Gremberger grove
The Gremberger Wäldchen is an urban recreational area on the edge of the Cologne district of Gremberg on the right bank of the Rhine . It houses a common beech from the first decades of the 18th century, probably the oldest tree in Cologne.
history
The Gremberger wood is one of the special features of the green belt on the right bank of the Rhine. With its deciduous forest, it is reminiscent of the original forest cover on the low terrace of the Cologne Bay that extends beyond Gremberg .
From monastery property to state forest
The former monastic Gremberger Hof, belonging to Deutz Abbey, with the surrounding forest areas, was mentioned in a document as early as 1003. However, due to its remote location, the area remained largely untouched for centuries. With the occupation during the French era and the ensuing secularization , this ecclesiastical property also fell to the state.
Urban forest
1899 was the city of Cologne, a about 72 hectares large woodlot acquired right bank Gremberg. It was a property subordinate to the “ forest treasury ” , the so-called “Gremberger Wäldchen”. The purchase price of 400,000 marks included, in addition to the overgrown forest, a forester's house and farm buildings for the Gremberger Hof.
Development of the forest
The condition of the forest was desolate; according to Enke, it contained "coppice that had been driven away in eighteen years of circulation with an umbrella stand of old oaks and beeches". At the turn of the century, the forest was in a completely unregulated state. His undergrowth consisted of coppice of Linden , hornbeams and oaks that into an impenetrable thicket had grown, raised above the high, ancient oaks and beeches and their mighty foliage crown spread.
The municipal head gardener Hermann Robert Jung received the contract to develop the forest area in autumn 1901 . Since 1890, Jung was responsible for the areas of the old and new town and looked after the first areas on the right bank of the Rhine in Cologne. The forest was cleared below him and a network of paths was laid out. After the clearing and the creation of a dense network of paths, further species were planted while preserving the existing forest character. A forester was employed and the old forester's house was rebuilt in 1912. With the establishment of an inn in the forester's house, the Gremberger woods became a popular excursion destination for Cologne residents. A black and white photo from 1916 shows the forester's house as a garden tavern with a number of tables and chairs set up outside. The building, still preserved in its old form, is now private living space.
Gremberger Grove Memorial
In the western area of the forest area there is a small, well-kept memorial, enclosed by a hunter's fence . The texts of the inscriptions to be read on the memorials are self-explanatory.
- Large stone tablet
“ 74 Soviet citizens who were murdered during their captivity under fascism between 1941 and 1945 are buried here. "
- A head-high boulder reflects this in Cyrillic .
- Base of the bronze sculpture
"And all pity, woman, I call a lie,
which does not change into the red anger,
which no longer rests until finally moved out,
the flesh of humanity this old thorn."
Further development until today
At the beginning of the 1970s, the forest was cut in its middle by the construction of the eastern motorway feeder. The area serving the local recreation of the population received an extension to compensate for the area further east around the intermediate plant IX , also wooded area at the motorway junction Gremberg .
The forest, which was realized as a local recreation area around 1900, has largely lost this function. Narrowed and severed by the motorway, its feeder, an S-Bahn line and urban roads, the "grove" is exposed to constant traffic noise. Many of the formerly numerous visitors stayed away from the forest, so that the popular garden café also ceased operations many years ago due to this development.
Web links
literature
- Joachim Bauer and Carmen Kohls: Cologne under French and Prussian rule . In: Werner Adams and Joachim Bauer (eds.): From the Botanical Garden to the Big City Green - 200 Years of Cologne Green (Stadtspuren - Denkmäler in Köln, Volume 30) Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7616-1460-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Oehlen: Die Gremberger Rotbuche , in the magazine of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , p. 6 of December 4, 2015
- ↑ Official website of the city of Cologne on the Humboldt / Gremberg district
- ^ A b Henriette Meynen, 'Gremberger Wäldchen': In Joachim Bauer and Carmen Kohls: Cologne under French and Prussian rule . In: Werner Adams and Joachim Bauer (eds.): From the Botanical Garden to the Big City Green - 200 Years of Cologne Green (Stadtspuren - Denkmäler in Köln, Volume 30.) P. 71.
- ^ Fritz Encke: The public systems. In Natural Science and Health Care in Cöln, 1908, p. 137
Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 5.2 ″ N , 7 ° 0 ′ 59 ″ E