Nordwald (Lower Saxony)
The Northern Forest was until the late Middle Ages, a large, contiguous forest area that large parts of Lower Saxony between Braunschweig and Hannover covered.
Geographical location
The northern forest came into being after the last ice age , mainly in the area of the terminal moraine belt , which extends over large areas of today's Lower Saxony. The imperial charter of Emperor Otto III. from the year 997 describes the borderline of a part of the northern forest, starting at the sources of the Schunter im Elm :
- "Hos forestos cum eorum terminationibus quas ex una parte dividit aqua quae dicitur Scuntera ex sui fontis origine usque ad villam Ossendorp, inde per viam quae tendit ad vicum Feleresleua, item inde via quae ducit ad Alerum fluvium et sic eundem fluvium deorsum qui ad dicitur Ouacra, illum autem Ouacra sursum usque Net… “ .
- "The Schunter from the source to Ochsendorf, then a path to Fallersleben , from there a path to the Aller , along this to the mouth of the Oker, following the Oker upstream to an undefined point Net ..."
The description of the forest borders breaks off here. The described area corresponds in large parts to the plateau of the Papenteich , but only represents the eastern part of the entire northern forest. The villages and their arable land at the time of the issue of the certificate must have existed as clearings.
Old traditions tell that a squirrel could cross the northern forest from Hanover to Braunschweig without touching the ground.
history
Imperial estate under Emperor Otto III.
The aforementioned document from the year 997, in which Emperor Otto III. Bishop Arnulf from Halberstadt transferred the ban on wild animals over the forests of Hakel , Huy , Fallstein , Asse , Elm and Nordwald. While the location of the first five forests is not discussed in detail, the document contains border descriptions of the northern forest. It was probably assumed that the others were sufficiently delimited by their location on mountain ranges. For the northern forest, this demarcation does not seem to have been taken for granted or to have been generally known.
This transfer indicates that the northern forest is an old royal or imperial property , the remains of which, the wild bans , have now been given away. The Reichsgut probably goes back to the time of the first Saxon Wars .
The free ones in front of the northern forest
(see main article: The Great Free )
The free people in front of the northern forest were the inhabitants of a total of 14 villages on former clearing islands in the city triangle between Hanover, Hildesheim and Peine . The inhabitants of these villages in front of the northern forest already had special rights back then. They were exempt from taxes, were allowed to carry weapons, trade, brew beer and burn brandy. They were allowed to freely dispose of their property, had hunting rights in parts of the northern forest and had their own jurisdiction. In return, the residents were obliged to provide a fixed number of soldiers.
The free in front of the northern forest emerged around the turn of the 8th to 9th century in connection with the settlement as a result of the Saxon Wars . Due to the later location in the border area between the competing Guelph and Stift-Hildesheim sovereign territories, the special position of the free was preserved until the Middle Ages.
Transport connections through the northern forest
In the east, several old roads ran through the northern forest. One of the most important was an old salt road , the course of which roughly corresponds to today's federal road 4 . It connected Braunschweig with Lüneburg as well as with Bardowick and Lübeck . This street was already used by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. Another old road ran west of the Oker and Allertal and connected the Okerfurt in Braunschweig via the Celler area with Bremen and Hamburg .
Today's residual forests
It is assumed that relatively soon after the turn of the first millennium the forest area disintegrated more and more into scattered residual forests due to increased settlement activities. A contiguous forest area that would correspond to the old northern forest therefore no longer exists today. However, between Braunschweig and Hanover, many of the forests that exist today, such as the Hämeler Wald , the neighboring Hain, the Bockmerholz and the neighboring Gaim, can be traced back to the old northern forest. The Hanover city forest Eilenriede was probably the western part of the northern forest.
literature
- A. Gauert: Across the borders of the Halberstadt Wildbannbezirks from 997. In: Braunschweiger Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte. 1985, p. 66.
- Heinrich Kloppenburg: The north forest. In: The Diocese of Hildesheim. 8, 1934, pp. 30-31.
- Wolfgang Meibeyer: Settlement history about the Papenteich and the question of its -büttel-places - The settlement of the old northern forest between Gifhorn and Braunschweig during the early Middle Ages. (= Publication series of the district of Gifhorn. No. 22). 2nd Edition. District of Gifhorn and Museum and Heimatverein Gifhorn e. V., Gifhorn 2004, ISBN 3-929632-70-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Digital Library Munich: The Decree Otto III. from the year 997 (Latin)
- ^ A b c Gerhard Oberbeck: The medieval cultural landscape of the area around Gifhorn. 1957, DNB 453619592 .
- ↑ Hunting Association on "The Great Free" and its history