Armesberg
 
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The Armesberg (731 m above sea level) is a widely visible, wooded basalt cone southeast of Zinst (municipality of Kulmain ) in the Tirschenreuth / Upper Palatinate district . It is located on the old trade route from Eger to Nuremberg . A historically valuable and listed pilgrimage church is located on the summit. Numerous hiking trails and bicycle routes lead up to the Armesberg. The hallmarks of the mountain are the artistically designed Way of the Cross and the summit consisting almost entirely of basalt. The Armesberg forms the watershed between Fichtel- and Haidenaab and at the same time delimits the stone forest to the west. In terms of natural space, the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) counts it as part of the Steinwald (394-C) unit .
Origin of name
The first mention of arms mountain and the resort Earth Weis found in a 1450 published state description of forest corridors through forester Ulrich Flugler:
" Nota the orter on the ters above the Vlrich Flugler of mine gnedigen Lord for Jnnehat [...]
Jt at that. Ermweis one holds [...] “
This Ermweis corresponds to today's place Erdenweis. In 1516 the Ermesloe and the Ermesberg (today Armeswald and Armesberg ) are called. This gives an indication of the possible origin of the name Armesberg. It could be an earth mountain , since from Ermweis later became earth wise . It is therefore possible that Ermesberg would later have become Erdenberg , but this did not happen.
Another name for the Armesberg is Armansberg . This was introduced by a foreign official when the Armannsberg tunnel was being built in 1877 , but is not in use today.
geology
There is a mighty basalt rubble field on the southwest side of the mountain . This is due to the fact that the Armesberg is a volcanic vent , similar to the Rauhe Kulm . There are still a number of such volcanic vents in the northern Upper Palatinate. This volcanism in Upper Palatinate probably stems from two lines:
Firstly, it lies parallel to the Franconian Line , a large fault zone, which in all probability was reactivated 25-20 million years ago, and secondly on the Eger - Kemnath line , which can be seen as an extension of the Eger Trench.
The actual genesis begins in the Cambrian . At that time there was a sea where the stone forest is today. Rubble, lime, sand and other materials from the mainland were deposited on the sea floor and formed various layers of sediment . Under enormous pressure, both exogenous and endogenous , these layers were pressed into a solid unit. This was the basis for a displacement of these strata, which extended over the entire sea basin. Through the Alps deferment the layers were pressed together from two sides and pushed by the fact upward until they formed a mountain. This happened in the Tertiary about 60 million years ago. The Armesberg was created and is still a striking landscape today, 60 million years later.
Volcanism was also created by the displacement of the Alps , which also created tectonic movements here . The magma penetrated through cracks almost to the surface of the earth and collected there in chambers. During a normal volcanic eruption, the enormous pressure inside the chamber throws the magma up through a chimney . If, on the other hand, there is only a little magma in this chamber and the eruption is triggered in some other way (e.g. by gases), the lava only runs out of the volcano and solidifies into various rocks, in Armesberg basalt. It is more likely, however, that the lava had cooled down before it emerged.
history
The Armesberg region was already settled in the 12th century, when the Leuchtenbergers cultivated the swamps and the dense jungle around the mountain and thus created a homely area. This is also evidenced by a fief book of the Leuchtenberger from the 14th century. Even then, the place "Godas", which still exists today, was named as a Leuchtenberg fiefdom .
Only one silent witness remains of the swamp and the jungle: the Fichtelnaab , which flows through the village of Trevesen at the foot of the Armesberg . Incidentally, there is also said to have been a robber baron's castle here, which is not particularly surprising: The dense forests were an ideal hiding place for criminals and it was not easy to see the mountain from the south and west side, i.e. the side of the area administrators, the Waldecker , to climb because it is too steep there. Even during the Thirty Years' War , the residents hid in the dense forests from the Swedes , often together with their property and their animals.
In the past, the Michaelskapelle was located below the hilltop, with three apartments for clergymen arriving or passing through. On September 12, 1706 the chapel was consecrated to St. Michael , but the building fell into disrepair over time; a fire in 1841 left the ailing church the rest.
