Wilhelmsglücksbrunn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wilhelmsglücksbrunn
City of Creuzburg
Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 25 ″  N , 10 ° 13 ′ 48 ″  E
Height : 195 m above sea level NHN
Postal code : 99831
Area code : 036926
View from Spatenberg to the estate.
View from Spatenberg to the estate.

Wilhelmsglücksbrunn is a former estate and a nature reserve in the corridor of Creuzburg , Stadt Amt Creuzburg , in the Wartburg district in Thuringia .

geography

Wilhelmsglücksbrunn is located in the Werra valley , in the north of the Wartburg district in Thuringia. In the local situation, the salt ditch flows into it as a right tributary , it was built as a raft wood path for the salt works . The highest point is the Hopfenberg on the field boundary to Spichra ( 250  m above sea level ). The geographic height of the place is 195  m above sea level. NN . The connection to the road network is made from Creuzburg via the federal highway 7, a path leading to the neighboring town of Spichra, which is three kilometers away, is only released for agricultural and forestry traffic and is also used as a hiking and cycling path.

Salt springs formed through contact with near-surface salt domes and cavities occasionally collapse, which are registered as sinkholes . The associated natural reduction of land lots within the settlement also led to the development of inland salt and brackish water areas with rare plants that also regular flooding in Werra - Floods have to survive. There has also been a pond on the edge of the property since ancient times.

history

Restored main building of the salt works

In the Werra Valley, about two kilometers southwest of the city, salty springs were discovered as early as the late Middle Ages , the use of which was first documented in 1426. Wealthy citizens of Creuzburg began building a salt works with the consent of the sovereign and advised by external specialists. After initial difficulties, the plant produced after an in the XII. Book at Georgius Agricola ( De re metallica libri XII ) described processes using pumping stations and boiling pans. This first saltworks had to be given up in the middle of the 16th century due to financial problems.

After several attempts, also thwarted by war, plague and natural disasters, the Creuzburg salt works under the mining and salt works expert Freiherr von Beust achieved an economic boom that had never been achieved before. With the thorn graduation, a process devised by Beust, the graduation tower was the most efficient solution for brine enrichment at the time. The profitability of the salt works and the quality of the salt could be increased enormously.

In honor of the sovereign, the Saxon Duke Johann Wilhelm , the salt works near Creuzburg was renamed "Wilhelmsglücksbrunn".

Through the promotion and expansion of the graduation house and the development of further brine springs , the operation had been increased annually until Beust left in 1736. The successors lacked luck and technical knowledge, and there was also damage from floods and technical wear and tear on the systems. Around 1800 a last, but unsuccessful attempt was made to get the company going again.

After the sale to private individuals, the saltworks were stopped in 1843 and the technical facilities were dismantled. From the original structure only the administration building, some dams and moats have been preserved. The site was turned into a farm.

In 1905, Kurbad Eisenach GmbH was founded in Eisenach . They acquired the rights to use the Grand Duchess - Caroline - source combined mineral water source at Wilhelmsglücksbrunn. On July 8, 1906, the spa was opened in Eisenachs Südstadt in the newly built foyer there, but the spa was closed after the First World War .

In April 1945, the steep slopes of the Spatenberg served as an advanced defensive position for a Wehrmacht unit in the unsuccessful attempt to thwart the advance of the American leadership and the creation of a bridgehead near Creuzburg.

The then tenant of the Wilhelmsglücksbrunn estate, Werner Prügelmann, wrote down his memories of the end of the war in Creuzburg around 1946/47:

... for security reasons it was recommended that civilians evacuate the property, as heavy fighting was to be expected and the existing cellars could not even offer protection against artillery fire for the people present. In the yard were: my family ... fifty-eight people in all. ... During this time, two women from Trier and a Russian couple remained on the farm, the head milker and the Pole who looked after the livestock. Except for some roof damage, the property remained undamaged. ... During the absence, German soldiers rummaged through all the chests of drawers and cupboards, carried away all supplies, ... slaughtered a pig and left everything in a terrible condition. It was not until Thursday that the first Americans appeared in the courtyard, heavily armed. ... All 15 German soldiers gave themselves up without resistance. Then the weapons were smashed by the Americans and the house examined ... Some low-flying attacks by the German Air Force (followed) ... Our buildings received numerous hits from tracer bullets. ... So we had all kinds of experiences up to the zone occupation by the Soviet military administration.

