The light

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Beech forest on the Stappweg in the Leucht nature reserve

The Leucht is an approximately 1,200 hectare forest area owned by the Lower Rhine Regional Forestry Office . It is almost entirely in the north of the urban area of Kamp-Lintfort .

geography

The Leucht is the southern part of the Bönninghardt , a part of the Lower Rhine Heights that extend from Kleve to Krefeld . From a geological point of view, the luminescent moraine is a compression moraine from the Riss or Saale glaciation that was formed around 250,000 to 125,000 years ago. A relatively steep north-east side is typical of this moraine landscape. There the glaciers pushed rocks with an ice height of up to 300 m in front of them. The south-west side is flattened and consists of the sand. In this area there are often valley cuts that were washed out by streams that were once fed from the glaciers through the glacier gates.

There is a geological peculiarity in the Leucht, which is located east of the Leichenweg at a distance of approx. 400 m to 500 m. Here the ground suddenly sinks by 1 m - 1.5 m along the Plaggenweg. This phenomenon runs for several hundred meters in a north-south direction. This structure is a sand dune that was deposited on the ridge after the glaciers retreated. Comparable to this, many larger dunes such as B. Annaberg, Homberg, Budberg etc. Typical of these dunes is also a steep east side. Because of the sandy soil, there are only a few natural water points on the Bönninghardt. They were formed during the Ice Age, when the weight of huge chunks of ice and soil containing clay and clay marl subsided and became extremely compacted. Rainwater collected in these depressions or holes. This created a raised bog in the Leucht, the "Saure Veen", a nature reserve of approx. 2 hectares in size. Unfortunately, a few years ago, through the drilling of drinking water wells and in this area very strong subsidence due to coal mining, the layer that held the water in the raised bog was damaged. As a result, this area has dried out and the former fauna and flora of the moor have disappeared.

history

Forestry has been taking place in Leucht since the 13th century. Even the ancient Romans carried out extensive forest clearing here. By driving herds of cattle into the forest for grazing purposes, the use of the fallen leaves and needles as litter in the cattle sheds, the immense consumption of wood in shipbuilding and the use of wood as fuel were the main uses of the light. Up to the 18th century, the Leucht can be found on historical maps as a designated forest area under the name "Lucht". In Dutch this means "air" but in the old Low German language it means hayloft , which also fits into the present day, also from the description of various other sources, for the use of the moraines in the landscape. In documents from the municipality of the Alps , the "Hei" ( heather ) is referred to as a cow pasture , according to the still common dialect for the district of Bönninghardt - arable farming was not possible.

The oldest references to the settlement of the Bönninghardt are in the north of the Leucht, partly in the area of ​​the community Issum . According to the findings of the archaeologist Rudolf Stampfuß, there were around 50 burial mounds from the Bronze Age , dating from around 800 BC. C. were created by the descendants of the cup culture migrating from the south . The densest grave field was with a small settlement directly on the southern side of the straw path, at a height of about 12 m to 15 m above the Fleuthniederung . In the municipality of Issum, the grave mounds have been leveled by agricultural development and the remaining graves are now very difficult to recognize due to forestry and in some cases due to encroachment .

On October 16, 1760, the light is mentioned in the records of the Seven Years' War about the battle of Kampen monastery or from the Kamper triangle. At that time the Prussian troops tried to bypass the French troops via the Leucht in order to be able to stab them in the rear.

Around 1860, the Leucht is mentioned in documents as a shelter for Wilhelm Brinkhoff , who came from the Alps .

In 1936 an air force field airport was opened in the area of ​​the Bönninghardter Heide on the northern edge of the Leucht. It was destroyed by Allied troops towards the end of the war. The remains of the rubble were used by the local population to rebuild the living space.

The light was not settled in the southern part until after the Second World War . In the area of ​​the Kopfbogen and on Altfelder Straße, some Nissen huts were built for the incoming refugees, which were then converted into residential buildings (Ponnyhof at Kopfbogen in Leucht).

In 1954, the British Army, as the occupation authority, confiscated the northwestern part of the Leucht to create an ammunition depot there. The property owners were asked to refrain from any further use and management. Despite protests, the British created around thirty storage spaces (17 x 17 m) for ammunition. Most of these places were on Waldweg, Issumer Weg and Bierweg, but also north of Xantener Straße. The excavated gravel pit at the Waldweg / Strohweg intersection served as a blasting site. Because of the risk of fire, around 15 acres of forest had to be cut down. The entire area was provided with high fences and guarded with dog patrols. The fire watch tower was moved from its old location near the Baerlagshof to the north-western part of the forest. In autumn 1965 the depot was closed and the ammunition was transported to the Brüggen-Bracht depot. The security devices have been removed. The location of various camp sites can still be seen today, here and there there are also smaller fences and some foundations of staff buildings remain. Three fire extinguishing basins on Bierweg (hiking trails A 8 and A 10), two of which are covered and fenced in, still exist today.

