Grave field

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Grave field
Location of the grave field: it used to be the area of ​​the map in the triangle Bavaria − Hesse − Thuringia, today only the lightly marked area in the Bavarian-Thuringian border area
Location of the grave field : it used to be the area on the map in the triangle Bavaria - Hesse - Thuringia , today only the lightly marked area in the Bavarian-Thuringian border area
Systematics according to Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany
Main unit group 13 →
Main Franconian plates
About main unit 138 1 →
grave field
Natural space 138 1 →
grave field
state Bavaria , Thuringia
Country Germany

The grave field or Grabfeldgau located in the border area of southern Thuringia and northern Bavaria. It is up to 679  m above sea level. NN high, gently undulating to hilly, rarely mountainous landscape , which is mainly built up from rocks from shell limestone and Keuper . The Grabfeldgau lies in the north of the Mainfränkische Platten between the Rhön and the foreland of the Thuringian Forest . Compared to the surrounding area, the grave field has favorable climatic and soil conditions, which is why the landscape is largely shaped by agriculture. Belonging to the East Franconian dialect area , the grave field is part of Franconia .

location

The location in the Thuringian-Bavarian border area extends largely in the Lower Franconian district of Rhön-Grabfeld , further to the south of the Thuringian districts of Hildburghausen and Schmalkalden-Meiningen . The center of the Grabfeld lies between Bad Königshofen and Mellrichstadt .

It is framed by the Rhön in the west, the Werra-Gäuplatten in the north with the Long Mountains in the northeast, the Itz-Baunach hill country in the east and the Haßberge in the southeast.

The Grabfeld in the narrower sense drains exclusively to the Main and corresponds roughly to the catchment area of ​​the upper reaches of the Franconian Saale above Bad Neustadt . The natural spatial main unit Grabfeld (138 1 ) also contains the catchment area of ​​the Nassach up to the confluence in Haßfurt minus the headwaters and that of the Rodach up to the confluence with the Itz south of Coburg .

The left catchment area of ​​the Werra in the north , in particular that of the Jüchse and Bibra , on which most of the Grabfeld community is located , is also commonly included . According to this definition, it is not the Rhine-Weser watershed , but the Werra northern border. The natural spatial over-main unit Grabfeldgau (138), which contains the complete Werra-Gäuplatten (138 2 ), including those to the right of the river, and only ends north of Meiningen . The Werra-Gäuplatten and the natural grave field represent the northernmost units of the Mainfränkische Platten .

Important tributaries of the Franconian Saale in the Grabfeld are the northern central Spleen and the Streu and Lauer , which roughly form the western border.

To the east of Bad Königshofen , the northern part of the Haßberge Nature Park protrudes into the grave field.

geology

The geology on the surface largely follows the slight dipping of the Triassic strata to the east, resulting in a sequence of older to younger rocks from west to east. In the west of the grave rock there are shell limestone rocks , the younger Lower Keuper appears in the middle area . On both units there are large areas of cold-age loess . Mittlerer Keuper is to the east of the grave field . The basalts of the Heldburg gang in the far east of the grave field come from the Tertiary . The Gleichberge form prominent hardened people and at the same time the highest elevations in the grave field. In the north of the Grabfeld in the direction of the Thuringian Forest Foreland, deeper layers emerge at faults and bends (especially the Willmars Bibra Saddle), especially rocks from the shell limestone.

The grave field is the type region of the grave field formation , a lithostratigraphic unit of the Middle Keuper in the Germanic Triassic .

