Flow meadow in Ruhleben

Nature conservation and Natura 2000 area Fließwiese Ruhleben
Quarry forest of black alder and common ash in the southern part of the flow meadow with high water levels in April 2009
Geographical location	Murellenberge hills , Berlin
Tributaries	none; Groundwater and rainwater fed
Drain	until the 1920s Elsgraben → Havel ; since then without a drain
Places on the shore	Ruhleben settlement
Location close to the shore	Berlin-Charlottenburg , Berlin-Spandau
Data
Coordinates	52 ° 31 '34 "  N , 13 ° 14' 10"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '34 "  N , 13 ° 14' 10"  E
surface	11.8 ha
length	around 1000 m (entire nature reserve)
width	around 200 m (entire nature reserve)
Maximum depth	around 1 m
particularities	Silting moor , listed as Berlin nature reserve No. 05 since 1959
Location of the flow meadow near the Murellen Mountains and the Olympic site

The flow field Ruhleben is a silting Moor in the Berlin local situation Ruhleben in the district Westend in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf north of the Olympic Park and the forest stage .

The 11.8  hectare wetland has been designated as a nature reserve since 1959, as well as a protected area of ​​the European Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive and part of the transnational system of protected areas Natura 2000 . It is part of the compression and terminal moraine landscape of the Murellen Mountains in the northern band of the Teltow Plateau and the northern foothills of the Murellenschlucht dry valley . The former lake is characterized by a population of aquatic plants , a black alder biotope and a wealth of amphibians - including the strictly protected northern crested newt, which brought the flow meadow to the list as a Natura 2000 area. Due to the considerably fluctuating water levels, the vegetation in the peaty depression kept changing dramatically.

location

The elongated depression of the Fließwiese widens in a slight curve from a narrow point below the Waldbühne from southwest to north, where it is limited to its maximum width of about 250 meters by the Hempelsteig. The southern tip is only separated from the Murellenschlucht by a forest path . The Murellenberge with the Ruhleben cemetery and a training area for the Berlin police rise on the west side . On the east side is the Ruhleben settlement and south of it the Olympiapark Berlin .

The southern part of the east side is bounded by a narrow, unobstructed and wooded strip of the Teltownordband, which stretches along the Blackberry Trail to the northeast to the Murellenteich natural monument . The western continuation of the Blackberry Path is the only path that crosses the flow meadow and cuts off its southern tip. The path climbs up on the west side and turns into the Denkzeichenweg ( memorial to commemorate those murdered by the Nazi military justice on Murellenberg ), which reaches the execution site above the southern tip of the Fließwiese and continues through the Murellenschlucht to the ice rink on Glockenturmstraße. Another forest path accompanies the completely fenced nature reserve on both of its long sides.

Geology and natural space

The Ruhleben flow meadow is a meltwater channel from the Vistula Ice Age and has developed from a lake into a siltation moor. It forms the northern continuation of the Murellenschlucht dry valley , a former dead ice channel , which cuts up to 30 meters into the up to 62 meter high hilly landscape of the Murellenberg and Schanzenwald. Geologically , the Murellenberge belong to the northern edge of the Teltow , which runs out to the west in the Havelniederung and to the north in the Berlin glacial valley , through which the Spree flows today. A few kilometers further northeast in the area of ​​today's Ruhwaldpark, the Teltownordband reaches up to a few meters from the Spree. In the Murellenberge area, the glaciers have strongly compressed (disturbed) the meltwater sands from the advancing phase of the inland ice , so that here a moving relief of a compression / terminal moraine determines the landscape. The north-western part of the Schanzenwald already belongs to the valley sand area of ​​the Spreeniederung in the glacial valley. The flow meadow is assigned to the Brandenburg-Potsdam Havel area (No. 812) in the natural area unit D 12a (East German lowlands, central Brandenburg plateaus and lowlands) . The connection between the natural area shaped by the Ice Age and its connection to the Grunewald and the Tiefwerder Wiesen was largely lost due to urban development .

