Heller (Dresden)

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Typical landscape of the Hellers, view from the heap between Hammerweg and Hellersiedlung to the north

The Heller is a landscape in Dresden that was created around 1830 through clearing . From the time of the Kingdom of Saxony to the end of the GDR, it was largely used for military purposes. In addition, there was sand mining and the Dresden airfield as a forerunner of today's airport. Today part of the site is protected as an FFH area , other parts are used commercially. The Dresden penal institution and the Hellersiedlung, one of the largest allotment garden colonies in Germany, are also located there.

location

Location of the Hellerberge district in Dresden

The Heller is located in the north of the Saxon state capital. Parts of the Dresdner Heide border it in the east and west. Hellerau is located directly to the north . The Elbe slope forms its natural southwest border in the area of Trachenberg and Albertstadt, and in the southeast it extends as far as the industrial site , which also belongs to Albertstadt ; south of the Heller lies the district of Neustadt . This means that the Heller not only separates the main part of the Dresdner Heide from the Junge Heide , but also the inner city from the northern parts of Dresden, such as Klotzsche . With its average height of about 160  m above sea level. NN it is already clearly noticeable in terraces from the bottom of the Elbe valley. The distance to Dresden city center is approximately 5 km.

Landscape image

The Heller is a rather barren dune landscape that, in contrast to the neighboring Dresdner Heide, is only sparsely forested. It is located on the so-called Heidesand terrace, which extends from the Loschwitz area to the Lößnitz to Radebeul . In the area of ​​the Heller it is called the Hellerterrasse and reaches its maximum extent here with a width of 2 km. It mediates between the plateaus around Wilschdorf and Weixdorf and the flat valley plain that begins at the Hechtviertel . In terms of landscape, the Heller forms a transition between the Radeberger Land as part of the West Lusatian hills and mountains on the one hand and the Elbe valley on the other. The overall appearance of the Heller is characterized by wide fallow land and several, partly re-greened heaps, partly late Ice Age drifting sand dunes . The area is quite flat and slopes slightly to the south. The highest point is the Hellerberg in the north, geologically already part of Lausitz, at 215  m above sea level. NN . The Wilschdorf-Rähnitzer Sandhügelland connects to the north .

geology

The area of ​​the Hellers is a Pleistocene shaped sander . Its subsoil consists essentially of glacial sand that was deposited directly south of the Lusatian Fault . A top layer of quartz sand up to 50 m thick is enriched with gravel in the depth . In some places there is a 3 m thick layer of calcareous clay under them. This band clay was washed in from the granite bedrock areas further to the northeast during the Saale glaciation. Underneath is in turn coarse river gravel, which comes from an old Elbarm . The Heller is located in the narrow strip between the Lusatian Fault with its tall granodiorite in the north and the fluviatil-shaped Elbe valley in the south. Due to the water-permeable sand layer, the stream flowing through the Olterteich seeps into the ground after a few 100 m of its course and is thus lost water .

Flora and nature protection

The Heller is only sparsely overgrown.

The overall very poor vegetation of the Heller is slowly increasing at the edges of the heather and consists of birch and pine trees and common oaks and locust trees interspersed in between . Otherwise there are many dry shrubs. Since large parts of the Heller were inaccessible to the public for a period of more than 160 years between the clearing of the heather forest located in this area in 1827 and the opening of the military restricted area in 1989, a unique flora was able to develop due to this isolation. In the 1990s, the Dresden Nature Conservation Institute carried out a faunistic and floristic inventory and assessed the area professionally with regard to the protective measures to be taken. Due to the high ecological importance of the Heller, it was ultimately placed under nature protection.

A total of 125 hectares of the Heller are protected as a fauna-flora-habitat area Dresdener Heller ( Natura 2000 area, EU registration no .: DE4848303, state internal number: 160), as it is a "larger sand deposit with a partially inland dune-like character “Act. The " succession sequences from open to wooded areas, occurrence of open grassy areas, gorse heaths and acidic oak forests" are also worth protecting. The aim is to preserve the habitats of species of community interest, such as the Spanish flag . The groups of lime trees on Augustusweg, which formally belong to the Hellerberge district and are located at the transition to Junge Heide, are designated as area natural monument ND 60 .

administration

Statistical district of Hellerberge (outlined in black) on the districts of Hellerberge (yellow), Trachenberge (green), Klotzsche (blue) and Dresdner Heide (red)

The Dresdner Heller extends mainly to the Hellerberge district . This is largely an area that was removed from the state forest of Dresdner Heide after extensive clearing in 1827 and was then initially administered by the military as a military training area . The district was incorporated into Dresden in 1897 as part of a northern city ​​expansion together with Pieschen , Trachenberge and the Wilder Mann estate . As a result of the incorporation of the Junge Heide into Dresden in 1949, the eastern part of this forest area, which lies directly to the west of the Heller, was added to the Hellerberge district.