Climate and landscape

The grave field is an average of 300 m above sea level. NN lying inhomogeneous basin in the rain shadow of the Rhön. Precipitation around 550 mm / a make it one of the driest areas in Bavaria. The annual average temperatures are around 8 ° C. Large areas of the grave field are used for arable farming on relatively fertile loess soils, while there is forest in areas with more relief.

history

Counties in the Holy Roman Empire around 1000
Apollonia von Henneberg-Römhild († 1548)

The Grabfeld is a former East Franconian district, whose counts have been documented since 819. In a document from the year 813 a distinction is made between an eastern and a western grave field. The latter extended far south in the early Middle Ages, namely as far as the Schweinfurt / Geldersheim area . Numerous Untergaue are assigned to the Gau in this epoch, including Banzgau, Haßgau, Baringau, Tullifeld, Saalgau, Weringau, Westergau and Gozfeld. Fulda on the other side of the Rhön was assigned to the western grave field (grapfeld occidentalis).

Counts in the grave field were the Franconian Babenbergs :

  • Poppo (I.), 819/839 Graf im Saalgau
  • Burchard I. 837 to after 857 Graf im Grabfeldgau
  • Christian in 857 and named after 866
  • Adalbert, son of Poppos (II.) , 898/915 count in the grave field
  • Poppo (III.), † 945 , son of Adalbert, Count in Grabfeld and Tullifeld

The Grabfeldgau was given to the Polish Queen Richiza in 1057 by Bishop Adalbero von Würzburg . After her death in 1063, the Gau came back into the possession of the bishopric.

At the beginning of the High Middle Ages, the Lords of Wildberg ruled the grave field, who named themselves after the Wildberg Castle in the Haßberg Mountains. As an allod of the Burgraviate of Würzburg , a large part of the area came into the possession of the County of Henneberg in 1157 , the Botenlauben line in 1190 and the Aschach - Römhild line in 1274 .

The Henneberg, today Lower Franconian parts of the country were gradually acquired from 1353 by the Hochstift Würzburg . Count Berthold von Henneberg-Aschach sold the Römhild court in 1548 to the Counts of Mansfeld . From these it came in 1555 to the care of Coburg and thus to the Electorate of Saxony . As the Ernestine Duchy of Saxony-Römhild , the Römhild grave field achieved a certain degree of independence for another 30 years from 1680 to 1710, until it became part of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen .

Ostheim vor der Rhön came to Saxony-Coburg-Eisenach in 1572 , was an office of the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach from 1741 and came as an exclave to the newly founded state of Thuringia in 1920 . In 1945, Ostheim was assigned to the Free State of Bavaria as part of the American occupation zone and was under Bavarian administration as a Thuringian enclave.

From 1949 to 1990 the inner-German state border ran right through the grave field. Today this landscape belongs partly to the administrative district of Lower Franconia in the Free State of Bavaria and partly to the Free State of Thuringia . The old Main Franconian dialect, the Grabfeldisch , is still spoken throughout the region.

origin of the name

In his Lied der Franken , Joseph Victor von Scheffel mentions Grabfeldgau in the fourth stanza:

“(...)
and see the lands around the Main
at my feet.
From Bamberg to Grabfeldgau,
mountains and hills frame
the broad, shimmering Au
(...) "

The origin of the name of the Grabfeld landscape has not yet been clearly established. However, there are some attempts to explain it:

  1. The Old High German word for Graf is gravio, grafio or graphio. Pope Gregory III calls the inhabitants of the landscape in a letter in the year 793 the "Graffelti" . Charlemagne wrote "Graffelt" in various documents in 776 as a name for this area. Ludwig the Pious also referred to the landscape in 893 as "Graphelt" . So the area was the count's field, the count's field.
  2. The name could also come from Slavic, as there were many Slavic settlers in this area in the early Middle Ages. The term “Grapfeld” (from the Greek grape = beech), which is often used in writings from this period, means “hornbeam” in the ancient Slavonic language. Since there were once vast beech forests in the grave field and the northern grave field is still called " Buchonia " (= "Buchenland"), this version is also conceivable.
  3. The linguist Peter von Polenz suspects that the name comes from the Old High German adjective "grao" , which means "gray" , as large parts of the landscape are characterized by the gray color of the shell limestone. Landscape names on -feld come largely from the pre-Franconian period.
  4. Another interpretation goes back to the La Tène period (approx. 5th – 1st century BC) or to the Hallstatt period (approx. 800–475 BC). Back then, the term “grave field” meant something like “landscape with swampy waters”.
  5. According to the "ring insert", the name comes from the fact that once a queen, who rode to the hunt with her husband and his entourage, lost her wedding ring and had her servants dig up the entire area until the ring was found again. With this she wanted to please her strict husband again, who suspected her of having thrown the ring away because of another lover. The town hall of a new city was built on the site of the find - Königshofen . The carillon on the bay window of the town hall recalls this legend.

