Roßweiher

"Roßweiher" nature reserve IUCN Category IV - Habitat / Species Management Area
View from the southwest bank
location	Maulbronn , Enzkreis , Baden-Württemberg , Germany
surface	12.1 ha
Identifier	2,022
WDPA ID	82445
Geographical location	49 ° 0 ′  N , 8 ° 50 ′  E Coordinates: 49 ° 0 ′ 9 ″  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 34 ″  E
Setup date	August 23, 1937

The nature reserve (NSG) Roßweiher is located east of the Baden-Württemberg town of Maulbronn in the Enzkreis . It includes the four-hectare Roßweiher and adjacent areas.

Pond

According to geoarchaeological investigations, the lake lies in a depression in the Stuttgart Formation (older name: reed sandstone), in the uppermost layers of which water-impermeable mudstone can be found. Before human interventions, the Roßweiher was a so-called sky pond , which was mainly fed by the precipitation in the hollow and could fall dry in dry and hot phases. The oldest sediments above the Stuttgart Formation can be dated to the early Middle Ages and are possibly related to clearing at the time.

Monks of the Maulbronn Monastery, founded in 1147, included the Roßweiher in a system of lakes, ponds and ditches, which served fish farming and the water supply to the monastery. In addition to the Roßweiher, the Aalkistensee and the Tief See are still preserved today. Inlet ditches were created at the Roßweiher, which enlarged the catchment area towards Schefenackerwald in the southwest and Hamberg / Eichelberg in the southeast many times over. The ditch to the southeast crossed the watershed between the Rhine and Neckar , which is a few 100 meters east of the pond. In addition, a canal was created as a drain to the Tiefen See and thus to the Salzach , which today runs 280 meters underground and has a clear width of 40 centimeters. The water level of the pond can be regulated by a monk - a dam and drainage device in the north of the pond.

Due to the sedimentation since the early Middle Ages, the surface of the water has decreased by about two thirds and the volume by about four fifths; the current volume is around 30,000 cubic meters.

Important sections of the inlet ditches are now interrupted, so that the Roßweiher's catchment area has been significantly reduced. The water level of the pond is subject to significant annual and seasonal fluctuations. In years with little rainfall, the lake can dry up in high and late summer. Sometimes the pond is completely or partially drained (summer grazing), which causes individual plants to be sown. The Roßweiher is still used today to raise young fish.

In 1937 the pond and the area surrounding it were declared a nature reserve. This makes it one of the oldest in Baden-Württemberg today.

Other protected areas

The pond formerly used by the monks of the Cistercian Abbey of Maulbronn for fish farming is part of the cultural landscape surrounding the monastery and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The nature reserve is located in the Stromberg-Heuchelberg nature park , it is also part of the Stromberg FFH area and the Weiher bird sanctuary near Maulbronn . The area is also classified as a specially protected biotope in accordance with Section 32 of the Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Act.

literature

• Andreas Wolf: Roßweiher. In: District Office for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management Karlsruhe (Ed.): The nature reserves in the administrative district of Karlsruhe . Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-7995-5172-7 , pp. 223-226.
• Sebastian Brockmann: The Rossweiher in Maulbronn. Geoarchaeological investigations into the structure of a monastic pond. Newsletter of the preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg, year 2018, issue 4, pages 247–252 (PDF; 7.5 MB)

Web links

Commons : Nature reserve Roßweiher  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Profile of the nature reserve in the LUBW's list of protected areas
• Maulbronn monastery ponds. The nature reserves Aalkistensee and Roßweiher (PDF, 1.9 MB) on lubw.de
• Roßweiher nature reserve at www.schoener-suedwesten.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brockmann, Geoarchäoloische Studium , pp. 248, 251.
2. ↑ Antje Gillich: The water system of the Maulbronn monastery. A project for inventory acquisition with high-resolution laser scan data. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. 46 (2017), ( online , PDF, 816 kB) pp. 275–281, here p. 277.
3. ↑ Brockmann, Geoarchaeological Investigations , p. 251.
4. ↑ Wolfgang Seidenspinner: The Maulbronn water system - relics of Cistercian agriculture and hydraulic engineering in today's landscape. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. 18 (1989), ( online , PDF, 3.8 MB) pp. 181-191, here pp. 183-185.
5. ↑ Wolf, Roßweiher , p. 224.