Pilgrimage church
The pilgrimage church “To the Holy Trinity” now stands on the top of the mountain, a massive round building with a tower in front.
The first church
Before that there was a chapel built in 1677/78 by the initiative of the pastor Christoph Arckhauer in Kulmain , which was consecrated on August 12, 1690 by the Regensburg auxiliary bishop Albert Ernst von Wartenberg ; The Sulzbach calendar reported on the inauguration of the church :
“On June 4th, 1678, the whole building was completed and the chapel was healed the next day, on June 5th, as the first Sunday after Pentecost. Trinity festivals themselves, solemnly benedicated by the pastor and elector. Spiritual advice Christoph Arckhauer zu Kulmain, its founder, in the presence of Georg Reiss, pastor and treasurer at Pressatz, Johann Stahl, provisional officer at Ebnath and Steinach, Johann Oettl, pastor at Pullenreuth, Wolfgang Valentin Burger, pastor at Waldeck, P. Corbinian The only one, Vicar of the Franciscan Reformates of Kemnath, the PP Carolus Rieffträger, Menrad Rauch, Cherubin Hopfauer from there, finally the Count Ludwig von St. Bonifacii, the Elector. Your highness in Bavaria chamberlain and lieutenant colonel on horseback, and other high class persons. The number of those present was over 3500, of which 850 the Heil. Had received the sacraments of penance and the altar. The high mass was held by Pastor Oettl von Pullenreuth, the sermon by Pastor Arckhauer von Kulmain. After the service was completed, the Count of St. Bonifacii treated all the priests and notables with good food, wine and beer from the improvised kitchen under his freely pitched tents, while 4 trumpeters and a drummer played. Solemn Vespers was held at 3 p.m. and the celebration itself ended with the blessing of the Blessed Sacrament. "
The Armesberg was not entirely spared from secularization either. In 1804 the Kemnath regional court sent the following letter to the regional management:
“On the Armesberg there are two churches, a Trinity Church and a Michael Church. If no parish is established on the Armesberg, both churches can be dispensed with. Since there is a small school for the surrounding villages due to the mountainous and wintry location on the Armesberg, the wretched schoolhouse has to be swapped and the priest's house, which is attached to the Michaelskirche, has to be converted into a schoolhouse. ”Nevertheless, the building was never rebuilt . A lightning strike destroyed the building on May 22, 1819. This is also reported in the notes of the teacher Philip, who lived near the schoolhouse:
It was a sad sight for me and my family as well as for all the neighboring places, with tears in their eyes one now looked up to the fire site, where previously so many thousands of pious pilgrims sought and found consolation and help. Yes! the desolate and destroyed church of grace pressed many tears from our eyes.
More valuable paraments , the monstrance and chalices did not fall victim to the flames because they were kept in the apartment of the teacher and sacristan.
The new church today
The first plan for a new church envisaged a three-pass-shaped floor plan, above three chapels with domed roofs . Since the technical construction caused too many difficulties, it was decided instead to use a circular building with a domed roof. After a fundraising campaign for the reconstruction of the church, the outdoor work began on August 14, 1822, and continued until 1836, when the church was consecrated on the Holy Trinity and the first sacrifice could be celebrated. The sculpture Christ at Rest is worth seeing . The altar of today's church still comes from the Michael's chapel.
