Bohemian forest

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Bohemian forest
Big Arber

Big Arber

Highest peak Großer Arber ( 1456  m above sea  level )
location Bavaria (Germany), Czech Republic, Austria
Bohemian Forest (Bohemian Massif)
Bohemian forest
Coordinates 49 ° 7 '  N , 13 ° 8'  E Coordinates: 49 ° 7 '  N , 13 ° 8'  E
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The Bohemian Forest , in Czech Šumava , is a mountain range around 120 km long and up to 50 km wide, which extends along the Czech - German - Austrian border. After the Giant Mountains (1603 m) and Jeseníky Mountains (1491 m), it is the third highest rump mountain in the Bohemian Massif . The highest mountain in the Bohemian Forest is the Great Arber at 1,456 m . The asteroid of the central main belt (2403) Šumava was named after the mountain range.

geography

Bohemian forest
Topography of the Bohemian Forest (in the triangle of Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. The blue spot is the Vltava reservoir )
The Czech part of the Bohemian Forest within the geomorphological division of the Czech Republic

The Bohemian Forest extends from the Cham-Further sink , Neumarker sink , Neumarker pass and Neugedeiner furrow that it from the northwest subsequent Bohemian or Bohemian Forest (Czech: Český les - Bohemian Forest ) separate from northwest to southeast to the Kerschbaumer Saddle , according other definition up to the Hohenfurth saddle . The mountains form a section of the great European watershed Atlantic – Black Sea and drain to the Danube and Vltava .

Although the Bohemian Forest is geologically a single mountain range, it has been divided according to political boundaries since the beginning of the 20th century . Depending on the regional location or context, the term "Bohemian Forest" denotes the whole mountain range or only parts of it:

Originally, the Upper Palatinate Forest / Bohemian Forest in Bavaria and the Czech Republic was still part of the Bohemian Forest.

The terms Bavarian Forest and Bohemian Forest are used ambiguously and have changed over time. The main chain of the region is called the high Bohemian Forest . The Große Arber on the Bavarian side is the highest point of this low mountain range with its 1456 meters . In the Czech Republic and Austria, the Plöckenstein / Plechý located on the border is the highest mountain at 1378 m. There is also a slightly lower Bavarian Plöckenstein . The front Bavarian Forest is not counted as part of the Bohemian Forest, but compared to the Bohemian Forest as the (actual) Bavarian Forest; if the Bohemian Forest is counted as part of the Bavarian Forest (as is often the case in colloquial terms), only the part that is in Bavaria.

Surname

Strabo and Ptolemy call the Bohemian Forest Gabreta Silva . This name goes back to the Celtic * gabros "[Stein-] Bock". The forest mountains received the first traditional German name "Nordwald" from the Bavarian side: as a forest in the north of the Duchy of Bavaria . Early mentions can be found in documents from Ludwig the German in 853 and Heinrich II. In 1010. In the latter, the emperor bequeathed part of the "northern forest" to the Niedernburg monastery in Passau. Later, the name “Bohemian Forest” became established for the entire forest area “against Bohemia”. Was mentioned in a document z. B. 1147 Behaimer walt and 1204 the Boemerwalt . Since the 19th century, the landscape has been divided into smaller units, which - especially in Bavaria - are essentially oriented towards the political borders ( Upper Palatinate Forest , Bavarian Forest ).

Clearing and settlement

In the course of regional and urban development from the 12th to the 14th century, the wooded outskirts of Bohemia in particular were cleared and settled. In the Bohemian Forest, mainly German-speaking settlers from the neighboring Bavarian areas were involved. From that time on, Bohemia was considered a bilingual country. The connecting routes between Bavaria and Bohemia were important for the development of the Bohemian Forest. B. the trade route " Goldener Steig ". Over the centuries, new settlements penetrated further and further into the jungle. Many villages go back to the glassworks locations of the 18th century and often have names that end in "... hut". The latest foundations include B. Eleonorenhain / Lenora , which was not built as a glassworks until 1834.

