Tanned hedge

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Lohhecken on the Our near Vianden in late autumn

Lohhecken are an oak - Niederwald , which as oak peeling forest is used for the extraction of oak bark, the " tan ". The tilled hedges shape the landscape in the Rhenish Slate Mountains over long stretches . Lohe contains the tanning agent tannin and can therefore be used for tanning of leather , but are also used in natural medicine and cosmetics. In the 18th, but especially in the 19th century, the demand for leather and thus for tanning agents rose sharply. The largest part of the tilled hedges should have been created since then. In contrast to other forms of coppice forest management, e.g. For example, the Haubergen in Siegerland , the focus was on wage production in the wage hedges.

The landscape-defining significance of the tanned hedges becomes clear when one realizes which areas are involved. At the heyday of the wage economy there were around 200,000 hectares of wage hedges in the Rhineland . Added to this are the areas in Ösling in Luxembourg (over 15,000 ha) and in the Belgian Ardennes (approx. 75,000 ha). This results in over 280,000 ha for the slate mountains on the left bank of the Rhine, i.e. the Eifel , the Hunsrück and the Ardennes. In contrast, the vineyards in the wine - growing areas on the left bank of the Rhine , i.e. the Middle Rhine (approx. 500 ha), Ahr (approx. 500 ha), Mosel-Saar -Ruwer (approx. 9,100 ha) and Nahe (4,500 ha) in Germany as well as the Luxembourg Moselle (approx. 1,300 ha) a total of around 16,000 ha.

overview

Lohhecken on the Penzebierg, municipality of Kiischpelt, Luxembourg

The Lohwirtschaft is a form of coppicing , which is all about the production of oak bark , goes the blaze. Oak bark was and is mainly used as a tanning agent in leather production (old mine tanning ), but today also in naturopathy, in medicinal baths and in cosmetics.

Therefore, unlike other types of coppice forest management, oaks were preferred or even planted. Since the tannin content is highest as long as the bark is not dry and brittle, the oaks are felled after 15 to 30 years. This is how a coppice , a so-called oak peeling forest , the tanned hedges develops . The cutting season falls in spring, as the bark can best be peeled off when the sap has started to "rise". The wood from the tilled hedges, actually a by-product, is mainly used as firewood. In the past, the deforested areas were burned down. Rye was usually sown in the first year and buckwheat in the second year . The gorse that appeared in the following years was used as litter.

Oak trees can grow out of the rhizomes. This creates the image of several trunks that are typical of tanned hedges, growing out of the same rootstock. The rhizomes can reach an age of around 200 to 250 years. But they only deliver good bark yields up to the seventh rotation. They should then be removed and replaced with new plantings.

Tanned hedges are therefore not a “natural” community, but a man-made cultural landscape . Like many other traditional cultural landscapes, however, they represent a very varied habitat for plants and animals. Every year only about a twentieth of the total area was felled, resulting in a veritable patchwork of small areas of very different ages. Since the composition of the animal and plant species changes with the age of a tanned hedge, used tanned hedges offered many different species a favorable habitat. Some animal species such as B. the wildcat and the hazel grouse are dependent on such a varied habitat. However, the long-term preservation of viable populations of precisely these animal species requires either larger cultivated areas or large-scale networking of similar habitats in Luxembourg's Ösling , the Belgian Ardennes and the German Eifel .

History and economic importance

In the Rhenish Slate Mountains , the use of the Lohe is proven in documents from the Prüm Abbey from the 9th century. A systematic use seems to have existed only since the 17th century. During this time it was integrated into the Haubergwirtschaft in Siegerland . From there it probably spread. In Ösling, Luxembourg, for example, use began at the beginning of the 18th century.

The heyday of the wage economy was between 1840 and 1880. With industrialization , the demand for leather increased. At the same time, with the expansion of the railway network, there were also transport possibilities for Lohe, but also for hides from overseas (e.g. Argentina) and leather in previously remote areas such as the Eifel, the Hunsrück or the Ösling.

With the increasing demand for leather and thus for tanning agents, many beech forests were converted into tanned hedges . Mainly English oaks were planted, which until then had hardly existed in the slate mountains. It was assumed that their tannin content is higher than that of the native sessile oak . After all, around 445,000 ha of tanned hedges (45% of which in the Rhineland) were used in Germany, around 75,600 ha in Belgium, around 26,000 ha in Luxembourg (one third of the forest area, of which more than 15,000 ha in Ösling) and in France around 600,000 ha of holm oak coppice ( with a focus on tan production).

