Sachsenried Forest

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The Sachsenrieder Forest (forestry name: Sachsenrieder Rotwald , seamlessly connected with the neighboring Denklinger Rotwald to the north ) is a historically, economically and ecologically significant forest area in the Bavarian Alpine foothills between Kaufbeuren and Schongau , in the area of ​​two administrative districts: Swabia ( Ostallgäu district ) and Upper Bavaria ( Districts Weilheim-Schongau and Landsberg am Lech ). It covers over 4,000 hectares (together with the Denklinger Forest even 8,200 hectares) and is one of the largest contiguous forests in Upper Bavaria, as well as one of the most productive silvicultural areas in Germany.

Sachsenried Forest

Natural space

The Sachsenrieder forest extends over a hilly ridge (700 to 850 meters above sea ​​level ) between the river valleys of the Wertach in the west and the Lech in the east.

The geological subsoil consists in the northern part of gravel from the high terraces of the Lech, in the southern part of moraines from the Rift Ice Age . Numerous valley cuts drain with brooks to the Lech, which is still very close to nature and forms the nearby “ Litzau Loop ”, a nature reserve.

The forest area, largely uncut by roads and cleared areas - and therefore important for shy and large-scale migrating wild animals - is almost entirely red spruce in contrast to the hardly forested, fertile meadow and arable land in the area . The littered stream valleys and slopes with springs, moor-like wetlands and grasslands are of considerable importance as a habitat for plants and animals.

In terms of soil composition and quality, climate and amount of precipitation, the Sachsenrieder forest has excellent conditions for the growth of the "Sachsenrieder spruce".

history

The eponymous place Sachsenried (district Schwabsoien ) points to the history of the development of many settlements in the region (e.g. Ingenried and the hamlets Erbenschwang, Krottenhill and Huttenried) in the Middle Ages of the Carolingian era : after the subjugation of the Duchy of Bavaria in 788 , Karl der large 794-803 from the area of today's Lower Saxony about ten thousand resettled families, together with servants in remote parts of the Frankish Empire, mainly in the south, to there remaining long-range jungle to build -type regions of clearing and new settlements. Many place names that end in -ried (next to Sachsenried e.g. Ingenried, Königsried , Huttenried) point to this development through deforestation .

The forest was probably part of the extensive former Franconian Königsgut district, the center of which was Kaufbeuren. The Sachsenrieder and Denklinger Forests are documented for the first time in 1059 as a royal donation. At that time the Sachsenrieder forest was also called Königsforst. The place name Königsried still indicates.

Together with the new settlers came "administratores" (administrative officials) of the Franconian kings. These were mostly Guelphs from the Maas - Moselle area . In gratitude, they were given Franconian imperial estates as fiefs from the king . As early as the 10th century , the Guelphs - whose headquarters were in Peiting Castle - were influential landlords with large estates around Landsberg and Schongau . In the vicinity of the Sachsenrieder forest z. B. Altenstadt , Schwabsoien and Schwabbruck , as well as Ingenried , Erbenschwang , Huttenried and Enkenried . A lion in the coat of arms reminds of the Guelphs several times (as in Ingenried) .

From 1555 , a specially appointed forest and hunter master of the Augsburg monastery , located in Denklingen , led the various forest districts. In the local coat of arms of Schwabsoien , a pine cone in the curvature of a bishop's staff reminds of the Sachsenrieder forest as a church property (the pine cone, as the “city pyr”, is also the coat of arms symbol of Augsburg).

After secularization , the now state forestry office was relocated to Kaufbeuren in 1803 and to Dienhausen in 1885 . From 1917 to 1973 it came to Denklingen again.

Sachsenrieder Bähnle and steam locomotive circuit

The lonely forest of Sachsenrieder, hardly accessible by traffic, was always a major barrier for the social and political connections between Upper Bavaria in the east and the Swabian Allgäu in the west. Especially in winter with black ice and snow, the road between Kaufbeuren and Schongau, which sometimes has steep gradients and curves, is still difficult to drive on today.

The Kaufbeuren – Schongau railway was not opened until 1922 . The "Sachsenrieder Bähnle", a branch line of the Allgäu Railway , drove many Sunday excursionists for decades from the Allgau-Swabian town of Kaufbeuren to the stop " Osterzell " or to the stop " Sachsenrieder Forst " (at km 17.0), from where there are hiking trails to the excursion restaurant " Waldhaus ”(see below). There the railway line reached its peak at 818 meters. Between the Sachsenrieder forest and the Upper Bavarian Schongau and Peißenberg , the railway was primarily used to transport pit wood for the coal mines in Peiting and Peißenberg .

In 1977 the line was closed and the tracks dismantled. The district of Ostallgäu and the city of Kaufbeuren bought the route from the city limits of Kaufbeuren to the Sachsenrieder Forst stop and created a regional cycle path on the remaining gravel bed, which is very popular today as a section of the " steam locomotive circuit ".

In recent years, with the support of the EU , the project “ Auerbergland ” , which overcomes administrative boundaries, has come into being, in which “border” communities from both administrative districts around Auerberg, south of the forest area, have come together to cooperate in the tourist and economic area.

On September 29, 2013, the almost 35 kilometer long Sachsenrieder Bähnle themed cycle path between Schongau and Kaufbeuren was officially opened at the former forest station.

Forest house

The wooden hut built in 2014 on the Waldhauswiese

The so-called "forest house" was built in 1864 as a food and shelter house and subsequently became a traditional meeting place for foresters and day trippers. Above the restaurant on the ground floor there was an apartment and office for a forest officer. In 1869 a plantation with exotic trees and bushes was laid out around the forest house, probably as a kind of teaching garden . For many years the first and for a long time the only Bavarian breeding station for breeding queen bees of the Nigra breed existed here . In February 1980, the forest house was demolished because it was dilapidated and there was no electricity and water supply.

The so-called "Waldhaus festivals" are held at irregular intervals on the still existing Waldhaus meadow. A small wooden pavilion including information boards and a memorial stone from the Bavarian State Forests was built on the meadow in 2014 . The wooden hut is reminiscent of the construction of the forest house 150 years ago.

Former deep well of the Haberatshofen desert

Earlier settlement

Near Ödwang in the southwest of the forest area are the ruins of the hamlet of Haberatshofen , which was abandoned in 1845 and fell desolate . The foundation walls, a former deep well and a statue by the old village chapel can still be seen, near which some gravestones peek out of the ground. To the east of the Haberatshofen desert there are remains of a medieval castle stables .

Personalities

August Ganghofer , the later head and reformer of the Bavarian forestry, founder of the Royal Bavarian Forest Research Institute, received his professional training in the Sachsenrieder forest and then worked at the Kaufbeurer forestry office. His son, the native writer Ludwig Ganghofer , who was born in Kaufbeuren in 1855 , got his first childhood impressions of the forest, which was later described in his works, in the Sachsenrieder forest.

literature

  • Helmut Glatz: The inn in the Sachsenrieder forest and other stories , Stolzalpe: Wolfgang Hager Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-902400-59-5 (youth book)
  • Helmut Kögel, Thomas Pfundner: Of boundaries and landmarks around Kaufbeuren. Part 3: An excursion to the Sachsenried forest . In: Kaufbeurer Geschichtsblätter 19 (2012), no. 8, pp. 280–285.
  • Helmut Kögel: Pictures from bygone times: the forest house in the Sachsenrieder forest . In: Kaufbeurer Geschichtsblätter 17 (2006), no.8.
  • Sigfrid Hofmann: Abandoned deep wells in the Sachsenrieder forest (Habratshofen) . In: Lech and Ammerrain (local supplement of the Schongauer Nachrichten), 7, No. 6, p. 1, Schongau 1956.
  • H. Schmidt-Vogt (Silviculture Institute of the University of Freiburg i. Br.): The origin of the spruce Sachsenrieder Forst . In: Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt v91 n1 (197212): 129–142.
  • Gustav Krauss: Site conditions of the thinning attempts in the Sachsenrieder forest . In: Mitt. Ad Staatsforstverwaltung Bayerns, H. 17, Munich 1925.

Web links

swell

  1. ^ According to a thesis by Christian Frank , also taken up by Richard Dertsch ; an archaeological confirmation for the existence of a royal court near Kaufbeuren has not yet been found.
  2. ↑ Topographical Atlas of the Kingdom of Baiern this side of the Rhine ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Bavarian State Library Online @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / zoom.bib-bvb.de

Coordinates: 47 ° 52 ′ 15 ″  N , 10 ° 48 ′ 1 ″  E