Totengrund (Wilseder Berg)
The Totengrund is an approximately 30-hectare basin that lies on the edge of the Wilseder Berg near Wilsede , a village in the Lüneburg Heath .
description
It is a basin that was most likely formed during the Ice Age , which is now covered with heather and juniper bushes . In addition to the Wilseder Berg, it is one of the most famous parts of the Lüneburg Heath . The Egestorf pastor Wilhelm Bode bought the site in 1906 with donations. As a result, the Totengrund became the nucleus of the Lüneburg Heath nature reserve established in 1921 as one of the first and largest nature reserves in Germany.
Surname
The naming of the cause of the dead cannot be clarified beyond doubt. There are numerous theories and narratives about what led to the naming. The most likely reason is dead reason meaning . It can be traced back to the fact that it used to be less fertile, i.e. dead soil for the heather farmers, because the valley basin is very arid as a dry valley .
According to a further hypothesis, the deceased from Wilsede should have been driven through the valley on a detour on the way to the burial so as not to use the usual roads.
Without any direct reference to the naming, the Totengrund in the legends of the Lüneburg Heath is the place where the victims of the clash between two hostile and militarily organized giant groups (one from Reinsehlen and one from one) are buried ( cf.Toten - and stone ground near the Wilseder Berg ).
geology
The Totengrund is the most famous deepening on the Wilseder Berg. It is located about 1 km south of Wilsede, which is in the Lüneburg Heath nature reserve and in the Heidekreis district. The Wilseder Berg has an extensive high plateau and a flat summit. It was formed as a terminal moraine during the penultimate ice age, the Saale Ice Age . The surface consists of washed-out, gritty-sandy soils with layers of local stone . There are open sandy areas, large heather areas grazed by Heidschnucken and extensive coniferous forests. At the edges the mountain is diverse with hollows , valleys and small gorges . This includes the valley basin of the Totengrund with walls up to 40 m high. The Totengrund is based on a ground moraine from the Warthestadium as the last section of the Saale Ice Age.
There are four scientifically discussed hypotheses about the creation process of the impressive kettle shape of the Totengrund:
- Ice age formation of the hollow form through the action of ice or melt water
- Subsidence of surface material over cavities in loosened underground rock
- Meteorite impact
- Periglacial formation through erosion processes
So far, none of these four hypotheses has been clearly proven, as there are contradicting findings. Periglacial formation is most likely due to cold climatic processes during the Vistula glacial period, the last ice age. This assumption is based on the fact that valley deepenings with steep slopes also occur in other parts of the Lüneburg Heath, but not with as deep valley basins as on the Totengrund. These kar-like formations were probably created by nivation , with ice age snow deposits leading to steeper slopes.
Excursion destination
There are hiking trails around the top of the Totengrund, offering a good view of the heather and juniper terrain. The grounds of the Totengrund, like most of the heather-covered areas in the nature reserve, may not be entered. Visitors can reach the Totengrund on foot, by bike or by means of one of the numerous carriages from the surrounding villages ( Oberhaverbeck , Niederhaverbeck , Undeloh , Döhle or Sudermühlen), where large parking spaces for hikers have been created.
history
The heather at the beginning of the 20th century
The area of the Wilseder Berg with the Totengrund was known nationwide as a charming landscape at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and attracted numerous visitors who traveled to Döhle by train. Richard Linde (1860–1926), the author of the first monograph on the Lüneburg Heath, described the Totengrund as "next to the Wilseder Höhe the greatest thing the Heath can offer."
At the turn of the century, traditional heather farming had lost its economic basis. Heathland disappeared because they were turned into fields and made fertile with the help of the emerging artificial fertilizer . Many farms and their land were for sale in the heathland. Large areas of heathland were also reforested with forest . The heathland gradually disappeared and, as a result, sheep were also abolished.
In the nearby cities such as Bremen , Hamburg and Hanover , there were efforts by real estate agents to buy cheap land in the heath to build weekend houses for wealthy citizens. This development was initially noticeable in idyllic places closer to Hamburg such as Handeloh , Holm-Seppensen or Maschen .
Private land purchase
The Egestorf pastor Wilhelm Bode was a contemporary witness of the landscape change in the heath at the end of the 19th century. He wanted to preserve at least some distinctive, typical heath landscape images for posterity. In view of the threat of urban sprawl , he pleaded for the preservation of the heather around the village of Wilsede with its special features of the Wilseder Berg and the Totengrund. At that time there was no legal nature protection. The dead ground could only be preserved by buying the area from the landowners. Considerable capital was necessary for the purchase, which the Heidepastor could not raise. Since no state funds were available, this could only be done by purchasing land on a private initiative. To this end, he was looking for a financially strong sponsor , whom he found in the criminal law teacher and university professor Andreas Thomsen from Münster . With the help of his donation of 6,000 gold marks , Bode acquired the Totengrund grounds on July 12, 1906 after sales negotiations lasted for more than a year. Previously, both had made an agreement to keep the dead ground unchanged. But interventions were later necessary, as the heather threatened to disappear due to the vegetation.
