Upstalsboom landscape protection area and the surrounding area

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The monument on the hill.

The landscape protection area Upstalsboom and the surrounding area is a landscape protection area in the district of Aurich in the state of Lower Saxony . The entire area is located in the Rahe district of the city of Aurich in East Frisia . In total, it is 0.06 square kilometers. The area was designated as a landscape protection area (LSG) in 1965.

History of the site

Stylized Frisian warrior on the grounds of the Upstalsboom.

Archaeological research suggests that the site has been used since the 8th century. It was probably residents of one or more of the surrounding courtyards who buried their dead on the site. There is evidence of three important early medieval graves from the Carolingian era.

During the time of the Frisian Freedom , the Upstalsboom ( Dutch Opstalboom , Old Frisian Opstallisbaem ) in the 13th and 14th centuries was the meeting place for the delegates of the Frisian state communities, the Seven Seas . There they regulated coexistence within the regional communities and represented the federal government externally.

Why the Frisians chose the hill as their meeting place is unclear. Its central location within the Frisian settlement area was possibly decisive. In addition, the place was easily accessible both by land and by water. The overland route led over an unpaved, narrow ridge south from west to east over today's Aurich. The waterway led across the Ehe river. In 1453 the Upstalsboom was mentioned in writing for the last time as a meeting place.

After that, the site was forgotten again and again. Local farmers used it as community pasture. Little by little they illegally appropriated more and more areas around the Upstalsboom, which in this way was only about 33 meters long and 15 meters wide. From 1832 the East Frisian landscape began to buy up the lands around the hill. She later also received the hill, although it is still unclear when she bought it from the state or received it as a gift.

The East Frisian landscape had a surrounding ditch dug around the site and a stone pyramid was built in 1833 to commemorate the gatherings of the Middle Ages. According to an initiative by Conrad Bernhard Meyers , it commemorates the East Frisian soldiers who fell in the Wars of Liberation. Some of the field stones used for its construction come from the foundation of the Lambertikirche in Aurich , which was demolished at that time due to its dilapidation.

A gardener planted the area around the pyramid mainly with oaks over the next two years. After 1879, the East Frisian landscape enlarged the park by purchasing more land up to today's country road. An avenue of beech trees was created on this property, which leads to the pyramid. In 1894, the landscape finally had a granite tablet attached to the pyramid. It bears the inscription: At the meeting place of your ancestors, the Upstalsboom, erected by the East Frisian estates in 1833 . After that, the appearance of the site did not change until the National Socialist era . In the time of National Socialism, the area was to be redesigned into a thing place . However, these plans were no longer implemented. Only the cast-iron entrance gate was completed in 1937, so the appearance of the site has largely remained unchanged since 1879. In 2019, the city of Aurich and the East Frisian landscape had the site modernized as a visitor site and provided with information boards.

Description of the area

The surrounding wall hedge landscape. On the right the wooded area of ​​the Upstalsboom.
Alley in the center of the Upstalsboom nature reserve and the surrounding area.

The earliest known description of the area is from Ubbo Emmius. He wrote in 1598: “There rise three huge oaks, one of which, almost dead, has survived to our time, with branches almost touching one another on open ground. Except for two or three stadiums there is no house. "

The area of ​​the Upstalsboom lies on the edge of a rather large pingo ruin , which is still clearly visible in the landscape south of it. There, during the Vistula Ice Age, a large ice lens had formed in the ground, which lifted the layers of sand above it until it finally slipped sideways. After the cold period, the ice began to thaw. What remained was a six-meter-deep, round, drainless hollow, which was surrounded by a flat edge wall. A lake formed in this hollow, which gradually silted up and remained dry for more than two and a half thousand years. Another rise in the sea level created another lake, the Doove Sea. This silted up again towards the end of the Middle Ages. Today there is a bog again. The highest point of the rim wall is in the northeast. It is 6.80 meters high and was in the center of an almost treeless and relatively flat landscape until well into the 19th century. It consisted of extensive moors on the geest side and open land on the marshland side. Today the Upstalsboom is a park-like facility with an old beech avenue and monument in a small-parceled wall hedge landscape , which has the highest density of historical wall hedges in Germany.

