Teufelsmoor

The Devil's Moor is a landscape in Lower Saxony, north of Bremen. It accounts for a large part of the district Easter wood and extends into adjoining portions of the district of Rotenburg (municipality Gnarrenburg ). The name Devil's Moor is derived from doofes Moor ( Moor deaf ). Geographically, it corresponds to the Hamme- Oste Lowland.

Geography

The landscape of the Moors devil lies in a glacial Schmelzwassertal and covers an area of ​​approximately 500 km ². The lowland is drained by the central Hamme, in their glacial valley, the area is developed. The Wümme and its tributary Wörpe drain the southern part of the region. The area is west of the Easter Holzer Geest limited ( the southern part of the Weser mouths Geest ) and east of the Zevener Geest. At the north end at Karlshöfen meet the two limiting ridge of forming a yoke in the Geest. There was an Ice Age glacier, where the river valley took his output at this point.

The eponymous Teufelsmoor is a ombrogenes raised bog, which passes near the rivers in Lower Moor. It was one of the largest contiguous moors of North West Germany. The oldest sites of this area in Grasberg have on peat body of eleven meters deep and more.

In the center of the bog is the Geest island Weyersberg and by many landscape painters became known Worpswede. Also known is the " Moor metropolis " Gnarrenburg on the northern edge of the devil Moores.

At the southwestern edge of the devil Moors is the same place Teufelsmoor, which is a district of the city Osterholz- Beck.

History

The Devil's Moor was first settled in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1750, began under the direction of Commissioner Moor Jürgen Christian Findorff the colonization of the entire Devil Moorniederung. The settlers were simple servants and maids who competed with the prospect of private ownership and exemption from taxes and military service from the environment. The living conditions in the peat were still far into the 20th century is anything but picturesque. Expression of the very poor conditions are the Low German saying " The Eersten sien Dood, the Tweeten sien Noot, the Drüdden sien Broot ". The life expectancy in the dark and damp Moorkaten was low and marshy soil was not suitable for agriculture.

An extensive drainage network has been created, the main drainage ditches were simultaneously removed as a shipping channels. At that time, intervened massively in the natural and razor millions of cubic meters of peat. The peat was shipped for sale as fuel with Torfkähnen to Bremen. The plotted next to the canals dams served the towing and the development of the single row landscaped street villages, along the lines of Fehngebiete. From the dam from the narrow and very long pieces of land ( hooves ) were processed into the bog. Even today this settlement structures can be seen ( series villages) well in many parts of the communities Grasberg and Worpswede.

Due to the degradation of the peat body and the drainage is also the climatic conditions of the entire tract of land ( meso-climate ) have changed significantly. It was not until the late 19th century dairy farming was expanded. In Bremen, the heating was prohibited with peat because of some winter days, air pollution (smog ) was unbearable. Coal with their higher energy density supplanted the peat. To date, however, an irretrievable loss of the bog ( peat ) is operated. Decisive " land improvement " as Drainierungen, deep plowing and river regulation should increase the yield of agriculture and even allowed agriculture, which is used by the most intensive farming for the cultivation of silage maize as feed.

These measures have been supported since the mid-20th century by various national and European subsidy programs. This went so far that the trenches in summer fall dry, peat fires occur and are used in prolonged drought partly artificial irrigation.

During the period of National Socialism (1933-1945) there were Teufelsmoor in barracks units of the Reich Labor Service, see also history of Osterholz- Beck. From 1934 to the end of 1941 was in Teufelsmoor an occupied also by other cities forced the camp of the Bremer care management.

In the 1990s ( the EC since the mid- 1970s, struggled with the overproduction of agricultural goods, see Common Agricultural Policy) began rethinking land use. With set-aside and rewetting is trying to get the landscape. The Moor in its original form is no longer available. Even still intact Moore - as the Günnemoor - are affected by the industrial peat extraction on. However, there are still remnants ( Torfrücken not abgetorfter areas) visible in the landscape, their restoration because of the altitude is difficult. The dryness promotes the mineralization of the peat body and allows the emergence of woody plants ( for example, the downy birch is a pioneer plant ). Meanwhile, many smaller replacement structures are built on these surfaces.

The value of peatlands as a carbon sink is after the turn of the millennium in the course of the discussion about global warming and the question of whether or how the man can counteract her / is known ( he ) has become.

New development

Meanwhile, the Devil's Moor is located in the " commuter belt " of Bremen, and its settlements grow through the expulsions of land for development and the influx of many "new citizens ". The history of the devil Moores is therefore a special example of the cultural activity of man and his will to survive, but also the influence and consequences of this cultural activity. The history of the landscape and its inhabitants was filmed in 1982 produced by Radio Bremen TV series Teufelsmoor. Therein the lives of several generations of the fictional farming family Kehding is described by the beginnings of land reclamation until the end of the 20th century. Even otherwise, the Devil's Moor is known through numerous television productions, such as a crime scene detective with Maria Furtwängler.

The picture painted by the artists Worpsweder long-range character of landscape can be visited only on small, placed under protection areas according to industrial peat and grassland breaks today. In the update of the Lower Saxony State Regional Planning program was provided by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture, 2010, in Günnemoor - as on other high moorland in the Elbe -Weser region and around Bremen - more surfaces to approve peat. This has been criticized by the CDU parliamentary deputies Axel Miesner, as a renewed industrial mining of the "Vision Teufelsmoor " of the district Osterholz contradicts, according to the sustainable development of the area is intended. The end of 2012 run from the mining permits. Therefore, the contractor applied for new permits. The district has repeatedly shown its strictly negative attitude. In the summer of 2012, the state government has spoken out against a further peat extraction Teufelsmoor. Thereafter, the permit applications were withdrawn. The mining area is to be re-wetted and placed under nature protection.