→ See main articles: Murellenberge, Murellenschlucht and Schanzenwald

Development of water levels and flora

The flow meadow, northeast of the Morellenberge (today: Murellenberge ), with its drainage ditch to the former Elsgraben on a map from 1842 (excerpt)

From the peat of sedges and peat moss , the former lake developed silting Moor . For amelioration , a longitudinal ditch was dug in the middle of the flow meadow in the 19th century, which led to the Elsgraben . The Elsgraben from 1832, which was navigable until 1886, delimited the wetland in the north and was intended to protect Spandau during floods by directing the water from the Spree to the Havel before the city. At that time, the northern part of the silting bog was used as a meadow, while the higher southern part is still defined by a break forest . Drainage has been interrupted since the Elsgraben was filled in and the Hempelsteig was filled in in 1936 when the forest stage was excavated . Until the 1950s, the wet meadow , which was rich in flowers at that time, was still partly used for agriculture. In the northeast corner there was a small farm with fruit trees, vegetable fields and a pasture for cattle . Goat farmers harvested hay and grass and the residents used the trees of the alder as firewood. The cattle pasture was followed by a wide flat moor with closed reeds and bulrushes , which was surrounded by a quarry of alder.

In the following decades the water level of the valley changed several times. At times, after a lowering of the groundwater, there was a risk of desiccation and the central reed and bog area was largely overgrown by birch and gray willow bushes in the 1970s . In a pronounced herb layer, lanceolate riding grass dominated , supplemented by swamp blood-eye , swamp hairline , yellow loosestrife , purple loosestrife , bog bedstraw and, in open places, land riding grass . At that time, the alder quarry in the southern part was undergrown by a thick layer of elder bushes. Together with blackberries , dewberries , hops , nettles , figwort , small balsam and lady fern , the elder formed an almost impenetrable layer of bushes and herbs . The floor was covered by an almost closed moss cover made of Katharinenmoos and common star moss . In need of open ground birds such as warblers , warblers and red-backed shrike disappeared during those years. In 1976, an attempt was made to restore the open character of the flow meadow by clearing. At the end of the 1980s, however, the water was about one meter above the floor and the area looked like a lake. The reed area has been flooded almost all year round since 1994. This year, the Tiefwerder waterworks reduced the abstraction of groundwater so that the upper groundwater levels filled up. The persistently high water levels, especially in spring, led to the death of almost all trees in the inner area.

Since then, large parts of the meadow have been flooded during spring and the water level reaches the cross-way on both sides. Most years in summer and autumn, only small areas in the north are under water. Natura 2000 characterizes the flowing meadow as a sub-neutral (=  pH value between 4.8 and 6.4), meso- to eutrophic silting bog with great importance for the amphibian fauna and as a land habitat for hydrophilic species.

Flora and fauna

Trees and reeds in the central northern part at high water levels in April 2009

Blooming water mint

The description of the flora and fauna of the flow meadow, which is one of the most species-rich areas in Berlin, refers to the existence of the 2000s.

Plants and plant communities

The surrounding slopes of the Murellenberge and the Teltownordband are covered by pine and oak , including some 300 year old specimens. In some places, especially near the Ruhleben cemetery, dry, warm biotopes that have become very rare in Berlin are loosening up the forest with dry sand grass .

Central northern part

The northern part of the flow meadow, which takes up around 80 percent of the total area, consists of reed beds in its center . The stock is dominated by common reeds , occasionally interrupted by broad-leaved cattails , water swaths and swamp sedges . A quarry forest of black alder trees of different widths surrounds the central area, which is preceded by gray willow bushes, reeds as well as swamp and bank sedges . Purple loosestrife, the poisonous bittersweet nightshade , red ostrich grass , marsh fern , flutter rush and the marsh iris , which is classified as particularly protected according to the Federal Species Protection Ordinance, determine the zones towards the bank. In summer, the small duckweed covers the remaining water surface like a floating carpet with its elongated-oval floating leaves only three millimeters in size .

Bruchwald in the southern part

In this part of the flow meadow, which is separated from the central area by the cross path, a small-scale forest of bird cherry and ash defines the edge of the bank. The quarry forest made of black alder and common ash enjoys special protection as a threatened biotope. The well-developed herbaceous layer of the nutrient-rich area is made up of the up to two meter high fescue , swamp bluegrass and the evergreen turf , which promotes silting processes on the banks of the water , from the family of sweet grasses . Yellow-flowering true carnation from the rose family , bindweed , swamp sedge, nettle and hops complete the herb layer. There are also three medicinal plants : the pennywort , which was planted as a cough suppressant in medieval cottage gardens ; from the family of mint , the water mint , which in the Middle Ages used against the stitch found; and from the same family the Ufer-Wolfstrapp , whose aboveground plant parts, harvested shortly before flowering, are processed into ready-made preparations and are still used today to counteract the accompanying symptoms such as nervousness and palpitations in the event of an overactive thyroid .

Animals

The Ruhleben flow meadow is of great importance as the spawning waters of seven amphibian species that live in its vicinity.

