Diebspfad (Thieves' Path)

There were thief trails all over Germany, from the Middle Ages to modern times. The name was rarely used in the literal sense, namely that criminals had to go there to be executed. Rather, the term thief path comes from the word Diet, which in Middle High German meant: thief paths were folk paths, mostly old trade paths. Salt paths also bore this name. So e.g. the important salt route running in an east-west direction between the Lahn and the Eder in the former Hessian hinterland is called the thief's trail. Sometimes the paths of thieves went off the beaten track, on which tolls might have been levied. In this case, when people went down the path of thieves, it had a touch of illegality, without it having to be thieves.
The thief's path once ran on the eastern side of the Ballert. It continued at the end of the valley, right through the Frankenhäuser Feld to the Neutscher Rondell, where the district road K137 turns off the K138. From the Neutscher Rondell, the thief path followed today's Yellow Cross hiking trail of the Odenwald Club. He crossed the Hasellauf to finally reach Ernsthofen. (Excerpt from the Waschebacher Dortblättche, 1/2014)