Königsbrücker Heide

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Königsbrücker Heide
Lookout tower on the Haselberg (Wettinhöhe, north of Königsbrück)
Lookout tower on the Haselberg (Wettinhöhe, north of Königsbrück)
Königsbrücker Heide (Germany)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
Location: Saxony , Germany
Specialty: former military training area , many from extinction native endangered species
Next city: Koenigsbrück
Surface: 69.32 km²
Address: State enterprise Sachsenforst

NSG administration Königsbrücker Heide / Gohrischheide:
Weißbacher Straße 30, 01936 Königsbrück

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The Königsbrücker Heide is located in West Lusatia north of Königsbrück and, with a size of 6932 hectares, is the twelfth largest nature reserve in Germany (D 89) and the largest contiguous in the Free State of Saxony . According to the current state development plan of Saxony, the area should develop into the first wilderness area in Germany according to IUCN category Ib over the next few centuries . 5600 ha in the core zone of the protected area belong to the wilderness areas certified by the European Wilderness Society . The Königsbrücker Heide is also a fauna-flora-habitat area (6932  hectares , EU registration number: DE4847302, internal state number: 49), which has been included in the European Natura 2000 protection system . In terms of its natural surroundings , it can be classified in the Königsbrück-Ruhlander Heiden . The highest point is the Königshöhe ( 194.5  m ).

Due to its long-term use as a military training area and the resulting danger from remains of ordnance and military installations still in existence, access to large parts of the site is prohibited by police regulations .

This offers the almost unique opportunity for nature to develop freely, uninfluenced by humans. Nevertheless, the Königsbrücker Heide is also a tourist attraction. Adventure trails and nature showcases in the peripheral areas as well as guided tours through the NSG enable people to participate in natural processes.

history

The "Königsbrücker Heide" area belonged to the property complex of the royal lordship of Königsbrück , which was exempt from taxes to the Saxon sovereigns due to a royal-Bohemian special privilege .

The Counts of Hohenthal were the last noblemen of the city. After the de facto abolition of the privilege after the Congress of Vienna , their property, including the Königsbrücker Heide, passed to the Counts of Wilding, who in turn sold all of the former estates' possessions to the Kommerzienrat Bruno Naumann in 1893 .

The Naumann family, who lived in Königsbrück until 1945, sold the "Königsbrücker Heide" in 1906 to the German Empire . In the following years, the Königsbrück military training area was established here , which existed until 1992.

The "Königsbrücker Heide" area was subject to extreme changes in the landscape. Over the centuries , the jungle , which existed here until the 12th century, became a cultural landscape , which in turn was completely wiped out by almost 100 years of military use. The ten villages of Quosdorf , Otterschütz , Zietsch , Bohra , Krakau , Naundorf , Rohna , Sella , Steinborn and Zochau with a total of more than 2000 inhabitants were cleared and demolished in the Königsbrücker Heide .

This created open land biotopes in the form of weathered soils on almost 6000 hectares .

After the Soviet Army withdrew in 1992, the Free State of Saxony took the opportunity to create an NSG with a new nature reserve concept so that a natural landscape was created again.

This purpose was regulated in detail in the ordinance of the Dresden Regional Council on the establishment of the "Königsbrücker Heide" nature reserve of October 1, 1996. On the basis of a visitor concept, the needs of tourism and nature conservation have been harmonized since 2003. In 2004 a beaver nature trail was set up. In 2005, the Königsbrücker Heide circular route was included as a high-priority cycle path in the bicycle traffic concept for the Free State of Saxony.

ecology

In the 5000 hectare natural development zone, animals and plants can develop largely without direct human interference ( succession ). Humans do not intervene in the processes in any form (neither in the form of maintenance nor through management). Nature should regulate itself.

Basically the same applies to a 1000 hectare zone of “managed succession”, but the plan is to reintroduce plant and animal species that are typical for the region but threatened with extinction.

1996 broken dam of the Pulsnitz

In a maintenance zone, which is also 1,000 hectares in size, on the edge of the area, gentle management takes place from a nature conservation perspective. The pine forests that still exist here are to be gradually converted into mixed forests suitable for the location.

The flowing waters in the Königsbrücker Heide are over 100 kilometers long and can meander almost freely . Alder and ash forests develop in the siltation zones . Acidic and medium-acidic standing waters remain. It spread Hochstaudenfluren out.

By allowing natural processes to run without human intervention in the natural development zone, the rivers recreate their old rivers. For example, in 1996 the dam in the Pulsnitz, which was built by the Soviet Army to practice water crossings in the resulting water, broke.

fauna

In the nature reserve Königsbrücker Heide among others by living extinction threatened and endangered animals. The wolf is slowly beginning to settle here again. Currently (as of 2014) a pack of at least 10 animals lives here. The Elbe beaver , which occurs frequently in the Königsbrücker Heide, changes nature a lot through its felling. Sometimes he clears entire areas. He lives mainly in the rivers Pulsnitz and Otterbach . There is also a large population of deer , red and black game . Birds are also common in the fauna-flora-habitat area , such as the rare hoopoe , kingfisher , oriole and woodlark . The goat milker is the character bird of the Königsbrücker Heide . Currently (as of 2011) over 100 breeding pairs of goat milkers live in this FFH area .

  • Red deer ♀ in the Königsbrücker Heide

  • Hoopoe in the Königsbrücker Heide

flora

In the Königsbrücker Heide there are still predominantly pioneer forests with mainly birch , aspens and pines . The forest before 1800 also contained oaks , linden trees and isolated beeches . Reindeer lichen , which is very rare in Germany, grows in open areas . Extensive silver grass fields also cover the landscape. As a maintenance measure, some heather areas in the zone of controlled succession will be freed from the trees in order to create habitats for animals that need free space. A tree screen of around 0.1% is left in order to provide birds with breeding trees. Furthermore, open sand areas are kept free to protect rare living things so that they are not pushed back. This also serves to preserve the FFH biotope type “ sand-poor grassland ”, which is worth protecting .

  • Flowers of the heather in the Königsbrücker Heide

  • Silbergras-Ruderalflur in the Königsbrücker Heide

See also

Web links

Commons : Königsbrücker Heide (FFH area)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Where wilderness arises again . In: koenigsbrueckerheide.de, subpage: "Wildnisgebiet", accessed on December 24, 2016.
  2. ^ Max Rossberg, European Wilderness Network: Königsbrücker Heide Wilderness , November 16, 2017.

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 15 ″  N , 13 ° 52 ′ 20 ″  E