Amphibians

Male of the northern crested newt in water costume

Common Garlic Toad

Adult pond claw

In the amphibian biocenosis , the great occurrence of the northern crested newt is of particular importance. The newt from the order of the tailed amphibian is strictly protected under the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG) and the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive also lists it in Appendix II as a species to be strictly protected , for which specially protected areas are to be designated. In their supplementary list for late registration as an FFH area from the year 2000, the Berlin nature conservation associations stated the population of adult animals with an estimated 500 specimens. Together with the Falkenberger Rieselfeldern and the Spandau Forest , the flow meadow makes up 38 percent of the total population in Berlin; Berlin's largest crested newt population is located in the Friedrichsfelde pond (Reichsbahnteich), which is northeast of the Friedrichsfelde Ost S-Bahn station in the Marzahn area , with around 1500 adult animals . The crested newt prefers herb-rich, sunny and not too shallow, mostly perennial , i.e. permanently water-bearing small bodies of water without fish in loamy, less sandy soils that are exposed to sunlight for at least several hours a day.

The strictly nocturnal spadefoot toad also finds ideal conditions in the shallow, eutrophic water with its vegetation-rich bank zone. In addition, the dry, sandy terminal moraine slopes of the Teltow meet them, as the - apart from the spawning season - the ground-dwelling frogs dig holes in the sand with their sharp-edged heel bumps , in which they often hide from predators all day . Toad to hibernate dig up to a meter deep into the ground. In spring they migrate in large numbers from the slopes and hills of the Murellenberge to spawn in the flowing meadow. In order to draw attention to its high level of endangerment, the German Society for Herpetology and Terrarium Science named the common toad amphibian of the year in 2007 . Another Froschlurch that under the Habitats Directive of strict protection Moorfrosch other hand, lives year-round in the valley. He also finds his preferred habitat in the flow meadow: periodic flood dynamics, swamp forest, swampy extensive grassland, sedges that are herbaceous for spawning through exposure to the sun and woody biotopes for wintering.

More animals

Noteworthy among the insects is the large moss damsel, which is strictly protected under the BNatSchG and is listed in Appendix II of the Habitats Directive for the Ruhleben flow meadow. The medium-sized dragonfly species from the family of the sail dragonflies reaches a body length of 3.5 to 4.5 centimeters and an average wingspan of 5.5 to 6.5 centimeters. The greylag goose breeds in the flow meadow and in 1999 ornithologists noted four breeding pairs of the pond claw , which is on the red list in the early warning level (status 2006). Since around the turn of the millennium, more and more resting cranes have been observed in spring and summer . Otherwise, songbirds are mainly represented. The wild boars, which are numerous in the Grunewald, rarely make their way into the biotope via the Murellenberge, so that mainly small mammals like the wood shrew populate the area from the mammal class . This shrew reaches its highest population density in damp forests and wet meadows .

Protective and care measures

The size and shape of the former lake can be seen from the cross path

With the "Ordinance on the" Fließwiese Ruhleben "nature reserve in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin of May 21, 1959" , the State of Berlin placed "the flowing area with the adjacent bank slopes" with 11.86 hectares under No. 04 (today No. 05) under conservation . Since it was registered as a Natura 2000 and FFH area, the area has been called the nature conservation and NATURA 2000 area Fließwiese Ruhleben . In the maintenance measures of the 1960s and 1970s, the main aim was to keep the flowing meadow from drying out, to keep it free of woody growth and to clear it . In 1984 the last trees were removed and the meadow was mowed annually until 1994 . These measures are no longer necessary since the groundwater was raised. In order to keep the shading low, only the reed stands and the transition area to the forest mantle are cleared of emerging trees. The Senate Department for Urban Development and Environmental Protection stated the following objectives in the 1994 landscape and species protection program:

“The still preserved, natural landscape elements of these lowland areas must be protected and expanded. The flow meadow Ruhleben, the Tiefwerder Meadows and the Schönower Meadows are to be maintained as extensive wet meadows. Continuous green and open spaces are to be created along the water as connecting elements and planted according to the location (wet meadows and woody trees in the alder, alluvial and oak-hornbeam forests). "

