Virngrund

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The Virngrund in the east and a little east outside the natural area of ​​the Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains
Schönenbergkirche on the edge of the Virngrund

The Virngrund (also called Firngrund ) is wooded in many places, up to 580  m above sea level. NHN high historical landscape in the Ostalbkreis and in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg ( Germany ).

Name origin

The name Virngrund is probably derived from the Old High German fergunna , which means something like "mountains". In the early Middle Ages the name Virngrund was also used for a large part of the area in the area of ​​the river valleys of Jagst, Wörnitz , Altmühl and Fränkischer Rezat . A diploma from Charlemagne for Ansbach on March 29, 768 describes this area as Vircunnia ( infra Ualdo, qui vocatur Vircunnia ). A castle north of Ansbach is called Virnsberg .

geography

location

Historic landscape

The Virngrund lies between the Württemberg cities of Crailsheim in the north and Ellwangen in the south and south of the Frankenhöhe and Crailsheimer Hart . It stretches from Bühlertann and Bühlerzell in the west over the Ellwanger Mountains to Wört in the east. Its highest point is the 580  m high Hornberg . The Jagst flows through it from south to north . In north-south direction the B 290 and A 7 run through the landscape; the latter runs in the Virngrund tunnel through the Hornberg.

Growth district

The southern boundary of the forest area 4/25 Virngrund runs from the Bühler in the west via Ellwangen to the state border with Bavaria in the east. In the north, the Virngrund growing area extends from the Bühler via Stimpfach to Bavaria. To the east of the Jagst, the growth area also includes a number of ridges that extend north to Crailsheim and do not belong to the historic Virngrund landscape. This includes the area Auf den Wäldern between Matzenbach in the south and Bergbronn in the north and the Kappelwald east of Crailsheim.

Natural allocation

The historical Virngrund landscape is part of the three main natural spatial units foreland of the eastern Swabian Alb , Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains and Central Franconian Basin : The southeast of the landscape in the foreland of the eastern Swabian Alb (No. 102) in the subunit Härtsfeldvorland (102.1) belongs to the natural area Pfahlheim-Rattstädter Liasplatten (102.12) and the west in the Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains (108) in the subunit Ellwanger Berge and Randhöhen (108.7) to the natural area Ellwanger Berge (108.70); Both main units belong to the main unit group Swabian Keuper-Lias-Land (to 10). The east of the landscape belongs in the main unit group Franconian Keuper-Lias-Land (11), in the main unit Middle Franconian Basin (113) and in the subunit Dinkelsbühler and Feuchtwanger Hügelland (113.0) to the natural area Dinkelsbühler Hügelland (113.00).

history

Rulership history

During the Celtic and Roman times, the Virngrund was probably sparsely populated; the Limes , the northern border of the Roman Empire, ran only a few kilometers south. Only after the foundation of the Ellwangen monastery in 764 were settlements established in Virngrund. As early as the 9th century, the Ellwangen Monastery was owned by the Virngrund Forest. Emperor Heinrich II declared the Virngrund in a document dated September 5, 1024 to be a ban forest and gave it as a fief to the Ellwangen monastery. The document has not been preserved, but it was confirmed by Barbarossa in 1152 and by Ludwig the Bavarian in 1335 . At that time the boundaries of the Virngrund were roughly on a line connecting today's towns of Hüttlingen , Stödtlen , Wört , Matzenbach , Gerbertshofen , Stimpfach , Bühlertann and Sulzbach .

King Conrad IV granted the Walter von Limpurg tavern between 1241 and 1251 a hunting right that also extended to part of the Ellwang forest. As a result, the Limpurg monastery and the taverns competed for the western part of the Virngrund. The taverns prevailed in the long term and until 1410 they owned the area west of the Blinden Rot , about a quarter of the Virngrund.

Settlement history

Monk cells were established in the forest from the Ellwangen Monastery . The present-day localities Jagstzell , Bühlerzell and Eigenzell developed from them . The clearing began in the 9th century, in the 12th and 13th centuries the proportion of forest in Virngrund was lower than it is today. After 1300, but especially between 1400 and 1450, many of the small settlements established in Virngrund were abandoned. In the Ellwangen district, 33 out of 61 identifiable settlements are said to have been abandoned. It is believed that this sequence of clearing and desertification promoted fir, spruce and pine.

Forest path in the Virngrund
Construction of wind turbines in the Virngrund Forest in September 2016

Forest use

The high proportion of coniferous wood, especially spruce, is characteristic of the Virngrund .

There is evidence that resin was mined in Virngrund between 1335 and 1859 , the main buyers were Nuremberg craftsmen. Only the spruce was resinated . In order to preserve their existence, the need for firewood was covered by cutting the fir and deciduous trees. The resin weakened the spruce trees, and the red rot penetrated the resulting wounds . Pure spruce stands developed that were susceptible to windthrow and bark beetles . From 1726 onwards, the Ellwang administration tried to buy up resin rights and reduce forest damage through resin regulations.

The pasture use of the forests had an even more damaging effect. Goat pasture was banned in 1588, but this ban had to be relaxed soon. The forest administration tried since the beginning of the 17th century to keep grazing damage to a minimum by means of pasture regulations, cutting and fencing. However, they made the mistake of leaving the most nutrient-poor forest locations to cattle and litter use . After 1800, around Ellwangen people started feeding their stables, and forest pasture was discontinued.

The sawmill of Keuerstadt (between Jagstzell and Ellenberg ) already existed before 1337, making it the oldest known saw in the Swabian-Franconian Forest . Around 1430 there were six sawmills in Virngrund. Their early appearance in the Virngrund is probably due to the fact that there were many spruce trees there earlier than anywhere else.

From the forests of the Virngrund large amounts of firewood and charcoal were sent to the glassworks in Rosenberg (from around 1380), the blast furnace in Abtsgmünd (from 1611), the ironworks in Wasseralfingen (from 1671) and Königsbronn (from 1651) and the Schwäbisch saltworks Hall delivered.

After a number of wind turbines have already been built on the edges of the Virngrund Forest , parts of the forest areas have been used for wind farms since 2016.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  2. ↑ Viktor Burr : Vita Hariolfi . In Ellwangen 764–1964 . Schwabenverlag Ellwangen, 1964, p. 41.
  3. ↑ Hans-Gerd Michiels, S. Koller: The local boundaries of the beech - the example of Virngrund. ( Memento of the original from March 30, 2016 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. In: AFZ-The forest. Volume 15, pp. 788-790, online version from March 7, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.waldwissen.net
  4. ↑ Land survey office Baden-Württemberg: Topographic map 1: 50,000, L6926, Crailsheim.
  5. ↑ Wolf Dieter Sick: Geographical land survey: The natural space units on sheet 162 Rothenburg o. D. Deaf. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1962. →  Online map (PDF; 4.7 MB)
  6. ^ Franz Tichy: Geographical Land Survey: The natural spatial units on sheet 163 Nuremberg. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1973. →  Online map (PDF; 4.0 MB)
  7. ↑ a b Karl Fik, Hubert Häfele: Ellwanger Weiher, Fischwasser und Bächen in the 15th century . In: Ellwanger yearbook 1981/1982. Volume XXIX, published by the Geschichts- und Altertumsverein Ellwangen, pp. 146–149.
  8. ↑ a b c Erhardt Hasenmaier: From the primeval forest to the near-natural commercial forest . In: Ellwanger Jahrbuch 1989. edited by Geschichts- und Altertumsverein Ellwangen, pp. 267–278.

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 1 ′ 16 "  N , 10 ° 12 ′ 3"  E