The purchase of land only concerned the northern area of the basin, which belonged to Wilsede. The southern half belonged to Sellhorn and had already been reforested with pines by the forest administration. This area was also acquired later and the forest was removed in 1928 so that heather spread over the area again.
Today, the Totengrund grounds are owned by the Naturschutzpark (VNP) Association, which was founded in 1909 and which took over the Totengrund from the buyer Andreas Thomsen when it acquired land around Wilsede around 1910 and still maintains it today.
The nucleus of the nature reserve
The purchase of the Totengrund in 1906 did not mark the beginning of the protection of the core area of the remaining heathland around Wilsede, but marked a successful start. As a result, Bode committed to protecting the Wilseder Berg and Steingrund. His efforts at government agencies initially failed. He turned to the VNP, founded in 1909, which in 1910 bought Wilseder Berg, which was threatened by urban sprawl, for 100,000 gold marks. Later, a lottery approved by the Prussian state brought in 1.5 million marks for the club. With the money, almost 3000 hectares of land around Wilsede were purchased by 1913. Only after the First World War , in 1921, was a 21 km² area under state protection. This area is now in the center of the Lüneburg Heath nature reserve, which in later years expanded to 234 km².
Fight for the heath and the dead ground
In the 1920s, attacks against the newly created nature reserve came from people in the region who saw their interests being impaired by nature conservation . They wanted to reforest the heath or to farm in it.
During this time, two groups appeared in the nature reserve with the Heidewacht and members of the Nature Reserve Association . The Heidewacht, led by a coffee dealer from Hamburg , assumed regulatory police tasks to protect the Heide from visitors, for example monitoring the ban on motor vehicles. A conflict also developed between the two groups, and the quarrel broke out on the bottom of the dead. The Heidewacht had barricaded the hiking trails on the edge of the Totengrund because of the erosion of the slopes by the many visitors. There was a scandal when a group of hikers belonging to the Nature Protection Park Association was prevented from entering.
In 1929 the first heather film was made with the strip at the honey tree . It shows the Totengrund as a dark, romantic beauty. In 1976 there was an international tender by the Nature Conservation Park Association for the design of the Dead Ground, which was won by two British landscape architects. During the implementation in 1980 there were disputes which the association described as inconsistencies with the authorities.
Installation of wind turbines
In 2012, plans became known to erect seven up to 185 meters high wind turbines 4.5 kilometers from the Totengrund between Borstel in der Kuhle and Volkwardingen , which would be visible from the main viewing point on the Totengrund and other places in the nature reserve. The Nature Conservation Park Association fears that the implementation of the plans will endanger the planned candidacy of the nature reserve as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . According to the locally responsible municipality of Bispingen , the regional planning procedure for the wind turbines is already legally binding and the Heidekreis district has been processing the construction applications since the beginning of 2012. The Nature Conservation Park Association announced that it will continue to pursue its objections to the wind turbine by means of a standards control .
literature
- Karsten Garleff: On the question of the origin of the dead ground near Wilsede. In: Naturschutz und Naturparke , Issue 175, 1999, p. 27 f.
- Henry Makowski : The Dead Ground. A “natural monument” with a (club) history. In: Naturschutz und Naturparke , Issue 212, 2009, pp. 12-17.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Dead Ground - A valley of unearthly beauty. In: Lueneburger-Heide.de .
- ^ Friedrich Steudel : Bremer Wanderbuch. A guide for pedestrians and cyclists. 2nd Edition. Winter, Bremen 1905, p. 85.
- ↑ Heinrich Schulz : A Tell ring around Luhe and Aue (= Winsener Geschichtsblätter booklet. 15). Ravens brothers, Winsen (Luhe) 1933, p. 9 .
- ^ Wilhelm Marquardt: Legends, fairy tales and stories of the Harburg district. Volume 2 (= publications of the Helms Museum . No. 16 ). Publishing house Dr. Johannes Knauel, Buchholz 1963, p. 54-56 .
- ^ Wilhelm Marquardt: Of giants, robbers and witches. Legends and fairy tales from the land between the Elbe and Aller . Convent, Hamburg 2001, p. 122-123 .
- ^ Richard Linde : The Lüneburg Heath. Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld 1904, p. 140, see also Friedrich Steudel : Bremer Wanderbuch. A guide for pedestrians and cyclists. 2nd Edition. Winter, Bremen 1905, p. 85.
- ↑ The wind turbine plan kindles a storm of indignation. ( 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. In: Harburger Advertisements and News , June 13, 2012; Naturschutzpark association protests against planned wind farm near Bispingen. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , June 12, 2012.
- ↑ Statement of the Association of Nature Conservation Park on the installation of wind turbines in the field of view of the Totengrund (PDF; 4 MB).
Coordinates: 53 ° 9 ′ 23.5 ″ N , 9 ° 58 ′ 27.6 ″ E