In 1839, on Trinity Sunday, the first Holy Mass was celebrated. Teacher Philip wrote:
“I cannot describe the devotion with which this House of God to the Holy Trinity has been visited by devotees from near and far every time it was worshiped since the time it was rebuilt, and hardly then the church can catch the crowd who flocked to it sheds tears of joy over the creation of this church. "
In 1841, the pastor at the time wanted to restrict the number of people attending church services in Kulmain to the bishop, since the new Armesberg church had been visiting this church instead of the Kulmain church. Until then, masses were celebrated on the Armesberg from May 1st to the end of October - with the exception of Corpus Christi and the following Sunday, on which all parishioners are required to come to the Mother Church ( mother church here means the Kulmain parish church, since the church is open Armesberg was only a branch church at the time - nowadays, by the way, too). However, the surrounding population opposed the pastor and wrote a letter to the bishop on April 10 of the same year:
“It is always sad when a parish community encounters obstacles in the practice of their religion; by and through the guilt of men or through the influence of the elements. [...] This our splendid pilgrimage church [...] had started from the time it was first built in 1678, and has always been the refuge of many thousands of devout pilgrims from near and far, and has become especially of the nearby villages the parish of Kulmain are, in the 6 summer months - from May 1st to October 28th - always very numerous. [...] “The bishop replied a few days later that the number of services would not be reduced. The Trinity Festival in 1978 celebrated the 300th anniversary of the church. The event had the motto that teacher Philip had put on paper 140 years earlier:
"May the house of God serve all neighboring and distant Christian residents as a refuge for their salvation for many centuries to come and be an ornament of our regional court and the entire Upper Palatinate!"
Zinster quarry
There is a basalt quarry on the mountain, the so-called Zinster quarry . Its history began in 1898 when a 5.2 km long cable car was installed from the quarry to the planned processing warehouse at Immenreuth station. At Christmas 1899, the cable car with 120 lorries went into operation. It was powered by a steam engine with a total output of 100 hp. The mined rock was transported to Immenreuth with this cable car. There it was crushed by a total of 6 jaw crushers (five jaw crushers with each 50 cm jaw width and one jaw crusher with 60 cm jaw width). The quarry and the processing warehouse were important employers for the region, which is also proven by the number of employees: together, the quarry and processing plant had 130 employees after the turn of the century.
Shortly after the turn of the century, the daily gravel production was 250 tons. In 1940 operations were closed due to a lack of staff. The entire cable car and processing system were dismantled and transported to Voccawind near Maroldsweisach .
After the war, the owners of the basalt quarry made an attempt to resume operations. The North Bavarian Hartsteinwerke were founded - initially not particularly successful. In 1947 the daily production was 140 to 160 tons (for comparison: 250 tons were produced shortly after the turn of the century!). And that despite the fact that a new crushing plant had been built directly at the quarry.
In 1989 a new processing plant was built. As a result, the daily production with 14 employees increased to 1000 tons of gravel. Later a more powerful coarse crushing system was installed. The quarry is no longer in operation today. The complete crushing plant was dismantled. The foundations and the remaining facilities have already been partially demolished. At present (beginning of 2009) the wheelhouse with an S5 control for the crusher and the truck loading is still in place.
The factory canteen that was built at that time is still in use.
Say
There are innumerable legends about the Armesberg, which often have to do with the volcanic past of the region. The most important of these are listed and interpreted here.
The fires on Mount Armes
The then pastor of Armesberg, Arckhauer, wrote the following:
“It has been told throughout that from unbelievable years ago and still in my time, burning bright fires were seen on the mountain at night. After various discussions, I had Johann Grüßl, former mayor of Kemnath, tell me that around twenty years ago at midnight he saw three big fires burning brightly on this mountain from Kemnath. At the same time, Mr. Johann Schreyer von Blumenthal at Grünberg and Bodenwöhr, said at the same time pleasantly at Grünberg, that he had seen Berg Armes standing in full fire for three hours, mentioned for many years, and what similar fire reports were several in my time. "
Pastor Arckhauer thought these fires were something unnatural and supernatural. The residents of the surrounding villages recognized these fires as a sign of hidden treasure. Nobody dared to investigate the causes of the nocturnal fires because the dark forests were full of ghosts and fiends, as the people believed.
For many years no one has ever seen fire or anything like that on the mountain. One explanation for the brightly burning fires is likely to be the ore and precious metal seekers who were often in the area at the time, whose night wax fires were sighted.
