Propsteier Forest

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The Propsteier Forest is one of the three larger contiguous forest areas in the southwestern Eschweiler urban area, south of Röhe and west of Aue , once reaching in the north to Kinzweiler . The forest reaches just before the eastern city limits of Aachen . It lies north and east of the Aachen-Cologne railway line. A very rare spelling of the forest is Probsteier Wald , which is derived from the spelling of proper names .

Steinbachshochwald

Gut Steinbachshochwald

Steinbachshochwald is the south-western, hardly forested part of the Propsteier Forest; in the south it is bounded by the Saubach . The manor of the same name was built here in 1830. In 1935 the Steinbachshochwald area came from the city of Eschweiler to the city of Stolberg.

Earlier story

The Propsteier Forest is the site of a Roman villa rustica ( Propsteier Villa ), which was excavated from 1880 to 1881. As early as 1856 a matron stone consecrated to the goddess Sunuxal was found. There are also other finds from the Neolithic and Roman times. The Römerstraße Breite Bahn is said to have run through the forest . In 973, Emperor Otto I confirmed in Aachen the forest and wilderness rights in the Eschweiler area, which King Ludwig had previously given to Cologne Cathedral. A cathedral propst was responsible for the administration of the worldly goods of the Cologne church , from which the name of the forest is derived. The Archbishop of Cologne was the feudal lord of the Propsteier Forest . The cathedral provost appointed a governor who had to be a nobleman and resided in Aldenhoven . From there, the so-called Aldenhovener Mannkammer , to which all men from Lehen had to belong, took care of the administration of the Propsteier forest. The general principles of feudalism applied to man chambers . The men received property and rights, in return they performed service to the feudal lord, especially military service with horse and armor . At that time, the forest extended far into the Jülich Land and was about 1,500 hectares in size; more than forty localities had usage rights to it.

With the French occupation of the Rhineland by Napoleon, the French established the municipal administration. On June 9, 1802, Napoleon issued a repeal resolution. Through this resolution, ecclesiastical property was secularized. Now it was possible to purchase land, land and buildings that had previously been owned by the church. The Propsteier Wald, which had previously been owned by the cathedral priest in Cologne, could now be sold piece by piece. The St. Jöris monastery was sold. Large areas of the forest were now also used for agriculture. The Steinbachshochwald estate was built in 1830. The Eschweiler Mining Association (EBV) acquired large parts of the Propsteier forest. Pit wood was a major cost factor and the up-and-coming mining of the EBV sought to meet the needs from their own forests.

Later story

  • Propsteier forest around 1900, southern part

  • Propsteier forest around 1900, northern part

In the 18th and 19th centuries, mining was carried out in the Propstei and Glücksburg pit in the Propsteier Forest. In 1935, the southwestern tip of Steinbachshochwald, together with the Stolberg main station and several districts, was re-municipalityed into the neighboring town of Stolberg in Eschweiler . In the Third Reich , the Wehrmacht set up a material store in the forest for the construction of the Siegfried Line . From 1945 to 1995 the Propsteier Wald was the location of the Belgian Camp Astrid with numerous ammunition dumps. In 2004, Stolberg again acquired the southern part of the camp to build an industrial area. The two motorway service stations on the A4 west of the forest in Eschweiler's urban area were originally called Propsteier Wald until they were renamed Aachener Land in 1996 .

  • Location of the Propsteier forest in Eschweiler

  • Mountain sequoia in the Propsteier forest

  • Church of the former Camp Astrid

See also

literature

  • Christian Quix : The Propsteier Forest . In: Contributions to the history of the city of Aachen and its surroundings . JA Mayer, Aachen 1838 p. 42ff ( digitalized )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nico Biermanns: Oysters, olives and wine from the Mediterranean. The 'villa rustica' in the Propsteier forest . Script from March 2016 ( PDF on researchegate.net )

Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 18 ″  N , 6 ° 13 ′ 8 ″  E