Kellerwald

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Kellerwald
Kellerwald with Hohem Lohr (656.7 m, left), Jeust (585 m, middle) and Wüstegarten (675.3 m, right); in front the Gilserberger heights

Kellerwald with Hohem Lohr ( 656.7  m , left), Jeust ( 585  m , middle) and Wüstegarten ( 675.3  m , right); in front the Gilserberger heights

Highest peak Desert garden ( 675.3  m above sea  level )
location Waldeck-Frankenberg district , Schwalm-Eder district ; Hessen ( Germany )
part of Rhenish Slate Mountains
Kellerwald (Hesse)
Kellerwald
Coordinates 51 ° 1 '  N , 9 ° 5'  E Coordinates: 51 ° 1 '  N , 9 ° 5'  E
surface 514.5 km²
p1
p5
Location of the cellar forest
Kellerwald: View from the Ringelsberg (approx.  360  m ) near the village of Asel -Süd over part of the Edersee towards east-southeast to the Dicken Kopf ( 603.7  m )

The Kellerwald is one to 675.3  m above sea level. NHN high and 514.5 km² large low mountain range in Hesse , Germany . It is located in the western center of the West Hessian mountain and depression region at its interface with the foothills of the Rothaar Mountains and is part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains .

The Kellerwald has one of the largest undivided beech forest areas in Germany and, with the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park, contains the only national park in Hesse . The Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park encompasses almost the entire Kellerwald.

geography

location

The Kellerwald extends in northern Hesse in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district and in the Schwalm-Eder district . In the north are the Edersee and Affolderner See , after which the Eder leaves the Kellerwald to the east. South of the Eder exit, the terrain slopes east to the Wildunger Senke and to the southeast to the Schwalm valley . In the south, the Upper Hessian threshold , which leads to the Vogelsberg , connects with the Hemberg ridge . To the south-west, the Kellerwald merges over the Wohra valley into the Burgwald ; in the west, across the Eder, is the Breite Struth .

On the northern edge of the Kellerwald and on the south bank of the Edersee lies the Edersee Wildlife Park with the Greifenwarte Wildpark Edersee and the Kellerwald Information Center Fagutop .

Natural structure

Overview

The Kellerwald is included in the handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany to the West Hessian mountainous region (natural spatial main unit group 34). Regardless of this, the author of the more finely structured follow-up publication Blatt 111 Arolsen , due to its affiliation to the Rhenish Slate Mountains , rather to the Süderbergland (33), continues the numbering of the manual.

It is structured as follows (areas in brackets from the Hessen Environmental Atlas):

With Eder heights , the unit 344.3 and the south of the Edersees preferred part of 344.4 are in rather vague language, referred to the field of National Parks Keller Edersee correspond.

Brief description of the natural areas

The core pieces and heights of the Kellerwald, which are strung together, are the Jeust and Keller in the south, the Mittelkellerwald and the Große Hardt in the north.

The natural area Jeust and Keller , also known as the Hoher Kellerwald, in the south of the Kellerwald , consists of the 585  m high Jeust and the 675.3  m high desert garden ( Keller ), the highest mountain in the Kellerwald, and its subsidiary peaks Hunsrück ( 635.9  m ) and Sauklippe ( 584.4  m ). The Hohe Kellerwald is almost completely forested. As an east-north-eastern spur of the cellar , beyond the Urff valley, the Löwenstein Mountains, which reach an altitude of just 450  m in the south-east, lead over to the Hessenwald neighboring the Kellerwald (see below).

This is followed to the north by the Mittelkellerwald with the Hohen Lohr ( 656.7  m ), the Großer Aschkoppe ( 639.8  m ), the Auenberg ( 610.7  m ). The horse mountain ( 551.3 m ) is an eastern branch  . The Mittelkellerwald is characterized by strong faults and rock layers of different hardness. Here mountain peaks and valleys alternate. In the valleys are the clearing islands of smaller villages.

