such as the registry office and the youth welfare office. On your way north, you cycle past the monument to the Great Elector to the Schlagde parking lot, where ships docked in the days of the Hanseatic League and had to offer their cargo in accordance with the staple law in force at the time. On the Weser Cycle Path, you cycle along the fishing town to the Schachtschleuse lock and the newly built Weser lock, which also allows modern, large cargo ships to overcome the difference in height between the Weser and the Mittelland Canal.

If you cycle along the waterway cross, you can see this impressive structure from a different perspective. Back on the Weser cycle path, you cycle past the northern cemetery to Todtenhausen, where two coalitions of Great Britain, Prussia, Brunswick-Lüneburg and Hesse-Kassel and France were at war on August 1, 1759. A memorial still commemorates this today and every year the day is celebrated with a wreath-laying ceremony.

On the way towards Petershagen, the Heisterholz area with its former clay industry, from which the floor mosaic of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin originates, stretches out to the left.You will pass the Büschingsche Mühle mill, which serves fresh cakes on grinding and baking days.

As you cycle through the old town center of Petershagen, pay particular attention to the "Old District Court", built in 1913 in the neo-Renaissance style. Today, it is a cultural meeting place and a special kind of overnight accommodation: a rest stop in a prison. On the outskirts of the town, you will find Petershagen Castle, which is over 700 years old and was built by Bishop Gottfried von Waldeck and now houses a hotel and restaurant.

Your tour continues to Ovenstädt to the Gernheim Glassworks Industrial Museum. Here you can observe the transformation of the glowing mass of glass into a clear, gracefully shaped vessel. Workers' houses and an old basket weaving workshop show how laborious and spartan life must have been at the beginning of the 19th century.

You reach the village of Hävern along the Weser bend. There, from April to October, you have the opportunity to cross the Weser on the "Petra Solara" solar ferry to marvel at a special feature of the region on the other side of the Weser: the stork museum. The fact that the white stork is back at home here has only been achieved thanks to many efforts.

On your way back to Minden, you can once again admire the expanse of the Weser floodplains and perhaps even a few storks in Jössen. You cycle past the Lahde power station and the Lahde weir, which regulates the water level of the Weser. Cycle along the Lahder Mühle mill and the bathing lake through Frille and Wietersheim along the Mittelland Canal to Leteln and follow Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße to Minden city center.