Belchen (Black Forest)

Belchen
	Northwest view of the Belchen from the Münstertal
height	1414.2 m above sea level NHN
location	Baden-Wuerttemberg , Germany
Mountains	Black Forest
Dominance	13.5 km → Feldberg
Notch height	379 m ↓ Wiedener Eck
Coordinates	47 ° 49 '21 " N , 7 ° 50' 1" E Coordinates: 47 ° 49 '21 " N , 7 ° 50' 1" E

The Belchen is 1414.2 m above sea level. NHN is the fourth highest elevation in the Black Forest after Feldberg , Seebuck and the Herzogenhorn . (If the Baldenweger Buck is included, the Belchen is only the fifth highest elevation in the Black Forest, whereas only elevations above 100 m notch height count as independent mountains, the Belchen is the third highest after Feldberg and Herzogenhorn.) On the summit of the Belchen the regional boundaries meet Municipalities of Münstertal , Schönenberg and Kleines Wiesental .

The mountain has a distinctive profile that is almost symmetrical from the Upper Rhine plain with a treeless hilltop. The name Belchen (Celtic: the radiant ) is also borne by other elevations in the neighboring low mountain ranges , including two mountains that are particularly noticeable when covered with snow; together with the Black Forest Belchen they form the so-called Belchen triangle : in the west on the French side of the Upper Rhine Plain in the Vosges (F) the Alsace Belchen or Ballon d'Alsace ; in the south on the south side of the High Rhine the Swiss Belchen , the Belchenflue . Also in sight in Alsace in the Vosges are the Great and Little Belchen , Grand and Petit Ballon , which together with the above-mentioned Belchen belong to the so-called Belchen system .

The panorama from the summit covers large parts of the Black Forest up to the Hornisgrinde , the Vosges , the Jura and, if the weather permits, the Alps from the Zugspitze to Mont Blanc . In addition, the Belchen allows wide views down into the Upper Rhine Valley as far as Alsace.

geography

The Belchen rises about 1,000 m from the Münstertal with its furrowed, uninterrupted steep slopes. Its northern slope is thus the area of the highest relief energy in the German low mountain range. To the south, too, the mountain falls a good 800 m deep into the valley of the Kleine Wiese near Neuenweg .

On the Belchen, only small remnants of the undulating plateau in the eastern part of the Black Forest are preserved. Towards the Rhine Plain and the Blauen , the western main ridge of the southern Black Forest is broken up into narrow ridges by the deep erosion of the streams associated with the strong uplift of the mountains in the Pleistocene . The ice age glaciations of the Belchen area as part of the Feldberg glacier did not leave behind such clear forms as on the Feldberg. Avalanche kettle glaciers formed to the north and south, with maximum levels reaching as far as the edge of the Black Forest.

The hilltop is made of granite , while the surrounding steep slopes consist mainly of gneiss . Between the years 900 and 1975, the area around the Belchen was at times an important mining area .

A chain of well-preserved boundary stones from 1790 leads over the summit of the Belchen. At the time, these marked the border between Habsburg front Austria in the north and the margraviate of Baden in the south of the mountain.

Belchen nature reserve

View to the Feldberg

Because of the rare fauna and flora , the Belchen was already placed under nature protection on October 11, 1949 by the Baden Ministry of Culture and Education with the protected area number 3042 . On June 23, 1993, the area was expanded by the Freiburg Regional Council and is now one of the largest nature reserves in Baden-Württemberg with an area of 1,618 hectares . The district of Lörrach accounts for around 1,242 hectares, and the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald around 376 hectares.

The protection purpose is the preservation of the Belchen summit

as a document of natural and landscape history;
as the most important subalpine island in the Black Forest next to the Feldberg with a number of very rare ice age relics;
as an extensively used area with different habitats worth protecting, in particular near-natural forests, poor pastures and wetlands;
as a habitat for numerous animal and plant species, including a number of very rare and endangered species, some of which are threatened with extinction;
as an excellent demonstration and research object for science;
and as a natural area of particular diversity, uniqueness and beauty.

Many rare species of butterflies , beetles and birds can be found in the high elevations of the Belchen . Typical birds are the common raven , song thrush , lemon girly and water pipit ; but also peregrine falcon , capercaillie and hazel grouse can be found on the Belchen. The plants themselves have relics from the last ice age get that elsewhere only in the Alps can be found. These include Swiss bellflower , mountain rose or Swiss dandelion . There is also a large number of rare species of lichen .

tourism

Belchenhaus

Aerial view of the Belchen summit

With more than 300,000 visitors annually, the Belchen is one of the most popular excursion destinations in the southern Black Forest .

