Kobelwald (landscape protection area)
The Kobelwald , also known as Kobelholz , is a forest and landscape protection area in Westheim (Neusäß) on the Kobelberg in the Augsburg district .
The forest was reduced in size by clearing and building between around 1850 and 1950. Through citizen activities, however, it was largely protected from further development and secured in the long term as an inner- local recreational area of Westheim. It has repeatedly suffered severe damage from wind breaks , most recently and most severely in 2013.
location
The Kobelberg rises in the west of Augsburg as the northern end of a forested chain of hills, which, coming from the south-southwest, lies between the valleys of the Schmutter and the Wertach valley . North of the Kobel, the two valleys unite to form a broad plain.
On the top of the Kobel there has been a Loreto chapel since 1602 , which was expanded into the pilgrimage church of St. Maria of Loreto in the 17th century . Today the Kobelwald surrounds the Kobelkirche and stretches along the mountainside mainly in the southwest of the church down to the Schmuttertal , but also a short distance following the slope to the north and northeast. The slope of the Kobel is flatter towards the south-east of the church. There used to be fields here, today a terraced sports field and residential buildings.
The Kobelwald connects the communities (today districts) Westheim and Steppach .
Bounded in the south by the “Am Kobelgraben” road, the Augsburg - Western Forests nature park joins the Kobelwald .
history
Construction of the Kobel Church
The owners of the wooded Kobelberg were formerly the Augsburg patrician families Langenmantel , later Rehlinger .
In 1602, the local lord of Westheim, Karl von Langenmantel , cleared a piece of land on the Kobelberg for the construction of the Loreto chapel. The chapel with a replica of the figure of Our Lady of Loreto attracted large numbers of pilgrims, so that the chapel was soon enlarged into a pilgrimage church. In addition, a restaurant was set up on the Kobel to supply the pilgrims.
Protection of the forest from building
After Westheim was connected to Augsburg by a train station in the middle of the 19th century, its development grew steadily. Baron Friedrich von Rehlingen sold building plots on the slope of the Kobel, on which wealthy Augsburg families in particular built villas . A colony of villas was built on the Kobelhang in Westheim around 1900 in a first building boom.
To preserve the forest edge to the Kobel church and to protect the Kobelwald from the threat of deforestation, which was founded in 1907, club Kobel Churches systems eV , the current Kobel Protection Association eV co-founder of the association was the then pilgrimage priest on the Kobel, Father Stephen Green, together with citizens of Westheim and Augsburg. The association gradually acquired parts of the forest around the church.
In a second wave of construction in the late 1920s and 1930s, houses were built right up to the edge of the Kobelwald, but the forest itself was not used.
Construction work in the Kobelwald
In the following decades, the Kobelwald was shaped by nature conservation, but also by the Christian-Catholic orientation of the association protecting it.
In the founding year 1907, the path from the train station through the forest to the church was opened up. In 1931 the association erected the “Kobel Cross” on the edge of the Kobelwald, an 18-meter metal cross with the intended “long-distance effect” on Augsburg. At that time it was the highest cross in Bavaria outside the mountains.
In the Third Reich , in the years 1936–37, a Way of the Cross was added that runs through the Kobelwald. The four Kreuzweg chapels designed by the architect Anton Kinseher were built as a job creation measure . The costs for the Way of the Cross were covered by donations from private individuals and the Kobel Protection Association provided the reason for this. The Stations of the Cross chapels contain the carved wood works by the sculptor Josef Beyrer . Today, like the Kobel Church and the former benefit house, they are under monument protection .
Landscape protection area
In December 1952 the city of Augsburg was able to acquire the grounds of the Kobelwald southwest of the Kobelkirche from the von Rehling heirs. On January 21, 1954, the entire Kobel Forest (including its areas that do not belong to the association) was declared a landscape protection area. This prevented the forest from being built on from its edges.
However, the 1954 ordinance was not legally stable. It was therefore revised in 1977 by the then chairman of the Kobel Protection Association and put into effect as a statute on November 14, 1977. The area protected as a landscape protection area is approximately 20.9 hectares.
The Kobelschutzverein acquired additional properties on the Kobelhang and laid out a walking path through the Kobelwald in the 1970s. During the expansion of today's Kobelstrasse, a space was swapped with the association. Today (as of 2015) the Kobel Protection Association has an area of 3.22 hectares. The Kobel Protection Association is responsible for maintaining the Kobel Forest, the Way of the Cross and the Kobel Cross. The businessman Hans Sailer acquired the south-western forest area from the city of Augsburg after 2000 and after his death transferred it to the "Hans and Hermine Sailer Foundation Kobelwald", which ensures the preservation of the forest.
Windbreak and other damage
Due to the exposed location on the Kobelberg, the Kobelwald is regularly exposed to severe storm damage.
Severe wind break damage has been handed down from the spring of 1934 .
In September 1946, the conifers of the Kobel Forest were felled because of bark beetle infestation . In the summer of 1947 the forest was reforested.
The hurricanes Wiebke (1990) and Lothar (1999) caused major windbreak damage in the Kobelwald. On June 20, 2013, a mini tornado devastated the Kobel Forest and destroyed around 80% of its tree population. Since then, the Kobelwald has been heavily thinned and shaped by the sloping stumps of the trees that were overturned. Reforestation began in 2014.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heimatstimme, official and newsletter of the city of Neusäß , 52nd year, June 6, 2007, number 6
- ↑ kobelschutzverein.de
- ↑ kobelschutzverein.de
- ↑ kobelschutzverein.de
- ↑ Ordinance of the Augsburg district on the "Kobelwald" landscape protection area ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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. dated November 14, 1977
- ↑ kobelschutzverein.de
- ↑ Mini-tornado hits weather experts , Augsburger Allgemeine from June 22, 2013
- ↑ The old Kobelwald ends in fire , Augsburger Allgemeine from December 3, 2013
- ↑ New forest for Neusäß ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , City newspaper from June 19, 2014
Coordinates: 48 ° 22 ′ 55 ″ N , 10 ° 49 ′ 6 ″ E