Freeden (mountain)

Freeden
	Great Freeden
height	269 m above sea level NHN
location	Lower Saxony , Germany
Mountains	Teutoburg Forest
Coordinates	52 ° 9 ′ 34 " N , 8 ° 5 ′ 30" E Coordinates: 52 ° 9 ′ 34 " N , 8 ° 5 ′ 30" E

Former limestone quarry on Kleiner Freeden with almost vertical limestone layers

Freedenbach at the foot of Little Freeden

The Freeden (also: Freden ) is a mountain mainly composed of beech trees in the area of the city of Bad Iburg in Lower Saxony. It consists of the 269 meter tall Großer Freeden and the Kleiner Freeden (200 meters). It is part of the Teutoburg Forest .

The mountain is of outstanding importance because of the mass blooming of the hollow lark spur in spring. When the Freeden blooms , it attracts nature lovers and tourists in late March and early April.

Nature reserve

224 hectares of Freeden have been a nature reserve since 2002 and are designated as part of the Teutoburg Forest, Kleiner Berg area as a Natura 2000 reserve in accordance with the fauna-flora-habitat directive of the European Union . It is part of the European natural heritage . Seven of the 224 hectares are privately owned; the majority belongs to the state of Lower Saxony.

Origin of name

The name of the mountain is derived from the Low German verb freden (to peace). In Iburg the mountain is called Freden . The map of the Gauss land survey in the Kingdom of Hanover from 1847 also referred to the mountain as Freden. The spelling Freeden was used in Hilter ; it asserted itself in official maps of the 20th and 21st centuries and in literature.

geology

The Freeden originated from a prehistoric sea, the bottom of which was made up of layers of limestone that were almost folded and made vertical by tectonic forces . This can be recognized to this day by a former limestone quarry on Kleiner Freeden. The layers of Cenoman - pläners and Turon - limestone have a low powerful loess layer , the dome to further decreases.

history

The Teutoburg Forest was around 2200 BC. Overgrown with linden and oak trees, beeches were found here and there. Slash and burn in the area of what is now the Ostfelde district of Bad Iburg due to early settlement could have affected the Freeden. The monks of the Benedictine monastery Iburg founded by Bishop Benno II of Osnabrück cut wood from Freeden for malt preparation. In the Middle Ages, the forests of Freeden were used intensively as common huts . In the 18th century the trees were felled every 30 to 40 years. The wood was used for residential buildings, as well as for the production of charcoal, as testament to the factories. A map from 1805 by LeCoq showed areas of only wood and bushes. A map of the then borough Iburg from 1897 records the Freeden as the Royal Forest Palsterkamp belong. He had become the legal successor to the Prince-Bishops of Osnabrück. Despite this proof of ownership, the Freeden was used as a forest pasture by the Sentrup side until around 1825; until the early 20th century, the population got litter from the mountain. However, the Freeden has not been completely deforested. Some areas have a continuous forest cover of more than 200 years. In November 1940 beech stocks were destroyed by a severe storm. In the quarries of free dens were in World War II prisoners of war used to break down the limestone 1942-1945. After the end of World War II, the forest stock suffered from logging by the British occupation ; in addition, it was decimated by the population's need for firewood. The Freeden part, which belongs to the state of Lower Saxony, was administered by the Palsterkamp Forestry Office until 2004; The Lower Saxony Forestry Office Ankum has been responsible since 2005 . In 1972, 40 hectares of the forest area owned by the State of Lower Saxony were taken out of forest management. A natural gas pipeline has been crossing the Freeden since the early 1970s; since then it has formed a swath through the forest. Considerable earthworks were necessary for the route of the pipeline in order to cross under the Freedenbach. Chief forester Fritz Haase used these earthworks to dam the Freedenbach and to create a pond that provides a reservoir of extinguishing water in an emergency. The pond was named Haase-See after him. There is a refuge for hikers at the Haase lake.

