Askanija-Nowa (nature reserve)
| Askanija-Nova Biosphere Reserve | |||
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| Location: | Kherson , Ukraine | ||
| Next city: | Askanija-Nova | ||
| Surface: | 333.08 km² | ||
| Founding: | 1921 | ||
| Address: | Біосферного заповідника "Асканія-Нова" Херсонська область, Чаплинский район, смт. Асканія-Нова, вул.Фрунзе 13, індекс 75230 / Ukraine official website |
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Askanija-Nowa ( German New Askanien ) is a nature reserve in the southern Ukrainian Oblast of Kherson . The nature reserve located in the steppe zone covers a total of 33,308 ha (333.08 km²). It is one of the few areas in Europe with relatively natural steppe vegetation. In the center of the nature reserve is the urban-type settlement Askanija-Nowa , which gave the area its name. The place has an acclimatized zoo and a botanical garden. More than 50 rare animal species are at home or settled on the territory (including Przewalski's horses and saigas ). The Ukrainian research institute for steppe cattle breeding is located in Askanija-Nowa . The Great Tschaplynka Depression is a wetland within the nature reserve, which is protected under the Ramsar Convention . The natural shallow depression is filled with water from melted snow and rain, which thanks to additional water from artesian wells in the central part of the Depression, never runs dry. Hundreds of thousands of birds use the depression as a migration area in autumn and spring.
Every year around 200,000 visitors come to Askanija-Nowa.
Geographical location
 
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Askanija-Nova Biosphere Reserve |
The biosphere reserve is located in Chaplynka Rajon in the south of Kherson Oblast, 145 km east of the Oblast capital Kherson , 31 km east of the Chaplynka Rajon center and 55 km north of Sywasch . The nearest railway stations are in Kalanchak, 72 km away , and Novooleksiyivka, 76 km away .
history
The Askanija-Nowa estate was founded in 1828 by Duke Ferdinand von Anhalt-Köthen ( Russian : Anhalt-Ketenski ) as a colony of the Duchy of Anhalt-Köthen . In the autumn of 1826, in a letter to the Russian charge d'affaires in Leipzig, he expressed interest in setting up a colony for sheep breeding in Russia; There was a lack of pastureland in Anhalt for the expansion of its own breeding near Nienburg (Saale) . Since the Russian state was trying to import refined sheep breeds from Germany, it approved a delegation in autumn 1827 to look for suitable terrain in southern Ukraine. The choice fell on Steppe 71 , an area of 50,000 desjatines (approx. 550 km²), whereby the Koetheners received 48,000 desjatines as a gift because of the barren soil points . They also received about 6,000 desjatins on the Black Sea . The transfer of the land took place on March 3rd by an ukase from the Tsar. The name Askanija-Nowa refers to the Anhalt ducal family of the Askanians .
On August 11, 1828, 25 people with 2,286 sheep, two bulls, six cows and eight horses left their home in Anhalt. Only 35 sheep were lost on the trip to Askanija-Nowa. The sheep pens were built according to Bandhauer's classicist Nienburg model. By 1829 the new farm was expanded to 5,300, in 1830 there were already over 8,000 sheep.
In 1835 the nearby settlement of Tschapli , which was first mentioned in a document in 1822 , was renamed Askania Nova to match the name of the estate. In the first ten years the colony was tax-free, but due to mismanagement it had to be repeatedly financially supported by the duchy. After the death of Duke Heinrich , the last regent of Anhalt-Köthen, Askanija-Nowa became the property of the Duke of Anhalt-Dessau. He sold the unprofitable company with 30,000 sheep on October 6, 1856 for around 1.5 million gold marks to the German-Russian noble landowner Friedrich Fein. In total, the losses amounted to about one million gold marks.
Ownership passed to Elizabeth, Friedrich Feins' only daughter, and her husband Johann Gottlieb Pfalz. The Tsar allowed the family to use the double name Pfalz-Fein, which was changed to Falz-Fein.
