Thieves' pit

The thief's pit on a Leipzig city map from 1830 (north is on the left)

The Diebesgraben (also Diebsgraben or Diebes Graben ) was a multi-part artificial ditch in the floodplain west of historical Leipzig in today's Inner Westvorstadt .

Remains of the thief's ditch on a Leipzig city map from 1864

The thief's trench essentially had three branches (see map), two of which were connected to the Pleißemühlgraben and one to an arm of the White Elster . These trenches, of which there were others, served on the one hand as ditches for the Leipzig mills , the thief's trench for the Thomas and Barefoot mills , and they also had an ameliorating character. Ditches are required to drain the water in front of it during maintenance work on the Mühlgraben or its facilities. The drainage of water from the moist area via the ditches made the surrounding land usable for agriculture with normal water flow from the Elster and Pleiße.

Since the 17th century, this use has increasingly existed in the form of gardens near the city. Because space for gardens within the fortified city became scarce with the increased settlement, gardens were created outside the city wall, especially in the meadow area west of the city. In addition to the kitchen gardens , numerous ornamental gardens were created , of which 31 are described in a Leipzig address book from 1731 as worth seeing. The great Leipzig baroque gardens were finally created in the pursuit of representation by the patriciate . The boundaries between them were often the trenches, as was the thief's pit. This separated Richter's garden from the Kleinbosischer Garten , which was completely surrounded by the Thieves' Ditch and the Pleißemühlgraben. Apels Garten followed further south across the thief 's ditch . The garden owners also used the trenches for boat trips and made branches in the garden areas.

With the extensive drainage and development of the inner west suburb from the middle of the 19th century, the trenches, including the thief's pit, were filled in. Remains of the thief's trench are still recorded on a Leipzig city map from 1864; on the map from 1871 it has completely disappeared. The journalist Albin Kutschbach , in his youthful memories of an old man from Leipzig, connects the filling of the trenches in the western suburbs with the cholera epidemic in 1866.

literature

• Inner Westvorstadt - A historical and urban study . Published by PRO LEIPZIG 1998

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Georg Grebenstein: The Leipzig waters from the turn of the millennium to the present , in: Neue Ufer 3, Stadt-Kultur-Projekt Leipzig, Leipzig 1995
2. ↑ Inner Westvorstadt , p. 8
3. ^ Plan of Leipzig 1864 SLUB
4. ^ Leipzig 1871 SLUB
5. ^ Albin Kutschbach: Memories of the youth of an old Leipziger , HFA Timm, Leipzig 1926

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 29 "  N , 12 ° 21 ′ 51.4"  E