Lorenzer Reichswald

Lorenz Forest hiking map

Lorenzer Reichswald is the name of the part of the Nuremberg Reichswald located south of the Pegnitz ; to the north is the Sebalder Reichswald .

It covers an area of around 15,000 hectares (as of 2000) and extends in the southeast of Nuremberg between the Rednitz River in the west and the town of Altdorf and the municipality of Leinburg in the east. The southern border is formed by the Schwarzach river .

The name comes from St. Lorenz , the main church of the Nuremberg district of the same name and south of the Pegnitz .

To the south of the Schwarzach, the so-called “ Southern Reichswald ” , which has only recently become part of it, extends to the Rothsee .

history

Around 720 the Reichswald was under the Franconian royal ban. Through overuse and subsequent reforestation, the original pine-birch-oak mixed forest was transformed into a pine forest. The Lorenzer Reichswald belonged to the imperial estate around Nuremberg and was administered as an imperial fief by a forester, at the latest in 1230/40 the approximately 17,300 hectares were divided into two forester's offices and six, later 12 forest hats. The Zeidlers were mentioned in a document as early as 1296 . Communities like Feucht and Röthenbach near Sankt Wolfgang were Zeidler communities.

In 1372/96 the imperial city of Nuremberg was able to buy both forest offices. In 1427 she also acquired the rights to use the Lorenzer Reichswald. In 1440 a "Supreme Administrator of the Forest" united both forest offices until in 1489 Lorenzer and Sebalder Reichswald were uniformly administered by the city of Nuremberg's forest offices. In 1806 the forest came to the Kingdom of Bavaria together with the imperial city of Nuremberg. Due to overuse it was once again in a deplorable condition. The pine monocultures were largely destroyed by the pine spanner in 1896. A third of the total area had to be cut down. In the following years, large areas of pine were reforested.

Behind Zerzabelshof the Lorenzer Reichswald.

The city of Nuremberg extended far to the south into the Lorenzer Reichswald. The current districts of Fischbach and Altenfurt were formerly forest villages. The area of today's Langwasser was still densely forested in 1900, later a shooting range was set up there. After devastating forest fires from 1917 to 1919, the area was cleared in the 20s and in the 30s for the Nazi party rally grounds used by the Nazis to in the '50s with the construction of the district Langwasser was started.

In the 1930s, the Berlin – Munich motorway (today A 9 ) and sections of the Amberg-Heilbronn motorway (today A 6 ) were built through the forest, completed and expanded after the Second World War .

In 1938 the German army established an ammunition facility ( Heeresmunitionsanstalt Feucht ) between Nuremberg and Feucht , which the American military expanded into a helicopter base after the Second World War. With the end of the East-West conflict, the military base became superfluous and converted into an industrial park with a total area of 850,000 m².

The construction of the Main-Danube Canal (since the 1960s) and the port of Nuremberg (inaugurated in 1972), which as a freight center (GVZ) links ship, rail and, above all, truck traffic, required additional space. Only one of the two planned port basins has been completed so far. The southwest bypass was built largely parallel to the Main-Danube Canal .

Its characteristic appearance has given the Reichswald the name "Stecklaswald". In 1969 the local recreation association Lorenzer Reichswald was founded. Today (as of 2000) the Lorenzer Reichswald still covers approx. 15,000 ha.

geography

The following forests belong to the Lorenzer Reichswald:

Only in a few places does the forest exceed the 400 m altitude mark; z. B. Hoher Bühl in the Nuremberg-Feucht industrial park with 408 m; Dreibrüderberg near Rummelsberg with 430 m; the Brunner Berg at 438 m; the mountain west of Weissenbrunn with 404 m. The Moritzberg with 603 m no longer belongs to the Lorenzer Reichswald.

The soil is mostly sandy and mostly planted with pines; sometimes birch or alder are mixed in. On the ground it is mostly overgrown with bilberry or lingonberry bushes. In some places sandstones protrude from the ground and there are many abandoned quarries. The Lorenzer Reichswald is part of the Franconian sand axis .

Some areas, for example around the Fischbach near the ice pond, are wetlands and very swampy in spring .

The Röthenbach drains the forest to the north to the Pegnitz, the Fischbach and the Hutgraben to the west to the Pegnitz, the Gauchsbach to the south to the Schwarzach and the Eichenwaldgraben to the west to the Rednitz .

Area development

The following table shows the area development from 1830 to 2000.

year	around 1830	1955	1980	1990	2000
Area in ha	20,721	16,877	15,321	15.091	15,027

Monuments and memorial stones

Reich Forest Monument near Feucht

In the forest there are monuments, memorial stones, stone crosses, boundary stones, wells, springs and other special features.

Forest district landmarks

In order to determine the condition of the devastated forests, forest management was carried out in the Nuremberg Reichswald in 1840/41 . In this context, such forest district boundary stones (district boundary pillars) were also created. They show the adjoining area on each side. It shows forest hammers . The foresters used it to mark every single tree to prevent wood theft. The boundary stones are usually made of sandstone, triangular and about 2 meters high.

#	Landmark	particularities	location	Coordinates
1	Forest district boundary stones Brunn, Laufamholz and Röthenbach		Haimendorfer Forst Laufamholzer Forst Brunn	49 ° 26 ′ 55 "N, 11 ° 12 ′ 44" E
2	Forest district boundary stone Feucht, Altenfurt and Schwarzenbruck		Altenfurt Feucht Schwarzenbruck	49 ° 23 ′ 22 "N, 11 ° 11 ′ 4" E
3	Forest district boundary stones Fischbach, Brunn and Laufamholz	Designated as a monument (D-5-64-000-2244).	Fischbach Laufamholzer Forst Brunn	49 ° 26 ′ 19 ″ N, 11 ° 12 ′ 27 ″ E
4th	Forest district boundary stones Fischbach, Feucht and Altenfurt		Fischbach Feuchter Forest Altenfurt	49 ° 24 ′ 27 ″ N, 11 ° 13 ′ 30 ″ E
5	Forest district boundary stones Fischbach, Feucht and Ungelstetten		Fischbach Winkelhaid Feuchter Forest	49 ° 24 ′ 24 "N, 11 ° 15 ′ 31" E
6th	Forest district boundary stones Fischbach, Forsthof and Laufamholz	Designated as a monument (D-5-64-000-2245).	Fischbach Forsthof Laufamholzer Forst	49 ° 26 '17 "N, 11 ° 11' 14" E
7th	Red Torture wooden column		Winkelhaid	49 ° 24'22 "N, 11 ° 17'7" E
8th	Wooden column Totenmarter near Weißenbrunn		Winkelhaid	49 ° 25 ′ 23 "N, 11 ° 21 ′ 9" E

Excursion destinations

The following destinations are in the Lorenzer Reichswald:

Nuremberg Zoo
Schmausenbuck
Birch Lake
Moritzberg
Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal
Jägersee (between Röthenbach St. Wolfgang and Feucht)
Krugsweiher near Feucht
Schwarzachklamm with bridge canal
Wernloch near Wendelstein

Individual evidence

Martina Bauernfeind: Lorenzer Reichswald . In: Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . 2nd, improved edition. W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 ( online ).

^ Walter Bauernfeind: Lorenzer Reichswald . S. 651 .
↑ Peter Fleischmann: Reichswald . S. 878 .