Hessengraben
The Hessengraben is a ditch, possibly for Landwehr purposes, which crosses the old Plackweg and a path branching off to the north in the Arnsberger Wald nature park in North Rhine-Westphalia between Warstein and Eversberg .
course
The Hessengraben runs across the ridge of the Arnsberg Forest. It begins in the Warsteiner Forest south of Warstein in the Bösenbruch, the headwaters of the Langen Bach. From here the ditch, which is up to 2 meters deep, leads south and reaches its highest point about 100 meters east of the highest point of the Plackweghöhe on the border between Warstein and Eversberg. Here it crosses an old path, the so-called small Plackweg (referred to in the Prussian original as the Jägerpfad ), which leads to Belecke, and then curves to the south-east and back to the south in the Eversberg area until it meets the Plackweg to Brilon . This part is similar in depth and width to the Warsteiner part. No ditch is visible south of today's Plackweg. Wilhelm Leise explained that this part of the trench was buried, but could be recognized by the different types of vegetation with mosses and grasses. This created a connection to the Wallmecke gorge. In total, the trench is over 1000 meters long.
Wilhelm Leise describes that a ditch in the Eversberg Forest was known as the Hessengraben, which forms an extension of the northwesternmost source stream of the Lörmecke . However, this has no connection with the Hessengraben described above.
Purpose of digging
The purpose of the dig is not clearly established. In a footnote in 1844, Joseph Bender called it “undoubtedly a historical monument” and refers to feuds between Hesse and Westphalia since ancient times. In 1912 F. Biermann wrote that the meaning and time of origin have not yet been established and A. Beneke referred to Bender when describing it as a “monument to some unknown historical event from the past”.
Wilhelm Leise saw a military installation in the Hessengraben in 1986 to block the ridge at the meeting of two large watersheds, which are separated by the Lörmecke east of this point. He did not see any sense as a permanent facility in the deep forest and he rejected Bender's assumption as protection from the Hessians, since at least the northern path from Belecke, which is also blocked, comes from the inner region of Westphalia. Instead, Leise suspected that the Romans wanted to retreat via the Plackweg in the Varus Battle and were defeated here by the Teutons. Germanicus is said to have built the trench in AD 15 to protect himself from Germanic attacks when the dead were buried.
The arrangement of the trench suggests a Landwehr serving as a road barrier, which prevented the control point from being bypassed on the way. A similar road barrier is also located about 2.5 kilometers east of the Hessen ditch on the Jägerpfad. Since the ditch runs in a north-south direction, it is possible that it is the border between the villages of Eversberg and Hirschberg , which belong to the county of Arnsberg, and the towns of Belecke and Warstein, which belong to Kurköln .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The ditch marked Hessengraben on the DGK5
- ^ Wilhelm Leise (p. 104) cites: Fr. Hülsenbeck: The area of the Varus battle according to the sources of local research. Paderborn 1878.
- ↑ Topographical Information Management, Cologne District Government, Department GEObasis NRW ( Notes )
- ↑ a b c d Wilhelm Leise: Where Arminius defeated the Romans. Paths on watersheds lead to the site of the Varus Battle. Aschendorff, Münster 1986, ISBN 3-402-05207-5 , pp. 166-169.
- ^ Joseph Bender: History of the city of Warstein. Werl and Arnsberg 1844, p. 125 ( online ).