Via Rheni

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The Via Rheni (German: Rheinstrasse ) was part of an important north-south connection from the Rhineland via the Swabian Alb to Upper Swabia and from there over the Alps to Italy . It is as Via Rheni 1191 documentary occupied and its course through the Schönbuch secured by land tracks and routes names. Contrary to what the Latin name might suggest, this is not one of the well-known Roman roads , although large sections were probably used by the Romans and possibly also in pre-Roman times. In the area of ​​the central section of this street, in the districts of Tübingen and Böblingen and the former district of Leonberg , this street is still known today and can be found on some maps under the names Rheinstraße , Rheinsträßle or Heerstraße . In many sections it is still in use as a field or forest path or road. In itself, however, it lost its original meaning with the emergence of road and path construction in the 18th century and is therefore hardly perceptible in today's landscape as this formerly important trunk road.

history

The Rheinstrasse is part of the Königsstrasse from Italy and from Augsburg and Ulm to Worms and Speyer. On the central part of this route, the trade route from Eastern Switzerland , Lake Constance , Zurich and the cities in the Oberland (e.g. Rottweil , Villingen ) to the Frankfurt trade fair ran for a time . This latter route ran via Herrenberg , Weil der Stadt and Pforzheim and was diverted for a while (at least in a core period from 1466 to 1510) via Ehningen , Dagersheim , Leonberg and Vaihingen an der Enz .

The name "Rheinstraße" emphasizes the importance of this street for the area of ​​the above-mentioned districts. Parts of this region belonged to the diocese of Speyer (= on the Rhine).

As Königsstrasse, Rheinstrasse was Geleitstrasse . The right to escort and to collect customs duties fell under the regalia on the Via Rheni and thus belonged to the king or could be conferred by him.

In 965, Emperor Otto the Great , coming from Pavia in northern Italy , is said to have met with his sons, King Otto II and Archbishop Wilhelm von Mainz , near Heimsheim . Although there is nowhere an official reference to the route he took, based on tradition, it is very likely that the Rheinstrasse is meant.

The Rheinstraße is mentioned in documents under the name Via Rheni in documents from the Bebenhausen monastery from 1191 and 1193, which are written in Latin . The Rheinstrasse still runs between the inner and outer ring of the monastery wall over the monastery grounds.

In 1363, Pope Urban V granted the Church of St. Pelagius von Mauren an indulgence for its visitors. From then until the Reformation, this church was a well-known pilgrimage church, as the large, still-existing building suggests, which was built around 1460/70 instead of a chapel on this small estate. A not insignificant number of the pilgrims will have used the Rheinstrasse.

Individual finds within sight of this road (stele west of Holzgerlingen , barrows south-west of Böblingen ) could indicate that this old road was used, at least in sections, possibly already in Celtic times. The Romans probably also used sections of this road, but probably as a communal road ( via principalis ), because it is not recorded on the Roman road map, the Peutinger tablet . Unlike the crossing Roman road Neckar-Alb-Aare from Köngen via Rottenburg ( Sumelocenna ) to Rottweil ( Arae Flaviae ) and the (unnamed) Roman road from Stuttgart - Bad Cannstatt via Leonberg and Rutesheim to Pforzheim ( Portus ), which from Via Rheni in each case in a section can be used.

course

The course is often not clear. Since the road was only more or less well paved in some sections, it is now only indirectly detectable in the numerous unpaved sections, namely through the consequences of the traffic. Thus especially are sunken roads meant by the use by cattle drive dug and car slowly into the soil and erosion have further deepened. In numerous places these are still more or less preserved today and thus allow the course of the Rheinstrasse to be better localized. However, where the forest has not actually preserved the ravines, most of the traces have disappeared through intensive agriculture.