- Landscape program, species protection program 1994, Berlin

literature

• Biotope types and FFH habitat type mapping for the NSG Murellenschlucht and Schanzenwald, NSG Fließwiese Ruhleben and adjacent areas . Client: Senate Department for Urban Development, Planland (Landscape Development Planning Group), Berlin 2006.
• H. Elvers, K.-L. Elvers: The mammals of the flow meadow Ruhleben . Manuscript 1981, Library of the Technical University of Berlin (Berlin Archive).
• H. Elvers, D. Westphal: The bird world of the NSG Fließwiese Ruhleben 1969–1979. In: Ornithological report for Berlin (West) , Berliner Ornithologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Ed.), Berlin 1983, Volume 8, Issue 1, pp. 3–28.
• H. Elvers, Hanna Köstler, Herbert Sukopp , D. Westphal: Nature reserve Fließwiese Ruhleben. Basic scientific studies in Berlin nature and landscape protection areas . Reprint from: Report of the meeting of the Society of Friends of Nature Research in Berlin, NF 24/25 (1984/85), pp. 105–190. Client: Senator for Urban Development and Environmental Protection, Berlin 1985.
• Flow meadow in Ruhleben . In: The Senator for Urban Development and Environmental Protection: Berlin Nature Reserves. Nature conservation and landscape management in Berlin (West), Issue 1, Berlin 1984, pp. 28–31.
• Nature conservation and NATURA 2000 area Fließwiese Ruhleben . In: Senate Department for Urban Development Berlin: Berlin of course! Nature conservation and NATURA 2000 areas in Berlin. Verlag Natur & Text, Berlin 2007, pp. 124–127, ISBN 978-3-9810058-3-7 .
• Maintenance and development plan for the nature reserves "Murellenschlucht and Schanzenwald" and "Fließwiese Ruhleben" . Client: Senate Department for Urban Development, Planland (Landscape Development Planning Group), Berlin 2007.

Web links

Commons : Fließwiese Ruhleben  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Senate Department for Urban Development NSG and NATURA 2000 area Fließwiese Ruhleben (short description with map of the NSG)
• Ordinance on the "Fließwiese Ruhleben" nature reserve in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin from May 21, 1995. (PDF; 214 kB) Senate Department for Urban Development
• Database of FFH areas (search for "Fließwiese Ruhleben")

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Nature conservation and NATURA 2000 area Fließwiese Ruhleben . In: Senate Administration [...] (see literature)
2. ↑ Murellenschlucht and Schanzenwald nature reserve . In: Senate Department for Urban Development Berlin: Berlin of course! Nature conservation and NATURA 2000 areas in Berlin. Verlag Natur & Text, Berlin 2007, pp. 120–123, ISBN 978-3-9810058-3-7 .
3. ↑ Natural spatial structure overview of Germany with main units (old and new system)
4. ↑ List for the subsequent registration of protected areas according to the FFH directive for the state of Berlin from the Berlin nature conservation associations . (PDF; 110 kB) Editing: Ulrike Kielhorn & Manfred Schubert, editors: Berliner Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Naturschutz e. V., Berlin 2000, p. 21.
5. ↑ Elsgrabenweg. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
6. ↑ ^{a b} Flow meadow Ruhleben . In: The Senator for Urban Development [...] (see literature)
7. ↑ ^{a b} District Office Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Kiezspaziergang on May 11, 2002 with Social and Environmental Councilor Martina Schmiedhofer: From the Pichelsberg S-Bahn station through the Murellenschlucht to the Ruhleben U-Bahn station
8. ^ NSG and NATURA 2000 area Fließwiese Ruhleben . Senate Department for Urban Development
9. ↑ ^{a b} Natura 2000 FFH areas in Germany (enter "Fließwiese Ruhleben" in the search mask)
10. ↑ The inventory information is taken from: Nature conservation and NATURA-2000 area Fließwiese Ruhleben . In: Senate Administration […] (see literature); the plant descriptions come from the respective Wikipedia articles.
11. ↑ Andreas Krone (Ed.): Der Kammolch (Triturus cristatus). Dissemination, Biology and Protection. RANA special issue 4, Rangsdorf 2001, ISBN 3-9807627-4-2 .
12. ↑ List for the subsequent registration of protected areas according to the Habitats Directive for the State of Berlin from the Berlin nature conservation associations (PDF; 110 kB). Editing: Ulrike Kielhorn, Manfred Schubert; Publisher: Berliner Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Naturschutz e. V., Berlin 2000, pp. 11 and 21.
13. ↑ Berlin Ornithological Working Group (BOA) ( Memento from March 6, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Older breeding bird programs
14. ↑ Ordinance on the nature reserve "Fließwiese Ruhleben" in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin from May 21, 1959 . (PDF; 214 kB) Senate Department for Urban Development
15. ↑ Landscape program, species protection program 1994 . (PDF; 2.2 MB) p. 62. Senate Department for Urban Development and Environmental Protection

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 15, 2009 .