Forestry and Köhlerhof Wiethagen
The Forst- und Köhlerhof Wiethagen is an open-air museum in Rostock - Wiethagen , in which the history of the production of charcoal , wood tar and turpentine is shown with the help of charcoal burners . The charcoal burner house and the two still existing tar ovens were declared a technical monument in 1984. The smaller, still functional stove is the last of its kind in Europe.
history
In 1837, the forestry department of the Hanseatic City of Rostock gave an entrepreneur a permit to build a tar smelter near the village of Rövershagen . After two years of construction, the large tar furnace was put into operation in 1839. Between 1850 and 1855 a condensation and distillation plant and a storehouse were built. In 1905 the distillation plant was converted into a small tar furnace. Production was suspended from 1915 to 1916, but was resumed in 1917 with the construction of a new tarred house. The entire plant was in operation until 1979 and supplied wood tar for shipping, fishing and agriculture. With the death of the last Koehler, Otto Heuer, in 1982, the future of the entire facility was uncertain. Two years later, under the direction of the chief forester Gerd Heil, the reconstruction of the plant began; then it was recognized as a technical monument. With the help of the association of friends and sponsors of the Forst- und Köhlerhof Rostock-Wiethagen e. V. the site could be restored. From 1988 to 1989 the former cattle shed was demolished and rebuilt. All rooms were redesigned between 2001 and 2002 with the installation of modern media technology, heating and new lighting.
Permanent exhibition
A permanent exhibition has been set up in the former cattle shed, which reports on the life of the charcoal burners on the ground floor and on the upper floor about how the facility is embedded in the Rostock Heath . The ground floor was divided into three thematic areas: forestry (“green room”), the history of tar smelling (“white room”) and the use of charcoal and wood tar (“red room”).
Red room
The first room shows the historical importance of charcoal and wood tar for the economy in the past centuries. It shows where these substances were used in medicine and in everyday life. In the past, as the exhibition shows, the work of the Köhlers was backed by prejudices and myths . The reason: They worked in often inaccessible forest areas and mastered chemical processes that were sometimes incomprehensible to laypeople, such as pyrolysis and wood sulphurisation. Coal as well as pitch and sulfur were connected with the devil in the Christian faith - this also had a negative effect on the work of the charcoal burners. In addition, the raw material bad luck had a negative connotation in fairy tales, for example in the case of Frau Holle in the stories of the Brothers Grimm . Wood tar and pitch were used for different purposes in everyday life: for the lubrication of wooden axes, the preservation of ropes or as a sealant in the maritime sector . In the Middle Ages, boiling pitch was poured onto attackers via a special device at the castle , the machicolation . The exhibition shows various forms of this machicolation. It will be shown in which areas charcoal was used - for example in forging , in the glowing of flat steels, in the manufacture of gunpowder or the filtration of water.
White space
Until 1990, pine resin was also extracted in Wiethagen . While the processing of naturally obtained resin was discontinued in West Germany after the Second World War , the GDR processed the resin obtained in Wiethagen in the Eich Pechsiederei in Vogtland . This is how paints, rubber, technical fats and pesticides were created.
The function of the tar oven in Wiethagen is also explained in the white room. In the allothermal principle, depending on the wood used, both charcoal and wood tar can be obtained. A display board shows at which locations in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania tar was also extracted in the past. It is said that tar was produced in the Rostock Heath as early as 1634.
Green space
The third room shows the use of forestry equipment, as it was common until the 1950s. There is also a diorama with native forest birds and a burrow. It shows how the Rostock Heath has been managed forestry over the past 100 years, with the construction of Chausseestrasse through the heath in the years 1904 to 1905 being a decisive milestone for access to wood as a raw material.
Attic
A large part of the Rostock Heath was a restricted military area until 1989 . Large areas were cordoned off with a high-voltage safety system (HSA), which - similar to an electric fence - was charged with up to 12,000 volts . To ensure that false alarms were as rare as possible, the ground around the facility had to be kept as free of plants as possible. This was done through the use of herbicides . Such a system is set up as an example in the attic. After the site was cleared, numerous cartridges and shell casings were found in the heath. Some of these were buried deep in the tree trunks released for recycling and represented a particular challenge for the work of the charcoal burners. It shows which weapons were used and what impact the military use had on tar extraction and processing.
Technical facilities in the yard
There are two ovens in the courtyard: The smaller tar oven from 1905 with a capacity of 13 m³ is a functioning, technical monument. Around two tons of charcoal and 250 liters of wood tar are extracted up to four times a year. The stove is in operation for around a week and has to be heated every two hours - including at night. 14 days later, after the furnace has cooled down, it can be opened and the coal removed. The tar that runs from the oven through a channel into the cellar is skimmed off by the charcoal burner with the help of suitable equipment, which is also on display.
The larger oven with 48 m³ was in operation from 1839 to the beginning of the 1960s and is available to visitors as a show oven. Like the cellar to the side, it can be viewed.
Model path, fairy tale forest and nature adventure path
There is a miniature model trail on the outside area showing a total of thirteen different wood charring plants from Europe. So is a small plant for the production of wood gas, wood tar and charcoal also be seen as a tar pit, a Erdmeiler, a crackling stove and a Datschenfreund . With this method, charcoal is extracted in a simple petrol barrel - a method that was used by the arbor beeper in the GDR when charcoal was not available.
Since 2003, the model path has been supplemented by a sculpture path showing reliefs from the world of fairy tales and legends of the Rostock Heath. For example, the knight of the Rostock Heath, Dietrich von der Lünenburg, and the amber witch from the novella by Wilhelm Meinhold are shown . A sculpture shows the Gälknöker , a yellow-bony heather spirit. He is known for playing tricks on the heathen people as well as helping the poor and needy. The Rostock sculptor Harald Wroost was decisive for the furnishings .
A 1.4 km long forest and nature trail has been leading through the Rostock Heath as a cycle path since 1991 and explains the local flora and fauna at 25 stations. It ends opposite the Square of the Trees , where the tree of the year is planted every year together with the city forestry office .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Forst- und Köhlerhof Rostock-Wiethagen , German Museum Directory, accessed on July 6, 2012.
- ↑ Forst- und Köhlerhof Wiethagen , website of the Hanseatic City of Rostock, accessed on July 6, 2012.
- ^ Joachim Puttkamer: Graal-Müritz - Pearl on the Sea. 1st edition. Geiger-Verlag, Horb am Neckar 2005, ISBN 3-86595-005-1 , p. 23.
- ^ Tourismus- und Kur GmbH Graal-Müritz: Windflüchter. Issue 163, p. 9.
- ↑ Flyer: Forst- und Köhlerhof Wiethagen. P. 3.
- ↑ Information on the tar ovens , website of the Köhlershof Wiethagen, accessed on July 6, 2012.
Coordinates: 54 ° 11 ′ 8.5 ″ N , 12 ° 14 ′ 46.6 ″ E