Hotzenwald

Geographical location

Country:	Baden-Württemberg
Counties:	Waldshut , Loerrach
Region:	Hotzenwald

Topographic map of the Hotzenwald

The Hotzenwald is a landscape and region in the southern Black Forest in the district of Waldshut . The landscape largely corresponded to the Habsburg administrative area of the so-called Grafschaft Hauenstein with its seat in the Waldvogteiamt .

Geographical location and topography

Hotzenwald landscape near Ibach

The area of the Hotzenwald is not precisely defined in documents. In a narrower sense, the Hotzenwald is the southernmost area of the southern Black Forest, which runs to the west roughly through the Wehra , in the north roughly through the upper reaches of the Alb near St. Blasien , in the east through the ridge between Alb and Schlücht and in the south through the Upper Rhine and Klettgau is limited. This delimitation of the Hotzenwald roughly coincides with the area of the former county of Hauenstein .

In a broader sense, areas are assigned to the Hotzenwald that were connected to the monastery of St. Blasien , which was historically important in the southern Black Forest, or the county of Hauenstein. This includes, for example, the district of Gersbach (Schopfheim) , which was first mentioned in writing in 1166 when a church was donated to the St. Blasien monastery and is located directly northwest of the Wehra. In the north-west these are the areas up to the middle and upper reaches of the meadow and in the east up to the ridge between Schlücht and Steina .

According to both definitions, the region extends mainly over middle and high areas of the southern Black Forest. It rises rapidly from the level of the High Rhine (about 300 m above sea level ) and reaches a height of 500 to over 1000 m above sea level over most of the area . NN . The region falls from the elevations of the southern Black Forest in the north to the Upper Rhine in the south and is characterized by sunny plateaus and high valleys .

The rivers in the Hotzenwald usually form a high valley in the upper reaches and cut deep into the basement of the Black Forest in their further course. They follow the slope of the southern Black Forest in a north-south direction and finally flow into the Rhine as right tributaries. Rivers in the Hotzenwald region are Wiese, Wehra, Murg , Alb and Schlücht from west to east .

The communities in the core of the region are Rickenbach , Herrischried , Dachsberg and Görwihl .

geology

Basement

The oldest stones in the Hotzenwald are gneisses and migmatites , which were formed in the Paleozoic . The largest part of the Hotzenwald is the granite land between Bernau and Bad Säckingen . According to studies, the granite rocks found here are 325 to 335 million years old. Other soil components are granite porphyry and lamprophyre . At Laufenburg, the little Laufen once cut through the basement, today it is overflowed.

Overburden

Vertebrae of an ichthyosaur , place of discovery: Oberalpfen, Hotzenwald, Lower Muschelkalk

In the eastern and south-eastern Hotzenwald, the overburden overlays the basement. According to investigations in the Waldshut / Dogern area , the 15-meter-thick layer of red sandstone lying directly on the basement is divided into three parts: at the top there are 8 meters of reddish stone , including around 5 meters of sandstone mixed with carnelian (carnelian horizon) and at the very bottom above the basement a roughly 2.5 meter thick layer of coarse mill sandstone . At Oberalpfen and Unteralpfen, the limestone is weathered. Numerous fossils can be found in reading stones.

glacier

During the Würm glacial period , the Albtal glacier covered the Hotzenwald from the north until shortly before Görwihl. The expansion limits of the Black Forest Glacier of the Riss Glaciation are no longer known today, but it can be assumed that it also reached from the north to Hottingen . The findings of alpine gravel from the Riss glaciation suggest that the glaciers coming from the Alps reached to the north of Waldshut-Tiengen. A collision of the Black Forest glacier and the alpine glaciers most likely did not take place.

vegetation

Flowerbush ( Scheuchzeria palustris )

After the Ice Age, the Hotzenwald region had a tundra climate . Beeches as the predominant plant species can be used for up to 600 BC. Be proven. Furthermore, grain pollen, which can also be assigned to this period, serves as evidence of an initial settlement in the Hotzenwald. Around 1000 AD, the spruce replaced the beech in its predominant role.