The Wildunger Bergland forms a trough opening to the east around the Wilde and the Wesebach , which is enclosed to the southwest by the Mittelkellerwald and to the northwest by the Große Hardt. At the interface to both natural areas, a height of 550  m is reached, the most famous and distinctive mountain is the 518.5  m high Homberg near Bad Wildungen in the east.

The Niederkellerwald in the middle and north west forms the western roofing of the Kellerwald. To the north-north-west of the horse mountain, the Frankenauer Flur (up to 505.9  m ) around Frankenau and finally the Lotheimer Täler (altitudes up to just over 400  m ) follow the Lorfe valley up to its confluence with the Eder and just exceed its banks. In the far north-west of the Kellerwald the Höhnscheid natural area joins the 490.1  m high Höhnscheid .

The heavily mountainous, almost completely forested Große Hardt , the area of ​​the Kellerwand-Edersee National Park, is also called Ederberge , Ederhöhen or - in the Middle Ages  - Hochgewilder . It is a heavily cut hilltop gray-necked hull inclined towards the Edersee trough and consists of over 50 individual, more or less large mountains. The valleys are narrow and cut deep into the rock. They are not very suitable for colonization. The Große Hardt is therefore completely uninhabited. In the south of this natural area there is a 550 to 600  m high mountain ridge . It forms the water and climate divide of the northern basement forest. The three highest mountains in the natural area are located here, namely the Traddelkopf at 626.4  m , followed by the Ahornkopf ( 604.1  m ) and the Dicken Kopf ( 603.7  m ). These mountains fall with a steep southern flank up to 300 m deep into the valleys of the Wesebach and the Lorfe , so that in some places the impression arises that one is in the foothills of the Alps. To the southeast the Ederberg slopes steeply into the valley of the Wesebach . In the west, the Lorfetal, which is mainly used for agriculture, separates the Ederberge from the Frankenauer Flur and leads to a large gap in the otherwise largely closed forest landscape. To the north, the back covered - repeatedly abgetreppt - slowly, until he of just 400  m height for Edersee drops, the water surface at water level to 244.97  m is height. The climate becomes noticeably drier and milder. To the east of the Banfebach there was a dense breakdown, which is why the sloping surface breaks up into smaller ridges, humps and spurs. This can be seen particularly clearly in the following mountains in the interior of the Große Hardt: Geismarsberg, Himbeerkopf, Bleiberg, Wolfsberg, Hoher Knopfkopf, Lingenkopf, northern summit of the Locheiche and Ochsenwurzelskopf. To the west of the Banfe, the valleys are sparser. Larger plateaus at a height of 420 to 480  m have been preserved here. These are, for example, on the Arensberg, the Bracht and the Gebrannten.

In the far north of the Kellerwald, the Edersee trough joins the Große Hardt on both sides of the Edersee , whose edge heights hardly exceed 400  m .

Foothills of the cellar forest

The red sandstone ridge of the Hessenwald (the main unit of the Ostwaldecker Randsenken ), into which the Löwenstein mountains merge to the northeast , is not counted as part of the actual Kellerwald .

The Waldstruth , which connects the Niederkellerwald to the west with the Rothaargebirge , is no longer part of the Kellerwald. In the mid-1950s, the Federal Institute for Regional Studies under the direction of Emil Meynen and Josef Schmithüsen saw it as part of the main Kellerwald unit, but the same institute added it to the newly created Ostsauerland Gebirgsrand main unit during restructuring in the following years .

Not naturally part of the Kellerwald, but geologically still part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains and also part of the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park is the small ridge of Hemberg , which connects to Jeust and Keller to the south . Since it drops by an altitude of 200 meters compared to the neighboring desert garden, it was assigned to the Gilserberger Heights (main unit Upper Hessian Threshold ), the northernmost part of which it represents. Geologically, the slate stretches even further south, right up to Gilserberg . In an east-northeast line from Gilserberg to Strang , then north to Jesberg and, after a break, going to Bad Zwesten , they are enclosed by a Zechstein belt.