Gold and wealth
A shepherd from Kemnath is said to have looked after a flock of sheep on the Armesberg. He had a dog with him who had to keep the herd together and guard. At that time, when bears and wolves were still at home in the Upper Palatinate and Bohemian forests and predatory rabble went into hiding in the wooded border areas, the shepherds had to be able to rely entirely on their four-legged helpers. The Kemnath shepherd's dog ran every day into the forest, where it was densest and scariest, and only came back after hours. His master was uneasy about it. He wanted to find out what drew the animal so regularly into the forest. So one day he tied the end of a ball of wool to his tail. He followed the thread and came to a cave entrance under tumbled boulders. He felt his way through and stood in a high vault. In it three women sat behind heavy iron chests and read thick books. The dog lay at her feet as if he were enchanted. The shepherd was frightened. When he had recovered, he saw that the chests were filled to the brim with gold and greed seized him. He tore his hat off and shoveled in the gold pieces with both hands. Then he heard a lamb bleat. He hastily tossed his hat aside and ran out to see his sheep. When he came back, everything was dark, the three women had disappeared, hat, treasure and books could no longer be found. Only the dog lay whimpering in a corner: it was caught in the threads.
This legend was probably created as a conclusion to the legend The Fire on Mount Armes (see above). The poor population suspected that there was a treasure on the mountain, so this legend was told. It must have come from before the middle of the 19th century, as bears and wolves stopped roaming the woods after that. It is doubtful whether the described cave still exists. However, there is no gold in the entire Steinwald or on the Armesberg, as Jordan Fuchs already described in 1907 in the first year of the magazine “Die Oberpfalz”.
Money and wealth
A man who was not blessed with riches heard several nights in a row in a dream in the affluent city of Amberg : “Go to the Stone Bridge! Look for your luck there! ”But since the Stone Bridge near Regensburg crosses the Danube, he made his way there and walked up and down on it. A citizen of Regensburg noticed this when he had to pass the Stone Bridge. They got into conversation and it turned out that the Regensburg man had also dreamed. A voice had told him to go to a mountain with a little church on it: “Two hundred steps below the little church, 150 feet to the left of the path you will find an entrance with five wooden steps that leads to a cellar. When you take the third step you will see a pot filled with money ”. The Amberger, who knew "his" Upper Palatinate, knew immediately that the cellar entrance under the Kirchberg could only refer to the "poor", and wandered confidently over the Murach fortress and the Leuchtenburg, "rested in the pastures". Before he went to sleep in the town of Kemnath, while having a beer, he told the landlord about the dreams that were to lead him from Amberg over the Regensburg Bridge and the Kemnath inn on the Armesberg. He also carefully reported all the details of the pot under the third of the five steps under the cellar entrance, 200 paces below the little church that he wanted to get the next morning. While the Amberg treasure digger was resting close to the goal of his wishes, the landlord set out secretly, left Kulmain on the left, climbed the Armesberg and found the pot with the money in the place indicated. When the guest from Amberg noticed how shamefully his affability had been exploited, he uttered violent curses and curses against the Kemnath host and his town and retreated the long way to Amberg with empty pockets. The Kemnath innkeeper and his house are said to have brought no luck to the unjust property.
As above, this legend probably originated from the popular belief that there is treasure on the mountain. This legend also dates back to the 18th or 19th century, as the information "200 feet / 150 feet" clearly indicates that there was no standardized measure, as the metric system was only introduced at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Trinity Treasure
Today there is still a great treasure of gold in a hidden cave in the mountain. The entrance opens on every Trinity Sunday, while the bell of the pilgrimage church is ringing. Whoever finds it can take as much of the gold with them as they can carry. But he has to leave the cave by the last stroke of the bell, because the entrance then closes again and holds him in the mountain for a whole year.
Such legends are typical of the Upper Palatinate region. Possibly the same cave is meant here as in the legend gold and wealth . This legend may have originated later and indicates a possible collapse of a cave. However, it should be mentioned again that there was never gold in or around the stone forest .
colonization
The village of Erdenweis (municipality of Kulmain) is located directly on the mountain and is mostly populated by farmers. The village of Godas (Kemnath municipality) lies on a southern foothill of the mountain, also a village that is mostly populated by farmers. The town of Waldeck is a little to the west. The village of Wunschenberg lies on the northern foothills of the mountain, to the west of which is a gravel works. At the eastern foot of the mountain is the village of Trevesen . At the western foot you can find Neusteinreuth.