Coming from Ulm, the Via Rheni runs over the Swabian Alb , leads along the Holzelfinger Steige down into the Echaz Valley and over the Große Heerstraße to Pfullingen . There it crosses the Echaz shortly after the Lindenplatz , climbs the height of the Georgenberg with a gradient of 16% in the area of ​​today's Georgenweg , moves on this over the Steinenbergstraße down to Reutlingen and on to Kirchentellinsfurt and crosses the Neckar there . At Lustnau it branches off into the Schönbuch and crosses it to Bebenhausen in a north-westerly direction, west past the Schaichhof , via Altdorf and east past Mauren to Böblingen -Dagersheim. Today's dead straight course of the Lustnau - Bebenhausen section is probably of Roman origin. In the rocky subsoil of the 450 m long Weihersteig with a gradient of 13% north of the former Bebenhausen monastery , the traces of the wagon wheels that have been dug in over time can still be seen today.

In Dagersheim, the river Schwippe is crossed on a ford that was there until the construction of the town hall in 1964. In the continuation it is first asphalted, then with interruptions as a field path further over the plateau west of the Ihinger Hof and east of the Güthlerhof past the Mühlberg and then descends towards Malmsheim . After crossing the Rankbach on a ford, it turns to the northwest and runs like a fan in numerous routes over the Hohenberg or north through the Tiefental , around this area and then descends to Heimsheim. It leads east of the former old town over the area of ​​today's Heerstrasse, straight past the Gewann Ottenbühl to the Betzenbuckel southeast of Friolzheim .

There it swings west and used the old Roman road coming from Bad Cannstatt to Pforzheim.

Course variants

In addition to the route described here, the literature sometimes gives varying courses, often without considering other routes. The route described in detail above is by far the best documented route. Some of the routes also mentioned in the literature are listed below as variants:

  • For the descent into the Echaztal, the Roman road over the Honauer Steige could have been used for some time , which then runs along the western edge of the valley to Pfullingen .
  • Achalm Castle was founded around 1030 . It is likely that the Via Rheni took this route from Pfullingen when the straight Burgweg (now Marktstrasse ) was built and then turned onto the road to Reutlingen from Eningen .
  • Approx. 1.5 km north of the former Dagersheimer ford, Via Rheni crosses today's Mühlackerstrasse . There, near an ancient linden tree, an old shelter hut and a partially destroyed Gruhe , a route branches off from the described northwest Rheinstraße in a northeast direction. Today this runs as a normal road through Maichingen and Magstadt . Over the horseshoe-shaped forest belt that surrounds Warmbronn , the Rheinstraße fanned out to countless sunken paths, some of which have still been preserved, some of which are impressive. From Eltingen this route then leads west past Leonberg , via Gebersheim , Heimerdingen , Hochdorf, Enzweihingen , Vaihingen / Enz, Maulbronn and Bretten towards Speyer and Worms and to Frankfurt am Main . This route, but especially the section in the Warmbronn area, was evidently very heavily frequented, as indicated by the large ravines in this area dating from before the 13th century.
  • In the second half of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century the people of Württemberg tried everything to force the carters to take the route via Leonberg. At that time, the route apparently ran west around Warmbronn, past the Renninger See and over the Längenbühl , whereby the Maisgraben is still crossed over a stable arched bridge, which could be based on this measure. Thus, a longer route had to be driven on the Württemberg instead of the Baden area, which meant that Württemberg could collect higher road tariffs and other charges.
  • There are indications that there was also a variant from Tübingen via Herrenberg, past Althengstett , Merklingen and Hausen, then in Baden area further past Mühlhausen and Tiefenbronn through Hagenschieß , where it reunited with the main route towards Pforzheim. Traces can still be found in maps or in nature at Althengstett, and from Merklingen to Hagenschieß .
  • Another variant is a short cross-connection: A note reports that the Rheinstraße runs from Ihinger Hof via Weil der Stadt to Merklingen.

The ford in Dagersheim can therefore be seen as the central point of almost all known variants of the Rhine Road over the centuries.