Flora and fauna

The forest-like Lanschafstpark consists mainly of oak and beech forests. The area of ​​the Upstalsboom was never used for forestry. Thus, the area is rich in ancient and rich cave trees that bats like Big Noctule , Daubenton's bat , long-eared , Serotine , Pipistrelle , Common Pipistrelle and Natterer's bat has good conditions. The tawny owl , which is represented by two breeding pairs in the nature reserve , lives in the high tree hollows . Other bird species at the Upstalsboom and its surroundings are native belong Waldrohr- and Barn Owl , Little Owl , hawk , sparrow hawk , tower and Hobby , stained - small , medium and green woodpeckers , Dove and buzzards . Gray and Canada geese , teal and kingfisher live in the wetlands of the renatured Dooven Sea . The old wall hedges are habitat for the common redstart , tree pipit and goldhammer .

The amphibians are the big marsh frog , frog , toad and newt represented. Among the reptiles was grass snake in East Friesland first detected at the Upstalsboom. As insects live among other things, the red wood ants and dragonflies species such as the Great Emperor Dragonfly , migrant hawker and Brown Hawker on the site.

Spotted fern , lily of the valley , wood anemone , many-flowered white root and wood sorrel grow on the walls . The Upstalsboom is one of only two known growth species of the stemless primrose in Lower Saxony , along with the Ihlower Forst landscape protection area and the lowland of the Krummen Tiefs .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berumerfehner - Meerhusener Moor. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Willem Kuppers: Upstalsbom - the "Altar of Freedom". From the Landtag area of ​​the Frisians to the Thingstätte in the Third Reich In: Hajo van Lengen (Hrsg.): The Frisian Freedom of the Middle Ages - Life and Legend , Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , p. 423
  3. ↑ Matthias Bergmann and Axel Heinze: The Upstalsboom - landscape and symbol of Frisian freedom . Upstalsboom-Verlag, Aurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-00-065354-4 , p. 18 .
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Schwarz: The Upstalsboom. Assembly place of the Frisians near Rahe. In: Rolf Bärenfänger : Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany. Vol. 35 Ostfriesland, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1415-8 . P. 168.
  5. ↑ Strahl, Erwin., Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research .: Problems of coastal research in the southern North Sea area. Vol 23 . Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 1995, ISBN 3-89598-336-5 , p. 120 .
  6. ↑ Willem Kuppers: Upstalsbom - the "Altar of Freedom". From the Landtag area of ​​the Frisians to the Thingstätte in the Third Reich In: Hajo van Lengen (Hrsg.): The Frisian Freedom of the Middle Ages - Life and Legends , Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , p. 431
  7. ↑ Willem Kuppers: Upstalsbom - the "Altar of Freedom". From the Landtag area of ​​the Frisians to the Thingstätte in the Third Reich In: Hajo van Lengen (Hrsg.): Die Frisische Freiheit des Mittelalters - Leben und Legende , Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , p. 432
  8. ↑ Willem Kuppers: Upstalsbom - the "Altar of Freedom". From the Landtag area of ​​the Frisians to the Thingstätte in the Third Reich In: Hajo van Lengen (Hrsg.): Die Frisische Freiheit des Mittelalters - Leben und Legende , Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , p. 432
  9. ↑ Matthias Bergmann and Axel Heinze: The Upstalsboom - landscape and symbol of Frisian freedom . Upstalsboom-Verlag, Aurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-00-065354-4 , p. 12 .
  10. ↑ Ubbo Emmius: Frisian History (Rerum Frisicarum historiae libri 60). Ed .: From the Latin by Erich von Reeken. tape II . Jochen Wörner, Frankfurt am Main 1981, p. 193 f .
  11. ^ Upstalsboom is located on the "Pingo" - Emden - Emder Zeitung. Retrieved July 1, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Matthias Bergmann and Axel Heinze: The Upstalsboom - landscape and symbol of Frisian freedom . Upstalsboom-Verlag, Aurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-00-065354-4 , p. 17 .
  13. ↑ Matthias Bergmann and Axel Heinze: The Upstalsboom - landscape and symbol of Frisian freedom . Upstalsboom-Verlag, Aurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-00-065354-4 , p. 18 .
  14. ↑ Matthias Bergmann and Axel Heinze: The Upstalsboom - landscape and symbol of Frisian freedom . Upstalsboom-Verlag, Aurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-00-065354-4 , p. 12 .
  15. ↑ a b c Matthias Bergmann and Axel Heinze: The Upstalsboom - landscape and symbol of Frisian freedom . Upstalsboom-Verlag, Aurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-00-065354-4 , p. 117 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 27 '14.8 "  N , 7 ° 25' 52"  E