Hellweg

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In the Middle Ages the Hellweg was an ancient east-west route through Germany, from the Rhine east to the mountains of the Teutoburger Wald, reaching from Duisburg to Paderborn, with the slopes of the Sauerland to its south.

The Hellweg, as an essential corridor, was under Imperial supervision, that operated in overland transit of long-distance trade. Its breadth was decreed as an unimpeded passageway a lance's width, about three metres, which the landholders through which the Hellweg passed were required to maintain. Its name, connoting the wide "bright" clearway through the forest, derives from Low German helwech with this significance.

Another etymology for Hellweg is from Salzweg, the "Salt road" on the ancient root halys (Greek), and hal (Celtic), meaning "salt".

Yet another meaning connotes a "Way of the Dead". In Grimm's Worterbuch, Helvegr is the route to the Underworld.