Loveless desert

Coordinates: 51 ° 56 ′ 17 "  N , 14 ° 21 ′ 57"  E

The Lieberoser Desert is the largest desert in Germany.

The Lieberoser Desert , also just called the desert or Little Siberia , is an approximately five square kilometer sandy open area within the Lieberoser Heide in the Brandenburg Lower Lusatia , around 95 kilometers southeast of Berlin and 20 km north of Cottbus . This makes it the largest desert in Germany . In Central Europe , it is likely to be surpassed only by the even more extensive Polish Błędów Desert . Created by a major forest fire in 1942, it was later the core of the Soviet Lieberose military training area. Due to the constant use with heavy military equipment, the area remained permanently open and developed into a so-called tank desert. After German reunification and the final withdrawal of the group of Soviet armed forces in Germany , the site has been largely left to its own devices since 1994 and is now part of the Lieberoser Endmoräne nature reserve . Large parts of the desert have been owned by the Brandenburg Nature Landscapes Foundation since 2006 , which has set itself the goal of developing a wilderness area there.

Location and landscape characteristics

The Lieberoser Desert is largely enclosed by Scots pine forests.

The Lieberoser Desert extends east of the B 168 (Frankfurter Straße) between the cities of Lieberose and Peitz on the Lieberoser plateau . It is mainly located in the district of Dahme-Spreewald , a small part in the south is in the area of ​​the district of Spree-Neisse . The five square kilometers large sandy area in the center of the Lieberoser Heide is a completely treeless, almost rectangular open area, which is surrounded by extensive pine forests . Occasional Scots pines penetrate the area from there. At the edges, the area is characterized by larger inland dunes , which, especially in the southeastern part, also have the character of shifting dunes in places . However, larger sand drifts or even sand storms have become rare. It used to be different: at the time when the tanks were in motion, the B 168, for example, was regularly overrun with sand despite the erosion protection plantings made from various types of pine. In the early 1990s, bright, light sand and numerous dunes dominated the landscape of the Lieberos Desert.

As an extremely degraded area, the Lieberos Desert is also characterized by severely damaged and nutrient-poor sandy soils, which have largely lost their functions for the nutrient and water balance in the landscape. In addition, there is an extraordinary microclimate there with significant temperature differences between day and night. Temperature peaks of up to 60 degrees Celsius are reached on the bare sandy soil during the day, while the unprotected soil cools down considerably at night. The evaporation rate is very high.

climate

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Cottbus Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Temperature ( ° C ) 0.3 1.1 4.7 9.3 14.4 17.1 19.4 18.7 14.3 9.7 4.6 1.2 O 9.6 Precipitation ( mm ) 40 34 42 37 59 50 68 65 45 35 47 47 Σ 569 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 1.8 2.6 3.9 6.1 7.5 7.3 7.7 7.3 5.3 3.9 2.0 1.5 O 4.8 Source: Deutscher Wetterdienst, Cottbus station, height 96  m , observation period 1981–2010

From the "Great Fire" to the "Armored Desert"

The Lieberoser Desert emerged in May 1942, when a fire that forest workers from the Paschke Brigade ignited in the Burghof district turned into a massive forest fire. It spread from the castle courtyard in the direction of Steiner Berg / Lieberose to the border of the Royal Forester's Office Peitz, jumped over the railway line from Preilack to Jamlitz and only came to a stop before Schönhöhe . Extinguishers were powerless against the flames. After the fire had been cleared, a 1700 hectare area remained. Because of its sheer size and the insufficient number of workers due to the war , it could not be reforested immediately . The area was soon given the name Großer Brand (later often just called Brand for short ). In 1944 the Waffen SS wanted to use the barren area for their Kurmark military training area .

Immediately after the end of the war, the Red Army took over the site, initially for artillery target practice . From 1949 the Red Army began with targeted military construction measures and uses as a military training area Lieberose. The area of ​​today's desert was integrated into the terrain in such a way that it was exactly opposite the shooting range. Tank drivers and other ground troops trained there until reunification. The heavily traveled and partly shelled area became an armored desert. A command post with a total of 27 buildings was built west of the desert. The “grandstand”, a raised concrete structure, functioned as a “general hill” to observe what was happening. From there, for example, Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker followed the maneuver of the Brotherhood of Arms of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact States in 1970 . 50,000 soldiers including tanks moved through the sand of the Lieberose military training area.