Bell heather ( Erica tetralix )

The acceleration and transition moore especially in Ibach / Dachsberger area have as a remnant of the Ice Age with large stocks otherwise in the Black Forest limited occurring plants such as rosemary , mud and Wenigblütige sedge , flowers rushes , Alpine deergrass , White beak-sedge or Alpenlattich . The European seven-star has an increased occurrence in the Hotzenwald, the bell heather its only natural occurrence in the whole of southern Germany. Especially in the first half of the 20th century, the number of bogs was drastically reduced through forestry attempts at drainage. Therefore, some moors in the Hotzenwald were declared nature reserves ; in 1998 there were ten of them. In addition, attempts are being made to regenerate former moors.

The forests in the Ibach / Dachsberger area and the upper forest consist mainly of firs , beeches and spruces. In the tubs with little drainage, these are interrupted by moors or spruce forests. In the second half of the 20th century, some high pastures were transformed into spruce forests. During this time, the reforestation of the steep valley ends, slopes and unused valley meadows began. In contrast, the pre-forest terrace slope was mostly cleared.

The winged gorse plays a predominant role on the high pastures .

climate

The Hotzenwald is one of the areas with the highest rainfall in the Black Forest. North of the Todtmoos area, it precipitated an average of around 2000 mm annually from 1891 to 1930, and 1800 mm at the heights of the Herrischrieder area. In the Rickenbach region, it fell on average only 1300 mm. In St. Blasien, located below the Hotzenwald, it rained about 1400 mm per year. The Ibach area also ranks top in terms of the number of days with more than 10 mm of precipitation, an average of 70 days a year.

The air temperature of the areas at 1000–1100 m. ü. NN is an annual average of 5–5.5 ° C. Also in the valley basins in about 700 m. ü. The annual average temperature is only around 6.0 ° C. Only the pre-forest terrace slopes at around 500 m above sea level reach 8.0 ° C on an annual basis, and those at 350 m even reach 8.9 ° C.

The average number of days with snow cover in the Ibach / Dachsberger area is between 120 and 140, in the Hohen Hotzenwald it is still 100 days. The greatest snow depths vary between 80 and 100 centimeters.

The frequent mists in the High Rhine Valley (40 to 95 days a year) rarely rise above 700 m. Only above 1000 m do the foggy days rise again sharply to 90 to 160 annually.

history

Cathedral and former monastery church in St. Blasien

Today's Hotzenwald, as the county of Hauenstein , was part of Upper Austria before 1806 and was therefore the sovereign territory of the House of Habsburg , as were the four forest towns on the Upper Rhine - Rheinfelden, Säckingen, Laufenburg, Waldshut - and the St. Blasien monastery . The city of Waldshut was the administrative center, where the forest bailiff sat in the forest bailiff's office . Merk writes the following in his treatise on the early history of the Hotzenwald: “The land where this unification existed is the southeastern part of the Black Forest, and in the earliest times belonged to the Marcian forest, which probably got its name from Mars, as some assume, but of the Marcomanni received, which in this area as neighbors of Rauracher , Tulingi and Latobringer lived and Maroboduus , after a few threatening movements against Gaul suddenly from, Rheine away turning into the land of the Boii emigrated. "

In particular, the extensive, early and democratic self-government of the County of Hauenstein as well as the saltpetre riots or wars are associated with the Hotzenwald today. Scheffel once described these events as "the peasant war that has become fossilized ".

A typical form of the farmhouse for the region was the Hotzenhaus .

economy

The Hornberg basin

At the time when the name Hotzenwald became established in parlance, the region lost its connection to economic development, mainly due to the construction of the Rhine Valley railway line . The mines in the Hotzenwald and the ironworks and smithies on the Upper Rhine became unprofitable. The timber industry and charcoal burning in the Hotzenwald (but also elsewhere) lost its sales market.