Mountains and altitude

The lowest point of the Kellerwald is on the edge of the Eder valley on the outskirts of Affoldern, a little below the barrage of the Affolderner See at 194  m above sea level; on the other hand, the highest point is 675.3  m high on the desert garden:

The most famous, but not necessarily the highest mountains in the Kellerwald are (including all "six hundred") - sorted by height in meters above sea level; for these and other mountains of the Kellerwald see list of mountains of the Kellerwald :

Waters

The Eder flows on the north-west and north edge of the Kellerwald and is dammed up to the Edersee - the largest reservoir in Hesse - and a few kilometers further downstream to the Affolderner See . Most of the other rivers and streams in the Kellerwald area belong to the Eder river system and thus to that of the Weser . These include on the western edge of the Lengelbach and Lorfebach mountains , on the northern flank Banfebach and on the eastern flank (from north to south) Wesebach , Wilde , Urff and Gilsa , the latter two flowing waters flowing into the Eder tributary Schwalm , which passes east of the Kellerwald . An exception is the Wohra , which rises in the southwest of the Kellerwald and flows south , which flows into the Lahn tributary Ohm and thus belongs to the river system of the Rhine .

climate

In the Kellerwald there is a slightly subatlantic to slightly subcontinental tinted transitional climate. It lies in the rain shadow of the significantly higher Rothaargebirge to the west . With average rainfall of 600 to 850 mm per year and an annual mean temperature of 6.5 to 8.5 degrees Celsius, the climate is drier and warmer than in the Rothaar Mountains. The Hohe Kellerwald has a somewhat cooler and more humid local climate than the Ederberg Mountains and the Wildung Basin to the north. Warmth-loving dry sessile oak forests are widespread on the northern slopes of the Edersee, which indicates a relatively dry and warm local climate, which is also appreciated by the numerous recreational seekers.

geology

Large structures of the Rhenish Slate Mountains according to Walter 1992

Geologically, the basement forest, which is predominantly made up of paleozoic rocks, is the easternmost branch of the Rhenish Slate Mountains . In terms of landscape, however, it is also counted as a separate unit in the West Hessian mountain and valley region , because the Eder and Itter rivers form a geographical border. Important rock types are the Kellerwald quartzite , silica slate , clay slate , greywacke and diabase . A regional specialty is the dark red Kellerwald agate , an iron pebble .

Flora and fauna

flora

Hainsimsen-Buchenwald near Vöhl- Schmittlotheim

Since the 19th century, the northern part of the Kellerwald, which has been designated as the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park since 2004, has been surrounded by a gate as a hunting ground for the Waldeck princes. Particularly pristine beech forests have been preserved here, but they have also been significantly damaged by high game densities. Over 30 percent of the trees are older than 140 years. The focus was on hunting and not the forestry use of wood. The main tree species is the beech, which occurs here on soil-acidic sites ( slate , greywacke , quartzite ) predominantly in the beech forest . The many special locations on the steep slopes of the Edersee are worth mentioning. Here there are the last remains of the primeval forest and gnarled sessile oak forests with knotty grass lily and the largest Hessian occurrence of the whiteclove .

On the dries of the high elevations arnica and heather carnation grow , in the meadows of the valleys broad-leaved orchid and male orchid . In the vicinity of the "Jägersburg" near Odershausen there are some rare Süntel beeches . The rare, highly poisonous blue monkshood grows in cool, damp stream valleys . The Turkish lily occurs in light oak and beech forests on calcareous subsoil . In some places there are large stocks of the rare Märzenbeche .

fauna

Fire salamander Kellerwald

Black stork , common raven , six species of woodpecker (including the middle woodpecker and gray woodpecker ), black kite and red kite (which has its highest population density in Hesse), peregrine falcon , great owl , wasp buzzard , eagle owl and great gray shrike breed in the Kellerwald .

The red deer is a characteristic species of the cellar forest . Fallow deer and mouflon are still found in the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park . Roe deer and wild boar are also common. The European wildcat is rare. The first raccoons , originally from North America, were released on the Edersee in 1934 . Fox , badger , tree and stone marten as well as polecat and ermine occur. Of the 19 bat species living in Hesse, 15 have so far been identified. Another character animal of the basement forest is the fire salamander , which is strongly tied to deciduous forests in Central Europe. Other typical amphibian species are palmate newt and midwife toad . Almost 1000 species of beetle from over 80 families have been detected in the national park so far .