From January 18 to 19, 2007, hurricane Kyrill destroyed large parts of the light. With wind speeds of up to 225 kilometers per hour, the “splendid” - as the Greek translation means - hit large parts of the forests in and around Kamp-Lintfort in the evening hours of January 18th. During the stormy night, "Kyrill" cut down 200,000 to 300,000 trees in the Leucht, that corresponds to around 50,000 solid cubic meters of wood. The normal annual harvest was 4,500 solid meters. The forest area of ​​Leucht was 1200 hectares, 180 hectares were laid completely flat, in addition, the entire forest was damaged by single and nest throws. Kyrill had destroyed up to 75 percent of the trees in some areas.

Attractions

  • Nature reserve "Saures Veen", west of the Leichenweg between Stappweg and Issumer Weg (small moorland emerged after the removal of the Ice Age glaciers. Declared a nature reserve in 1991. Dried up by mining subsidence, it should be renatured in the future. The amphibians that used to live there have died.)
  • Erlenbruchwald nature reserve, in the east of the Leucht am Stappweg (in the core area of ​​this NSG you come across a clearing in which the remains of an old drainage system (borders) can still be seen. In these ditches you can find various types of peat moss. With care measures by nature conservation This open, damp area is to be prevented from being populated by trees. If the emerging birch and buckthorn trees are not regularly removed, the area will turn into forest over time and lose its moist character.)
  • Birkenbruch nature reserve, east of Xantener Straße, south of Issumer Weg.
  • Black walnut natural monument (ND 18, LP Alpen / Rheinberg) Rheinberger Str. 25 (Forsthaus) in Alpen (at the northern end of Leichenweg)
  • Natural monument red beech (2.6.2 LP Kamp-Lintfort) on Leichenweg near the Sauren Veen (It is a 30 m high red beech with a trunk circumference of 528 cm and an age of approx. 260 years. Another two 30 m high beeches with a trunk circumference of 400 or 430 cm and an age of approx. 200 years.)
  • Pedunculate oak natural monument (2.6.6 LP Kamp-Lintfort) on Leichenweg between Plaggenweg and Rennweg (it is a 22 m high pedunculate oak with a trunk circumference of 421 cm and an age of approx. 260 years.)
  • Natural monument Findling Granit (2.6.7 LP Kamp-Lintfort) Rennweg / Bierweg junction (It is about 110 cm long, 180 cm wide and 140 cm high Swedish granite with an age of more than 1 million years.)
  • Cultural monument tumulus With a little effort, five of the dozen barrows that were previously made can still be recognized today. 2 pieces in the right area of ​​the straw path just before the end of the light can only be guessed at. 2 more are on the northern edge of the forest, between Rennweg and Bierweg. The last left at the end of the Bongersweg almost to the transition of the forest path.
  • Wall system as a cultural monument A wall system is shown on the maps on the east side of the light, where the Stappweg leads into the light. The facility is located directly above on the steeply sloping moraine flank of the Bönninghardt. This was probably a kind of checkpoint on the constantly changing borders between the then Electorate of Cologne and the north-western part of the Prussian Duchy of Kleve. Another clue indicates that there is a Landwehr ditch nearby.
  • Landwehr cultural monument If you come from the Alps , following the extension of the Dahlackerweg, along the lower edge of the forest, you can see the border development of a Landwehr over several hundred meters.
  • former gallows site of the Rheinberg jurisdiction that existed in the Middle Ages . On the northern edge of the Leucht, at the transition from the forest path to the Bongersweg, is the remnant of the Rheinberger gallows. Another place of execution could be on the small hill opposite the water basin on Bierweg / Plaggenweg. This area of ​​the light is called the gallows arch, which indicates this place of execution. Likewise, the location could not be ruled out for a gallows hill , as the Plaggenweg leads directly to the ramparts (border post) on the Stappweg.
  • Remains of the ammunition dump of the British Army:
    • Fire watch tower (Issumer Weg / Bongersweg)
    • Gravel pit / Sprengplatz (straw path / forest path)
    • Kamp-Lintfort youth camp site (forest path - formerly the entrance to the ammunition store)
    • Well-preserved splitter boxes, parking spaces and protective walls on Strohweg, Issumer Weg and Waldweg in the northwestern area of ​​the Leucht.
  • Dried up stream bed from an Ice Age glacier gate , between the fire watch tower and the Kriesgrube on Strohweg / Waldweg, the forest in this area was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Kyrill in January 2007 . As a result, the former course of the stream, which was formed by a glacier gate, can be seen very well in this area. In its course from east to west, the stream cuts into the terminal moraine to a depth of almost 5 m. The area is being reforested, which means that this view will disappear in a few years.

Web links

Commons : The luminous  collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Saures Veen" nature reserve (WES-037) in the specialist information system of the State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia , accessed on March 9, 2017.
  2. ↑ Entry in DUDEN
  3. ↑ The Schinderhannes on the Lower Rhine . Interest group for history and nature Bönninghardt 1991 eV. Retrieved March 13, 201.
  4. ↑ Ammunition depot at the light

Coordinates: 51 ° 33 ′ 0 ″  N , 6 ° 29 ′ 58 ″  E