Wusterau
The Wusterau is a peninsula in the lake area of the Brandenburg Havel lakes . It belongs to the nature reserve “Buhnenwerder-Wusterau”.
location
The Wusterau is surrounded by the Plauer See (west to northeast) and the Möserschen See (southeast to south). The Kirchmöser-Ost housing estate is located southwest of the peninsula .
The Wusterau has an area of 63.4 hectares with a length of 1.7 km and an average width of 300 m to a maximum of 500 m. It extends slightly concave from the west and slightly convex from the east, approximately in a south-north direction. The highest point is 33.8 m above sea level. Since there is a breakthrough between the Plauer and the Mösersche See at its southern end, one should actually speak of an island. Access to the Wusterau was previously guaranteed by a small bridge. Due to dilapidation, it was removed in 2013 and a ford with concrete slabs was created, the depth of which allows the passage of light boats.
At its northeastern tip is a 0.15 hectare (thirty by fifty meter) large, unnamed island with only three trees, which is added to the Wusterau. The islet is called "willow bush" by the local fishermen. ( This island is not shown in the new topographic maps within the ATKIS , as its size is below the minimum size of 0.5 ha of the basic DLM for the recording of islands.) In addition, the islet is often completely inundated during the usual spring floods .
landscape
The landscape of the Wusterau is divided into two parts. The flat southern half is Holocene alluvial land, which is occupied by swamp meadows and bordered on the banks by ramparts. The northern half is largely occupied by two plateaus that rise up to 5 m above the lake level . They are the remnants of a valley sand plain east and south of the Brandenburg Havel lakes, which formed at the end of the Pleistocene when the glaciers of the Vistula Ice Age thawed partly through dead ice . After the dead ice thawed, the areas between different blocks of dead ice remained as isolated plateaus, which today form the islands of these lakes. The southern half of the Wusterau was created through silting processes that made the connection to the "mainland" in the southwest.
The peninsula is surrounded by a thick belt of reeds and reeds , which offers protection and refuge for many aquatic animals. Birch and pine trees in particular grow on the sand elevations .
meaning
Together with the neighboring island of Buhnenwerder and a small area on the edge of Kirchmöser, the Wusterau has been part of the Buhnenwerder-Wusterau nature reserve since December 17, 2002. It serves to protect habitats
- wild plant communities, especially floating leaf communities, willow bushes in wet locations, reed bogs, rich wet meadows and dry sandy grasslands,
- Wild animal species, in particular water and meadow birds, including various Limikolen , and invertebrates, including endangered species of spiders, rophies and butterflies;
- protected species, for example Centaurium erythraea sl, Carthusian carnation (Dianthus carthusianorum) and God's mercy herb (Gratiola officinalis);
- particularly characteristic and endangered plant species, for example river valley species such as swamp spurge (Euphorbia palustris), swamp flat pea (Lathyrus palustris) and long-leaved blue loosestrife (Pseudolysimachium longifolium);
- Specially and strictly protected species of mammals and birds, e.g. Elbe beaver (Castor fiber albicus), otter (Lutra lutra), reed warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) and curlew (Numenius arquata)
as well as the preservation of the park structures on the island of Buhnenwerder because of their special character and the preservation and development of the area as an essential part of the supra-regional biotope network between the lower and middle Havel.
use
In the pre-Slavic and Slavic times, the Wusterau was already used as a settlement area, at least as a seasonally dependent place to stay, as evidenced by a small number of archaeological artifacts. Due to its natural features, the Wusterau was used primarily as pastureland in the past ; today the southern part in particular is leased for grassland use. In order to ensure that the wet meadows are flooded by the spring floods, the banks will be partially flattened in 2014 in order to encourage the spawning of various species of fish (e.g. pike) and the migration of the fry.
On the southern plateau there was a cremation site from 1918 to 1921, on which, in accordance with the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, bomb detonators, which had been manufactured in the Royal Prussian powder factory near Plaue Havel during the First World War , were blown up . The soil was contaminated with toxic mercury and copper to a depth of 2 m . The permissible limit values for heavy metal contamination are exceeded in places up to a depth of 10 cm by 200 to 100,000 times. Because of the acute health risk, entering the Wusterau has been forbidden since 2002 and the peninsula is blocked at the narrowest point at the piercing with a gate.
In 1949, a red-brown obelisk was erected as a memorial on the former cremation site by Soviet soldiers and the Kirchmöser community . It bears a Soviet star and 4 plaques with the names of 85 forced laborers , including children who perished in the forced labor camp in Kirchmöser between 1941 and 1945 during the Second World War . The corpses were initially buried indiscriminately on the peninsula by the National Socialists and only buried in a mass grave at this point after the war. Since the remediation of contaminated sites that has been planned since 2002 has not yet materialized, the memorial is visibly deteriorating and would have to be completely removed and rebuilt.
Ownership
Although some of the island signs still show the Federal Railway Property Office as the owner, who took over the site as the legal successor to the Deutsche Reichsbahn , the Wusterau has meanwhile been sold to the city of Brandenburg an der Havel .
literature
- Ordinance on the “Buhnenwerder-Wusterau” nature reserve of December 16, 2002 . In: GVBl.II / 03, No. 05 . S. 78 .
- Topographic map 1: 10,000, 3540-SO "Brandenburg an der Havel - Plaue" . 1st edition. Land surveying and geographic base information Brandenburg, Potsdam 2005, ISBN 3-7490-2647-5 ( ATKIS ).
- Topographic map 1: 10,000, 3640-NO "Brandenburg an der Havel - Kirchmöser" . 1st edition. Land surveying and geographic base information Brandenburg, Potsdam 2005, ISBN 3-7490-2697-1 ( ATKIS ).
- Topographic map 1: 50,000, L3540 "Brandenburg ad Havel" . 2nd Edition. Land surveying and geographic base information Brandenburg, Potsdam 2003, ISBN 3-7490-3892-9 .
- Topographic map 1: 50,000, L3740 "Wusterwitz" . 2nd Edition. Land surveying and geographic base information Brandenburg, Potsdam 2003, ISBN 3-7490-3900-3 .
- Brandenburg on the Havel . In: Falk City Map 2423 . 4th edition. Falk, Hamburg, ISBN 3-88445-671-7 (1995/1996).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Island tourism. Holzschuher calls for a concept for contaminated Wusterau. In: The Prussian Mirror. (Brandenburg), February 11, 2007.
- ↑ The glory of the dead Soviets is crumbling ( Memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ' N , 12 ° 27' E