flora

Wood anemones on Kleiner Freeden in early March

Hollow lark spur

On the north side of Freeden there is a herbaceous beech forest; beech forest rich in grass on the south side. A special feature of Freeden is the high occurrence of early bloomers . They include in addition to the caves Corydalis in the region as, Freedenblume is called, the Mercurialis perennis , the wood anemone , the wild garlic , which Arum maculatum , of Woodruff and the forest violets . They show up in spring, when the beech trees are not yet leafy. Orchids such as the white forest bird , the bird's nest root , orchids and the marsh stendrums used to be found on Freeden. The Freeden has a number of plant occurrences that are listed in the red list . These include the columbine, the rib fern , the marsh marigold , the alternate spleenwort , in addition to the hollow larkspur, the middle larkspur , the spotted orchid , the forest yellow star , the clove root , the low-lying St. John's wort , the singleberry , the primroses , the lungwort , the water crowfoot , the real Solomon's seal and the skullcap .

Hermannsweg on the Great Freeden
Impressions on the Great Freeden
Ridge path in Little Freeden

fauna

kingfisher

In addition to hares, roe deer, wild boar and fallow deer live on Freeden worth protecting species such as the pond bat , the Daubenton's bat , the Serotine which Noctule , the pine marten and the badger . The birds include the hawk , the common buzzard , the honey buzzard , the stock dove , the green woodpecker , the little owl , the kingfisher and the woodcock . Amphibians as the most Freeden frog , the common toad , the spotted salamander and the palmate newt . The brown trout can be found in its waters . The common raven was heard in 2004; the black stork has also been observed. Among the insects that should be mentioned are the great schiller butterfly , the spring mother-of-pearl butterfly and the striped spring damsel . 29 species of snails have been identified at Freeden.

Hiking trails

Signposts for the hiking car park at the foot of Kleine Freeden

The Freeden is accessible through a number of hiking trails of varying difficulty, which are indicated. The paths are signposted and accessible from the parking lot at the foothills of the Kleiner Freeden. There is a Kneipp water step, a weather shelter and a covered water point. In the immediate vicinity, on the Hohnsberg , is a former quarry.

The way to Limberg in the north with the crash site of the airship LZ 7 Germany is also signposted . In the immediate vicinity in the direction of Glane there are commercially managed trout ponds with a smokehouse and fish sales.

The hiking trails in Freeden are accessible without any particular danger. At the entrance to the Großer Freeden, red signs indicate that the 40 hectare natural forest is an uncultivated primeval forest. Road safety is not guaranteed in the event of storms, freezing rain or other adversities. There is also no separate warning about the danger of falling trees. The Hermannsweg of the Teutoburg Forest, marked with the H mark , therefore swings away from the Kammweg on the Großer Freeden. Since 2017, the Kammweg over the Große Freeden, which leads through the largest population of the Hohlen Lerchensporn, has been closed due to the acute danger of tree breakage due to ash dieback.

literature

Manfred Kloweit-Herrmann, Hans-Jürgen Zietz: The Freeden - nature reserve in Bad Iburg . Grote-Druck, Bad Iburg 2005, ISBN 3-933998-25-5
Peter Meyer, Katja Lorenz, Andreas Mölder, Roland Steffens, Wolfgang Schmidt, Thomas Kompa, Anne Wevell von Krüger: Natural Forests in Lower Saxony. Protection and Research. Volume 2 - Lower Saxony mountains . Leinebergland-Druck, Alfeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-050091-6
Peter Meyer, Katja Lorenz, Andreas Mölder, Roland Steffens, Wolfgang Schmidt, Thomas Kompa, Anne Wevell von Krüger: Naturwald Großer Freeden . Natural forest reserves in brief, p. 1–8. Northwest German Forest Research Institute (NW-FVA), Göttingen 2015.

Web links

Commons : Freeden - collection of images, videos and audio files