Partner
St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg-Oderregion e.V.
The St James association for Berlin, Brandenburg and the Oder region: since 2011 it has waymarked and maintained the Brandenburg routes from Frankfurt (Oder) and the Via Imperii to Leipzig, and issues credencials and pilgrim passports.
The Caminos on the map
Caminos of this partner
Via ImperiiThe Via Imperii follows the medieval imperial road for 613.6 kilometers, from St. James's Cathedral in Szczecin through Berlin, Lutherstadt Wittenberg and Leipzig to Hof on the Bavarian border. Around 1430, 6,500 freight wagons a year rolled along this road; today you'll mostly walk it alone: through the Lower Oder Valley National Park, past Chorin Abbey, straight through the German capital and across the crossroads with the Via Regia where Leipzig was born. Only in the Vogtland does it turn hilly, and the highest point, 588 meters, comes just before the finish. In Hof, the Oberfränkischer Jakobsweg takes over toward Nuremberg.Explore this Camino- Jakobsweg Frankfurt (Oder) – Leipzig249.5 kilometres from the Oder to the Pleiße with only 713 metres of ascent: from the portal of the Marienkirche in Frankfurt (Oder), where a St James hospital for pilgrims was endowed in 1454, east around the Schwielochsee, through the bilingual settlement area of the Sorbs and Wends, past the "Dom der Niederlausitz" in Luckau, Herzberg and the Reformation town of Torgau to Leipzig's market square, where a bronze plaque records the Via Regia from Santiago de Compostela to Kyiv. Twelve stages on a long-distance road recorded in the German Book of Towns — and whose shell waymarking is not yet finished.Explore this Camino
- Jakobsweg Brandenburg SüdrouteThe Brandenburg Southern Route connects two rivers over a distance of 262.6 kilometers: the Oder in Frankfurt and the Elbe in Tangermünde. In between lie the lakes of the Mark, Berlin, Potsdam, Lehnin Abbey, and Brandenburg an der Havel—and a total elevation gain of 580 meters, or just over two meters per kilometer. A university rediscovered the route: Starting in 2005, the European University Viadrina reconstructed the medieval route based on historical documents, and it was ceremonially reopened in 2007.Explore this Camino
- Jakobsweg Brandenburg NordrouteThe northern route of the Brandenburg Way of St. James is the shorter of the two Oder routes: 111.9 kilometers from Frankfurt (Oder) via Müncheberg and Strausberg to Bernau near Berlin—featuring fieldstone churches, the “Märkische Schweiz” region, and, at the end of the route, an almost completely preserved city wall. With a train station at every stop along the way and an elevation gain of 429 meters over the entire route, it is perhaps Germany’s best introductory Camino.Explore this Camino
Who stands behind the route
The St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg-Oderregion e.V. looks after everything concerning the Ways of St James and their pilgrims in Berlin, Brandenburg and the neighbouring regions as far as western Poland. The project began in autumn 2010, the non-profit association was founded in spring 2011, and it has had its present form since a merger in 2024.
Brandenburg is not known as pilgrim country – and yet it was: in 1454 the town of Frankfurt (Oder) founded a St James hospital as a “hostel for strangers and pilgrims”. Today three of this association's routes start right there, at St Mary's Church. The line on which pilgrims once travelled from east to west is waymarked again – shell by shell, by volunteers.
The association's routes
- Jakobsweg Brandenburg Nordroute – 111.9 km from Frankfurt (Oder) via Strausberg to Bernau near Berlin, where the Via Imperii connects
- Jakobsweg Brandenburg Südroute – 262.6 km from Frankfurt (Oder) via Teltow, Potsdam, Brandenburg an der Havel and Vehlen to Tangermünde; it also includes the association's Teltow – Vehlen route
- Jakobsweg Frankfurt (Oder) – Leipzig – 249.5 km from Frankfurt (Oder) through the Spreewald and Lower Lusatia via Torgau to Leipzig
- Via Imperii – the association looks after the section from Szczecin via Berlin to Leipzig; the whole Via Imperii runs 613.6 km to Hof
What the association does for pilgrims
Volunteers waymark the routes with the yellow scallop shell on a blue background and maintain the signs; not every section is fully signposted yet, so the association provides GPS tracks and, on request, further maps. It issues the European credencial and its own Brandenburg pilgrim passport for adults and children, both available to order online, and keeps an overview of pilgrim hostels and stamp points along its routes.
On top of that come a regular pilgrim get-together, pilgrim meetings, guided days such as the Saturday pilgrimages, and training for pilgrim companions. If you'd like to offer a hostel or stamp point, the association has contacts for cooperation.
Contact and getting involved
Website: brandenburger-jakobswege.de with routes, events, hostels and newsletter · Email: info@brandenburger-jakobswege.de. You can get involved as a member, with waymarking or as a pilgrim companion.