Wolf pit
A Wolfsgrube is a three to four feet deep, lined mostly with stones pitfall for catching wolves .
Fishing method
Live bait , such as a sheep , piglet or goose, was brought into the pit . The trapping pit was covered with straw. Wolves were attracted by the sounds of the animals in the pit. The last wolves near Hohenwart are said to have been shot in this way around 1850 .
Shape and arrangement
The wolf or bear pits known from photo credits are rectangular. This distinguishes them from catching wolves , whose shape is documented as being round. Stone slabs in the corners prevented a captured wolf from escaping from the pit. So-called wolf gardens , as documented for the wolf garden (Erzgebirge) , consisted of fences built for wolf hunting.
Stories
Wolf pits play a role in various stories, some of which are historically documented, as well as in literature. About the wolf pit in the Hörsteler Wald in Münsterland, it is said that a farmer's wife fell into a wolf pit while collecting mushrooms and shortly afterwards a wolf jumped into the pit. The farmer's wife is said to have succeeded in calming the wolf until the local hunters had killed the wolf. The Wolf von Ansbach , a werewolf according to the belief at the time, was caught in a well and killed (see picture credits). Michel from Lönneberga builds a wolf pit in the episode When Michel gave the feast for the poor , in which the head of the poor house is caught. In the novella Die Wolfsgrube from the old German Decamerone , a nobleman catches his unfaithful wife together with her lover, the priest.
geography
Wolfsgrube has also been preserved as a place name, for example in the Black Forest Central / North Nature Park , as a district of Wolfsgruben in the South Tyrolean community of Ritten and in the Bavarian community of Chieming or as a district of Wolfgruben in the central Hessian community of Dautphetal . The Wolfsgrube Toteisloch in the Fürstenfeldbruck district was recognized in 2005 as one of the most beautiful geotopes in Bavaria. In Wilgartswiesen in the district Südwestpfalz a wolf pit is obtained. The last wolf was shot here in 1908.
Castle building
In a figurative sense, wolf pit is also used to denote a trap pit below a drawbridge . Or "at a fortress the recess [...] which is to be created between the outer thor and the inner ... and the ground there is to be covered with murderous genes [and a] recess for the weight stones of the drawbridges: the ... drawbridges are ... made by being able to raise or lower such with a ... large wheel ... or also do such with a hidden weight, which is located in a wolf pit made for this purpose ... so called wolf pit under the thor. "
See also
literature
- Wolf pit. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 30 : Wilb – Hyssop - (XIV, 2nd section). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1960, Sp. 1266–1267 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- Ilse Haseder , Gerhard Stinglwagner : Knaurs Großes Jagdlexikon , Augsburg 2000, p. 946, ISBN 3-8289-1579-5 .
Web links
- Wolf catching in Mecklenburg at lausitz-wolf.de
- Iris Nießen: built, hunted, forgotten - wolf pits as an archaeological monument. Guest post on archaeologik.blogspot.de (November 13, 2013)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Wolfsgrube in Hörsteler Wald ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.muensterland.de (accessed on August 27, 2010)
- ↑ Northern Black Forest Middle / North Nature Park ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 3.9 MB)
- ↑ Development plan Traunschlacht-Wolfsgrube in Chieming ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)
- ↑ Communication from the Bavarian State Office for the Environment of October 16, 2005 (PDF; 43 kB)
- ^ Historical wolf pit near Wilgartswiesen
- ↑ Wolf's Pit 2). In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 30 : Wilb – Hyssop - (XIV, 2nd section). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1960, Sp. 1266 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).