In the course of a reorganization of the urban area in 1991, local offices (since 2018: city district offices ) were established, to which statistical city districts were subordinated. The resulting statistical district Hellerberge (district 34) includes the district of the same name including the Klotzsche forest park with the exception of the Hellersiedlung in the southeast, which was then added to the statistical district Albertstadt (district 15). After the practically uninhabited area of ​​the Hellerberge district lay in the middle of the Dresden-Nord district for decades , it has been part of the Klotzsche district since 1991 (until 2018: local office area).

traffic

Until the 1990s, the Heller was barely developed and difficult to access. It is only crossed by Radeburger Straße in a north-south direction, from which a few smaller access roads branch off. In the northwest, on the other hand, there is a connection to the federal motorway 4 . In the east, the Heller meets the Königsbrücker Straße and the Moritzburger Weg. In the south of the Heller a few small access roads were laid out during the construction of the Albertstadt barracks and most recently in the course of the construction of the so-called Carolapark .

Public transport is very sparse. In the far east, tram lines 7 and 8 (Hellersiedlung stop) as well as S-Bahn line 2 and regional trains to Kamenz, Königsbrück, Görlitz and Zittau (industrial area stop). Coming from Dresden- Pieschen, you can take the 76 bus . This runs from the Pieschen stop to the correctional facility in Albertstadt .

Dresden Airport was located on the Heller from 1926 to 1935.

history

Surname

The name Heller has been used for several hundred years and probably goes back to the West Slavic word holy , which means bald . The related Sorbian word hola for heather comes into question . According to various sagas and legends, the name is derived from the coin of the same name. According to them, the allegedly transferred from Heller derived name of the inn Heller tavern called to last penny on the surrounding area.

A connection with the German word hell is excluded, as well as with the Hellenwegesystem laid out in the 16th century in the Dresden Heath, the western star wing of which crossed the Heller in the middle. The analogy of the Dresden district names Trachau / Trachenberge and Hellerau / Hellerberge is only coincidental. The first two names are centuries old and have grown historically. Hellerau and Hellerberge, on the other hand, were both arbitrarily named after Heller in recent times.

Part of the Dresdner Heide

Originally the Heller was part of the Dresden Heath and just as densely wooded. It therefore shared their history well into the early 19th century and remained largely unused except for forestry and old agricultural aspects. However, he was of old connecting paths between the precincts crisscrossed the city of Dresden and its northern suburbs, such as the Klotzscher Marktweg or the way between Old Dresden (Rähnitzgasse) and Rähnitz . From Trachenberge to Klotzsche, the Hammerweg, known for its penal institution, led across the Heller. Important east-west connections were Diebsteig and Rennsteig. The Heller was also almost completely vacant and unpopulated. Between the 17th and 19th centuries there was only an inn and the Hellergut on its northern edge. Around 1827, the Hellers area was largely cleared to make way for military use.

Military use

Location of the Heller parade ground, around 1917

In the period between 1827 and 1989, the Heller was used for military purposes, almost exclusively until the Nazi era. After the clearing, a parade ground for the Saxon army was created in 1827 . Therefore, much of the Heller plateaus were for the public locked . Ten years later an artillery firing range was added, which was expanded in 1860. The Saxon court carried out its great maneuvers on the Heller until 1865 . Numerous barracks and farm buildings were built around 1866. In the same year, Prussia created a ski jump to protect the Saxon-Silesian Railway in the east of the Heller . The relocation of the shooting range to Zeithain followed in 1874. Nevertheless, the Heller remained a military training area, which was then used by the German Army and the Reichswehr .

At the time of National Socialism , the Heller became the maneuvering area of ​​the German Wehrmacht and the SS .

Hellerberg Jewish camp

From November 1942 to March 1943, the so-called “ Judenlager Hellerberg ” was located at Radeburger Straße 4 , a collection camp for the Jews of Dresden who worked in the Goehle factories of the Zeiss Ikon company in Pieschen. SS-Obersturmführer Henry Schmidt was involved in its establishment . After the camp was closed on March 2, 1943 as part of the factory campaign , its residents were deported to Auschwitz . A documentary film from November 1942 has been preserved about the camp. From 1943 to 1945 the camp was used as a care facility for foreigners' children, Lager Kiesgrube Dresden , a maternity camp for children of Eastern workers . Almost 500 children were born there, 225 of them died after a short time from a deliberate lack of care.

