Ironing fire

Meat chopping house inügellohe in winter

Ruins of the settlementügellohe (2012)

Weißbachquelle inügellohe (2012)

Ruins of the former Florl inn in derügellohe (2012)

The desert areaügellohe is an abandoned settlement in the German-Czech border area near Stadlern , town of Schönsee in the Upper Palatinate Forest in Bavaria .

Geographical location

The German-Czech border forms a north-arched semicircle with a diameter of almost one kilometer around theügellohe. In this semicircle, theügellohe lies on an 830 meter high saddle between the 848 meter high Malý Zvon (Glöckelberg) in the north and the 898 meter high Weingartenfels in the south. A wide, extensive, swampy wet meadow stretches along the border. The waters of this wet meadow collect in the Weißbrunnen, among other things, which is considered to be one of the springs of the Ascha , which in its source area is called Weißbach and Plešský potok (Plösser Bach).

The European main watershed Danube - Elbe runs over the northern slope of the Weingartenfels toügellohe and further over the southwest slope of Malý Zvon . The waters of the Weißbrunnen flow down the western slope of the saddle to the Ascha and from there via Schwarzach , Naab and Danube into the Black Sea .

The source of the Mostecký potok is located about 200 meters east of the Weißbrunnen, directly behind the German-Czech border . Small rivulets form from the marshy wet meadows of the bell flare, which flow into the Mostecký potok southeast of its source. Its waters flow down the eastern slope of the saddle via Radbuza , Berounka , Moldau , Elbe into the North Sea .

history

After the expulsion in 1946, Sudeten Germans built new houses about one kilometer south and about a hundred meters above their former home in the forest immediately behind the border on the Bavarian side. The village was located in a bracket-like part of the terrain protruding into the neighboring country on the "ügellohe / Reichenstein / Weingartner-Fels "ridge, which rose to over 896 m above sea level. NN rises, making it the highest point in today's Schwandorf district .

Most of the former residents came from the lost town of Wenzelsdorf with the hamlet of Rappauf . 11 families, almost 60 people, were looking for a temporary place to stay on mostly their own property. Here they wanted to escape the threat of displacement and later return to their village. At first only barracks were built in the forest. The necessary boards were illegally carried at night from their own homesteads on the Czech side across the border to the ironing hall.

However, the former Wenceslas village was razed to the ground by the Czech government, and a return was no longer an option. As a result, the people of Iron Lohe built permanent houses, mostly made of field and rubble stones, including an inn (Florl) with a covered bowling alley. Bricks could not be delivered by horse-drawn carts, but had to be carried up the mountain by the men laboriously. The settlement was a thorn in the side of municipal authorities, as transport links would have been disproportionately expensive and cumbersome for the size of the time.

The living conditions were very harsh; there was no electricity, no running water, or a proper road to reach the village. A doctor from Schönsee, about three kilometers to the south-west, provided medical help very laboriously . Little by little, people leftügellohe: in 1950 59 people lived there, in 1960 only 8, and in 1970 the last resident left the settlement. According to contemporary witnesses, it was too inhospitable on the border ridge in the cold seasons and agricultural yields could hardly be achieved at these altitudes. Even in view of the economic upturn in Germany, no one saw a future up there.

Current condition

The iron flue has fallen into serious disrepair today, and its buildings are in danger of collapsing. Decades of frost, rain and wind have gnawed at the abandoned houses. Only one house, the Fleischhackerhaus, is still relatively well preserved because of its intact tin roof. In 2012, an information center with electric lighting and picture boards about the settlement Iron Lohe and its history was set up.

literature

Richard Reger, Come Home Well, Volume 2.
Heribert Batzl (Ed.): The Oberviechtach district in the past and present. Publishing house for authorities and economy R. Alfred Hoeppner, Aßling / Obb. and Munich 1970.
Leibl, Kroupa, Drachsler, Spichtinger: Heimatbuch community Plöß with Wenzelsdorf, Rappauf and Straßhütte. Publisher: Heimatgemeinde Plöß eV, Forstner printing company, Oberviechtach, 1995.