Haardt

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The Haardt ( brighter ) than the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest

The Haardt is an approximately 30 km long, 2-5 km wide and up to 673 m above sea level. NHN high Mittelgebirgszug on the eastern edge of the Palatinate forest ( Rhineland -Palatinate).

Geoscientifically it is passed as one of the 81 landscapes in Rhineland -Palatinate and marks the steep drop of the Palatine - Saarland cuesta country against the wide Talniederung the Upper Rhine Graben. It forms one of the four subunits of the Middle Palatinate Forest in the natural spatial structure concept of the Middle Mountains.

• 3.1 Forest History
• 3.2 Current forest structure

Name

The name comes from the Old High German Haardt hard and actually means mountain forest or wooded hillside, where the term refers mainly to rural forests used. The term is used in the German language in various language variants with d, t or th used at the end or with one or two a. He frequently appears in the forest name as Hardt forest near Karlsruhe and in place names such as Haardt, the wine village above Neustadt, or hard bei Speyer. Using the example of resin or the lemma of this article it is clear that the designation of entire mountain range or its parts can be traced back to this root word.

Derived from the Haardt are also the names of upper, middle and lower Haardt for the sections of the Palatinate Wine Route. They are, however, similar to the name Haardtrand for the same region, no longer familiar.

Not enforced has around 1960, derived from the Haardt name Haardtgebirge for the entire Palatinate Forest and the New Town mountainous border for the Haardt themselves how they were used in the manual of the biogeographic division of Germany and the follow-up sheet Landau.

Geography and Geology

Fracture line to the Rhine Graben

The Haardt forms the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest and extends from the devil stone north of Bad Durkheim to Orensberg above Albers hamlet in Queichtal (see also map in the infobox ). Morpho and geologically it is a section of the western fault line of the Upper Rhine Graben ( Upper Rhine Valley ), an ancient strain zone of the earth's crust. At this elongated lowland himself closes the east of the Haardt as a narrow hilly landscape strip the vines of the wine route to, in passing the German Wine Route.

To the west of the mountain range is determined by the Lambrechter rejection from the inner Palatinate Forest. This named after the place Lambrecht fault line runs at a distance of about 2 up to 5 km parallel to the grave edge and has led to the displacement of various rock layers by 80 to 100 meters. Therefore, as a further found in a correspondingly lower level in the West in the Haardt for example, the formations of the Lower or Middle Buntsandstein.

Striking mountain

Among the mountains of the Haardt - sorted by height in meters ( m) above mean sea level ( MSL ): ( after the dash in each case the situation in the south (south of Speyerbach ) and north ( between Speyerbach and Isenach ) Haardt and the northern spur Haardt (north of the Isenach ); mountains in the west adjacent landscapes in lower case)

• Kalmit ( 672.6 m) - south, County Southern Wine Route; highest peak and the Palatinate Forest; with transmitter Kalmit and a rock sea Pigeons head ( 604 m) - East summit, town of Neustadt on the Wine Route

• Eckkopf (516 m) - East Summit, district of Bad Durkheim; with a lookout tower

Height profile

Assigns to the main orographic mountains from north to south, then the following height profile results ( positioned according the separation flows; left to lowercase before a slash ever west immediately adjacent mountains, where these are higher):

• Peter Kopf (487 m) / Devil's Stone (317 m) Isenach - to Bad Durkheim

• Swabia Bach - Friedel Home

• Wachenheimer Bach - by Home Guard on the Wine Route

• Mußbach - after Mußbach

• Speyerbach - to Neustadt on the Wine Route

• Altbach ( Flußgraben ) - to Saint Martin

• Tiefenbach - to Edenkoben

• Modenbach - to Edesheim

• Hainbach - after Essingen

• Queich - Landau in der Pfalz

Flora

As I suspect the etymological analysis of the term " Haardt " manner (see section name ), the forest is the all-pervasive element of the landscape in this part of the Palatinate Forest.

Forest history

Before human intervention, the Haardt was covered around since the 3rd millennium BC, mainly of oak, beech and some autochthonous pine stands, to those with advance of the Romans in the 1st century AD, nor was come, the sweet chestnut, which mainly in the climatically nether regions of today Palatinate Forest, good growing conditions vorfand.

Since the Middle Ages, especially since the epochs of the Salian and Hohenstaufen, involved extensive colonization and development measures of the central mountain range, so that in consequence a diverse rural use of the mountain forest was possible. This was particularly true for the forests of the Haardt that were easily accessible from the eastern, even then relatively densely populated wine region. Initially on the mere collecting of wood and berries as well as hunting in the foreground, so it later made ​​increasing population pressure and the emergence of large commercial enterprises (such as paper mills, iron and glass works ) necessary to the forest and more systematically as a source of fuel and building material exploit. Also, for the wine was the Haardt of particular importance since been removed, for example, for the investment of vineyards wooden poles mainly chestnut forests ( " Kammertbau "); for fertilization of Wingerte and as bedding for the stable served needles and leaves, you zusammenharkte on the forest floor.

This overuse led over the centuries to massive damage, yes devastation of many Haardt forests. The permanent removal of organic matter depleted the soil so that only the least demanding tree species, namely pines - could exist - often in crippled form. It was not until the establishment of a regulated forest management made ​​in the 18th and 19th centuries this exploitation to an end. Especially in the 19th century, the devastated areas were systematically planted by the former Bavarian State Forestry Administration, which because of damaged soils here especially pine were used. Further improvements were made in the 1950s and 1960s. With targeted forestry programs was trying to remodel the existing pine monocultures to mixed forests and thereby bring about a gradual Meliorisierung the impoverished soils. These efforts, however, was so far little success according to Meyer ( 1996).

Today's forest structure

Without human intervention, the Haardt as well as the entire Palatinate Forest would be covered primarily by relatively species-poor oak and beech forests Luzulo. Centuries of farming and forestry use (see Section forest history ), however, led to a very different kind of economic forest, which made ​​up 84 percent of coniferous and only 16 percent of deciduous trees. It takes not to be expected as a result of the history of the Haardt Forest differently, the pine with 70 percent area fraction the top position, while other conifers such as Douglas fir (7 percent ), Spruce (4 percent) and Larch ( 2 percent) play only a minor role ( see table below ). The hardwoods poorly represented mainly consist Book - together, also of oak and chestnut trees, each with 4 percent - 6 percent area fraction; while chestnuts are mostly to be found in heat- favored lower elevations on the eastern foot of the Haardt, where they often occur in larger flocks.

Deficits also arise in forest composition because pine monocultures ( " pure stands " ) take still 55 percent higher than half of the total forest area, while mixed stands - pine trees with usually under constant beech and sessile oak - at 45 percent area fraction in comparison with other growth districts of the Palatinate Forest are underrepresented.

Also, the age structure of the Haardt Forest has asymmetrical features. The average age of the trees is 75 years, with stocks in the age range of 1 to 80 years dominate, older (160 years or more ), however, completely absent. Pines are relatively evenly represented in different age classes, while outweigh younger specimens with chestnuts, pines and especially Douglas. These data refer to the major programs for reforestation in the 19th century and more recent developments in the second half of the 20th century ( for more details see Section forest history ).

History

From the medieval period the numerous castles and ruins, the most famous of the Hambach Castle is the originally called Kästenburg and because of the Hambach Festival of 1832 was a symbol of freedom.

For details on the history of the Haardt see Palatinate Forest.