Buildings
At the foot of the Armesberg stands the old sacristan and school house, which is now a restaurant. There is also a relay station on the mountain for radio reception in the area. This was to be expanded in 2003, but this was rejected by the Kulmain municipal council.
There is also a playground near the Mesnerhaus restaurant, which changed hands in April 2006.
Land use
Most of the unforested area of Armesberg is used for agriculture. However, some areas cannot be used because they are too steep. There is also a basalt quarry called the Zinster quarry . This is already 100 years old, but the basalt reserves are slowly running out. The dense forests are used for forestry.
Station of the cross
There are individual stations of the cross at the 60-step staircase to the mountain church and around the church. These were donated by the builder Krautschneider from South Tyrol in 1877 when the Oberwappenöster railway tunnel was being built . At that time, his son had climbed around on the scaffolding and fell off. The father promised he would build a way of the cross on Armesberg if the boy survived the fall. In fact, the boy was hardly hurt and his father kept his promise.
In 1991 the staircase and the Stations of the Cross were completely renovated by the parish of Kulmain .
The individual stations are represented by gilded pictures, which are set in granite columns.
Driving and hiking trails
The southern route from Zinst to Trevesen and other marked hiking trails run over the Armesberg; an asphalt road leads almost to the summit. The bike tour No. 3 (Steinwaldtour) includes a visit to the Armesberg. The green and white path begins on the Armesberg, it is also a waypoint on the natural history and geological educational trail around Kemnath .
The district road TIR 8, which connects the village of Godas with the villages of Trevesen and Waldeck , also leads over the Armesberg . It is also one of the few direct connections between the B 22 and the Steinwald .
Landscape and nature
Landscape on the Armesberg
The mountain itself is largely covered by forest. The pilgrimage church stands on the summit, a very steeply rising forest that is littered with basalt rock, which in turn suggests the volcanic past of the mountain. While the west side of Armesberg is quite steep, the east side is relatively flat at first and only rises after a few hundred meters.
Landscape around the Armesberg
On the west side, the landscape, which had been dominated by hills until then, changes: a shallow basin that extends from the foot of Armesberg to south of Kemnath provides wide views of the region. At first the terrain drops steeply, then the land becomes flat and is hardly forested any more. The west side of the mountain is located in a small basin, which, however, rises again quite quickly.
nature
The flora of Armesberg and other basalt peaks is more species-rich than the flora on the barren granite soils in the stone forest . This can be explained by the fact that the basalts heat up more and thus provide a home for more heat-loving plants.
On the Armesberg and the basalt knolls in the area grow salep orchid , broad-leaved orchid , stately orchid and large two-leaf orchid . Only in the region around the Armesberg that grows not otherwise be in the Stone Forest to-find Brandknabenkraut . There are also many other types of flowers and herbs on the Armesberg, e.g. B. the cowslip and the black henbane .
All of the wooded areas of the Armesberg are largely populated with coniferous plants . Most of these are spruce and pine . Only directly on the summit is there a larger area with deciduous trees .
Many species of butterflies live on the Armesberg, e. B. the lemon butterfly , the great schiller butterfly or the aurora butterfly .
In the forest slopes down to Fichtelnaab you will, with a bit of luck, come across fire salamanders . In stony areas around the Armesberg you can find fence or forest lizards , blindworms and occasionally adders . For some time now, the lynx , which have not been sighted in this region for a long time, have been found in the vicinity of the mountain (several witnesses, including a forester, were able to observe some specimens).
The entire Armesberg (with basalt dome) is designated as a natural monument .
Foot pilgrimage
It is an old tradition that is very popular every year: the pilgrimage on foot to Armesberg. Every year on the third Sunday in September, innumerable believers set out at 6:30 a.m. for a pilgrimage on foot on the Armesberg, where a service is then celebrated in the pilgrimage church. This pilgrimage took place for the first time in 1691.
societies
Friends of Armesberg e. V.