On May 10, 1903, the electricity sales cooperative Waldelektra was founded to drive machines, especially looms, of the Hotzenwald house industry . The electricity was supplied by the Rheinfelden power station . The implementation of the pipeline network was entrusted to AEG . A supply contract for three-phase current with 6000 volts linked voltage was concluded with the power plant for 10 years.

The region developed into a poor house in southern Germany , partly because of the real division that prevails here . After the Second World War, the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg launched a Hotzenwald program that promoted the settlement of businesses and the development of tourism.

The Hornbergbecken enabled by the topographical conditions an average head of water of 625 m to generate electricity before it in the Wehratalsperre flows.

origin of the name

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

The terms Hotzenwald and Hotz are probably based on the hotzen harem pants of the Hauenstein folk costume. A concentrated discussion of the various suggested interpretations can be found in the Baden dictionary .

The name Hotzenwald is first attested in 1848, when the anonymous scribe "Hans Guckinofe am Cholweg" mentioned the "Hotzawald" in his revolutionary pamphlet Na Büachli for d'Hauesteiner , written in Hotzenwald dialect on the occasion of the Baden Revolution . Another early mention as "Hozzenwald" occurs in 1864 in the 4th edition of Joseph Victor von Scheffel's novel The Trumpeter von Säckingen . In 1887, the Heidelberg economic historian Eberhard Gothein spoke of the “Hotzenwald” in a lecture in 1887, with which the term was also taken up by science. In Andree's Handatlas 1881, however, the region is referred to as “Hotzenland” .

The name Hotzen for the inhabitants of this mountain landscape first becomes tangible in 1833, when Joseph Merk wrote of the Hotzen in an essay on the history of the Hauenstein unification in the Middle Ages : "This is what the forest people were called mockingly because of their harem pants ." Already in the first Work about the saltpeter riots, which Pastor Joseph Lukas Meyer from Gurtweil had written around 1810 and which was only published in print form after his death in 1821 in 1834, is called the "Hotzen vom Schwarzwalde". The term Hotzen is also used in the above-mentioned work by Joseph Victor von Scheffel in 1853.

Culture and traditions

Johann Baptist Kirner : Award ceremony in a Hotzenwald farmhouse parlor, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

The traditional costume is part of the tradition of the Hotzenwald . Today this tradition is still cultivated in traditional costume associations and bands.

literature

Karl Beck: The Chronicle of the Höchenschwander mountain. 2nd Edition. Edition Isele, Eggingen 1990, p. 105 ff.
Cornelia Bischoff; State Institute for Environmental Protection Baden-Württemberg (ed.): Forests, pastures, moors. Nature conservation and land use in the Upper Hotzenwald. Regional culture publishing house, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 978-3-89735-268-1 .
Otto Gruber : German farm and arable bourgeois houses. A structural research on the history of the German house. Braun, Karlsruhe 1926.
Heinrich Hansjakob : The Saltpeterer, a political-religious sect in the south-eastern Black Forest. Zimmermann, Waldshut 1867.
Günther Haselier: History of the Hotzenwald. Schauenburg, Lahr 1973.
Wolfgang Hug: In the Hotzenwald - culture and nature guide. Schillinger, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 978-3-89155-266-7 .
Helge Körner (Ed.): The Hotzenwald. Contributions to the nature and culture of a landscape in the southern Black Forest. Lavori, Freiburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-935737-44-9 .
Thomas Lehner (Ed.): The Saltpeterer. "Free people, not subject to any authority, on the Hotzenwald". Wagenbach , Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-8031-2036-5 .
Emil Müller-Ettikon: The saltpeter. History of a struggle for freedom in the southern Black Forest. Schillinger, Freiburg 1979, ISBN 3-921340-42-X .
Rudolf Metz : Geological regional studies of the Hotzenwald. With excursions, especially in its old mining areas. Schauenburg, Lahr 1980, ISBN 3-7946-0174-2 .
Günther Reichelt : Quaternary phenomena in the Hotzenwald between Wehra and Alb . Reports of the Natural Research Society Freiburg . (Dissertation), 1960
Sandhya Hasswani: Fabulous Hotzenwald. Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel 2020, ISBN 978-3-7245-2419-9 .