Last but not least, there was an air force radar station and barracks camp on Radeburger Strasse during wartime . The SS and Wehrmacht barracks remained in use until the surrender of the Nazi regime.

Dresden-Heller Airport

Dresden-Heller Airport, 1934

Since 1910 flight attempts by the aviation pioneer Hermann Reichelt took place. An “airship anchorage” is already shown on a map from 1910 on the Heller. Much acclaimed, the first Zeppelin airship LZ 11 “Victoria Luise” landed on the Heller in 1912 . However, the main airport in Dresden was initially built in Kaditz . In 1925 a new landing pad was built on a cavalry training area in the east of the Heller because the Kaditz runway was no longer sufficient after the start of scheduled flight operations . Since the sandy soil was unsuitable for rolling planes, workers paved the place with a 40 centimeter thick blanket of cinder and ash. The result was a 62 hectare airfield with 100 meters wide and 600 meters long runways. The handling and administration building of what was then the Saxon airport operating company stood about 40 meters west of the tracks next to today's S-Bahn station "Industriegelände". It contained utility rooms, a waiting room, a guest room, a radio station, rooms for the 26-man airport police and a weather observation station in the tower. There was a small hangar next to it.

Tower of the former heliport of the Soviet Army, now demolished, in 2004

On April 12, 1926, Dresden-Heller Airport officially went into operation. Within a short time it became a commercial airport thanks to the route network of Lufthansa , which was founded in the same year and which connected Dresden with other major cities at home and abroad .

A little later, in the early 1930s, there was no longer enough space for the increased volume of traffic. In addition, the Reichswehr reclaimed the airport grounds that were formerly part of the training area and, last but not least, the unfavorable wind conditions on the Heller, which repeatedly led to serious aircraft accidents, were criticized. Therefore, in March 1934, a site inspection took place with aviator commodore Albert Kesselring , head of Office B in the Reich Aviation Ministry , during which the decision to build a new airport in Klotzsche was made. Klotzsche Airport was built in 1934/1935 and flight operations were finally relocated there, the facilities on the Heller were dismantled and until the end of the war the site was only used for training, including by Air War School 1 , or as an alternative area.

Use in the post-war period

View from the dump at Proschhübel to the Hellersiedlung.
The Dresden JVA on Hammerweg, of a green heap on Prosch Hübel seen from

After the Second World War, the former airport area was converted into garden land for the hungry Dresden population and parceled out. Preferred people should be active opponents of the Nazi regime, members of the Communist Party and large families. The allotment garden club is located on the site of the former airport building. The gardens grew together to form the so-called Hellersiedlung, which is known as the allotment garden association Hellersiedlung-Nordhöhe e. V. is probably the largest allotment garden colony in Germany. Today, more than 2000 individual gardens extend over 55 hectares. They are accessed by parallel access roads, which are designated with the letters A to N from south to north. In the early 1980s, the popular television series Stories about the Garden Fence was filmed in the Hellersiedlung . After 2000, a large park was built on a green heap in the area of ​​the Proschhübels southwest of the gardens .

Parts of the Heller were used for military purposes during the Cold War . The Heller served as a training ground for the Soviet Army and NVA units stationed in the nearby Albertstadt barracks , and large areas were inaccessible to the public until the fall of the Wall. About one kilometer northwest of the former airport area, which has now been taken over by the Hellersiedlung, the group of Soviet armed forces in Germany built a helipad from 1957 . It consisted of a taxiway measuring 290 by 30 m, numerous parking spaces for military helicopters and several operational buildings. A maintenance hall was added around 1970. A helicopter squadron of the Soviet Army was stationed at the landing site, whose callsign was AREOLA. After their withdrawal in August 1992, the site lay fallow and the buildings fell into disrepair until they were demolished in 2005.

As in the Dresden Heath, Heller Sand is mined. Its large sand pits have provided material for Dresden's urban development for decades. Since 1960, the pits that shape the landscape have been backfilled, in some cases with rubble and garbage. During the 1960s it was planned to build on the Heller with prefabricated buildings , but this was not realized. Instead, after the fall of the Wall, various commercial enterprises have settled there, for example a concrete plant and several construction or recycling companies.