German-German open air museum

You can find out more about the history along the inner German border , which formerly also ran through the Grabfeld, at the Thuringian Behrungen in the German-German open-air museum - including the German-German history memorial .

Museums in the Schranne Bad Königshofen

The history of the former inner-German border is also dealt with in the Border Crossing Museum in Bad Königshofen, Bavaria . In the same building is the archaeological museum, which exhibits, among other things, early historical finds from the grave field.

ADAC Grabfeld rally

AMC Bad Königshofen has been organizing the ADAC Grabfeld rally since 1994 , which has been held annually at the end of June or beginning of July in the scenic Grabfeld. Start and finish are in the municipality of Sulzdorf an der Lederhecke on the edge of the Rhön-Grabfeld district . The rally has now become one of the largest and most important events in the Grabfeld. The Grabfeld rally is one of the largest motorsport events of its kind in Europe and is known far beyond the borders of Grabfeld. The 20th anniversary rally in summer 2013 attracted 10,000 spectators and over 250 participants from Germany and abroad. The very demanding routes, on paths and roads, often along the former inner-German border , as well as the support of the population and politics have contributed to making it the automobile rally event with the most participants in Germany. Cross-border, the special stages of the rally have always been on the Franconian as well as on the Thuringian side of the Grabfeld. On July 1, 2017, it will take place for the 24th time.

Mountains and elevations

The grave field, the interior of which is hilly and has island-like peaks in many places, consists among other things of these mountains and elevations that rise in or especially on the edge of the grave field - sorted by height in meters above sea level:

literature

  • Leo W. Hamm: The grave field - landscape between Vorrhön, Haßbergen and Frankenschwelle . In: Rhönklub (Ed.): Rhönwacht . No. 3 , 1995, ISSN  0936-1723 , pp. 2-4 .
  • Norbert Klaus Fuchs: The Heldburger Land. A historical travel guide. Rockstuhl Publishing House, Bad Langensalza 2013, ISBN 978-3-86777-349-2 .
  • Das Grabfeld The home page for culture, history and customs in the Grabfeld is published once a year

Web links

Wikivoyage: Grabfeld  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b alf-ns.bayern.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.alf-ns.bayern.de  
  2. ↑ Map services ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the BfN .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bfn.de
  3. ↑ Brigitte Schwenzer: Geographical land survey: The natural space units on sheet 140 Schweinfurt - Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1969.
  4. ↑ Bayerisches Geologisches Landesamt (ed.): Geological map of Bavaria 1: 500,000. 4., neubearb. Edition. Munich 1996.
  5. ^ Tectonic map of Bavaria 1: 1,000,000. (= Supplement 8 to: Bayerisches Geologisches Landesamt (Hrsg.): Explanations for the geological map of Bavaria 1: 500 000. 4th, revised edition. Munich 1996)
  6. ^ Alfred Friese: On the history of the rule of the Franconian nobility. P. 96.
  7. ^ Reinhard Wenskus: Saxon tribal nobility and Frankish imperial nobility. P. 280.
  8. ^ Reichsarchiv München: Document 1 from the Monumenta Castellana castell1 / U1  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www8.informatik.uni-erlangen.de  
  9. ^ Website of the AMC Bad Königshofen Grabfeld rally.