The Friends of the Armesberg e. V. consists of 30 members and was founded in 2001. The association describes its goals as follows:
The tasks of the association include
- the protection, maintenance and positive further development of all facilities, buildings and areas on the Armesberg with the pilgrimage church of St. Trinity as the center
- the care and maintenance of hiking and pilgrimage routes to Armesberg with the field monuments and Marteln
- the research and recording of the historical development on the Armesberg
- nature, landscape and environmental protection within the meaning of Section 29 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act
- taking care of hiking, local folklore and customs, as well as socializing
- Events for the benefit of the Armesberg.
Remarks
- ↑ Wir am Steinwald, Volume 9, pp. 70f.
- ↑ Wir am Steinwald, No. 6, p. 111
- ↑ Wir am Steinwald, issue 13, p. 8 and HdBG: History of the Kulmainer coat of arms ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Wir am Steinwald, Book 13, p. 7
- ↑ Wir am Steinwald, Book 2, p. 5
- ↑ Wir am Steinwald, Book 6, p. 124
- ↑ Wir am Steinwald, volume 6, p. 31f.
literature
Books
- Dietmar Herrmann, Helmut Süssmann: Fichtel Mountains, Bavarian Vogtland, Steinwald, Bayreuther Land. Lexicon . Ackermannverlag, Hof (Saale) 2000, ISBN 3-929364-18-2 , p. 3 f .
- Alfred Sladek: Circular hikes Fichtelgebirge . J. Fink-Kümmerly + Frey Verlag, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-7718-0245-8 . P. 68f.
- Anton Reger: Kulmainer Heimatbüchlein . 1980/1981, Laßleben Verlag, ISBN 3-7847-1132-4 .
- Peter Morsbach / Wilkin Spitta: Pilgrimage churches in the Upper Palatinate . Friedrich Pustet Verlag, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7917-1943-2 .
- Steinwaldia Pullenreuth ( Ed. ): Wir am Steinwald , Heft 4 (1996), 1996, Verlag E. Bodner, Pressath, ISBN 3-926817-47-X . P. 17f .; P. 117f.
- Steinwaldia Pullenreuth ( Ed. ): Wir am Steinwald , Issue 13 (2005), 2005, Verlag E. Bodner, 2005 Pressath, ISBN 3-937117-37-7 . Pp. 7-15.
- Johann Vogl: The Armesberg and its pilgrimage church to the Holy Trinity , 1976. DNB 860987329
- Hans Steinbruckner: Armesberg: history and stories. Bauer and Sieber Verlag, Würzburg 1969.
Newspapers, magazines
- Josef Lehner: Armesberg or Armansberg. - History of the Armesberg Church , 1949/1950 in "Kemnather Zeitung" No. 14, pp. 45–47.
( Entry in the Bavarian Bibliography ) - Martin Wiesend: The little church on Armesberg (near Kirchenlaibach) , 1931 in "Oberfränkische Heimat 8"
( entry in the Bavarian bibliography ) - Hans Vizthum: The Kemnather parish pilgrimages , 2001 in "Kemnather Heimatbote 21"
( entry in the Bavarian State History Magazine Show ) - Rosa Buckler: Armesberg , 1988 in "Kemnather Heimatbote 8"
- Dr. Anton Reger: The attempt to "annex" the Armesberg Church , 1982 in "Kemnather Heimatbote 2"
- Dr. Anton Reger: Arckhauer tells Armesberg stories , 1983 in "Kemnather Heimatbote 3"
- Dietmar Herrmann: Der Armesberg , in: Der Siebenstern , Heft 3-2015, S. 16-17
Web links
- A side to Armesberg, created by a local resident
- Some information about the Fichtel Mountains and the Armesberg
- Site of the association "Friends of Armesberg"
- Article of July 22, 2005 from the "New Day" about Armesberg
- View from Armesberg (panorama)
- Aerial photos of Armesberg and the church
Coordinates: 49 ° 53 ' N , 11 ° 57' E