If you come from the Oberschweinstiege tram stop and keep to the right, a narrow path leads to the left at a wooden information sign from the main path: It is part of the ancient Schäfersteinpfad, lined with over 500-year-old Schäfersteinen made of basalt. They once put an end to a century-old dispute over grazing rights. The Teutonic Order had received land and rights to raise sheep in Sachsenhausen in the 13th century and at times grazed more than 1,000 animals there. But the city of Frankfurt, which acquired the city forest as a fief from Emperor Charles IV in 1372, also had sheep farms and laid claim to pasture land, because the wool business for cloth making was lucrative. A legal dispute broke out that was not settled until 1484: 60 so-called shepherd stones were erected, which were connected by a ditch and separated the pasture areas of the competing companies. The cross of the Deutschherrenorden is engraved on one side of the stones, and an F on the other. This F is mirror-inverted and was long referred to as the "Frankfurt Gothic F". However, according to the German Forest Protection Association (SDW), researchers today tend to believe that it was a mistake by the stonemasons, because in the Middle Ages many people could neither read nor write. 49 stones have been preserved, indicating a western and an eastern shepherd's stone path.
At the SDW-Frankfurt there are flyers on which the paths are marked in the city forest map sdw-frankfurt-main.de