In addition, the large new building complex of Prinovis Ltd. was built at Meinholdstrasse 2 . & Co. KG and the Dresden printing and publishing house in which the Sächsische Zeitung and the Dresdner Morgenpost are printed. The headquarters of the largest East German private postal company MEDIA Logistik GmbH - PostModern is located in the same area .

On July 6, 2000, the Dresden penal institution on Hammerweg was inaugurated as a replacement for the prison on Schießgasse. It offers space for around 800 prisoners. It hit the headlines nationwide in November 2006 when a prisoner got onto the roof of a building. To this day, numerous fragments of the past can be found on the Heller in the form of concrete and iron parts.

Cultural monuments

Captain Hirsch memorial

Inauguration of the Hauptmann-Hirsch monument in October 2019

The Hauptmann-Hirsch monument, also known as the deer monument for short, was created in 1823 by the sculptor Franz Pettrich . It stands on the west side of Radeburger Strasse, not far north of the intersection with Hellerhofstrasse / Stauffenbergallee , and commemorates the officer Johann Baptista Joseph Hirsch (1770–1822). The memorial was erected exactly one year after his death at the place on the Heller, where the captain of the artillery of the Saxon Army had suffered a fatal riding accident. It was later repositioned and damaged several times. In the course of a comprehensive restoration in 2018/19, it was moved to its current location and includes a memorial stone crowned by a clay helmet with an inscription, which is located on a base in a fenced-in square.

Stone cross

Jonas cross with explanatory board

In the northeast of the Heller, at the intersection of Moritzburger Weg and Königsbrücker Straße, there is a stone cross that commemorates the death of Jonas Daniel. During the Dohna feud, he was a soldier of Burgrave Jeschke von Dohna and was supposed to bring his two children to Koenigsbrück to a befriended aristocratic family in 1402 . However, hostile riders lay in wait for him at this point in the middle of the Dresden Heath. Jonas Daniel opposed them to protect the fleeing children and was slain in the process. The stone memorial cross with the inscription Fin (is) Milit (is) Honas Dan (iel) was first mentioned in 1560. There has been a notice board next to the cross since 2002.

Selected locations

Hellerschänke

Historic entrance portal of the former Hellerschänke (2007)

The Hellerschänke, built in the 17th century, was the oldest and, together with the nearby Hellergut, an isolated farm property, for a long time the only building in the area. It was opened in 1673 under the name Zum Grünen Baum am Hellerberg and went back to a winery. After 1716 it was called the Hellerschänke or the Gasthaus Zum Letzt Heller . According to legend, this name goes back to a stay by August the Strong in 1690, who only had a penny in his pocket to pay. Another legend says that a poor craftsman stole the crown of a serpent king at the nearby Olterteich, sold it and opened an inn with the proceeds, which he called that in memory of his former poverty. In the 19th century the Hellerschänke was a barracks building due to the military use of the Heller. Reopened as an inn in 1872, it developed into one of the most popular excursion restaurants in Dresden, with a wine cellar and a beer garden with 5000 seats. The Hellerschänke had to be closed in 1956 due to dilapidation and demolished in 1969. The Hellerau LPG "Kurt Schlosser" then used some of the outbuildings as storage space. Only the property wall remained on site, on Augustusweg directly south of the Dresden-Hellerau motorway junction. The early baroque entrance portal of the wine cellar, presumably by Balthasar Permoser , has been located at the rear of the secondary building on Brühl's terrace since 1973 .

Hellerhof

The Hellerhof, located on today's Hellerhofstrasse, was built in 1894 at the suggestion of a doctor on the upper slope of the Trachenberge as a research institute. More than 50 donkeys , whose milk was tested as a substitute food for people allergic to cow's milk and was used to heal digestive disorders in infants, were kept here. That is why the property was popularly called donkey farm. The Hellerhof, which is run by a non-profit cooperative to combat infant mortality, was financed by selling milk and donkeys. It had to be closed in 1915 because of the First World War . After 1933 the Hellerhof was used by the SS and played a role in the Röhm Putsch . A construction company is based here.

Hellermaler Otto Altenkirch

Otto Altenkirch: Summer day in the Hellergut

The landscape of the Heller was often portrayed by the painter Otto Altenkirch , who was stationed as a soldier with the hunters in Dresden in 1903 . From 1907, he kept capturing various motifs such as the Hellergut, the Hellerschänke as well as dunes and trees and thus made a significant contribution to the popularity of the old military site. Before he left Dresden in 1920, he created works such as the Heideweg oil painting , which is in the Neue Meister gallery .

