Bear trap (building)
The Bear Trap is a 17th century building where bears were driven and then held captive. The bear trap on the Großer Waldstein in the Fichtelgebirge is a hunting memorial and is considered the only surviving building of its kind. In the nearby Selber Forest and on the Königsheide there were apparently similar buildings, but these were demolished after the bears disappeared because the mighty granite blocks were in great demand Building materials were.
history
As a result of the Thirty Years' War , the predators in the German forests multiplied rapidly. The Margraves of Kulmbach-Bayreuth then offered bonuses for shooting bears and wolves . As bears are difficult to hunt, it was decided to use a trap on the Waldstein to get to grips with them.
The history of the bear trapping can be easily reconstructed, although documents such as drawings of the building are missing. Therefore the exact year of construction is unknown. In the Bamberg State Archives , however, there are numerous indirect references to bear trapping. They were already compiled by the former district home nurse Karl Dietel and are in his collection of notes in the Münchberg city archive .
The first written note is in an invoice from the Margraves' caste office in Münchberg from April 3, 1656. This includes “four fodder sea of oats for eight compulsory horses”, which were required to transport the bear caught in the bear catch on Waldstein to Gefrees . From there the predator was carried on to Bayreuth , where the margraves in the Thiergarten carried out the popular bear hunt .
So probably the first bear was caught alive on the Waldstein 350 years ago. Bear trapping was in operation for about 100 years, during which an average of one predator was trapped almost every year. This can be read again and again in the invoices of the Margravial Oberamt Stockenroth. Often there is also talk of repairs where the farmers had to do labor. A Waldstein bear was brought to the natural history cabinet in Erlangen as a sight , while others were allegedly displayed at fairs.
The last predator is said to have been caught there in 1760. The last bear of the Fichtelgebirge lived until 1769, it was, as they say, a rather tame animal that ate out of the hand of the woodcutter, but regarded the forester from Vordorf as his mortal enemy and was shot by the latter in self-defense. That is why the Vordorf people are still called “the bears” today.
When suspicious traces were discovered again around 1780, the bear trapping was improved again. Allegedly they only caught two Capuchins who wanted to protect themselves from the rain on their hike over the Waldstein.
In the period that followed, the bear trap fell into disrepair and as early as 1800 the smoothly hewn granite blocks of the ruin aroused the desires of various builders. The valuable stones should first be used to build a forester's house in Sparneck and then for a factory in Münchberg. However, that did not happen. Finally, in 1816, the forest ranger Schöntag from Zell tried to demolish the dilapidated structure and use the stones to build his house. The Sparneck chief forester Otto was just able to prevent this plan. He wrote to the Selb Forestry Office:
“It is extremely shameful and unreasonable by a royal public servant if he does not appreciate a very rare antiquity that may not be found in our whole kingdom, and dares to buy it from the royal rent office in Münchberg and to seek permission to demolish such. "
The chief forester would even have been prepared to offer "at all times five guilders more than the others at a public auction and to pay it out of his own pocket in order to be able to leave this antiquity on the spot". It is thanks to this commitment that the 350th anniversary of bear trapping was celebrated in 2006.
Description of the building
The bear trap is a small, elongated building with two entrances, one on each side. There is a narrow opening in the middle of one side wall. The building made of solid granite blocks is 9 meters long, 3.30 meters wide and 4 meters high. Because of the damage caused by a storm, a new roof was put on the building in 2006. The rocks surrounding the bear trap are a natural monument . A stone bear was set up nearby.
top, roof
It is known from reliable records that the bear trap had a roof in 1816 at the latest when the Zeller forester wanted to tear it down. Unconfirmed reports (Schleußinger 1924) mention a tiled roof as early as 1806. You can still find bricks in the area around the bear trap. Also, the two friars would hardly have sought protection in the building if it had not been under the roof. As an indirect, earliest reference to a roof, a forest bill in 1728 listed the delivery of five trees for the repair of the bear trap, including a "plocher tree". What would it take such an amount of wood for if not for the roof? Another argument is the condition of the wall crown, which is currently exposed after the roof has been removed. Without effective protection, the structure would hardly have survived the winter on the Waldstein. One can therefore assume that the bear hunt had a roof from the start. It remains to be seen whether this was always the same as it was before it was destroyed on May 20, 2006 by a hurricane.
functionality
The exact function of the trigger mechanism is not fully understood. Ludwig Zapf made one assumption in his Waldstein book published 150 years ago. Accordingly, the two trap doors were lifted with ropes that converged in the middle on the outside of the north wall. They were led via eyelets to a wall passage just above the ground. There they were pushed over an iron rod that led into the interior of the building. The bait hung from its hooked end. If the bear pulled on it, the ropes on the outside came off the pole and the trap gates were released.