Conservation status

Almost the entire natural area of ​​the Kellerwald belongs to the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park , which also includes the Hemberg in the south . The northern part with an area of ​​5,738 hectares has been designated as the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park since January 1, 2004.

In addition, a large area is part of the European Natura 2000 network ( FFH area and European bird sanctuary ) and parts of the protected forest . Other FFH areas include the dry oak forests on the northern slopes of the Edersee and the above-mentioned basement in the southern part of the nature park, as well as the Urff as a linear FFH area from the source to the confluence with the Schwalm. There are also several nature and landscape protection areas on a small scale . Primarily, nature conservation concerns the basement forest as one of the last uncut Central European deciduous forests of international standing. The predominant forest type is called the acidic grove beech forest (red beech forest).

In 2005, the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park was included in the “Large-scale nature conservation project of nationwide representative importance” by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Since June 25, 2011, parts of the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park have been part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage of primeval beech forests and ancient beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe .

Settlement history

Until the beginning of the Middle Ages , the Kellerwald was largely deserted forest wilderness . People only lived on its fringes. In particular, the very fertile Fritzlarer Börde on the lower reaches of the Eder has been continuously settled since the Neolithic . In the Große Hardt there is a burial mound from the Bronze Age to the southeast of the Hardt mountain ( 394  m ) and northeast of its south-southwest neighbor Bettelkopf (approx.  435  m ) . They are attributed to the culture of the battle ax people. This could indicate that at this time the Edertal at the level of today's Edersee was at least periodically settled. At the top of the desert garden there is a ring wall , the age of which is unknown. According to one theory it dates from the 9th century of our era (u. Z.). A text plaque on the desert garden, on the other hand, dates its age to the Iron Age, i.e. to the 1st millennium BC. Z. It is said to have served as a fortified place of defense and cult site. Remains of a Celtic refugee castle called Hünselburg from the Latène period lie on the Lindenberg near Basdorf north of today's Edersee. It can point to a Celtic settlement of the eastern Eder and Itt valleys as well as the plateaus adjoining to the north during this period.

The first localities in the Kellerwald emerged in the early Middle Ages , when the Germanic tribes slowly settled down. Places with the endings -a (= water), -mar (= swamp), -tar (= tree), -loh (= forest) are to be assigned to this first wave of settlements. Examples are Buchmar , Orke , Itter , Vöhl and Asel . These places are mainly on the edge of the basement forest. In the second major wave of settlements from 800 onwards, most of today's localities emerged. It is also known as the Frankish settlement wave. Place names with the endings -heim, -hausen, -berg, -au, -dorf, -bach are typical. Examples are the city of Frankenau and the villages of Frebershausen , Löhlbach and Altenlotheim . Between the Vöhler districts of Kirchlotheim in the north and Schmittlotheim in the south, to the east above the Eder and a little south of the local Hagenstein ( Loreley of the Edertal ; 373.5  m ) are the remains of a castle from the 8th century, which is referred to as Burg am Ofen . It was created in connection with the Saxon Wars (772–804) of Charlemagne and was probably abandoned before completion, as it was no longer needed when Charles won the war against the Saxons. Today only the double moat can be seen. The Quernstkirche on the Talgang mountain near Frankenau probably also dates from this time . Villages and cities of the second settlement period are mainly located in the more accessible central basement forest, especially in the valleys of the Lorfe, the Wesebach and in the Wildunger Bergland. The city of Frankenau is probably a little older than most of the villages of the Frankish conquest and originally served as a fortress against the Saxons.

The third major wave of settlements occurs in the High Middle Ages . In 1140, Count Poppo I. von Reichenbach founded the Cistercian monastery Haina , which developed an intensive settlement activity. From the middle of the 13th century, on the initiative of the Haina monastery, farmers penetrated the previously uninhabited Hohe Hardt in the north of the Kellerwald. The villages Eselsbach, Eschenbruch, Wellenhausen, Denninghausen, Gossiershausen, Anmeshausen and Alendorp were created here. However, these could not hold due to the poor soil and fell desolate until the end of the 14th century. Numerous castles were also built in the High Middle Ages. These include the Hessenstein Castle , the Castle Waldeck and the ruins Keseburg , Schönstein , Densberg and Lowenstein .

