Friedländer Great Meadow

Location of the Friedländer Großer Wiese and the Peene-Südkanal

The Friedländer Große Wiese is a 100 km² low moor in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and part of the Am Stettiner Haff nature park . It is located in the districts of Vorpommern-Greifswald and Mecklenburg Lake District about 20 km southwest of Ueckermünde north of the Brohmer Mountains and Lake Galenbeck . It has a slight gradient of almost 10 m above sea level at Galenbecker See and about 6 m above sea level at Ferdinandshof .

history

1989 - Green fodder harvest in Friedland's Großer Wiese

Attempts to drain the fen area in order to open up new areas for agriculture were made as early as the 18th century. At that time the White Ditch was created, which not only took water from the moor, but also lowered the water level of the Galenbeck lake and controlled it via a weir. The ditch was expanded and in parts also relocated. In the last quarter of the 19th century, attempts to make the area usable were intensified again. For this purpose, the Moor Cultur Society was founded in Mariawerth in 1887 under the leadership of Count Hans von Schwerin - Löwitz . The Culturtechnische Bureau was commissioned by Schweder from Groß Lichterfelde near Berlin to carry out the project. The company owners Moritz and Victor Schweder had many years of experience with melioration measures in Austria-Hungary and Germany. For the Friedländer Große Wiese, the Schweder brothers adapted the Rimpau moor dam culture method to the local conditions. The newly created Gut Rimpau, which no longer exists today, was named after Theodor Hermann Rimpau , the inventor of the moorland dam culture . His method included the enrichment of the bog soil with Thomas flour and Chile nitrate and subsequent application of a 15 cm thick layer of gravel . In order to bring the necessary materials into the area, which is impassable for horse-drawn vehicles, a field railway with a 600 mm gauge was built in 1888 from the Ferdinandshof state station. Almost exclusively sugar beets were grown on the arable land near Rimpau. In order to transport these root crops to the sugar factory in Friedland, it was advisable to extend the existing field railway up there. This line, which was continuously passable from November 1, 1891, later formed the basis for the Mecklenburg-Pomerania Narrow Gauge Railway (MPSB). Between 1895 and 1900 further renovation work was carried out at Mariawerth. From 1920 peat was also extracted there.

1958 - Cleaning of a drainage ditch in Friedland's Großer Wiese

In 1937 a camp for the Reich Labor Service was set up on Lake Lübkow . Together with the RAD Fleethof camp, which was set up from 1938, 200 "workmen" were housed here. A third camp was located in Heinrichswalde. The Klockow Castle accommodated 40 to 50 “working maids”, who mainly did house and field work in the farms in Klockow and Schwichtenberg. In addition to the renovation work, the men were also deployed to build roads and paths. After the end of the Second World War , refugees were temporarily housed in the camps.

As a result of an amelioration project in the district of Neubrandenburg that was declared a central youth property , most of the Friedland Great Meadow was drained from 1958 to 1962 . During these four years, a total of 6,264 young people were involved in the work. The youth object is part of the plot of the youth book Egon and the eighth wonder of the world and was one of the locations of the film adaptation of the same name . In the south-west, the approx. 7 km² large Galenbeck lake, located in a nature reserve , was preserved.

Current condition

The area is drained through a grid-shaped canal system, but also irrigated if necessary. The drainage takes place in accordance with the slope in a north-easterly direction. The water flows through the Zarow river into the Stettiner Haff (Oderhaff), from where it reaches the Baltic Sea. For irrigation, the Peene-Südkanal was created between 1977 and 1988 , which receives its water from the lower Peene through the Dersewitz pumping station and feeds the eastern part of the ditch .

The species-poor grassland is used to produce fodder for around 20,000 cattle. Contrary to the efforts to protect the moors and to protect water, which can be observed elsewhere, maize cultivation with liquid manure disposal is carried out on larger areas. The flow moor was permanently damaged by amelioration and intensive cultivation . The lowering of the groundwater level caused the bog to collapse by up to 2.5 meters. The moor became increasingly earthy and impoverished as a result of the leaching of released nutrients. Therefore, the water level of Lake Galenbeck, which has also sunk, is now higher than the water level in the surrounding area. Forest formation is progressing in the riparian zones. Efforts to preserve the remaining moorland are particularly concentrated on the Galenbecker and Putzar lakes . The aim here is to reduce the nutrient input into the heavily eutrophied lakes and to stabilize the water flow. To this end, a renovation project was carried out at Lake Galenbeck (preparation since 1999, construction 2005–2007), which was funded by the European Community (EU Life program). The entire landscape of the Friedland Great Meadow is of great importance as a resting and wintering area as well as a breeding area for numerous wading and water bird species.