Hotzenwald

Coordinates: 47°39′N 8°02′E / 47.650°N 8.033°E / 47.650; 8.033
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Location
Hotzenwald region - narrower and wider definitions highlighted
Hotzenwald region - narrower and wider definitions highlighted
State: Baden-Württemberg
Counties:
Lörrach
Region: Hotzenwald
Topographic map of the Hotzenwald

The Hotzenwald is a

Waldshut
. Its headquarters was the Waldvogteiamt.

Location and topography

Hotzenwald landscape near Ibach

The region of Hotzenwald is not precisely defined in the records. In a narrower sense the Hotzenwald is the southernmost region of the Southern Black Forest, bounded in the west roughly by the

St. Blasien, in the east by the hill ridge between the Alb and Schlücht rivers, and in the south by the High Rhine and Klettgau rivers. This definition of the Hotzenwald more or less covers the same area as the territory of the former County of Hauenstein
.

In a wider sense, other regions may be counted as part of the Hotzenwald that were linked to

St. Blaise Abbey or the County of Hauenstein, both of which were historically important in the Southern Black Forest. These additional areas include, for example, the parish of Gersbach (Schopfheim), which was first mentioned in 1166 by the gift of a church to St Blaise Abbey. This parish lies immediately northwest of the Wehra. Others include the regions in the northwest as far as the middle and upper reaches of the Wiese river and in the east to the hill ridge between Schlücht and Steina
rivers.

Whichever definition is used, the region mainly covers the central and high areas of the Southern Black Forest. It climbs rapidly from the level of the High Rhine (about 300 m above 

plateaux and high valleys
.

The rivers in the Hotzenwald generally form high valleys in their upper reaches and cut deeply into the basement of the Black Forest rocks in their lower reaches. They follow the downslope of the Southern Black Forest from north to south before emptying into the Rhine as right-hand tributaries. The main rivers in the Hotzenwald region, from west to east, are the Wiese, Wehra, Murg, Alb, and Schlücht.

The parishes in the heart of the region are

Dachsberg and Görwihl
.

Geology

Basement

The oldest rocks occurring in the Hotzenwald are

granite porphyry and lamprophyre. Near Laufenburg, the Kleiner Laufen
rapids broke through the basement; today they are impounded.

Platform

In the eastern and southeastern Hotzenwald platform rocks cover the basement. According to field research in the area of

bunter sandstone is an average of 15 metres thick and divided into three elements: the upper stratum of 8 metre thick Röt clays; beneath it a roughly 5 metre thick sandstone layer mixed with carnelian (the Carnelian horizon); and, at the bottom, above the basement, a roughly 2.5-metre-thick stratum of Mühl sandstone.[1]

Glaciers

During the

Hottingen. The finds from the Alpine gravels of the Riß ice age indicate that the glacier flowed from the Alps to a point north of Waldshut-Tiengen. A confluence of the Black Forest Glacier and the Alpine Glacier is highly unlikely to have taken place.[1]

Vegetation

Blumenbinse (Scheuchzeria palustris)

After the ice age the Hotzenwald region experienced a tundra climate. There is evidence of beech being the dominant species of tree up to 600 B. C.. In addition, grain pollen, which dates to a similar period, is an indication of the first settlement of the Hotzenwald. Around 1,000 A. D. spruce superseded beech as the predominant tree species.

Glockenheide (Erica tetralix)

The

nature reserves
; in 1998 there were 10 of them. In addition, attempts have been made to regenerated some of the old bogs.

The forests in the Ibach/Dachsberg area and the Upper Forest (Oberwald) consist mainly of firs, beech and spruce. In the poorly drained hollows these are interrupted by bogs or spruce woods. In the second half of the 20th century several areas of highland pasture were turned into forests. Likewise during this period, reforestation of the steep heads of the valleys, mountainsides and unused valley grasslands was begun. By contrast, the terraced slopes of the outer forests were largely cleared.

On the high pastures the winged greenweed plays an important role.

References

  1. ^ a b c c.f. Helge Körner: Der Hotzenwald, a.a.O., pp. 29ff.
  2. ^ vgl. Helge Körner: Der Hotzenwald, a.a.O., pp. 1ff.

Literature

Film

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hotzenwald.

47°39′N 8°02′E / 47.650°N 8.033°E / 47.650; 8.033

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