Customs beech
The customs beech ( 399 m above sea level ) describes a crossroads in the central Hessian Gladenbacher Bergland on the Aar - Salzböde watershed at the point between the communities of Gladenbach and Bischoffen , where today's state road 3047 branches off from the federal road 255 to the south in the direction of Gießen . The customs beech is a term that has grown over the centuries for a geographically interesting, historically significant and widely known geographical point in central Hesse.
history
On the ridge, which begins at the Angelburg (mountain) and ends in the Giessen basin, also ran the route of a possibly prehistoric high path ( Westfalenweg ), which is followed today by the L 3047 from the customs beech. The term customs beech probably comes from the time when the territory of the Gleiberger counts ended here (1075–1129). The tariff book marked to 1628 the boundary between Hesse-Darmstadt and the county Solms . Until then, the area around Hohensolms and Königsberg belonged jointly to Hesse and Solms. In a treaty dated October 30, 1628, Hesse renounced the office of Hohensolm , the other part, the office of Königsberg , came to Hesse and with it the area of the greater municipality of Bischoffen with the customs beech . As a result of the Hessian regional reform of 1974, the area of today's municipality of Bischoffen, which until then had belonged to the Biedenkopf district, was added to the newly formed Lahn-Dill district. This shifted the district boundary. At the customs beech, the district boundary now runs between the districts of Marburg-Biedenkopf and Lahn-Dill district .
About the customs Beech (s. Literature S. 343-366) ran the scale from 1359 to 1374 " Außenheege " section of the central Hessian Landheege , 20-30, in places up to 50 m wide and a total of about 16 km long boundary hedge made of hornbeam and thorn bushes, the traces of which can still be traced in the forest on the customs beech . This outer Landwehr , created by the Landgraviate of Hesse between 1359 and 1374, was intended to protect the Landgraviate of Hesse, in particular the later Office of Blankenstein , from incursions and attacks by the Counts of Nassau. In the course of the "100-year Dernbacher Feud " (1230 to 1336), a warlike dispute over sovereignty between the Landgraves of Hesse on the one hand and the Counts of Nassau and the Archbishop of Mainz on the other, fierce fighting had occurred again and again.
In the years 1817 to 1825, the Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt had the road from Biedenkopf to the Zollbuche built as the first “art road” in the hinterland . After that, the sections to Gießen and 1838-1840 in the direction of Niederweidbach to the Nassau border behind Bischoffen were expanded. After the construction of the new roads, the Hesse-Darmstadt customs office in Bischoffen was relocated to the customs beech. The customs office was not lifted until 1854. We can only guess whether there was a customs office here when the area belonged exclusively to the County of Solms (high Middle Ages ).
In March 1945 a British bomber (Lancaster BX) that a German night fighter (an Austrian major) had shot down near the Zollbuche crashed. On March 28, 1945, when the Wehrmacht withdrew from the Zollbuche, a German soldier was run over by a tank and killed. The “soldier's grave” bears witness to this tragic event to this day.
Before 1945 the customs beech was the location of an ancient, mighty beech. In 1945 a copper beech was planted in the same place, which had to be felled on February 8, 2001. Years of exposure to road salt and exhaust gases damaged them so badly that they were no longer stable.
The popular forest restaurant "Endbacher Platte" near the Zollbuche was closed in 2006 and no longer exists.
The howling oak
North of the Zollbuche, just under 1 km away, stands the "Heul-Eiche", a mighty, centuries-old border oak (350 to 400 years old) on a saddle of the ridge of the "Endbacher Platte" which tapers to the east. The only duty-free direct north-south connection from the Hessian hinterland to Giessen ( Westfalenweg ) and on to Darmstadt once ran over this saddle, coming from the Perftal, via Bottenhorn and further via Wommelshausen and Hütte . The hinterland subjects who moved to the southern Hessian regions as migrant workers (harvest workers, reapers and threshers) or migrant traders (wool merchants, "stocking men") or who enlisted in the Hesse-Darmstadt garrisons for military service, had to pass here and were at the howling - Oak said goodbye with tears - hence its name. From 1901 to the Second World War, the Heul-Eiche was the farewell point in the opposite direction for the people of Oberweidbach who had to join the military or otherwise left their homeland for a long time. The station in Wommelshausen-Hütte on the Aar-Salzböde-Bahn was the closest to Oberweidbach.
Hazardous route B 255 in the "Zollbuche" area
The serpentine, steeply sloping section of the B 255 between the Gladenbach-Weidenhausen district and the Zollbuche has always been a natural obstacle to traffic. There are speed restrictions here. The danger of this section of the route is often underestimated, especially by motorcyclists. Driving too fast has resulted in several accidents with serious injuries or death. In order to get to know this section of the route, which is popular with motorcyclists, and to point out the danger points, a road safety day was held at the customs beech in 2005, 2007 and 2009. The route was closed to road traffic and motorcyclists were only allowed to drive in the company of instructors. Numerous topics related to road safety were offered as a supporting program.
reachability
The customs book is no longer named in the current official map material.
- From the direction of Marburg (approx. 25 km): Take the B 255 towards Herborn.
- From the direction of Giessen (approx. 29 km): Take the L 3047 towards Gladenbach.
- From Herborn (approx. 28 km): Take the B 255 in the direction of Marburg.
Natural space
The name Zollbuche stands in the system of natural space units for a sub-unit of the main unit Gladenbacher Bergland in the main unit group Westerwald - see Zollbuche (natural space) .
literature
- Homeland book: Weidbach 1200 years . Publisher: Interest group Weidbacher Vereine e. V., Druckhaus Marburg 2002. Article: "The customs beech near Oberweidbach, historical border town on forgotten paths".
References
- ↑ Horst W. Müller: "Heul-Eiche und Dicke Eiche", Hinterländer Geschichtsblätter, Biedenkopf, No. 3, October 2002, pp. 49–51
- ↑ Press article at www.polizei.hessen.de
Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 5.6 " N , 8 ° 30 ′ 48.2" E