Wentorf Lohe
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The Wentorfer Lohe is a former training site northeast of the former garrison town of Wentorf near Hamburg .
history
With only about 250 hectares, the tan was not very large. Nevertheless, the variety of meadows with alternating wooded areas on the site offered the tank grenadier battalions stationed in Wentorf the opportunity to practice military emergencies.
Before the military use, the areas were cultivated by farmers. Until the 16 Panzer Grenadier Brigade moved to Wentorf around 1970, animals and fields dominated the area. Until the mid-1970s there was no proper system of trails. The practice area was also only half of its current size. With the relocation of the Panzer Grenadier Battalion 163 from the Douaumont barracks (today Helmut Schmidt University ) it became clear that the previous area no longer corresponds to the exercise plans. It was therefore decided to expand and bought additional areas in the Sachsenwald and Wohltorf. The farmers were expropriated and the buildings torn down. Remains of this past can be found today on the meadows and the curtains that bordered the farmers' fields.
After massive protests by neighboring communities about the expansion, a path system worth several million DM was also created. From then on there was a lot of use by the Bundeswehr in the Wentorfer Lohe.
Until 1982 a shepherd took care of the meadows and the landscape. In 1984 the old shepherd's house was demolished. The site administration (StOV Wentorf) then took on this task.
With the dissolution of Panzergrenadierbrigade 16 in Wentorf and Elmenhorst, the Lohe had lost its direct basis of use. Until April 1, 1997, the area was still a military security area and was used as a training area for the Federal Border Guard from Ratzeburg and the remaining associations (InstBtl 6) from the Lettow-Vorbeck barracks in Hamburg-Jenfeld and temporarily by tank grenadiers from Bad Segeberg (PzGrenBtl 182) and Hamburg-Fischbek (PzGrenBtl 72). In the course of further austerity measures, the military use was given up in early 1997. Then the Federal Property Administration tried to sell the site.
After the initial idea of the surrounding communities to purchase the site themselves, the project was abandoned in view of the communities' financial situation.
The current aim is to be able to preserve the Wentorfer Lohe as a natural heritage. Despite efforts to secure the site, extensive and extremely controversial felling work was carried out by the federal forests in the period from October 2007 to March 2008. 90 percent of the valuable wood stocks - beech and oak - were removed from the site and the character changed.
Flock of sheep in the Wentorfer Lohe
View of the meadows in the Wentorfer Lohe
Wentorfer Lohe in winter
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 30 ′ 15 ″ N , 10 ° 17 ′ 25 ″ E