Black Forest Fountain

The old stone fountain keeps flowing through hundreds of years of history. Its life giving waters quenching the thirst of weary travelers and marauding warriors since the beginning of time. It does not stop to ask if the cracked lips deserve to sip, nor the parched palette have the heart to handle another day of life, it simply flows and opens the greatest gift of all to anyone who happens to pass by. The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. The German holiday of Fastnacht, or Fasnet, as it is known in the Black Forest region, occurs in the time leading up to Lent. On Rosenmontag, or the Monday before Ash Wednesday, crowds of people line the streets, wearing masks. One prominent style of mask is called the Black Forest Style. The forest mostly consists of pines and firs, some of which are grown in commercial monoculture. Similar to other forested regions, the Black Forest has had areas that were decimated by mass logging. Due to logging and land use changes the forest proper is only a fraction of its original size. The storm Lothar downed trees on hundreds of acres of mountaintops in 1999. This left some of the high peaks and scenic hills bare, with only primary growth shrubs and young fir trees. There are many old towns in the Black Forest. One popular tourist destinations is Freiburg, Calw, the birth town of Hermann Hesse.