Großer Gleichberg, Mountain summit in Thuringia, Germany
Großer Gleichberg is a mountain summit in Thuringia, eastern Germany, rising to 679 meters near the town of Römhild. It forms a pair with the nearby Kleiner Gleichberg, and the two forested summits together make up the Gleichberge range.
From 1968 to 1991, the summit was used as a restricted military zone where Soviet forces ran a radio and radar station. Before that, basalt quarrying on the slopes continued until 1981, with stone transported down via a cableway system.
The name Gleichberg refers to the pair of hills, and the saddle between them, the Waldhaussiedlung, held a corner station where the Römhild cableway changed direction; it also served as a sawmill. Basalt from the Gleichamberg quarry was carried down in dram cars to the works at Römhild station and to Gleichamberg. Three cemeteries on the eastern slope hold prisoners' graves, and a memorial stands in a grove on the town cemetery.
Marked hiking trails start from several points around Römhild and lead to the summit through forested slopes. Spring and fall tend to offer the best walking conditions, as paths stay dry and the tree cover is less dense.
The Römhild Quarry on the mountain's slope held a forced labour camp from August 1943 to March 1945, where up to 400 interned labourers worked the basalt. At least 500 prisoners died in the camp or on the 1945 evacuation march; 25 to 92 unable to walk were shot in a sand cave on the east slope, its entrance blown up and the mass grave only found in late January 1947.
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