The expulsion of the German-speaking population after 1945 meant a radical change in settlement structures. Many smaller settlements were depopulated. Today only so-called " desert areas " are often left. In some places, such as B. in Lučina , interested Czech and German local history researchers and hobby archaeologists began to excavate the desert after 2010.

Economic use and nature conservation

Of economic importance that had in this area since the Middle Ages glass production . After the introduction of chalk glass (lead crystal) shortly before 1700, glass production in Bohemia experienced a rapid boom. As a result, Bohemia was able to break the supremacy of Venetian glass from Murano and take over the market leadership in the global glass business for almost 200 years (even the now famous Swedish glassworks in Småland got their first families of glassblowers here). There were some well-known glass manufacturers in the Bohemian Forest area who influenced the production of the other Šumava smelters. In the 17th and 18th centuries, those were the Michlhütte in Helmbach ( Michlová Huť ) near Winterberg / Vimperk and the Gratzener Hütte in Gratzen / Nové Hrady . In the 19th and 20th centuries the most famous companies were: Lötz in Klostermühle near Unterreichenstein , Kralik in Eleonorenhain / Lenora and Meyr's Neffe in Adolf near Winterberg / Vimperk. You were especially leading as a producer of Art Nouveau glass. Important manufacturers of mirror glass were the huts in Neu Hurkenthal and Elisenthal near Markt Eisenstein / Železná Ruda .

The Schwarzenberg canal / Schwarzenberský plavební kanál and the Chinitz-Tettau canal / Vchynicko-Tetovský plavební kanál were of great importance for the logging.

The three-country region Bohemian Forest has merged to form a common European region ( Euregio Bavarian Forest - Bohemian Forest ) and has been involved in cross-border cooperation since 1994. The area covers an area of ​​approx. 16,000 km², on which approx. 1.3 million inhabitants live.

Large parts of the Czech part have been declared the Šumava National Park . The lynx live in the Bohemian Forest again today .

The Bohemian Forest as border mountains

In the area of ​​the Bohemian Forest, the state border developed relatively late from a relatively wide "border line" to a "border line". In the initially largely unpopulated and economically unused forest area, it was not necessary to draw a precise boundary. Up until the 16th century there was therefore only a few places where there was a closed linear border between the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Duchy of Bavaria.

Due to the settlement, which penetrated further into the forest from the Bavarian and Bohemian side, in the 16th century more and more people got into each other's enclosure, which made it necessary to precisely define the border. From 1551, border disputes in the area from Waldmünchen to Mount Arber appear in the sources. In this context, the so-called “Grenzvisier” was created in 1514, a first cartographic representation of the border between Furth im Wald and Arber. The oldest boundary markings were the so-called “squares”, mostly cross-shaped notches on trees. In 1569, in the area of ​​what is now the Regen district, there was a “first official border inspection”. It was not until 1637 that the first boundary stone was set on the border bridge of the mule track from Zwiesel to Bohemia.

In the course of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), Austrian troops occupied Bavaria. In 1708 Emperor Joseph I added some Bavarian border areas, such as near Waldmünchen or the Eisenstein Valley, to Bohemia. With a Bavarian-Austrian treaty of March 3, 1764 the border was redefined. It fell z. B. the Hofmark Eisenstein half back to Bavaria; today's Bayerisch Eisenstein. Until the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (1806), the border did not have the quality of a national state border. In the so-called "Fraisch district" around Neualbenreuth between Eger (Cheb) and Waldsassen, the sovereign rights between Upper Palatinate or Bavaria and Bohemia have changed annually since 1591. This regulation was in effect until 1846, when the area was divided between Bavaria and Bohemia. From 1820 to 1846 a border commission drafted a new border treaty that Bavaria and Austria concluded in 1862.

When the predominantly German-speaking peripheral areas of Czechoslovakia were annexed to the National Socialist German Empire in 1938, the centuries-old border disappeared. The new state border with Czechoslovakia was essentially based on the German-Czech language border within Bohemia. On March 15, 1939, Hitler smashed the "remaining Czech Republic" with the invasion of German troops and established the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia".