Like the other Soviet military training areas, the Lieberose military training area was characterized by a low level of development and infrastructure as well as a very flexible use of space, despite the enormous military use. There was no road network laid down by plans, no paved roads or large sealed areas. Fires, which often started during target practice, were only extinguished in extreme emergencies.

Especially in the southeast of the Lieberoser Desert there are still completely open drifting sand dunes. There are also consistently narrow, linear line dunes.

With the end of the GDR, the TÜP Lieberose also became part of the general property (federal property ) of the Federal Republic of Germany as part of the 1990 Unification Treaty . Since there was no interest in further military use, the Lieberos Desert was initially largely left to its own devices and thus to natural succession after the withdrawal of the Russian military . Above all, countless remains of ammunition above and below ground turned out to be problematic, as the soldiers had by no means properly disposed of all their remains.

With the Lieberos Desert, they left behind an armored desert of flowing sand that was around seven square kilometers in size. From this some inland dunes were formed, mostly narrow line-shaped line dunes or the pile- like cupolas . In addition, some low arched dune chains were created, which were later planted by the forest administration. In addition, there were and are also flight sands on old dunes and blew completely open air sand dunes. All in all, the Lieberos Desert is one of the largest contiguous areas of drifting sand in Germany.

The development after 1992

After the end of military use in 1992, there were also ideas for possible subsequent uses for the Lieberos Desert and the military facilities there. However, plans to turn the commandant's office into an alternative settlement came to nothing, as did projects for pyramid cities or a test site for aircraft engines. However, in 2009, one of the largest solar power plants in Europe, the Lieberose solar park, was built southeast of the desert .

As an alternative to purely economic successor uses, it was suggested to dedicate former military training areas to nature conservation. The ecologist Hermann Remmert was the first to formulate this idea during the fall of the Berlin Wall . In mid-1997, the Brandenburg State Forestry Administration also took over the management of the Lieberoser Heide. Large parts of it - including the Lieberoser Desert - became part of the new 6800 hectare nature reserve Lieberoser Endmoräne in 1999. At the same time, the desert belongs to the fauna-flora-habitat area "Lieberoser Terminal Moraine and Staakower Läuche" and to the European Bird Protection Area (SPA) "Spreewald and Lieberoser Terminal Moraine ".

In 2006, the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation acquired a large part of the desert. According to the ideas of the Lieberose region master plan, completed at the end of 2009 on behalf of the Brandenburg Ministry of the Environment, these areas should also be kept open in the future. Since the Lieberos Desert is now gradually developing into a steppe in the course of the succession, according to the master plan, interventions in the course of landscape conservation are planned in the future to prevent reforestation .

In addition, the Lieberoser Heide - and, as a special visitor attraction, the desert - should be developed for tourism according to this plan. So far, the site may only be entered on designated paths to a limited extent. In addition to the general restrictions in nature reserves, the main reason for this is the still high dangers posed by the military legacies. The Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation , the State Forestry Organization and other local stakeholders are constantly busy examining contaminated areas and having them cleared. Nevertheless, it is primarily these explosive contaminated sites that set barriers for nature conservation and tourism.

A lookout tower is to be built in place of the decaying “grandstand”.

So that interested parties can still get an overview of the desert, the foundation is planning to convert the "grandstand", the former "Generalshügel", located directly on the B 168, into a visitor information point. As part of the large-scale International Nature Exhibition (INA) planned in the region, plans include the construction of a 30-meter-high observation tower at the site of the concrete stand. The tower should allow a panoramic view of the extensive areas of the former military training area and the surrounding landscape. Also hiking trails are planned. These facilities should also serve to guide visitors within the protected area.

In preparation for the conversion in 2009 and 2010, the dismantling of the former Lieberose headquarters was planned and carried out. This was done as a compensatory measure for the new construction of the Drebkau bypass .

Since the mid-2000s, the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation has been organizing regular excursions and “desert hikes” together with the Lieberose Forest District, hiking clubs and the local group of the German Nature Conservation Union .

