Humboldthain (Bautzen)
The Humboldthain , in Upper Sorbian Humboldtowy haj , is a wooded and public recreational area with numerous paths on the southwestern outskirts of Bautzen in the Westvorstadt . With an area of around 50 hectares, if you include the areas of the Weite Bleiche and the so-called cattle pastures, the Humboldthain is the largest park in Bautzen.
location
The Humboldthain is located about 1.75 km southwest of the city center, bounded by the Spree in the south and east and by agricultural areas (fields and meadows on the Spree) in the north and west. The premises of Bombardier Transportation , formerly Waggonbau Bautzen, are located east of the Spree. The open-air swimming pool "Spreebad" is to the northwest. The easiest way to get to Humboldthain from the city center is to take the Neusche Promenade, which starts from Bleichenstraße.
history
Early history
Even from the Mesolithic to the presence of people in the premises of the Humboldt Haines (Neusche equipment and Bismarck grove) in various places, especially at the gallows by worked flints proven. The Neolithic Age (around 5000 BC) is documented by urns adorned with string that were found on the former airfield (meadows northwest of the Humboldthain), the older Bronze Age, in turn, by the discovery of two large eyelet neck rings on the eastern slope of the former parade ground. A Bronze Age burial ground near the Old Wall has been leveled.
middle Ages
In the Slavic period, beginning around 500 AD, the area was Ottelwitz or a large homestead of the same name (villa), which is only documented by a document from January 19, 1272, in which the margraves Johann, Otto and Konrad transferred the mark or corridor of the "villa" Ottelwitz to the city of Bautzen as pasture. The old guardianship of Mark Ottelwitz has changed over time into a property right of the city. In the Middle Ages, the citizens were entitled to let the town herdsman drive their cattle through the Hirtengasse and the Shepherd's Gate to pasture.
Old wall
On the steep slope side, a path leads above the cliffs up the Spree valley, which meets a Slavic section wall near the Stiebitz corridor border, which borders a small former castle with the open side to the steep bank of the Spree in the shape of a horseshoe. The largest extension of the wall, with wall heights of around 5 meters, is 50 meters and the populated area of the castle may have been a maximum of 30 to 40 meters wide above the rocky slope of the Spree. Immediately in advance at the foot of the rampart, the characteristics of the former moat are quite clear, despite the constant overburden and forest. The former access to the castle complex seems to have been very close to the steep slope in the east. In addition to grain finds, an excavation from 1905 found a completely preserved dome-like oven with a clay threshing floor and a stove with many ceramic shards and waste. The location of the small castle roughly in the middle between the Doberschau and Bautzen complexes, as a result of the short distance to them, shows that the Slavic settlement area was very much subdivided from ancient times.
Modern times
Clay was found on the eastern slopes of the old cattle pasture, whereupon the city council built a brick barn there around 1700, named Rudolfsche Ziegelscheune after its long-term tenant . In 1879 their buildings were demolished. The old clay pits can still be seen in the area.
In 1895, the city council of Bautzen had 80 oaks planted on the site of the former Rudolfschen brick barn in honor of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck on his 80th birthday and a path to the so-called Bismarckhain with funds from the Neuschen Foundation by Johann Friedrich Neu (1864: 3,600 marks). In 1911 a larger plantation was started to which the name Bismarckhain was transferred. It was not until 1907 that a memorial stone was erected in Bismarckhain, to which the “Association of Honorable Farewell Military” donated 400 marks in 1896, but the lettering is no longer preserved today.
After 1910, the parade ground, which had been on part of the corridor of the Ottelwitz desert since 1767 and was located on the old pasture meadows, was abandoned and briefly used as an airfield. The City Council of Bautzen began to convert part of the site into a forest park for the citizens with funds from the New Foundation. The plan for this facility was designed by the garden architect Großmann from Leipzig. The plan was approved by the authorities on June 4, 1912. In the years of need after the First World War, the further implementation of the Grossmann Plan had to be interrupted, and the city council left the unused land to needy supplicants to grow potatoes and garden vegetables.
The Humboldthain got its current name in 1945 after the former northeastern Bismarckhain and the western Vogelhain were merged. The city council included the existing steep forest and the rocks along the left bank of the Spree as well as the then Bismarckhain above the Weite Bleiche in the park.
Remarkable and worth seeing
Quarry and forest theater
After the First World War, a forest theater was set up in a quarry behind the Weiten Bleiche, which was identified as early as 1831 and was in operation until around 1870. However, this only existed for a few years from 1920. During this time, the Dürerbund performed Hans Sachs games and fairy tales in it. In 1924 the comedy “Im Weisse Rößl” was performed and in the 1920s and 30s there were events organized by socialist youth organizations. In the 1960s, the theater tradition was remembered and thought was given to using the theater again. The 12 × 6 meter stage was still relatively intact. But it stayed that way.
Natural monument
Above the northern edge of the former forest theater stands the oldest winter linden tree in the corridor of the city of Bautzen, an imposing natural monument (resolution: July 5, 1937) with a trunk circumference of around 6.3 meters (measurement from August 29, 2011).
Protected area
The Humboldthain with its older beech and oak forest stands (as valuable FFH habitat types) but also its spruce stands belong to the 82.9 hectare landscape protection area " Spreetal " and also as the northernmost of the six sub-areas (designation "Spreetal southwest Bautzen" with 60.5 hectares ) to the FFH area " Spree area above Bautzen ".
Individual evidence
- ↑ Felix Wilhelm, 1916: A baking oven was found in the ski jump at Weiten Bleiche ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Felix Wilhelm, 1936: Neusche Promenaden ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ To Bautzen and Schirgiswalde (= values of the German homeland . Volume 12). 1st edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1967.
- ↑ Lodní: Two Forgotten Forest Theater. in Bautzen culture show. 8/61. P. 6
- ↑ Unknown: The forgotten forest theater. in Bautzen culture show. 108/61. P. 7
literature
- Around Bautzen and Schirgiswalde (= values of the German homeland . Volume 12). 1st edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1967.
Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 1 ″ N , 14 ° 24 ′ 14 ″ E