Wolfsgarten (Ore Mountains)
The wolf garden between Crandorf and Breitenbrunn in the Ore Mountains was a facility for catching wolves . The facility, also known as the Wolfsgrube , was located in sections 131 to 133 of the former Breitenbrunn state forest area in the forest area between Crandorf and Breitenbrunn, a little southwest of today's Breitenbrunn district of Antonshöhe .
Place name
Siegfried Sieber reports that the area between Kegelberg and the Schwarzwasser was named "Wolfsgarten" or "Wolfsgrube" after earlier trapping pits.
The fact that the facility mentioned at the beginning was still used to catch wolves in the 17th century can be seen from a document in the Saxon State Archives - Main State Archives Dresden .
In a request dated April 2, 1658, the Crandorf community asked the mountain chancellery at the electoral court in Dresden to be exempt from participating in wolf hunting, because the inhabitants' involvement in hunting was dangerous and hindered everyday work. The majority of the people of Crandorf, who lived in 16 farms and 15 small houses at this time, were employed in mining, which had to be dormant during the hunting season. In addition, the wood necessary for the fences of the Wolfsgarten had to be felled and paid for by the Crandorf miners. On May 7, 1658, the Schwarzenberg bureaucrat received the order from Dresden that the Crandorf residents were to be put off until a new instruction was issued until the wolf hunt in the entire Electorate of Saxony was settled.
In his "Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect", Johann Christoph Adelung describes a wolf garden as "an enclosed place in a forest where wolves can be caught".
Wolf density in the Ore Mountains
During the Thirty Years War in particular , the number of wolves increased so much that attempts were made to hunt wolves by all means. Every man was obliged to take part in the wolf hunt, the farmers driving. This "wolf service" still existed in the 18th century. Even in the immediate vicinity of humans, wolves killed especially large game. Because of the high density of wolves, in winter, when the hungry wolves came into the settlements, the ground floor windows of the houses had to be protected with iron bars “for the sake of the wolves”.
Christian Lehmann reports in Detailed Description of the Meißnischen Ober-Ertzgebürges , published posthumously in 1747, in three chapters on wolves, the hunt for wolves and cases of saving people from wolf encounters (Chapter XIII "Von Wölffen" and Chapter XIV "Wunderliche Wolffs- Stories ", Cap. XV" From the arduous Wolffs catch as well as the wonderful rescue of wolves ").
Methods of hunting wolves
Various devices were used to catch wolves. The wolf garden was either provided with a square fence with an opening into which the wolf was driven by men from the surrounding areas during electoral hunts . In the fenced-in area, the wolf could then be easily killed by the elector or his hunters. Other game was also hunted this way. The setting up of nets was also practiced. Chains of drivers, to which the farmers in the area were obliged, drove the wolves into the nets. Before that, hunters found the wolves when the first fresh snow fell. Items such as “Uffn Wald den wolfen pursued” appear in bills from lords of the castle. "Swan necks", pincer-like irons, were also used in wolf hunts. Wolves caught in the trapping facilities were slain with axes and clubs.
Another possibility of creating a wolf garden was to erect a cross-shaped wooden fence about 600 meters long in the middle of the forest, towards which the wolf was driven. At the intersection of the fences, towards which the animal inevitably moved, was a trapping pit covered with brushwood. Occasionally a live sheep is said to have been used as bait.
End of the hunt in the Ore Mountains
Wolf hunts were only possible in winter, as the tracks of the animals in the snow showed their whereabouts. For the farmers the hustle and bustle was very exhausting and also associated with dangers. For this reason, the farmers found the obligations to participate as a driver particularly stressful. In the decades that followed, the number of wolf hunts decreased, mainly due to the declining wolf population in the area. The last wolf in the Ore Mountains was shot at the Jägerhaus in 1816.
In addition to the forest area name Wolfsgarten , the street name Wolfsgrubensteig between Bockau and Lauter reminds of the fishing facilities in the western Ore Mountains. Other names of places, waters and locations in the Ore Mountains are still reminiscent of the earlier occurrence of wolves, such as Wölfeberg , Wolfseifenbach and Wölflebächel in Wilzschmühle .
See also
literature
- Breitenbrunn: History and stories of an Erzgebirge village . Breitenbrunn 1998, p. 36 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ About Aue, Schwarzenberg and Johanngeorgenstadt (= values of our homeland . Volume 20). 1st edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1972, p. 152.
- ↑ Main State Archives Dresden, Copial in Berg- und Hütten-Matters 1658/1659, Bl. 63
- ↑ Jörg Brückner : Wolves hunted in the garden. Document in the main state archive proves that wolves were caught near Crandorf. In: Freie Presse , regional edition Schwarzenberg 33 (1993), number 162 of July 22, 1993
- ↑ Johann Christoph Adelung: Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect, Vol. 4, Sp. 1604 ( digitized from Dictionarynetz.de )
- ↑ a b c d Walter Fröbe : A millennium of Erzgebirge history. Local history in pictures , 2nd edition, Verlag Wolfgang Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 102
- ↑ Christian Lehmann: Detailed description of the Meißnischen Ober-Ertzgebürges , without place and year (1747), pp. 565-579 ( digitized version )
- ↑ On hunting and hunting in the Schwarzenberg rule cf. Walter Fröbe : Lordship and city of Schwarzenberg up to the 16th century , p. 255ff
Coordinates: 50 ° 29 ′ 47.3 " N , 12 ° 45 ′ 57.3" E