Rafting already existed in Roman times, perhaps even earlier. Since the Middle Ages, thick logs from the Black Forest and the Odenwald have been sold to distant countries.
The rafters came down the Neckar to the Rhine with the tree trunks cut there and rafted their wood as far as Holland. There, the logs were used to build ships and houses.
In addition to such long wood, short wood suitable for use as firewood was also floated out of the forests. In the "Trift", the game rafting, it was rafted across streams as far as the Neckar, held up by grids at the mouth of the streams and pulled ashore with hooks.
The model of the memorial cross for Konz Kobel commemorates the death of such a rafter in 1416 in the Itter. The original cross is still near the site of the accident at the Stone Bridge.