List of Dresden street names with the component Heller

  • At the Hellerhof
  • At the bright edge
  • Hellerhofstrasse
  • Hellerstrasse
  • Hellerschanze

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Without the author: Once around the Heller. ( Memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: dresden-neustadt.de , Dresden, August 19, 2004.
  2. ↑ Without author: Dresdener Heller. Factsheet filled with data from Natura 2000 data set. In: eunis.eea.europa.eu , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  3. ↑ Protected areas according to the Nature Conservation Act. (PDF; 332 kB) In: Umweltatlas 06/2014. Environmental Office of the City of Dresden, accessed on December 6, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Walter Wießner, Reinhardt Balzk: Forced Laborers in Dresden. Edition 2004. ( Memento of January 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: linksfraktion-dresden.de , Dresden, April 2004, accessed on January 14, 2014.
  5. ↑ The last Jews from Dresden were amalgamated in the Hellerberg camp on November 23 and 24, 1942. ( Memento from December 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Klaus Brendler: The airfield on the Heller. In: edition north-west (ed.): The North-West-Rundschau. Magazine for Kaditz, Mickten, Pieschen, Trachau, Trachenberge & Übigau. Vol. 6, Issue 2, Verlag Monika Grützner, Dresden 2011, p. 17.
  7. ↑ Without author: Dresden aviation history in the Neustadt. ( Memento from August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: dresden-neustadt.de , Dresden, March 5, 2003.
  8. ^ Bernhard Weiss: Dresden - Luftkriegsschule 1. ( Memento from December 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: fliegerhorste.de .
  9. ^ Jürgen Zapf: Luftwaffe airfields 1934–1945 - and what was left of them. Volume 2: Saxony. VDM, Zweibrücken 2001, ISBN 3-925480-62-5 , pp. 74/75.
  10. ↑ History of the Hellers in Dresden and the Hellersiedlung: R. Weissflog, from 2009
  11. ↑ Without author: Welcome to the green. In: kgv-hellersiedlung.de , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  12. ↑ Without the author: Hellersiedlung (Path A to N). ( Memento from July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: dresden-neustadt.de , Dresden, March 1, 2003.
  13. ↑ Without author: Around the Proschhübel. ( Memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: dresden-neustadt-online.de , Dresden, December 28, 2004.
  14. ↑ Without author: Dresden Heller Airfield. In: mil-airfields.de , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  15. ^ Jens Herbach: Airfield Dresden-Hellerau, 6 ОВЭ. In: sachsenschiene.net , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  16. ↑ Without author: Dresden correctional facility. The prison, which opened in July 2000, is one of the most modern prison buildings in Germany. In: sueddeutsche.de, May 17, 2010, accessed on January 14, 2014.
  17. ↑ Without author: Klotzsche (I) / OT von Dresden. In: suehnekreuz.de , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  18. ↑ Lars Herrmann: The northern districts. In: dresdner-stadtteile.de , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  19. ↑ Hans Ruben: "If some man only knew who some man would be ..." ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: dresden-neustadt.de , Dresden, April 10, 2004.
  20. ↑ Without author: The legend of the serpent king. In: Lars Herrmann (ed.): Dresdner-stadtteile.de , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  21. ↑ Without author: Die Hellerschänke In: dresdner-stadtteile.de , accessed on January 18, 2018.
  22. ^ Siegmar Baumgärtel: Hellerschänke. In: dresden-lexikon.de , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  23. ^ Lars Herrmann: Social facilities in Trachenberge. In: dresdner-stadtteile.de , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  24. ^ Axel Müllner: Sources and reading material Dresdner Heidedörfer. The painters of the Dresden Heath. ( Memento from August 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: amuellner.gmxhome.de , April 2004, accessed on January 14, 2014 (web archive).
  25. ↑ Without author: Otto Altenkirch. In: plakity-dresden.com , accessed on January 14, 2014.
  26. ↑ Without author: Der Hellermaler (1907–1940). In: otto-altenkirch.de , accessed on January 14, 2014.

literature

  • Seurig, Max: From the Heller Mountains to the Lößnitzgrund. Electoral Saxon walks, issue 3. Hellerau-Verlag Dresden. 1994, 1999.

Web links

Commons : Hellerberge  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 5 ′ 52 ″  N , 13 ° 44 ′ 58 ″  E