Movie

The enigmatic Hotzenwald. Travel broadcast, Germany, 2009, 28 min., Production: SWR , series: Fahr mal hin , first broadcast: October 6, 2009, summary from SWR

Web links

Commons : Hotzenwald - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Helge Körner (Ed.): The Hotzenwald. Contributions to the nature and culture of a landscape in the southern Black Forest. Lavori, Freiburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-935737-44-9 , p. 29 ff.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Helge Körner (Ed.): The Hotzenwald. Contributions to the nature and culture of a landscape in the southern Black Forest. Lavori, Freiburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-935737-44-9 , p. 1 ff.
↑ Joseph Merk: History of the origin, the development and establishment of the Hauenstein unification in the Middle Ages, in: Karl Heinrich Ludwig Poelitz: Year books of history and statecraft, Volume 2, Leipzig 1833.
↑ Scheffels Werke, Vol. 4, Leipzig 1917, p. 261.
↑ Leopold Döbele, Die Hausindustrie des Hotzenwaldes , 1929, p. 50
↑ Badisches Dictionary, Volume II, page 779, under Hotz I .
↑ First mentioned in 1848. The term Hotzenwald first appeared in a book by a Hauenstein revolutionary. In: Badische Zeitung , May 9, 2016.
↑ Joseph Merk: History of the origin, the development and establishment of the Hauenstein unification in the Middle Ages, in: Year books of history and statecraft, Vol. 2, ed. v. Karl Heinrich Ludwig Pölitz, Leipzig 1833, p. 154
^ Joseph Lukas Meyer: History of the Saltpetrers on the south-eastern Black Forest, ed. and with a biography of the author, as well as with an addendum to the history of the Salpetrer v. Heinrich Schreiber, Freiburg / Brsg 1837, p. 29
↑ Scheffels Werke, Vol. 4 Leipzig 1917, p. 52
↑ Joseph Bader : Badische Volkssitten und Trachten , Karlsruhe 1843, pp. 8-13 online at the Badische Landesbibliothek

[Körner_Geologie-1] Helge Körner (Ed.): The Hotzenwald. Contributions to the nature and culture of a landscape in the southern Black Forest. Lavori, Freiburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-935737-44-9 , p. 29 ff.

[Körner_Landschaftskunde-2] Helge Körner (Ed.): The Hotzenwald. Contributions to the nature and culture of a landscape in the southern Black Forest. Lavori, Freiburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-935737-44-9 , p. 1 ff.

[3] Joseph Merk: History of the origin, the development and establishment of the Hauenstein unification in the Middle Ages, in: Karl Heinrich Ludwig Poelitz: Year books of history and statecraft, Volume 2, Leipzig 1833.

[4] Scheffels Werke, Vol. 4, Leipzig 1917, p. 261.

[5] Leopold Döbele, Die Hausindustrie des Hotzenwaldes , 1929, p. 50

[6] Badisches Dictionary, Volume II, page 779, under Hotz I .

[7] First mentioned in 1848. The term Hotzenwald first appeared in a book by a Hauenstein revolutionary. In: Badische Zeitung , May 9, 2016.

[8] Joseph Merk: History of the origin, the development and establishment of the Hauenstein unification in the Middle Ages, in: Year books of history and statecraft, Vol. 2, ed. v. Karl Heinrich Ludwig Pölitz, Leipzig 1833, p. 154

[9] Joseph Lukas Meyer: History of the Saltpetrers on the south-eastern Black Forest, ed. and with a biography of the author, as well as with an addendum to the history of the Salpetrer v. Heinrich Schreiber, Freiburg / Brsg 1837, p. 29

[10] Scheffels Werke, Vol. 4 Leipzig 1917, p. 52

[11] Joseph Bader : Badische Volkssitten und Trachten , Karlsruhe 1843, pp. 8-13 online at the Badische Landesbibliothek