Mader Heide
The Mader Heide , also Maderheide , not far from Maden near Gudensberg in Northern Hesse , possibly identical to the Mattium mentioned by Tacitus , was a Chattic place of worship and Germanic meeting and court place and up to the Middle Ages thing place and meeting place of the Hessian estates.
Geographical location
The Mader Heide, used for agricultural purposes for centuries, is part of the Gudensberger summit threshold and is located northeast of maggots between the basalt hilltops Itter mountain (northeast), tower head (southeast), Maderstein (southwest) and Lamsberg (north). A signpost in Maden shows the way to Mader Heide. In Gudensberg a street name reminds of the historic site.
East of the Mader Heide runs in a general northeast-southwest direction of the Deute - Niedervorschütz section of the federal highway 254 . From here, south of the Schanzenkopf, Kreisstraße 9 branches off in a westward direction towards Maden.
history
The Mader Heide was already in the 1st millennium BC. Settled. Tombs and stone axes from this time have been discovered. Even after the Chatti invaded North Hesse, the area was an important settlement area, probably because of its fertility. The often-expressed assumption that the Chatti capital Mattium, described by Tacitus in his Germania and destroyed by Germanicus in 15 AD, lay on the Mader Heide or was identical with it, cannot be substantiated. Mattium could also have been with the nearby Metze .
It is believed that the Mader Heide was already used as a thing place during the time of the Franconian Hessengau and the later County Maden that emerged from it . At the latest with the Gisonen from 1121, the Gaugrafen held Thing and Gaugericht on the Mader Heide . From a small hill, decrees for the collection of taxes were issued and the army ban was declared .
In 1247 all the estates of the Gau met to agree that the young Heinrich , grandson of Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia and son of Duchess Sophie von Brabant , was the right heir to the law . In 1277 Heinrich was then formally proclaimed the first Landgrave of Hesse on the Mader Heide.
In 1397 the painting site was described as follows: ... tzwene Morgin in the Velde zu Maden located in front of Gudinsberg beneden the Burgiln ... (the latter refers to the nearby basalt knoll of the Gudensberger Bürgel ).
The square was later used repeatedly as a meeting place for the state parliament . In 1627, the Hessian estates gathered on the Mader Heide forced Landgrave Moritz to hand over the regency to his son Wilhelm . The last Hessian state parliament on Mader Heide took place in 1654. In 2015 a reconstructed thing was created on the Schanzenberg in memory of the Mader Heide.
Archaeological finds
In 1709, Landgrave Karl had excavations carried out on the Mader Heide. Numerous prehistoric and early historical finds from the Iron Age , as well as stone axes and grave systems from the 1st millennium BC were discovered. Chr.
In 1923, Prof. Bremer excavated the remains of two houses. He also found numerous broken fragments and a few human skulls . In a doorstep was the skeleton of a man buried in a crouching position. In 1925 the remains of a third hut were discovered.
South of the Mader Heide, 6 skeletons from early farming culture were discovered between Gudensberg and Maden.
Literary mention
Wilhelm Ide mentions the Mader Heide in his story: The Red House
"Where the old road reaches the top and the twenty-four Deuter fir trees stand in a circle, the holy heather stretches across the broad ridge of the Wolfsberg."
literature
- Eduard Brauns: Hiking and travel guide through North Hesse and Waldeck . Bernecker Verlag, Melsungen 1971, p. 299 u. 285
- Karl. E. Demandt: History of the State of Hesse . Bärenreiter Verlag, Kassel 1972, p. 53
- Ulf Dieterichs (ed.): Hessian legends . Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 104
- Greaves travel guide Upper Hesse, Kurhessen and Waldeck . Volume 230. Thiemig AG, Munich 1981, p. 119
Web links
- Maderheide desert, Schwalm-Eder district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 16 ″ N , 9 ° 23 ′ 53 ″ E