What does “wandern” mean in German?

In German, wandern means to hike or ramble through nature — a different activity from gehen (“to go/walk”) or a casual spazieren (“to stroll”). It implies a route, some effort, and the outdoors: hills, forests, trails. Hiking is a cherished German pastime, and English borrowed its spirit wholesale in Wanderlust — wandern + Lust (“desire”) — the itch to roam.

The clip is pure wandern in action: the narrator climbs a steil (“steep”) path up the Berg, rests on a Parkbank, eats an apple, and takes in the Aussicht (view) over the city. The useful relatives all share the root: der Wanderer (hiker), die Wanderung (a hike), der Wanderweg (hiking trail), and Wanderschuhe (hiking boots) — which the narrator admits he forgot (“Ich habe keine Wanderschuhe, das sind normale Schuhe”). The word reaches back to Middle High German and became a German Romantic ideal of communing with nature; English borrowed Wanderlust from that same culture around 1902.