Warmbronn ravines and traffic control measures

In the course of the Rheinstraße there are countless ravines on the slope edges on both sides of the ridge that encloses the Warmbronn valley basin in a horseshoe shape. In the meantime, it has been possible to assign these specific time periods and routes in the Warmbronn area. In this context, an approx. 2 km long moat ("Warmbronner Limes") was discovered along the southwestern edge of the forest, which apparently had the task of bundling the traffic flows coming from the south and leading them over the valley crossing to the west of Warmbronn. This measure is likely to be related to the efforts of the people of Württemberg in the second half of the 15th century to force the carters to use the Leonberg route. Other, much smaller moat systems in this area around Warmbronn apparently have the same function: Protection against the destruction of arable land by wagon tracks, which inevitably arise when trying to avoid difficult-to-pass road spots.

Such ravines, but in smaller numbers, can also be found in the forest area between Mauren and Dagersheim, but occasionally also on the entire remaining route, for example between Malmsheim and Heimsheim and between Heimsheim and the height of the Betzenbuckels .

literature

  • Oberamtsbeschreibung Leonberg I. (1852)
  • Oberamtsbeschreibung Leonberg II. Kohlhammer-Verlag, Stuttgart 1930.
  • Friedrich Essig: Dagersheim - a village history through the centuries. Dagersheim 1966
  • Dietmar Böhringer: Warmbronn ravines - witnesses of a medieval main artery. In: Journal for Württemberg State History . Volume 58, 1999.
  • Eberhard Walz: Leonberg and its age-old traffic misery. In: Living with the Past. Yearbook of the local history association Schönbuch and Gäu eV 2002.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oberamtsbeschreibung Leonberg II. (1930), p. 380.
  2. ↑ Oberamtsbeschreibung Tübingen (1867) , p. 341.
  3. ↑ Oberamtbeschreibung Böblingen (1850) , p. 85.
  4. ↑ Oberamtsbeschreibung Leonberg I. P. 73 , P. 103
  5. ↑ Emperor Otto donates the market in Mauren. In: Eberhard Benz ( arrangement ): "The Häseltrog" - Legends and stories from Schönbuch and Gäu (= publications of the local history association for Schönbuch and Gäu eV Volume 1), Böblingen 1950.
  6. ↑ Günter Scholz: The former pilgrimage church of St. Pelagius in Mauren , on the website zeitreise bb .
  7. ↑ Wolfgang M. Werner: Celtic stele from Holzgerlingen .
  8. ↑ Legendary masterpieces . In: Holzgerlinger Bote. Edition 02/2012, pp. 2-4 (PDF 1.85 MB).
  9. ↑ a b Oberamtsbeschreibung Leonberg I. S. 81
  10. ↑ a b Werner Schaal: Via Rheni. On the trail of the historic Rheinstrasse through the Schönbuch. In: Circular 2001 of the Förderverein Schönbuch eV (excerpt)
  11. ^ Dorothee Ade-Rademacher: Early medieval traffic route in the Upper Gäu. In: Living with the Past. Yearbook of the local history association Schönbuch und Gäu eV 2002. P. 14.
  12. ↑ a b Oberamtsbeschreibung Leonberg II. (1930), p. 379.
  13. ↑ The Schlössle as the guardian of old traffic routes? In: Reutlinger General-Anzeiger from January 12, 2000.
  14. ↑ Dietmar Böhringer: Warmbronner Hohlwege - witnesses of a medieval main artery. In: Journal for Württemberg State History , Volume 58 (1999), p. 61.
  15. ↑ Dietmar Böhringer: Warmbronner Hohlwege - witnesses of a medieval main artery. In: Journal for Württembergische Landesgeschichte , Volume 58 (1999), pp. 52, 54, 65.
  16. ↑ Eberhard Walz: Leonberg and its age-old traffic misery. In: Living with a Past , Yearbook of the Heimatgeschichtsverein Schönbuch und Gäu eV 2002, p. 34.