After the end of the Second World War , the estate initially served as emergency accommodation for homeless people from Creuzburg and those who had been displaced from their homeland ; the owner at the time was expropriated. After the property was smashed and the land was divided among refugees from the eastern German territories, a Creuzburger LPG took over the management of the land. The buildings in the restricted area were at times only accessible to residents of Creuzburg with a valid pass. As a result of a lack of supervision and the agricultural tillage, the former flood and drainage ditches were silted up, the bank meadows used as pasture areas became swampy and could no longer be used for livestock farming.

At the beginning of the 1990s the demolition of the ailing structure of the main building from the manor was imminent, this could be prevented by the purchase of the manor by DIAKONIA Thuringia and the baroque building was lovingly and extensively renovated. The adjacent farm buildings and stables were set up as a work yard and dormitory.

A hotel was built in the main building, which in 2012 was the first to be awarded the title “Thuringian Biohotel”.

Attractions

  • The immediate vicinity of Wilhelmsglücksbrunn is shaped by the Werra floodplain. A reed area several hectares in size and affected by annual flooding north of the access road is under nature protection.
  • On the initiative of the nature conservationists, storks were able to "settle" in Wilhelmsglücksbrunn with a nesting offer. The three young storks that hatched in 2012 were observed by the Creuzburg schoolchildren over the summer months, and a Facebook page was even set up about the storks.

literature

  • Council of the city of Creuzburg (ed.): Creuzburg. 775 years of the city of Creuzburg. 1213-1988. From the history of the city. Progress printer, Erfurt 1988.
  • Rainer Schill, Astrid Thiel: Creuzburg on the Werra. Pictures from days gone by . Geiger-Verlag, Horb am Neckar 1992, ISBN 3-89264-743-7 .
  • Horst Schmidt, Hans-Henning Walter: Creuzburg - history of the Creuzburg salt works . District commission for research into the history of the local labor movement at the district leadership of the SED et al., Eisenach 1988 ( Eisenacher Schriften zur Heimatkunde 39, ISSN  0232-9948 ).

Web links

Commons : Wilhelmsglücksbrunn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official topographic maps of Thuringia 1: 10,000. Wartburgkreis, district of Gotha, district-free city of Eisenach . In: Thuringian Land Survey Office (Hrsg.): CD-ROM series Top10 . CD 2. Erfurt 1999.
  2. ^ Cornelia Schuster, Roland Bellstedt, Klaus Schmidt: Flora, fauna and development of the inland salt stations in the Wartburg district . In: Wartburgkreis, Lower Nature Conservation Authority (Hrsg.): Nature conservation in the Wartburgkreis . Issue 16. Bad Salzungen 2010, p. 96 .
  3. ↑ http://www.wilhelmsgluecksbrunn.de/das-stiftsgut/geschichte.html
  4. ^ Horst Schmidt: History of the Creuzburger Salzwerk. Eisenacher Schriften zur Heimatkunde, Heft 39, Eisenach 1988.
  5. ^ Rainer Lämmerhirt : The fight for the Werra line in April 1945 between Gerstungen and Treffurt . Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza 2005.
  6. ↑ Susanne-Maria Breustedt et al: "... We only saw a red fireball ..." The end of the war in Creuzburg in 1945. Contemporary witnesses report . Ed .: Creuzburg parish. Creuzburg 2005, p. 41-47 .
  7. ↑ Excellent organic farming. Wartburgkreis-Online, March 15, 2012, accessed on March 16, 2012 : “ The Stiftsgut Wilhelmsglücksbrunn is the only hotel and restaurant in Thuringia that is now part of organic hotels in Austria, the strictest association in terms of ecology. The Biohotels-Verein pays attention not only to the use of ecological food, but also to sustainability, for example in power consumption, heating and the use of cleaning agents and works closely with Bioland eV, the leading ecological cultivation association in Germany based in Mainz. "
  8. ↑ Facebook page: All about the storks Clara & Dexter in Wilhelmsglücksbrunn (Thür.)