After the end of World War II , the pre-1938 borders were restored. From autumn 1945 the border crossings were closed for years. On the Czech side, the so-called “Iron Curtain” was erected with electric barriers and barbed wire . Only after lengthy negotiations was it possible to open the Furth im Wald border crossing in 1964, Bayerisch Eisenstein in 1969 and Philippsreut in 1971. After the end of the "Cold War" in 1990, the barriers were removed and the visa requirement lifted. When the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004, border controls in connection with the Schengen area ceased to exist .

Culture

In literature, the Bohemian Forest appears in the stories by Adalbert Stifter , Joseph Rank , Karel Klostermann , Hans Watzlik , Karl May , Robert Michel and Johannes Urzidil . The Bohemian Forest is also the setting for Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz .

In old Bavaria there is the saying “Older like the Bohemian Forest”. This means that something is very old, but the age cannot be precisely determined.

Attractions

The Bohemian Forest in spring
Winter view in the evening
Winter Bohemian Forest for lunch

See also

literature

  • Bavaria-Bohemia, 1500 years of neighborhood . Catalog Bavarian State Exhibition, 2007, ISBN 978-3-937974-17-0 .
  • Bohemian Forest on old postcards. Nakladatelství Jihočeských tiskáren, České Budějovice (Budweis) 1992, ISBN 80-901120-3-X .
  • Unlimited Bohemian Forest - 550 descriptions of places . Local history association Ohetaler, Riedlhütte 2006, ISBN 3-937067-58-2 .
  • Royal diaspores in the Bohemian Forest. In: Lillian Schacherl: Bohemia - cultural image of a landscape. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1966, pp. 190–194.
  • Friedrich Bernau: The Bohemian Forest . J. Otto Verlag, Prague 1888 ( digitized version ).
  • Reinhold Fink: Destroyed Bohemian Forest locations. BoD, Norderstedt 2006, ISBN 3-8334-6429-1 .
  • Johanna von Herzogenberg : Between Danube and Moldau - Bavarian Forest and Bohemian Forest, The Mühlviertel and South Bohemia. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1968.
  • Karel Kuklík, Bokumil Mráz: Šumava. Panorama, Praha 1984 (Czech).
  • Claudia Mittelhammer: Locations and development of the glass industry in the Sumava area . Laßleben , Kallmünz 1999, ISBN 3-7847-6306-5 .
  • Bernd Rill: Bohemia and Moravia - history in the heart of Central Europe. 2 volumes. Katz, Gernsbach 2006, ISBN 3-938047-17-8 .
  • Hermann ReichertGabreta. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 10, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-015102-2 , pp. 311-312 ( Gabreta (silva) is the ancient Latin name of the Bohemian Forest; online ).
  • Norbert Schreiber: Select Europe - Bohemian Forest. Wieser, Klagenfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-85129-683-9 .
  • Inge Steidl: Bavarian Forest and Bohemian Forest, nature - cultural landscape - forest, tasks and opportunities in the green heart of Europe. Self-published, Schönberg 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-021885-9 (German / Czech).
  • Katharina Eisch: Limit. An ethnography of the Bavarian-Bohemian border area. Munich 1996.
  • Rudolf Lehr: State history of Upper Austria. 1987, Verlag Christian Brandstätter, Vienna / Munich, pp. 310, 312.

Web links

Commons : Šumava  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Bohemian Forest  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , p.  186 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [ONLINE; accessed on August 6, 2019] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1992): “1979 SQ. Discovered 1979 Sept. 25 by A. Mrkos at Kleť. "
  2. ^ Böhmerwald, the Bavarian-Bohemian low mountain range
  3. Duden Geographical Names in Germany . Mannheim 1999, ISBN 3-411-06252-5
  4. Catalog State Exhibition Bavaria-Bohemia
  5. ^ Association Antikomplex: Exhibition "Lost Sudetes"