Noise fire

This article covers early communications fires; For early warning lights see chalk fire . For the mountain of the same name see Lärmfeuer (Odenwald) .

In earlier centuries, signal points for simple message transmission were named with noise fires . The term is made up of the words noise , early New High German alarm [a] and fire , Middle High German viur . Noise in this case means sounding the alarm .

Noise fires consisted of meter-high piles of wood that were piled up on mountain peaks. When lit, the fire or smoke could be seen from the nearest mountain top. On top of this there was another pile of wood, which was also lit when a fire was detected. A message chain was set up to warn of a possible danger - mostly enemy attacks. For example, in the Thirty Years' War , noise fires formed a ring around the entire Odenwald and large parts of the Hessian Ried . It is historically unclear whether this form of communication was already used by the Romans and whether the Odenwald signal line formed part of a large communication network that connected the Rhine area with the interior of Germany.

The alarm line in southern Hesse began at two points on the Rhine . One near Gernsheim and the second on the Rheinschanze across from Worms . It went on over the south dune near Lorsch to Starkenburg ( Heppenheim ). After that, the line split into a northern and a southern branch. The northern line led over the Hohenstein , the Neunkircher Höhe to the Otzberg , to Breuberg and then into the Main Plain . The southern line led over the Spessartskopf , Sensbacher Höhe , Krähberg to the ridge line of the eastern Odenwald between Eulbach and Würzberg . Smaller noise fire stations were located between these lines. For example on the Schöllenberg near Erbach , the Zellerkopf near Michelstadt and on the Reichenberg.

On the Wegscheidekamm , the 502-meter-high Lärmfeuer elevation in the Ober-Mossau district is still reminiscent of a former signal station.

In the alarm stations, the guards were housed in small open wooden huts. Integrated into the signal network were alarm and assembly points for the armed troops of the individual Centers.

The noise fires were supposedly last used around 1800. The noise fires were manned by order of the Kurmainzer Chancellor Freiherr von Albini.

Outside the Odenwald area there was a noise fire on the Rudolfstein in the Fichtel Mountains .

See also

• smoke sign

Web links

• Historical signal chain from the Rhine to the heart of the Odenwald. Noise fire on a total of 5000 km² Odenwald ( Memento from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Duden, Volume 7, Dictionary of Origin, Mannheim, 1963.
2. ↑ Noise fire and fire in the Odenwald .
3. ↑ felsenmeer.org, Lärmfeuer and fire customs , accessed 26 November 2007 .
4. ↑ Information from the restaurant Zum Lärmfeuer in Rohrbach.