When Hans Michael Schulz packs his backpack, the journey is the destination: pilgrimages run like a common thread through the life of the former chief physician of Nordhorn. With 30 people between the ages of 17 and 77, he hiked the path of the “Swedish Birgitta” through the Mecklenburg countryside, praying, remaining silent, singing, and also working on projects. They covered distances of 20 to 25 kilometers each day. It all began in the spring of 1994, when he left his hospital for six months to walk to Santiago de Compostela – almost 3,500 kilometers. He recorded his impressions in his book “Fernwechsel,” which is now out of print. He enjoys it: times of walking, observing, reflecting, and praying – interspersed with interesting conversations with his fellow hikers.

At the beginning is farewell, and at the end is arrival. The author, a physician and head of a department of internal medicine, bids farewell to his wife in familiar surroundings. This is reminiscent of farewell scenes in world literature, such as Hector, who embraces Andromache for the last time before the battle with Achilles, or Siegfried, who bids farewell to the ominous Kriemhild “with loving kisses.” But unlike in the epics, in which the heroes face certain death, a new life is revealed to the author on a seventeen-week march from Nordhorn to Santiago de Compostela.

The book is an account of this 3,500-kilometer pilgrimage, which leads via Aachen, Trier, Cluny, Lyon, Arles, Toulouse, across the Pyrenees to Logroño, Burgos, and Leon, finally ending in the city of Santiago. The Christian conviction that the Church can still be a guide for all who are searching and willing to discover sets the tone for the daily notes. The pilgrim is less interested in the beauty of the churches and monasteries along the Way of St. James described in the usual guidebooks; he visits them all, but only to seek in them “a stage in the ascent of human consciousness” and strength to cope with the present. And on his arduous pilgrimage, the author succeeds in experiencing the path itself, the diverse nature, and the art in the churches as “Christ’s message of redemption.” The reader who embarks on such a search for clues will be able to exclaim at the end with Hans Michael Schulz: “Each time I was gripped anew. And this and everything else on the way here was far more than I had expected. – Basta!”

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/reise/rezension-sachbuch-europa-11295147.html