In 1866 the first rest house was built below the summit. The new building was completed in 1899 and has been expanded and rebuilt several times to this day. In 1904 the road to the Belchen was inaugurated. In 1949 the plan to open up the summit with a chairlift from Obermünstertal failed . There are only a limited number of ski slopes; Nevertheless, eleven ski lifts are installed in the Belchen area. Belchenstrasse was the highest public road in the German low mountain range. The top section has been closed to private car traffic since the cable car opened in December 2001.

The Belchen is located on the Westweg , a long-distance hiking trail run by the Black Forest Association from Pforzheim to Basel. Other marked hiking trails lead from Untermünstertal, Schönau and Neuenweg up the mountain.

To protect the valuable nature reserve, to guide visitors and as a further development concept, the so-called Belchen concept was developed and presented as a model in 2008 as a model. It formulates goals, recommendations and fields of action not only for institutions and offices, but also for citizens and guests. The forestry research and research institute Baden-Württemberg in Freiburg , the Sport University Cologne , the Southern Black Forest Nature Park, the political municipality of Münstertal, the Münstertal-Staufen holiday region and private citizens of the Münstertal were involved in the development.

View from Belchen in southern direction into the Kleine Wiesental

Winter sports have been practiced on the Belchen summit since the beginning of the 20th century. Today there are four groomed slopes up to 4.5 km in length. As on the Feldberg, there is also a risk of avalanches here. Therefore, two avalanche airbags and a digital radio were donated to the Münstertal mountain rescue service in 2019 . It has also developed a protection concept.

Belchen cable car

Belchenbahn gondola with knitted support

Winter on the Belchen, in the background the mountain station of the cable car

Since December 2001, the Belchen runs cableway as a gondola with eight persons which cabins from the valley station in Aitern -Multen ( GVV Schonau ) to 1,356 meters high mountain station. A height difference of 262 meters is overcome over a length of 1150 meters. The theoretical transport capacity is 1200 people per hour. The cable car cabins of the Leitner CA 8-2000 type were manufactured for the cable car at the Expo 2000 in Hanover , which was dismantled after the exhibition closed. The Belchenbahn has wheelchair-accessible entry and exit points in the valley and mountain stations.

The daily loading of the route with the 23 detachable gondolas (plus 2 reserve cabins) from the gondola garage takes place in the direction of travel, parking in reverse is done fully automatically. The travel speed can be regulated from 0.3 m / s to 5.0 m / s. The highest of the eight pillars of the cable car is 18.6 meters high. The drive power is 340 kW. The hauling rope has a diameter of 46 mm. The track has 108 track rollers.

Others

Marco Schuler - Orbi

Up until 1955, the Belchen Mountain Festival , an annual mountain gymnastics festival, took place on the Belchen .

At the end of 2011, the artist Marco Schuler created a cube of 30 benches with his work Orbi , which were used when the Pope visited Freiburg in September 2011 . This covered the summit cross until August 31, 2012.

Individual evidence

↑ Dominances and celebrities according to Highrisepages.de ( Memento from October 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
^ Department for nature conservation and landscape management: nature reserves in the administrative district of Freiburg . Ed .: Regional Council Freiburg. 3. Edition. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7995-5177-9 , pp. 438-442 .
↑ badische-zeitung.de, Lokales, Münstertal , July 3, 2010, Manfred Lange: Mission statement for the Belchen - A development concept for the Belchen is now available as a brochure. (January 8, 2011)
↑ naturpark-suedschwarzwald.de, Naturpark >> Projects : Information brochure Belchenkonzept ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (January 8, 2011)
↑ Belchen cable car - skiing. Retrieved February 22, 2019 .
↑ Gabriele Hennicke: Avalanches can also go off on Belchen - mountain rescue service draws up a rescue plan. Badische Zeitung, February 19, 2019, accessed on February 22, 2019 .
↑ Belchen cable car - comfortably to the most beautiful panoramic mountain in the Black Forest. Retrieved May 10, 2019 .
^ Dietrich Roeschmann: Exhibitions: The disguised summit cross , December 16, 2011, accessed on April 6, 2012

literature

State Institute for Environmental Protection Baden-Württemberg, Institute for Ecology and Nature Conservation (Ed.): The Belchen - Historical and natural history monograph of the most beautiful Black Forest mountain. (= Nature and landscape protection areas of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 13). Karlsruhe, 1989, ISBN 3-88251-136-2 , 1320 pages.
District Office for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management Freiburg (Hrsg.): Nature and Nature Conservation - The Belchen in the Black Forest . Waldkirch 1994, ISBN 3-87885-292-4 .