Wölbacker

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Wölbäcker at Cold Newton in Leicestershire (England)
NSG Brink, Wölbacker in the Westphalian Münsterland , district of Coesfeld

Ridge and furrow , also Hochäcker or farm raised beds called, came to the Middle Ages through the use of non-reversible plow shares for seedbed preparation . The English expression for Wölbacker / Hochacker is ridge and furrow (comb / back and furrow) or lazy bed . The term "Hochacker" is also used for fields that are laid out in swamp areas, such as the Maya.

description

The drawing illustrates the origin of the bulges of the vaulted bakers

Vaulted bakers represent arched arable beds ( long striped fields) that run parallel and have been formed by a special plowing technique. They were created through the use of iron plows that were pulled by oxen or horses and - in contrast to the later reversible plow - could only turn the topsoil in one direction. In order to have to turn the plow team as rarely as possible, the corridors were laid out in the form of long fields. They were a few meters wide and 100 meters long and more.

The farmer and his team first drew the furrow lengthways in the middle of the field . Then he turned the team and drew the second furrow in the opposite direction directly next to the first furrow (see adjacent drawing), choosing the direction when turning the team so that the clod was tilted towards the center of the field during the subsequent plowing. After turning again, the next furrow was created again in the direction of the previous plowing, namely outside following the furrow plowed before and after. Through many years of plowing in this way, more and more soil was shifted to the middle of the field - the middle of the field was raised, the edges of the field deepened. Peak heights of up to one meter were achieved. Often several vaulted bakers lay next to each other in the association.

Background and locations

On the left Wölbäcker under the forest near Rühren , cut through by a more recent return route

Origin / function

history

Up until the Middle Ages, the vaulted bakers were the most important form of arable soil preparation. The vaulted baker's system, which resulted from the introduction of three-field farming with elongated troughs , is documented for the early Middle Ages . It lasted until around the 18th and 19th centuries, when artificial fertilizers and agricultural drainage made this bed construction superfluous. There are hardly any indications of such land use in pre-Christian times, but there are indications that the conversion of the block field to the Wölbacker field began in the pre-Roman Iron Age . Technically, it was already possible to use Wölbäckers at that time.

function

The reasons for installing Wölbäckern were varied. There are different views and attempts at explanation. A possible purpose is the drainage of damp soils, the enrichment of nutrients and humus , a visible demarcation and risk minimization. In wet years the grain grew better in the middle of the field, in dry years the grain at the edge. The installation of vaulted bakers enabled heavy and moist soils to be used in lowlands.

The change in the terrain morphology or the small relief of the fields resulted in a drainage effect on fresh and moist locations . The surface water was collected in the resulting furrows between the bulges and discharged at an accelerated rate. On poor and shallow soils with a permeable subsoil, the shape of the Wolbäcker had the opposite effect. The water storage capacity of the soil was improved by the accumulated arable top in the center of the bed on shallow sites. Thus the yields could be increased at agricultural marginal yield locations. In addition, the increase in the surface area of ​​the field resulted in an increased cultivation area. Another attempt to explain it is based on the assumption that Wölbäcker were created through the use of the bed plow and that this inevitably led to the bulging of the field. Undoing this process would have required several intermediate operations. In real division areas, which are characterized by narrow plots with different farmers, the farmers wanted to keep their soil together. Plowing should not result in a turning of the clod on the adjacent property to prevent soil loss. This would explain why the bed plow was still used despite the invention of the reversible plow. The function of the boundary marking in small parceled real division areas became less important due to the merging of corridors.

Distribution / locations

Nowadays, the remains of Wölbäcker corridors can be seen in many places in the grassland or under the forest by the undulating terrain. Wölbäcker in forest areas indicate that the forest originated on fallow cultivated land. This can be an indication of the fields of desolation . Many Wölbäcker are unknown because the mapping is complex. With airborne laser scanning from airplanes, arched corridors can also be documented in the forest. Wölbäcker are a vivid example of the history of the cultural landscape and they represent historical elements of the cultural landscape. The fine, small relief structure of the fields shapes the diversity and uniqueness of the landscape.

Regional distribution focus in Bavaria

The well-known regional distribution focuses are within Bavaria:

Main distribution areas in Brandenburg

The following regional distribution focuses are known within Brandenburg:

Main area of ​​distribution Rhineland-Palatinate

In the lower Westerwald, Neuwied district, on the A3 motorway near Dierdorf-Giershofen, a circular hiking trail points to the former Wölbäcker, most of which are now forest.

Distribution focus in Switzerland

The regional focus of distribution is in northeastern Switzerland, in the canton of Thurgau .

literature

  • Karl Hauger, Renate Riedinger, Benoit Sittler: Wölbäcker in the Rastatt district. On the trail of medieval farmlands. In: Heimatbuch 2001, district of Rastatt. 2001, ISBN 3-925553-18-5 , pp. 163-172.
  • B. Sittler: Revealing historical landscapes by using airborne laser scanning. A 3-D model of ridge and furrow in forests near Rastatt (Germany). In: International Archives of Photogrammetry. ISPRS. Vol. 26, 2004, pp. 258-261.
  • Hansjörg Küster : History of the landscape in Central Europe . CH Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-45357-0 .
  • Wolfgang Meibeyer : Wölbäcker and Flurform in eastern Lower Saxony. A contribution to the emergence of the crossing corridor. In: Braunschweiger Geogr. Studies. Book 3, pp. 35-66.

Web links

Commons : Wölbacker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nikolai Grube (ed.): Maya, Gottkönige im Regenwald. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-1564-X .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Bavarian State Office for the Environment (ed.): Historical cultural landscape elements in Bavaria (=  Heimatpflege in Bayern. Series of publications by the Bavarian State Association for Heimatpflege . Volume 4 ). 1st edition. 2013, ISBN 978-3-931754-54-9 , pp. 170 f .
  3. ^ A b Klaus C. Ewald, Gregor Klaus: The exchanged landscape. How Switzerland handles its most important natural resource. 2nd Edition. Haupt, Bern 2010, ISBN 978-3-258-07622-5 , p. 86.
  4. ↑ Hansjörg Küster: History of the landscape in Central Europe. 1997, p. 128.
  5. ^ Klaus C. Ewald, Gregor Klaus: The exchanged landscape. How Switzerland handles its most important natural resource. 2010, p. 87.
  6. ^ Wölbacker: Characteristics of Brandenburg soils. (PDF) Ministry for Rural Development, Environment and Consumer Protection of the State of Brandenburg (MLUV), Press / Public Relations and the Foundation NaturSchutzFonds Brandenburg, November 2005, accessed on November 5, 2017 .
  7. ^ Jon Mathieu, Norman Backhaus (ed.): History of the landscape in Switzerland: From the Ice Age to the present . Orell Füssli, 2016, ISBN 978-3-280-05601-1 .