Heckengäu

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Heckengäu near Weil der Stadt

The Heckengäu as part of Gaeu a landscape in the counties of Böblingen , Calw , Ludwigsburg and Enz in Baden-Württemberg ( Germany ). A part of the landscape in the Calw district is called Schlehengäu . Therefore the name Heckengäu and Schlehengäu is also common.

Geographical location

Heckengäu near Malmsheim

The Heckengäu is located west of the state capital Stuttgart . It forms a 50 km long ribbon from north to south, which extends from Vaihingen an der Enz in the north to Haiterbach in the south and includes parts of the districts of Böblingen, Calw, Ludwigsburg and the Enzkreis. In the west it borders on the northern Black Forest and in the east on the Korn- and Strohgäu , the Glemswald and the Schönbuch . Together with Korn-, Stroh- and Zabergäu , it forms the Gäu in Baden-Württemberg .

geology

The landscape is part of the southwest German layered landscape. This slopes to the east due to the formation of the Upper Rhine Rift. As a result, the geological layers in the east-west axis come to the surface and cause the emergence of the different partial landscapes. The most important geological layer for the formation of the landscape is the shell limestone . It belongs to the systematics of the Germanic Triassic. Also belonging are the layers of the red sandstone and the Keuper, which lay under and overlay the shell limestone. The layers of shell limestone were deposited about 240 million years ago. The name was given here to the fossil-rich limestone that occurs in the Lower and Middle Muschelkalk.

Clay marl stones, gypsum, anhydrite and dolomite stones also occur. The hydraulic properties as well as the mechanical resistance of the geological layers are decisive for the formation of the landscape. For example, the karst formation of the subsoil is a main reason for the lack of water in the Heckengäu. Landforms and karst phenomena such as dry valleys , sinkholes , spring pots, shaft caves and floods can also be found. The geological layers overlying and underlying the Muschelkalk partly have different hydraulic properties and mechanical resistance, due to the changed conditions for the fluvial landscape formation, this leads to other landforms and landscapes.

landscape

The Heckengäu is a rural region, which is characterized by a hilly, heavily agricultural landscape. The landscape of the Heckengäus belongs to the gau landscapes . In the east it borders on the Korn-, Stroh- or Obere Gäu, which are also assigned to the Gäu landscapes. The landscape of the Northern Black Forest joins in to the west. The Gäu landscapes are old settlements and the northern Black Forest landscapes are jungle settlements . Typical soils are rendzinen , but loess layers can also be found in hollows, from which parabrown soils can form. The resulting agricultural use through arable farming, pasture farming and fruit growing characterizes the landscape. In the Heckengäu , for example, there are juniper heaths , orchards and field hedges that formed on the many stone bars and that gave it its name. Due to the high proportion of calc debris in the so-called skeleton soils, the stones were harvested from the ground in the past. The sloe hedges typical of the eastern district of Calw give the region the name “Schlehengäu”.

Surveys

The highest elevations (with a height in meters above sea ​​level ) of the Heckengäus can be found near Calw-Stammheim (Thumb, 610.4  m ) and in and around the eastern Althengstett (Käpfle, 597.8  m and Jägerberg 587.4  m ). Other typical Gäu plateaus are, for example, the plateau near the “Sieben Tannen” with the villages of Deckpfronn , Oberjesingen and Kuppingen and the plateau “Tannenäcker” between Althengstett, Stammheim and Gechingen , which reaches a height of 580  m .

The wall fox is a resident of the Heckengäus (location: Malmsheim)
The silver thistle blooms in the Heckengäu on heathland (location: Renningen )

Flora and fauna

The Heckengäu has flora and fauna that are worth protecting. On the juniper heaths there are remnants of the silver thistle and the mountain aster . A few native gentian species also find a suitable growth site there. The common pasque flower blooms near Weil der Stadt in spring . The wall fox is at home in the dry valleys, while the sand lizard finds a suitable habitat in the dry stone walls on the edge of orchards in the Heckengäu. The strictly protected yellow-bellied toad looks for the smallest bodies of water and puddles.

Localities

Belong to the localities of the Heckengäus

traffic

The Heckengäu can be reached via the A 8 and A 81 motorways. In addition, there are various train connections (including the Stuttgart S-Bahn network). There are bus connections from the train stations in Leonberg , Weissach ( Württembergische Eisenbahngesellschaft - WEG), Mühlacker , Pforzheim , Böblingen and Weil der Stadt .

Natural systematics

In the system of the handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany , this north-south very extensive, west-east rather narrow band of the Heckengäus is not easy to find again:

  1. A northern part is assigned to the main unit 123 - → Neckar basin - of the natural area Neckar- and Tauber-Gäuplatten : with the above -mentioned localities Mühlacker and Vaihingen an der Enz 123.16, Wiernsheim 123.12, Wimsheim 123.10, Flacht 123.11 ( Enz-Grenzbach-Heckengäu ) . The southern border of this part of the Heckengäus is formed by the A 8 motorway between Pforzheim and Leonberg .
  2. An eastern band of the southern part to Haiterbach appears in the main unit → Obere Gäue (122.40, 122.44 and 122.45 around Möttlingen ), a western one - in the Nagoldtal from Bad Liebenzell to Altensteig (→ #Ortschaften above) - is the manual for the Black Forest edge plates (150, outside the Neckar and Tauber-Gäuplatten ) instead of the Oberen Gäuen. - Remarks:
    • In the map you can see that this division of the Heckengäus between 122 and 123 by the A 8 motorway does not correspond to any natural difference - legend: “boundaries that cannot be defined linearly” - rather 122.45 123.10 and 122.44 123.11 naturally continue to the south.
    • Likewise, 122.40 122.44 continues to the south “without a linearly definable border”.
    • The article Nagold (river) counts (under General ), the located in the Natural Environment 150 parts of the Nagoldtal (Altensteig Wildberg down) not to Heckengäu, but only the natural environment Nagold-Heckengäu (122.40) in the city of Nagold .
  3. To the south of the area specified here, the manual lists as 122.11 and 122.12 (in the Oberen Gäuen ) eastern and western Eschach -Heckengäu between Kinzig and the Neckar valley above Sulz , which are connected to the narrower Heckengäu by the Glatt -Gäuplatten (122.2). To the northwest , the narrower Heckengäu continues across the Enz through the Pfinzhügelland (125.3, cf. Pfinzgau ) in the main unit of Kraichgau .

literature

  • Herbert Fauser, Karl-Jürgen Bunnenberg, Karl Feucht (eds.): Hiking guide Heckengäu, Strohgäu, Glemswald. Verlag Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-0871-9 .
  • Office PLENUM Heckengäu (publisher), in cooperation with the press office of the district of Böblingen: The Heckengäu, an experience. Böblingen 2006, DNB 1014527066 (catalog entry of the German National Library - DNB).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  2. ^ Friedrich Huttenlocher , Hansjörg Dongus : Geographical land survey: The natural spatial units on sheet 170 Stuttgart. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1952, revised 1967. → Online map (PDF; 4.0 MB).
  3. a b c Friedrich Huttenlocher: Geographical land survey: The natural space units on sheet 178 Sigmaringen. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1959. → Online map (PDF; 4.3 MB).

Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 0 ″  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 0 ″  E