Settlement structure and land use

The Kellerwald Nature Park is around 40,000 hectares in size. There are ten municipalities in its catchment area. In the north of the Edersee these are Vöhl , Waldeck and Edertal . Bad Wildungen , Frankenau and Haina are located in its central part . Gemünden (Wohra) , Gilserberg , Jesberg and Bad Zwesten are located on the southern edge . Around 70,000 people live in these communities. The population density is 77 inhabitants per square kilometer, making it one of the lowest in Germany. More than half of the people live in villages with fewer than 500 inhabitants.

Almost two thirds of the basement forest (62%) is forested and only a third is used for agriculture. About 70% of the farms cultivate a third of the agricultural area as a sideline. Their farm size is an average of 10 ha.

Of the forest area, about 70% are deciduous forests ( beech , oak ) and only 26% are conifer monocultures of spruce , Douglas fir and larch . The latter were only planted in the Kellerwald since 1800 and are not native here.

Name origin

The name of the natural area is derived from the aforementioned Keller mountain ridge in the southern part of the Kellerwald . The origin of this name is interpreted in two different ways: From around 1600 the forest was used intensively by charcoal burning to obtain charcoal, which the numerous iron and copper works needed as fuel for their smelting furnaces. This is how the name Köhlerwald or dialect Köllerwald came about . Another interpretation relates to the heavily thinned forest due to intensive use: bare forest . The name Kellerwald is said to have originated from Köllerwald or Kahler Wald by shifting sounds .

hike

Numerous hiking trails lead through the Kellerwald, including the Kellerwaldsteig , an approximately 156 km long circular hiking trail that connects the mountains and places of the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park and the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park. In addition, the Edersee Urwaldsteig has existed since 2005 , which runs around 68 km around the Edersee, running through the dry oak forests on the northern bank and through the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park to the south of the reservoir.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  2. ↑ Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany, published on behalf of the Federal Institute for Regional Studies and the Central Committee for German Regional Studies by E. Meynen and J. Schmithüsen, Remagen 1953, Verlag der Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, main units 34–35: Hessisches Bergland, p. 536.
  3. ↑ Martin Bürgener: Geographical Land Survey: The natural spatial units on sheet 111 Arolsen. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1963. →  Online map (PDF; 4.5 MB)
  4. ↑ a b Map and legend of the natural areas of Hesse (online copy of Die Naturraum Hessens , Otto Klausing 1988) in the Hessen Environmental Atlas of the Hessian State Office for Environment and Geology
  5. ↑ Martin Bürgener: Natural Spatial Structure of Germany - sheet 111: Arolsen, Bad Godesberg 1963, p. 11
  6. ^ Emil Meynen , Josef Schmithüsen : Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany. 4th / 5th Delivery - Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Remagen 1957; Main Units Map, 1: 1,000,000, 1954 (preliminary) and 1960 (final)
  7. ↑ a b Geological map of Hesse (GÜK 300) , Hessian State Office for Environment and Geology (PDF; 28 MB)
  8. ^ Norbert Panek: Kellerwald & Edersee, pp. 11-12
  9. ↑ Geopark Region Natur- und National Park Kellerwald
  10. Jump up ↑ Walter Zarges: Das Hochgewilder am Edersee, pp. 8–13.
  11. ↑ Norbert Panek: Kellerwald & Edersee, p. 25

literature

  • Norbert Panek: Kellerwald & Edersee. Nature and culture guide. Cogito, Nidenstein 2006, ISBN 978-3-932583-21-6 .
  • Walter Zarges: The high forest on the Edersee. Frankberger Hefte 7, Frankenberg 1999, ISBN 3-922225-46-2 .

Web links

Commons : Kellerwald  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Kellerwald  - travel guide