Niederwald near Rüdesheim
The Niederwald near Rüdesheim is a section of the Hohe Taunus in front of the Rheingau Mountains in the southwest, about three kilometers long in an east-west direction and one kilometer wide. To the northeast, it has a connection to the Taunushauptkamm via the Ebental high plateau . It is separated from it in the northwest by the deeply cut valley of the Eichbach stream flowing through Assmannshausen . The other two borders are formed by the Rhine Valley , which bends roughly at right angles here at Binger Loch .
Location and surroundings
The Niederwald is part of the Rheingau and belongs to the urban area of Rüdesheim am Rhein . The highest point is the spruce head at 346 meters. While the heights of the coppice have only gentle slopes, the slopes, especially to the south and west towards the Rhine Valley, are very steep. As the Niederwald landscape park, the forest area, together with the Niederwald monument and the Niederwald hunting lodge, is an outstanding tourist attraction.
history
The Niederwald was connected to Ehrenfels Castle as a commercial forest . Forest reports from 1587/88 are the earliest surviving evidence that the property rights lay with the castle. To the forest belonged to a Lehnshof in which the hunting lodge was built as the main building later. After Ehrenfels Castle was destroyed in the Palatinate War of Succession , the ruins were abandoned by the Mainz Cathedral Chapter and the Niederwald was sold. In 1693 it was owned by the Counts of Stadion . In the same year parts of the property and in 1705 the rest of the property went to Johann Franz Sebastian von Ostein . The last Count von Ostein , Johann Friedrich Carl Maximilian Amor Maria Graf von Ostein , had the hunting lodge built and redesigned the Niederwald used as a hunting park into a landscape park. He lived in the Palais Ostein in nearby Geisenheim as a summer residence.
In 1809 the Niederwald came to the Count Waldbott von Bassenheim by succession . It was bought by the Duke of Nassau in 1835.
In 1866 the Duchy of Nassau was annexed by Prussia and the Niederwald became a Prussian state forest. After the Second World War, the forest administration of the State of Hesse became the legal successor to the lost Prussia as the owner of the Niederwald forest. The coppice is now together with the Kammerforst part of the state forest Rudesheim and forms with him the Forstrevier Kammerforst of the forestry office Rudesheim .
Oak peeling was carried out in the Niederwald until after the First World War . Because of the associated deforestation, which takes place every 12-15 years, there was only a low tree vegetation ( coppice forest ) at that time, which gave many wonderful views of the surroundings, especially the Rhine Valley, which are overgrown today.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hessian Land Surveying Office: District map 1: 50,000 Wiesbaden - Rheingaukreis - Untertaunuskreis, 1969 edition
- ^ A * for "Outstanding Destinations" in Baedeker Allianz Travel Guide , Verlag Karl Baedeker, 2002, p. 752
- ↑ Rüdesheim Forestry Office
Web links
- Notes from the city archive. Contributions to the history of the town of Rüdesheim. 2012. City archivist Rolf Göttert: The Niederwald near Rüdesheim PDF file 847 kB Part 1
- Notes from the city archive. Contributions to the history of the town of Rüdesheim. 2012. City archivist Rolf Göttert: The Niederwald near Rüdesheim PDF file 847 kB Part 2
Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 0 ″ N , 7 ° 53 ′ 17 ″ E