Burgberg (Bergstein)
| Castle Hill | ||
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 View from Brandenberg east-south-east to the Burgberg with the spire of the Bergsteiner Church in front of the mountain and the residential tower of Nideggen Castle on the left |
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| height | 400.8 m above sea level NHN | |
| location | at Bergstein ; District of Düren , North Rhine-Westphalia ( Germany ) | |
| Mountains | Rureifel , North Eifel ( Eifel ) | |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 41 '40 " N , 6 ° 26' 31" E | |
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| particularities | - Berenstein Castle - Westwall remains - Krawutschketurm |
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The castle hill near Bergstein in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Düren is 400.8 m above sea level. NHN high elevation of the Eifel .
On the mountain where Berenstein Castle was located in the Middle Ages and over which the West Wall led in World War II , there is the lookout tower Krawutschketurm .
geography
location
The Burgberg is located in the Rureifel , part of the Northern Eifel , in the Hohes Venn-Eifel Nature Park . It rises between the Hürtgenwald districts of Bergstein in the west and Zerkall in the east-southeast as well as the core town of Nideggen in the east and its local district Rath in the north-east, beyond the Rur . The Kall flows south-east past the mountain and flows into the Rur at Zerkall at a height of around 175 m ; the latter runs east to north past the mountain, the landscape of which slopes to the east-northeast to the roughly U-shaped Rur loop near the villages of Nideggen and Rath on the other side of the river and to the north to the Obermaubach reservoir, which is 165 m above sea level on the Rur .
Natural allocation
Castle Hill is the natural spatial feature unit group Westeifel / Brussels (no. 28) and in the main unit Rureifel on the border of the sub-unit (282) Hürtgener plateau (282.1) in the west to the natural space Heimbach Maubacher Rurtal (282.34) in the east of the subunit Rur-Urft-Olef-Täler (282.3) belongs.
Protected areas
Parts of the Düren district landscape protection area (sub-area 1) ( CDDA no. 322307; 1988; 307.29 km²) are located on the Burgberg . To the south and south-east, the landscape of the mountain falls into the nature reserve Kalltal and side valleys from Kallbrück to Zerkall (CDDA no. 329478; designated 2005; 5.83 km² ), to the south-east and east into the two-part NSG Ruraue near Zerkall (CDDA -Nr. 555546; 2011; 4 ha ), to the east and northeast into the NSG Rurtal from evenings to the confluence area of the Rur into the reservoir Obermaubach (CDDA No. 344767; 1992; 1.28 km²), to the northeast into the NSG reservoir Obermaubach including the confluence area of the Rur (CDDA no. 344779; 1997; 95 ha) and to the north-northwest in the NSG confluence area of the reservoir Obermaubach (CDDA no. 318816; 1997; 10 ha). To the southeast it falls into the fauna-flora-habitat area Kalltal and Nebentäler (FFH no. 5303-302; 6.21 km²) and to the east and north in the FFH area Ruraue from Heimbach to Obermaubach (FFH no. 5304-301; 2.62 km²).
Berenstein Castle
On Castle Hill was in the Middle Ages with the imperial castle Burg Berenstein a castle, probably under Emperor Henry IV. To protect the Aachener Reich Good was built. It existed from about 1090 to 1200. The castle stood on an oval plateau area of the mountain about 40 × 60 m in size . Three sides were secured with a ring wall and moat , while the east side offered protection by natural rocks.
Second World War
During the Second World War (1939–1945), a bunker was built on the castle hill as part of the western wall .
To the east of the mountain summit are the remains of a shelter of regimental construction section 8 of the second Siegfried Line position. This position is at Raffelsbrand and Simonskall . The bunker was used as group accommodation, so that the fighting room - which is in any case pointless in the hillside position - which belongs to buildings of the standard building type 10a of the 1938 Limes building program, is missing . The roof of the facility was presumably used as an artillery observation post and still serves as a lookout point . The bunker itself is not accessible, but now serves as a shelter for bats .
At the foot of the mountain are the ruins of a command post of the standard building type 31. The facility, which was blown up by Allied pioneers , is also not accessible.
In November / December 1944 took place during the battle in Hürtgenwald , on the mountain known as the Battle of Hill 400 ( Battle of Hill 400 instead). The Allies had identified the mountain as Hill 400 on their maps .
During this time, the staffs of Grenadier Regiment 1055 of the 89th Infantry Division and the 2nd Battalion of Grenadier Regiment 980 of the 272 People's Grenadier Division were in the area of the mountain and its bunkers.
As part of the US offensive against the Rur from December 1, 1944 by parts of the 8th US Infantry Division and tank support, Bergstein was occupied on December 5.
The fighting over the castle hill ended after heavy losses on both sides on December 7th with the conquest of the hill by the Americans. From this point on, the castle hill formed the southern cornerstone of the Rurfront, which ran from here to the southwest along the Kall valley. The conquest of the mountain was one of the most important strategic goals for breaking through the western wall to advance on the Rhine.
Krawutschketurm
According to popular saying, a lookout tower was built on the castle hill in 1911 and a new one was inaugurated in 1934. The latter was already called the Krawutschketurm and fell victim to a forest fire in 1945. In 1973 today's Krawutschketurm was inaugurated. It stands a little east-southeast of the summit at an altitude of 400.5 m and is 13 m high. In 1985 the tower was extended.
The top viewing platform offers views of the Rureifel landscape: including Bergstein , the Obermaubach reservoir , Nideggen Castle and, if the visibility is good, the Cologne Cathedral and the Hohe Acht .
Traffic and walking
The curvy state road 11 leads south past the Burgberg between Bergstein and Zerkall , from which side roads such as Bergsteiner Burgstrasse branch off in the direction of the mountain in both villages . From the end of this road, a short circular path leads over the high mountains and past the Krawutschketurm on the summit area . This path crosses the Krawutschke -Weg (also known as the Krawutschke-Path ), which, as hiking trail 93 of the Eifelverein, runs 8.2 km from Obermaubach along the Obermaubach reservoir , through Bergstein and around the summit region of the Burgberg to Zerkall .
Trivia
- The Battle of Hill 400 was recreated as a mission in the Call of Duty 2 game .
- Hill 400 is a playable map in the tactical shooter Hell Let Loose .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
- ↑ a b c d e Information board at the Krawutschketurm
- ↑ Krawutschke-Weg ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on data7.blog.de (PDF; 1.1 MB)
- ↑ Steam :: Hell Let Loose :: Developer Briefing # 70 - New Map: Hill 400! April 3, 2020, accessed April 4, 2020 .
literature
- The West Wall - On the monument value of the unpleasant, Rheinland-Verlag GmbH Cologne, 1997, ISBN 3792716682
- Alexander Kuffner: Time Travel Guide Eifel 1933-45 . Helios, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-938208-42-7
- Karl-Heinz Schumacher: Building blocks from the middle and upper red sandstone . In: Geographical analysis of the structural use of natural stones in the Eifel. Aachen geographic works. Vol. 20, Aachen, 1988, ISSN 0587-4068 , pp. 89-93
Web links
- Group shelter - Regelbau 10a on the Burgberg , on 7grad.org
- Command post Regelbau 31 , on 7grad.org