Warns

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The Warndt in the Lorraine map by Gerhard Mercator, 1564–1585

The Warndt is an extensive, around 5000 hectare forest area and includes parts of the German Saarland and the French region Grand Est ( Lorraine until 2016) west of Saarbrücken . The landscape of the Warndt, the largest part of which is in France today, consists geologically of red sandstone , which is traversed by iron ore strips and deposited on coal . The Warndtwald is now a popular local recreation area .

The area is bordered by the Saar and two of its left tributaries, the Bist in the north and the Rossel in the south. It is flowed through by the Lauterbach, which flows into the Rossel in Geislautern . The name Warndt was in a deed of gift from Emperor Otto III. Mentioned in writing for the first time in 999.

As a warned forest, forbidden to the subjects, the Warndt had been a stately hunting ground since the Middle Ages. Prince Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken had a hunting lodge built in Karlsbrunn in 1717 and often used it for large hunts lasting several days. In 1815 the state forest administration moved into the property. In the 17th century, the Warndt was a refuge for French Huguenots . Their settlements in Warndt, in Ludweiler , had a lasting effect on the area, as they brought the glassblowing trade with them and introduced the glass industry to the Saar. Warndt's abundance of wood was used to fire the glassworks . Hard coal mining ended in mid-2005. The art of glassblowers can be seen today in the Villeroy & Boch demonstration factory in Wadgassen .

Places in the Warndt region

and display information about the image
Rehbruchweiher, Geislautern

Industry in the Warndt

  • Formerly a cross-border coal mining area
  • Formerly ore smelting and glassworks
  • Velsen mine
  • Warndt mine

Anthropogenic use

View of Forbach from the Kappelberg / Schlossberg
Saareck Tower on the Kappelberg / Schlossberg in Forbach
Mining museum in Kleinrosseln
Former quarry near Spittel
Gallo-Roman grotto in the Herapel area

Since the Warndt Forest is located on a less fertile red sandstone slab, most of the older places were created on the edge of the forest. The first documentary mentions were for Forbach 1053, Spittel 1210, St. Nikolaus 1270, Großrosseln 1290 and Emmersweiler 1292. Another local foundation phase took place around the year 1600: Merlenbach 1590, Ludweiler 1604, Nassweiler 1608. After that, shortly after 1700, some places emerged that were settled by glassblowers: Lauterbach 1707, Alte Glashütte (vielle Verrerie) 1717 and Karlsbrunn 1717. These villages developed very differently after the Franco-Prussian border in 1815. While there has been a certain expansion of the built-up area on Prussian territory, a coherent mining landscape has emerged on the French side, because under the red sandstone of the Warndt, coal is stored, which sinks in a south-westerly direction into ever deeper layers. Therefore, the French coal pits were dug in the immediate vicinity of the border where the coal is closest to the surface of the earth. The Warndt is surrounded by a ring of former coal mines with spoil heaps. Huge sand pits were used to flood the exploited tunnels again.

The housing estates for the workers and employees were built between the extensive industrial facilities. They are mostly away from the old village locations and offered a new place to stay for those from all over France, the former French colonies and workers recruited from abroad. The mixture of many nationalities meant that the French language quickly established itself and the knowledge of the long-established Rhine - Franconian dialect declined much more than was the case in neighboring Alsace . The new factory settlements are called Cités in France. They are self-contained residential complexes that have their own name: z. B. Cité Hochwald, Cité Belle Roche, Quartier de Guise. Characteristic is their close proximity to forest, field or industrial site, their mostly identical house construction in architecturally undemanding apartment blocks as well as their often completely homogeneous social composition of the residents. There were Cités that were only inhabited by workers, others in which the employees lived, and those in which bungalows had been built for the technical or administrative management staff.

The Lorraine coal mining began in 1828, when the first shaft was sunk in Schoeneck. As a result, a number of private companies emerged, which opened their pits between Stiringen-Wendel, Creutzwald and Falkenberg. They were nationalized in 1946 and since then have been called "Houllières du Bassin de Loraine" ("HBL"). As a result, the coal mining could be designed economically and efficiently modernized. The entire coal area of ​​the Warndt was divided into three mining areas: Falkenberg, Merlenbach and Kleinrosseln. The main administrative seat was in Merlenbach. Similar to the Saarbergwerke, the aim of the "HBL" was to make its operation more economically crisis-proof by adding additional branches of production.

The efficiency of the Lorraine coalfield was on a par with that of the Saarland. At the same time it was the richest in coal reserves, the most productive in terms of per capita output and the most modern coal region in all of France. The main town of the former French coal region was and is the district town of Forbach. Since the city of Cités was built all around, the small town center remained underdeveloped despite attempts to revitalize the architecture, so that many Forbachers buy high-end items in nearby Saarbrücken. The shell limestone step rises south of the town of Forbach and frames the Warndt in the west and south. At their height there are villages with a long agricultural tradition. The main connection from Forbach through the Warndt to the Saar was the Rossel valley , which today forms the border between France and the Saarland. The Rossel caused one of the most difficult water management problems in the Saarland, because until 1968, 900 to 1000 tons of dry sludge were brought into the Saar with the Rossel water every day, so that the Rossel was given the attribute "dirtiest river in Europe". In addition, there was the wastewater from the Marienau and Carling chemical plants, which caused a lot of odor nuisance in the neighboring communities in the Saarland. Coal mining in Lorraine ended in 2004.

Just like the castle hill of Forbach, the Kappelberg, which protected the town in front of it in the Middle Ages, there was already a refuge in Roman times on a steeply sloping hilltop, from which the entire Warndt could be monitored. It is about the dilapidated Gallo-Roman settlement Herapel near Rosbruck not far from the Saarland border. Here at a height of 340 m on an area of ​​about twelve hectares was a larger vicus , which was surrounded by a 1800 m long and up to three meters wide wall. Merchants, traders and craftsmen had settled there until they were driven out by the Teutons in the 4th century and the vicus fell into disrepair.

The Saarland settlements in Warndt can no longer be seen today that they were mostly founded as glassblowing villages . The glass-blowing, which was based on the abundance of wood in the Warndt Forest and which was often run by religiously persecuted Lorraine and Swiss people , did not last long. It was given up in Klarenthal in 1723, in Alte Glashütte in 1766, in Lauterbach in 1773 and in Karlsbrunn in 1791. Today, the Warndt communities mostly have residential functions and have a high proportion of commuters . In addition, the Warndtwald is a popular local recreation area for residents of the surrounding cities and communities.

literature

  • Die Glashütten im Warndt, ed. from the local history association Warndt eV, Völklingen-Ludweiler 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herbert Liedtke, Karl-Heinz-Hepp, Christoph Jentsch: The Saarland in map and aerial photo, A contribution to regional studies, ed. from the Land Survey Office of the Saarland, Neumünster 1974, pp. 46–55.