Ostermoor (Elisabethfehn)

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The Ostermoor , also Barßeler Moor ( Sater Frisian "Aasterfoan" or "Aasterfaan", also "Bäärselder Foan" or "Bäärselder Faan" depending on the village), was between the Sagter Ems with Ramsloh and Strücklingen on one side and the Soeste with Barßel and Harkebrugge on the other hand in today's district of Cloppenburg . The former high moor has been removed today with the exception of a few remains. The village of Elisabethfehn is located here today .

Emergence

The Ostermoor was formed after the last glacial period over a period of 10,000 to 12,000 years. It was a classic, watch-glass-shaped, domed, just-fed by precipitation (ombrotrophes), nutrient-poor (oligotrophic) and acidic coastal high or rain bog, with a nitrogen content, based on carbon (NC value), <3 percent and one pH from 2.8 to 3.4. The natural peat-forming vegetation consisted of peat moss , cotton grass and heather plants . This raised bog, which, like a soaked sponge, had its own bog water level above the groundwater level, was, like all raised bogs, not in contact with the groundwater and reached a thickness of 10.30 meters at the highest points.

Development of the Easter bog

According to the oldest records, the development of the raised bogs began around the 15th century, when the wood supplies became scarcer and further heating material was needed in the sparsely forested northwest of the country due to the growing population. In a text from 1415, where a legacy in Bollingen for the Langen monastery in East Friesland is described, it says: ... en stuecke phanes, dar men eede uppe graven mach , which means: ... a piece of bog on which to dig peat can . In a document from Grimersum from 1426 it says: ... enen waghenlast torves to halende van elken huse besunderlingx uppe den veene (E. Friedländer: Ostfries. Document book no. 340). The increasing population pressure was the trigger for the large-scale drainage and the development of the raised bogs.

The raised bogs were initially only excavated from the edges. Agricultural development within the bog could not be carried out due to the high moisture content until effective drainage methods were available. The effects of the four types of bog cultivation can still be seen well in Elisabethfehn:

Before construction began on the Hunte-Ems Canal and the subsequent colonization of the Easter bog, farmers in the surrounding towns removed the bog in part by digging peat or by cultivating bog fire. After superficial drainage through small trenches and minor processing, the intended area was set on fire in spring. The ashes fertilized the moor. So undemanding buckwheat could thrive here. The peat cut areas were narrow and uneconomical. Some of them are still visible on maps today.

The fenculture, which was first used with great success in Holland, required a strong lowering of the water level. For this purpose, the construction of the Hunte-Ems Canal (later partially renamed Elisabethfehn Canal ) began in 1855 . The canal crossed the raised bog in the middle to enable extensive peat extraction by the settlers. The schematic division of the parcels can still be seen today on both sides of the Elisabethfehn Canal. The cut and dried peat was transported by peat ships to nearby cities and sold there.

The German raised bog culture replaced the bog brandy and fen culture, due to the development of the mineral fertilizer by the chemist Justus von Liebig . As the bog reacted strongly acidic, as described above, the upper peat layer was limed 20 cm thick to pH 4.0. The missing nutrients were supplied in the form of mineral fertilizers.

After the Second World War , the productivity of soils that had been developed by means of the German raised bog culture no longer met the increased demands. The then developed sand mixing culture made use of a technology that was modern at the time, in that the peat and the mineral soil were mixed with the help of steam and sweeping plows. This led to a soil structure, especially in the central part of the Easter bog, which enabled improved water flow and deeper rooting of the cultivated plants.

Consequences of the cultivation of the Easter bog

The landscape of the former Easter bog was radically changed by human interventions. While the peat bog culture and the German raised bog culture only led to the desiccation and superficial mineralization of the soil surface through the partial drainage , the substance of the raised bog natural area was virtually eliminated by the Dutch fen culture . The mixed sand culture did not lead to a loss of substance, but the deep plowing with the recording of water-permeable sand layers deprived the bog of any foundation. Thus, at most, there are still areas in the edge area that could be renatured in the interests of nature conservation. The primeval landscape is irretrievably lost.

literature

  • Eva Blawert: Marsch, Moor, Geest in East Frisia. Das Moor , Vol. 2, Aurich 1987.
  • Friedrich Brüne: The Lower Saxony Moor and their Agricultural Use , Publications Series A1 Volume 38, Lower Saxony Office for State Planning and Statistics 1952.
  • Gustav Schünemann: Elisabethfehn , Rhauderfehn 1992.
  • Sarah Weßmann: Change of the landscape through peat cultivation and its effects on the settlement and economic structure using the example of Elisabethfehn , Selbstverlag, Cloppenburg 2001.
  • Werner Kaemling: Atlas on the history of Lower Saxony , Gerd J. Holtzmeyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1987, ISBN 3-923722-44-3 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 9 '  N , 7 ° 43'  E