Big break

Big break
View from the direction of Großer Fallstein over the Große Bruch to Hedeper
surface	78.3 km²
Systematics according to	Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany
Main unit group	51 → Northern Harz foreland
4th order region (main unit)	511 → Big break
Geographical location
Coordinates	52 ° 2 '51.5 "  N , 10 ° 58' 37.4"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 2 '51.5 "  N , 10 ° 58' 37.4"  E
Natural area map of the northern Harz foreland with the Great Break in the center in a west-east direction
circle	Börde , Wolfenbüttel
state	Lower Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt
Country	Germany

The Große Bruch is a 45 km long and a total of 78.3 or 84 km² large, wetland valley low between Oschersleben in Saxony-Anhalt in the east and Schladen-Werla in Lower Saxony in the west. In addition to the interpretation as a glacial valley , there is also the possibility that the Oker temporarily flowed to the east in the Great Rift. The low-lying meadow landscape with numerous reed and willow-lined ditches is one to four kilometers wide. It extends along the Großer Graben and the Schiffgraben between the river basins of Bode and Oker.

history

Large fraction, excerpt from Andree's General Handbook , Velhagen and Klasing 1906

The Hessendamm in the Großer Bruch, on the left a tributary to the Großer Graben and Schiffgraben

Until the beginning of drainage in the Middle Ages , the area was considered impenetrable. It was said: "To get to Hamersleben monastery from the south ( Schwanebeck ) , you had to use a ferry between the place where Neudamm is today and the village of Wegersleben (later Neuwegersleben )". The oldest building in Neudammer, a residential tower made of rubble , is therefore called in Low German dat ole Fährhus (German: the old ferry house), an adjacent piece of land de Fährbrai and the street from Schwanebeck dä ole Fährweg .

In 1130 a ferryman, Eulunardus, is said to have refused to cross the Count Palatine Friedrich von Sommerschenburg because of a severe storm and was therefore killed in a rage by him. Out of remorse for his deed, he confessed his bloody deed to Abbot Sigfried of Hamersleben Monastery, gave the monastery a hoof field, supported the survivors of the murdered man with money and ensured that Bishop Rudolf von Halberstadt had a solid dam built in 1137 . The residential tower became a customs post. The Low German name oppen Tolln reminds of this. The place name "Neudamm" also refers to the crossing of a swamp area. The Hessendamm , the paved western traffic route through the Great Break between Hesse and Mattierzoll , is linguistically reminiscent of medieval road construction, which at the same time made the break arable and led to the use of grassland .

Drainage

View over the Große Bruch from Hessendamm to Veltheim , behind it the Große Fallstein

Large break with dark, boggy soil

In the 12th century, the first drainage measures were carried out on the edge of the quarry by monks of the Dutch Premonstratensian order at the behest of the Bishop of Halberstadt . From 1540 the dukes of Braunschweig and the bishops of Halberstadt had the Great Ditch and Ship Ditch and other ditches built, some of which were made navigable (hence the name Ship Ditch ). After the moats fell into disrepair during the Thirty Years' War and the quarry became swampy again , measures were taken in the 17th century to drain the area by order of Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector . After the end of the Seven Years' War , Frederick II had this work continued and brought to a certain result with the help of Swedish cultural engineers. The Prussian chief magistrate Georg Wilhelm Wahnschaffe played a large part in this project as a hydraulic engineering expert and state improver.

In the 20th century, extensive, intensive use resulted in almost irreparable damage. In order to gain arable land , the groundwater level was lowered further, meadows were plowed and chemical fertilizers were used. Species decline in the animal and plant world were the result. Some areas dried up, in others the moisture built up. Increasing ecological awareness led in 1981 to the decision of the Magdeburg District Assembly to place part of the Great Quarry with 786 hectares under protection. During the division of Germany, the border between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR ran along the Great Rupture for 15 km .

natural reserve

After the fall of the Wall , the entire Great Quarry with 6,000 hectares was declared a nature reserve in order to protect the fauna . The meadows are home and breeding grounds for rare bird species, including the corn harrier and meadow harrier , curlew , short-eared owl , snipe and corncrake . The little owl breeds in polluted willow stocks .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Emil Meynen , Josef Schmithüsen (Editor): Handbook of the Natural Region Divisions of Germany . Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Remagen / Bad Godesberg 1953–1962 (9 deliveries in 8 books, updated map 1: 1,000,000 with main units 1960).
2. ↑ Landscape profile Grosses Bruch of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
3. ↑ BUND - Das Große Bruch and the Heeseberg - bastions of nature in the agricultural steppe ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (pdf 1.2 MB)  
4. ↑ Lydia Bäuerle, Wolfhard Klie (ed.): Excursion guide Braunschweig - From Harz to Heide . Höller and Zwick, Braunschweig 2nd edition 1990, pp. 83 and 87, ISBN 3-89057-009-7
5. ↑ Heidecke, Lindemann, Teubert: Feasibility and acceptance study for the renaturation and site-appropriate use of wet grassland on former fen sites in the Green Belt, Professor Hellriegel-Institut eV, Bernburg 2007 (PDF; 1.4 MB)
6. ↑ Benno Riechelmann - From Ackerhof to Großgut: Two centuries of economic development of the Veltheim manor in the Halberstadt district, Leipzig 1926

Web links

Commons : Grosses Bruch  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Landscape profile with map from the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation