Segeberger Kalkberg
The Kalkberg is a 91 m high rock in the center of Bad Segeberg , which does not consist of limestone ( calcium carbonate ) according to its name , but near the surface of gypsum (water-containing calcium sulfate) and the core of which is unweathered anhydrite (pure calcium sulfate).
geology
The gypsum emerged from sulphate sediments that were deposited here by the Zechstein Sea about 250 million years ago. Under the mountain lies a rock of salt that still raises the rock by one to two millimeters a year ( salt tectonics ). Like the red rock on Heligoland or the Münsterdorfer Geestinsel , the Kalkberg is one of the few elevations in Schleswig-Holstein that was not caused by the Ice Ages . The mining of the rock salt stock failed in the 1860s; the holes softened. For decades, however , the Solbad Segeberg obtained its brine from them . Natural changes, especially in the visible mountain walls, led to greater safety measures from 2006 (including anchoring and safety nets) in order to be able to maintain the current shape and at the same time the bat habitat that is worth protecting . The rock still has to be constantly checked and secured.
history
Originally the Kalkberg was well over 110 meters high and had a completely different shape than it is today. In the Middle Ages , the Siegesburg stood on the former ridge of what was then called the Alberg . This hilltop castle was founded by Emperor Lothar in 1134 and destroyed by the Swedes in the Thirty Years War . Afterwards, intensive mining of the rock began - after clearing the castle ruins for the first time from the summit. After centuries of dismantling, today's summit only rises 91 meters. Of the extensive castle complex, only the lower half of the well shaft in the rest of the mountain range is preserved today.
As early as 1884, with the start of the Segeberg spa business, the Segeberg Beautification Association tried to preserve the originally bare limestone mountain, which it planted with trees, equipped with paths and benches and equipped with a telescope on the summit. The Kalkberg caves , which are located in the lower part of the rock , were only discovered in 1913 . They are home to bats and the Segeberger cave beetle ( Choleva septentrionis holsatica ), which only occurs here .
Before the First World War , the Kalkberg was the property of the Prussian state, which made considerable profits year after year from gypsum mining. After the discovery of the cave, the Prussian Ministry of Trade and Industry agreed to stop the quarry operations and transferred the mountain and cave to the city of Bad Segeberg in trust with the stipulation of permanent protection. Finally, the mountain was finally purchased by the city in 1922. However, the voluntary commitment to preserve the mountain was met quite late: Gypsum mining did not end until 1931, as a result of which the mountain had lost around nine tenths of its original mass over the centuries.
In the damage caused by the cast mining quarry built from 1934 the National Socialist Labor Service (NSAD), 1935 National Labor Service (RAD) a Thingplace which the Nazi propaganda minister in the presence of Joseph Goebbels was opened in 1937 as "Nordmark public establishment". This gave the city of Bad Segeberg (approx. 5,000 inhabitants) an open-air stage with around 7,800 seats and 12,000 standing places. The Karl May Games in Bad Segeberg have been held annually in today's Kalkberg Stadium since 1952 .
It was not until April 11, 1942, that the remnants of the Kalkberg and part of the cave were declared a natural monument by ordinance . The natural monument only comprised the open rock area and the part of the cave immediately below it. Large parts of the cave system, which was already known at the time, remained legally defenseless. The Protection Ordinance was replaced on September 18, 1995 by a greatly expanded new ordinance that placed the cave in its full extent and the Kleiner Segeberger See at the foot of the Kalkberg under nature protection . Kalkberg, Höhle and Kleiner Segeberger See were recorded here for the first time as a geological unit.
Touristic
The summit platform, which can be reached via paved paths, is a popular vantage point. The view stretches all around far into the Schleswig-Holstein hill country , with good visibility as far as the church towers of Lübeck . A staircase from the summit path leads to the edge of the 43 meter deep well shaft of the former Siegesburg. Visits to the Kalkberg cave in Bad Segeberg are possible from April to September. They are organized by Noctalis .
There is also a Kalkberg in the Lower Saxony city of Lüneburg, the Lüneburg Kalkberg . There the mining of the rock salt dome below was already successful in the Middle Ages.
literature
- Hans-Peter Sparr : The Kalkberg. Natural monument and landmark of the city of Bad Segeberg . Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-7672-1299-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ On this the NABU Schleswig-Holstein
- ↑ See the Lübecker Nachrichten of August 2nd, 2011 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The original height of the Kalkberg results from the addition of the remaining castle well by the dismantled upper half to the former well depth, which Heinrich Rantzau stated in his country description in 1597 ; but J. Hagel already suggested that the opening of the well was not on the highest point of the mountain, cf. Jürgen Hagel: The fountain of the Siegesburg in the Segeberger Kalkberg , in: Die Heimat , No. 8, Neumünster 1955, p. 209. The reconstruction of the historical mountain and the Siegesburg for the city model "Segeberg around 1600" from 2014 in the Museum Alt- Segeberger Bürgerhaus underpins this thesis and makes it clear that the former summit should have been at least 120 meters high.
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 56 '7.8 " N , 10 ° 19" 0.4 " E