The family built a zoo in 1874 and a botanical garden in 1887. In 1896 Friedrich Fein's great-grandson Friedrich von Falz-Fein bought a herd of wild eland antelopes in order to domesticate them . This flock still exists today and is looked after by mounted shepherds.
At the end of the 1890s, the products of the Falz-Feinschen goods were always highly regarded at the agricultural exhibitions in Russia. They were known as the kings of the sheep farmers of Russia. The Tsar also praised the good quality of the horses, which were bred in large numbers for the Russian military.
Friedrich Fein's great-grandson, Friedrich von Falz-Fein , bought a herd of wild eland antelopes in order to domesticate them. This flock still exists today and is looked after by mounted shepherds. The eland cows produce a very high-fat milk. At the end of the 19th century, Friedrich von Falz-Fein had several fishing expeditions for wild Przewalski horses carried out in the Gobi desert . In 1899 the first five foals came to Askanija-Nowa. In 1901, 52 more were caught, but only 28 of them survived the strains of trapping and traveling. They were sold to the German animal dealer Carl Hagenbeck in Hamburg.
On April 23, 1914, the Russian Tsar Nicholas II visited Askanija-Nova. At that time the estate had about half a million sheep and 58 different types of mammals, including many exotic animals such as antelopes, bison, zebras, but also ostriches, and the estate was also home to 402 species of birds. During the October Revolution the court was badly devastated; the Falz-Fein family had to flee to Germany from the Bolsheviks . Only the old mother of Friedrich von Falz-Fein, Sophie von Falz-Fein (1835-1919), remained on the estate and was shot by Red Guards at her Preobraschenka Castle . The head of the family at the time, Baron Eduard Alexandrowitsch von Falz-Fein (1912–2018), lived in the villa “Askania Nova” in the Principality of Liechtenstein . He and his relative Boris Sadovsky campaigned for research into the history of the Germans in Askanija-Nova and southern Ukraine .
In 1921 Askanija-Nowa was declared a nature reserve, making it the oldest in present-day Ukraine. In 1940 the open-air park was re-established on the territory of the former estate.
During the Second World War , Askanija-Nowa was temporarily occupied by the Germans and in 1941 it was temporarily the command post of the 11th German Army under General Field Marshal Erich von Manstein during the fighting to conquer the entrances to the Crimean peninsula .
After the German occupation of southern Ukraine, Prof. Dr. Lutz Heck , director of the Berlin zoological garden, Askania-Nova in 1943, in order to secure it as a Reich nature reserve. On site he was entrusted by Alfred Rosenberg and his Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories with the overall management of the reserve, which from now on was subordinate to the Supreme Nature Conservation Authority of the Third Reich. 70 percent of Askania Nova's animal population, including the rare Przewalski horses, were ultimately destroyed when they were transported to Germany for distribution to local zoos.
Many animals and all scientific documents were lost during the Second World War .
Since 1956 the nature reserve around the settlement Askanija-Nowa has been subordinate to the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and bears the name Ukrainian es Scientific Ivanov Institute, a research institute for steppe animals . The nature reserve has been registered in the UNESCO International System of Nature Reserves since 1984 .
literature
- Bernhard Grzimek: Wild animal, white man. Kindler, Zurich 1965, pp. 42–46, DTV, Munich 1976. ISBN 3-423-01177-7
- Lisa Heiss: Paradise in the steppe. The adventurous way to Askania Nova. Union, Stuttgart 1970, Bitter, Recklinghausen 1981. ISBN 3-7903-0283-X
- Anita Maaß : You think you're in a fairytale land. On the economic advancement and socio-cultural integration of the Saxon Falz-Fein family in Russia 1807–1914. Building blocks from the Institute for Saxon History and Folklore. Vol. 1. Thelem, Dresden 2005. ISBN 3-937672-00-1
Web links
- official website of the Askanija-Nova Biosphere Reserve at askania-nova-zapovidnik.gov.ua/ (Ukrainian / Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Annotated Ramsar Convention ( Memento of February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Wetlands in Ukraine (Ukrainian)
- ^ Kai Artinger: The Bear of Berlin, Yearbook 1994, p. 125-S. 139; for the history of Berlin eV , see [1]