In May 2015 the "Lieberoser Heide Succession Park" of the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation was opened directly on the B168. The development of nature and wilderness is to be made accessible here on a demonstration area. Numerous information boards were set up on a two-kilometer circular route and the viewpoint on the Generalshügel was restored.

The changes in the area during the 1990s were mainly documented by the biologist Horst Beutler and his wife Doris.

Animal and plant species

The Lieberoser desert is a glacial outwash plain , which also through the decades tanks Befahrung a strong rohbodenartigen received character with almost bare sand. This still existing expression is exclusively due to military use.

Tough pioneer plants such as Glass fiber Widertonmoos and silver grass succeeds first to take on the open stretches of sand foot.

Because there was no seed bank in the completely destroyed soil of the desert , re-colonization with vegetation was only possible in the form of primary succession via seeds and spores brought in from the area. Various types of crusty lichen were among the first organisms to even be able to colonize the eroded sandy soils . Typical pioneer plants that can cope with the extremely nutrient-poor location with its special microclimate are, above all, the glass haired red-clay moss ( Polytrichum piliferum ) and the silver grass . The latter copes with the occasional silting up and the constant wind polishing and quickly forms clumps . Since the beginning of the 2000s, increasingly gappy silver grass meadows have shaped the image of the open sand fields, the desert is gradually turning into a steppe . The sand strawflower is one of the special species found there .

Natural succession: Scots pines are increasingly moving towards the open area from the edges .

Apart from different spider species also are in the desert insects like the ant lions - larvae of antlion -, tiger beetles , various wasps and grave wasps , such as the gyroscope wasp to find. Also Steppe Grasshopper , Blue-winged grasshopper or CALLIPTAMUS ITALICUS occur. The bird species that have their territories in the open areas include the common pipit , woodlark and wheatear . The Mornell Ringed Plover is a regular passenger. White-tailed eagles , which otherwise have their resting, sleeping and breeding places in the surrounding forests, like to rest during the day in the desert and allow themselves to be carried upwards by the thermals that arise over the sandy areas .

Conservation discussion

Whether and to what extent the Lieberos Desert - and comparable armored deserts - should or can be kept open in the future, and what nature conservation significance they ultimately have, opinions also differ among nature conservationists.

The Lieberose Region Master Plan emphasizes the fundamental nature conservation significance of the desert for the entire Lieberoser Heide and expressly provides for it to be kept open. The associated project also includes tree removal and Schoppers .

Heiko Schumacher, Lieberoser representative of the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation, also emphasizes the fundamental importance of areas such as the Lieberoser Desert:

"Regardless of how they were created, these landscapes are to be classified as rare at the national level and, with their special species configuration, are particularly interesting from a nature conservation perspective."

On the other hand, Horst Beutler, biologist and long-time expert on the Lieberoser Heide, advocated leaving the armored deserts to natural succession , not least in his book Landscape in New Determination (2000). As a justification he stated:

“In terms of landscape ecology and from a nature conservation point of view, on closer inspection it is also unfounded to want to keep the large open sand fields in their current unsanitary state at high financial expense. Even if nature conservation circles with a close eye on a few animal species occasionally hear the demand that the large 'sandy deserts' of the armored armies are 'refuges' or even supposed 'primeval landscapes' and therefore absolutely worth preserving, this does not make any sense. They just aren't. After all, they are artificial products made by human hands, a legacy of nature that has been tortured for decades by overexploitation . "

Beutler can imagine designating the Lieberoser Heide as a national park with wilderness development, at least if nature remains the sole designer there.

literature

• Torsten Richter, Heiko Schumacher, Claus-Rüdiger Seliger, Wolfgang Roick: Fascination Lieberoser Heide. Landscape between forest, water and space . Published by the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation. Regia-Verlag, Cottbus 2010, ISBN 978-3-86929-180-2 .
• Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - Buch- und Zeitschriften-Verlag, Neuenhagen 2000, ISBN 3-933603-11-0 (especially pp. 55–96).