It should be added that several men would have been needed to lift the drop gates, which must have weighed a few hundredweight. It can therefore be assumed that a winch was attached to the northern outer wall , which allowed a single man to arm the trap. Three drill holes at working height that are still visible today indicate this. It was not triggered by an iron rod, but by a rope that led into the interior of the structure and on which the bait was attached. If the bear pulled on it, it unlocked the locking lever of the winch and the trap gates fell down.
The bait itself probably consisted of carrion that could be stuck in a sack, for example. It had to be brought in by the case master, who was also called "Luderführer" or "Schinder" . Since 1687 he lived in Reinersreuth at the foot of the Waldstein. All of the dead cattle from the Stockenroth-Münchberg-Hallerstein Office were brought there and buried in the "Saugarten" area.
The Sparneck district forester Buchner wrote in 1856:
“The fall master had special supervision over this bear catch. He had to set up and clean it and the bait. For these obligations he received 6 fathoms of wood from the princely forests, which - although the bear race has disappeared from this area - still exists annually from the royal state forests to this day. "
The case master also had the task of looking after the dogs of the manorial sheep farm on Grohenbühl near Stockenroth with carrion.
In contrast, the use of honey as bait appears improbable, which is often assumed. The trough inside the bear trap was rather filled with water so that a trapped bear could survive for some time. The bear was finally driven into a cage in front of it through an opening in the middle of the south wall and transported away alive. It is believed that the bear was driven from the bear trap into the cage with the help of fire, for example burning torches on poles could have been brought up to the bear from both sides. To do this, however, the trap gates would have to have had small openings.
Say of the two monks in the bear trap
A legend about the Great Waldstein tells of the following incident:
“Once two monks came from Eger and wanted to travel over the Waldstein to Sparneck. When they got to the Waldstein, it suddenly began to rain like mad. It was as if someone didn't want them to make it to Sparneck. In search of protection from the storm, the two monks got deeper and deeper into the forest. Then, to their great relief, they saw a narrow path and decided to follow it. Suddenly a small house rose in front of them out of the thick fog brought by the rain. They thanked their maker and entered to shelter. The wind whistled and howled in the little house as if the person was trapped in the little house. The monks went a few paces further into the house when suddenly there was a tremendous rumble, even louder than the whistling and howling of the wind, and two gates closed the exits of the building. Terrified, they stumbled forward and fell into a bulge with sticky contents. Disgusted, they wiped their hands on their robes and fell asleep. The next day they were awakened by a loud hum and scratching. They realized that they were sitting in the bear trap and that the sticky one was a dead animal that was supposed to attract the bear. It had done that job. Outside, a huge bear kept lurking around the bear trap. As she was inside and the bear outside, they were safe from him, but they couldn't escape the trap. Finally the bear trolled again and the monks, since they were feeding on the bait, were rescued by forest rangers after two days. "
literature
- Tilmann Breuer : District of Münchberg . The art monuments of Bavaria , brief inventories, XIII. Band . German art publisher . Munich 1961. p. 53.
- Karl Dietel : The Great Waldstein in the Fichtel Mountains. Nature, present, history , Fichtelgebirgsverein Hof 1987 ( The Fichtelgebirge ; Volume 1)
- Karl Dietel: The Great Waldstein in the Fichtel Mountains , Saalfrank, Helmbrechts, 1968 ( Between Waldstein and Döbraberg ; Volume 7)
- Reinhardt Schmalz: "Ceremonial speech on the bear catch 2006"
- Reinhardt Schmalz: The bear catch on the Waldstein . In: Sparnecker historical books . Issue 3, Sparneck 2012. pp. 10–13.
Web links
- Homepage of the market in Zell im Fichtelgebirge
- Homepage of the Sparneck market
- Homepage of the Fichtelgebirgsverein
Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 44 ″ N , 11 ° 51 ′ 18 ″ E