The German, Belgian and Luxembourgian focal points of tan production indicate that there are particularly suitable locations for tilled hedges in the Rhenish Slate Mountains. These are mainly south-east to west exposed, relatively frost-proof slopes with shallow, fresh soils. With the help of the tilled hedges, these slopes, which were not very suitable for both agriculture and high forest management , could be put into use.

The wage economy brought with it additional income opportunities, which were urgently needed in previously poor areas such as the Eifel and the Ösling. The small farmers had the opportunity to use their small forest areas continuously, to earn additional money with the Lohe and to produce wood, rye, buckwheat and litter for themselves. The work in the tilled hedges could be easily integrated into the peasant work rhythm. She fell between tilling the fields in the spring and making hay. Larger forest owners often outsourced the work to day laborers. As payment, they usually received the wood and the right to sow grain in the first and second year after cutting down. Moreover emerged with the Bark Mill and tanneries new jobs. So developed z. B. Neuerburg in the Eifel and Wiltz in Luxembourg are important tannery towns.

After 1880, prices for hedge products began to fall continuously. The reasons were on the one hand technical innovations and changes in the tanneries such as the introduction of extract tanning, the increasing imports of tanning agents from overseas and the development of synthetic tanning agents, on the other hand the incipient structural change in agriculture (e.g. through the use of Thomas slag from steel production as Artificial fertilizers), but also the replacement of firewood with coal and later mineral oil. Nevertheless, especially in areas where there were few industrial employers, the tilled hedges were still used on a relatively large scale until the 1960s.

Accordingly, between 1900 and around 1960, the importance of the wage economy decreased continuously. Only in the First and Second World War did the isolation of the German Reich lead to further price increases and increased use. After that, large coppice forest areas were either converted into medium or high forest or reforested with conifers. Over half of the remaining tilled hedges, however, have not been used for over forty years and are therefore actually outdated. In 2003, only 200 t of lohe were produced in Luxembourg.

Working in the tilled hedges

February and March: The clearing

The oak is cut down (peeled)
Working with the scoop

Before the trees and hedges drive out again, all other trees and hedges except the oaks are felled and cut into firewood. This means that you can start grinding directly later.

May and June: The debarking (debarking)

The lower branches are cut off with the curved ax and the bark is cut all around at man's height. Then the bark is slit open lengthways two to three times with the lickerin, a kind of short knife. Then you peel the trunk up to man's height with the help of the spoon . Only then is the tree felled about a meter above the ground. The trunk is not completely cut through, so that it gets stuck on the stump. This means that you have the trunk in front of you at working height when you are grinding and it is easier to peel it off all around. The upper branches are cut off, the trunk is propped up again and then completely peeled. To do this, the bark is again cut all around every two meters, slit open two to three times lengthways with the lickerin and detached from the trunk. The tan strips are pre-dried in the forest and brought home for final drying. The dried tan is bundled. A bundle weighs about 25 kg. Finally, the lower part of the trunk is also felled so that the trees are cut down to the rootstock ("put on the stick"). The wood is cut as firewood.

In the past, thin oak sticks and branches were peeled, especially when prices were high. It was mostly work for children or the elderly. The branches were knocked with a hammer on a stone as a base until the bark more or less peeled off by itself. In addition, the areas were burned down after the grinding and sown with rye in autumn. Buckwheat was grown the following year.

Related topics

literature

  • Administration des Eaux et Forêts (ed.): D'Louhecken zu Lëtzebuerg. 2006.
  • JJ Erasmy and P. Kremer: The oak coppice forest of the Ösling. In: Fondation Hëllef fir d'Natur et al. (Hrsg.): Die Lohhecken des Ösling and the hazel grouse. Seminar on June 21 and 22, 1990 in the castle of Clervaux / Luxembourg. Luxembourg 1991, pp. 4-10.
  • Peter Fasel: Community in a Hauberg. In: Landesforstverwaltung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Hrsg.): Pictures from the Hauberg (= series of publications of the LFV NRW. No. 1, 1995), pp. 25–35.
  • Peter Fasel: Flora and vegetation in the historic Hauberg Fellinghausen. In: State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection North Rhine-Westphalia (Ed.): Niederwälder in North Rhine-Westphalia (= LANUV-Fachbericht. No. 1). Recklinghausen 2007, pp. 55-83.
  • Alwin Geimer: Lohheckenland. In: De Cliärrwer Canton. No. 1, 2007, pp. 29-36.
  • Peter Moll and Christoph Becker (eds.): Neuland Heimat. Discoveries in the Saar-Moselle region. Volume 3. Geographischer Verlag Saar-Mosel, Saarbrücken 2006, pp. 171–186.

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