Web links

Commons : Lieberoser Desert  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ina Matthes: The desert is alive . In: Märkische Oderzeitung , online version from August 7, 2010
• The Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation on its areas within the Lieberoser Heide

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ina Matthes: The desert lives . In: Märkische Oderzeitung , online version of August 7, 2010; Retrieved June 14, 2012
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Claus-Rüdiger Seliger: Forest history of Lieberose since 1990 . In Torsten Richter, Heiko Schumacher, Claus-Rüdiger Seliger, Wolfgang Roick: Fascination Lieberoser Heide. Landscape between forest, water and space . Regia-Verlag, Cottbus 2010, p. 74.
3. ↑ See the information provided by the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation on their areas within the Lieberoser Heide ( memento of the original from June 22, 2012 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. ; Retrieved June 14, 2012 
4. ↑ Heiko Schumacher: Fascination Lieberoser Heide . In Torsten Richter, Heiko Schumacher, Claus-Rüdiger Seliger, Wolfgang Roick: Fascination Lieberoser Heide. Landscape between forest, water and space . Regia-Verlag, Cottbus 2010, p. 14ff.
5. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, pp. 62–63.
6. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - Buch- und Zeitschriften-Verlag, Neuenhagen 2000, pp. 63–66.
7. ^ Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) Climate Data Center (CDC): Long-term station mean values ​​for the climate reference period 1981–2010, Station 880 Cottbus. Temperatures , precipitation , sunshine duration (converted to days), metadata of the measuring station . Retrieved September 23, 2016.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Claus-Rüdiger Seliger: Forest history of Lieberose since 1990 . In Torsten Richter, Heiko Schumacher, Claus-Rüdiger Seliger, Wolfgang Roick: Fascination Lieberoser Heide. Landscape between forest, water and space . Regia-Verlag, Cottbus 2010, p. 66.
9. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 41.
10. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 42.
11. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 57.
12. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, pp. 58–59.
13. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 61.
14. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 28.
15. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 44.
16. ↑ See the regulation on the nature reserve “Lieberoser Endmoräne” in the Brandenburg regulation system (BRAVORS) ; Retrieved June 15, 2012
17. ^ Fugmann Janotta, Planwerk group and Dittmar Machule : Masterplan Region Lieberose , Berlin 2009, u. a. P. 17–18 ( PDF  ( 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. )  
18. ^ Fugmann Janotta, Planwerk group and Dittmar Machule : Masterplan Region Lieberose , Berlin 2009, u. a. P. 36 ( PDF  ( 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. )  
19. ↑ See also the Lieberose master plan and the planned International Nature Exhibition (INA) Lieberose  ( 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.  
20. ↑ NN: International Nature Exhibition Region Lieberose (INA): Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation brings in plans for innovative adventure offers (PDF file; 98 kB) , report on the information discussion at the invitation of MdB Dr. Peter Danckert , Straupitz, August 10, 2009; Press release from the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation; Retrieved June 14, 2012
21. ↑ Experience the wilderness and enjoy the view - the barrier-free “Lieberose Succession Park” has been inaugurated on the NABU website
22. ↑ Der Succession Park ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation 
23. ↑ Cf. for example their joint book Landscape in New Determination. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000
24. ↑ ^{a b} Heiko Schumacher: Fascination Lieberoser Heide . In Torsten Richter, Heiko Schumacher, Claus-Rüdiger Seliger, Wolfgang Roick: Fascination Lieberoser Heide. Landscape between forest, water and space . Regia-Verlag, Cottbus 2010, p. 31.
25. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 72.
26. ↑ Horst Beutler and Doris Beutler: Landscape in New Purpose. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 66f.
27. ↑ Heiko Schumacher: Fascination Lieberoser Heide . In Torsten Richter, Heiko Schumacher, Claus-Rüdiger Seliger, Wolfgang Roick: Fascination Lieberoser Heide. Landscape between forest, water and space . Regia-Verlag, Cottbus 2010, p. 32.
28. ^ Fugmann Janotta, Planwerk group and Dittmar Machule : Masterplan Region Lieberose , Berlin 2009, u. a. P. 21 and 36 ( PDF  ( 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. )  
29. ↑ Horst Beutler: Landscape in a new definition. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, p. 74.
30. ↑ Horst Beutler: Landscape in a new definition. Russian military training areas . Findling - book and magazine publisher, Neuenhagen 2000, z. BS 52 and p. 138ff.