Dresdner Heide
Encyclopedia
The Dresdener Heide is a large forest
in the city
of Dresden
. The Heide is the most important recreational area in the city and is also actively forested. Approximately 6.133 Hectare
of the Dresdener Heide are designated as a nature preserve, making the Heide one of the largest city forests in Germany by area. Though mainly agricultural areas border the forest in the east, in all other directions the Dresdener Heide is bordered by districts of the city and reaches nearly to the city centre in the southwest.
The forest indicates a transition, both in its geology
and in its plant and animal life, between the north German plain and the Mittelgebirge
. Except for small areas, the Dresdener Heide is considered part of the western Lusatian Highlands and, consequently, is one of the westernmost parts of the Sudetes. Though the rocky subsoil
of the forest was raised during the tectonic formation of the Dresden Basin
, the mixed woodland of the Heide is largely characterized by dune-like sand deposits of the Wolstonian Stage and Kansan glaciation
. The proximity of the Dresdener Heide to the centre of Dresden lead to its history as an electoral hunting ground, as well as the cultivation and cultural impression of the Heide.
. in contrast to the other areas of this administrative area, the 4,836 hectare region isn't considered an urban district, but forms a full-fledged district of the same size. Smaller regions on the edge of the Heide belong to the administrative districts of Neustadt and Klotzsche
, as well as to the city of Radeburg
. In the south, the main part of the Heide stretches between Loschwitz
and the Waldschlösschen district, to the slopes of the Elbe
and to Radeberger Vorstadt. The southernmost offshoots even border on the heavily populated Äussere Neustadt
. In the west, the forest meets Albertstadt and Klotzsche
. In the north, it is bordered by the Weixdorfer districts of Lausa and Friedersdorf as well as by Langebrück and Liegau-Augustusbad. In the east the forest is bordered by the city of Radeberg
and its districts of Großerkmannsdorf and Ullersdorf.
The Junge Heide ('Young Heide'), the smaller part, is to the west of the main part of the Heide in the northwest of Dresden. It's bordered in the north by the districts of Wilschdorf and Hellerau
, in the east by the Heller and in the south by Trachenberge and Trachau. In the west the Junge Heide meets the Radebeuler districts of Oberlößnitz and Alt-Radebeul, in the northwest, Boxdorf. The part of the Junge Heide in the districts of Hellerberge and Wilschdorf belongs to the administrative district of Klotzsche. The western part of the Junge Heide, on the other hand, is assigned to Trachau. Together with a small area on the edge of the Heide in the south that belongs to Trachenberge, it's in the administrative district of Pieschen. Further areas in the west of the Junge Heide are administered from Moritzburg or Radebeul.
Surrounding landscapes include Lößnitz
in the West, the Friedewald
and the Moritzburg
pond region in the northwest. In the north, the Königsbrück-Ruhlander Heiden and the Seifersdorfer Valley borders the forest in the northeast. The landscape to the southeast is the Schönfeld Upland
. On the southern border of the Heide, the forest segues into the park and garden landscape of the Dresden Elbe valley.
regions of Nisan and Milska. It was out of this forest that the Mark of Meißen and Upper Lusatia
developed. Originally, the Dresdener Heide began in the city centre of Dresden and stretched seamlessly to the Lößnitz as well as to Kaditz, in the form of the Kaditz Forest. Archaeological discoveries, such as the bronze age
burial grounds and late stone age
Corded Ware pottery
give evidence of early settlements in this area. The settlement of the region reduced the area of the forest with time. As part of the German eastward settlement in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, efforts to clear the forest reduced it to something close to its current size, though the Dresdener Heide still stretched into the centre of Dresden, and the Junge Heide wasn't yet a separate forest.
After 1372, the Dresdener Heide was sovereign property assigned to the office of Radeberg, servicing the court
of Saxony as a vast hunting
territory from the Middle Ages
to the First World War. The court in Dresden could 'hunt' its way from Dresden to the hunting retreat Schloss Moritzburg
. Evidence of the Heide's hunting history are the four so-called Saugärten ('Swine gardens,' used in the hunt to hold captured wild boar
, until it could be released to be hunted). Farmers have also used parts of the Heide, such as the two meadows, for agriculture
. In the light, sandy soil, agriculture didn't last long and fields were often actively reforested or reclaimed by the forest itself. Since 1484 the Heide was administered by the Dresden Forest Office. The forest was heavily damaged in the Thirty Years' War
as enemy troops burned parts of the forest and plundered surrounding villages. The Seven Years' War
also brought great losses of wood to the Prussian occupiers. In 1831 the Heide became a possession of the Saxon State but remained hunting grounds of the sovereign.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the Heide had an area of over 70 square kilometres, roughly fifty percent more than now. It still reached in the city centre across the Bischofsweg. The Förstereistraße ('Forestry Street') in Neustadt is named after a forester's lodge that existed there near the forest. Then the Heide was reduced by 10 square kilometres for military reasons. Large areas were deforested after 1827 to create a training ground for the Saxon army, resulting in the existence of the Heller. After 1873 barracks
were constructed in the new military district in Albertstadt, significantly reducing the southwestern area of the Heide. Adjacent areas of the forest were also inaccessible because they were behind firing ranges. In the late nineteenth century, the former suburbs of Dresden began to grow. The Radeberger Vorstadt (city suburb in the direction of Radeberg) stretched further and further into the forest. Within a few years, people pushed the Heide back out of the city centre by two kilometres. Klotzsche also grew into a city, in part at the expense of the forest. In Radebeul-Ost, Bad Weißer Hirsch, Klotzsche-Königswald and the Radeberger Vorstadt more of the Heide was converted into 'Forest Parks.' In the beginning of the twentieth century, the responsible authorities required compensatory plantings to counter smaller clearings of the Heide. This resulted in the planting of a small forest near Biegau in 1910.
The separation between the Dresdener and Junge Heide was brought about by the development of transportation corridors such as Radeburger and Königsbrücker Streets as well as the Saxon-Silesian railway and, finally, the present Autobahn A4. In the Third Reich, planned highway construction affected the northeast part of the forest. The plan was for a continuation of the present Autobahn 13, resulting in a Berlin
-Dresden-Prague
connection. Some of the deforestation between Radeberg and Heidemühle was completed, but construction didn't begin in the Second World War. The plans were later discarded and, in 2000, the same connection was built but with a completely different route and without affecting the Heide in any way. In the 1930s there were plans for a continuation of the now-decommissioned rail line between Dürröhrsdorf and Weißig, along the Prießnitz valley across the Heide. This, too, remained in the planning stage and, since then, the forest hasn't been reduced by large constructions.
Since its incorporation into the city on the fourth of March, 1949, the Dresdener Heide belongs to Dresden. Declared a special forest and recreation area in 1967, it has been a protected landscape since 1969. Due to forestry however, almost no area of the Heide can be considered old growth forest. There are still inaccessible parts of the Heide, a result of the former military use or of the construction of transportation buildings.
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
in the city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
of Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. The Heide is the most important recreational area in the city and is also actively forested. Approximately 6.133 Hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
of the Dresdener Heide are designated as a nature preserve, making the Heide one of the largest city forests in Germany by area. Though mainly agricultural areas border the forest in the east, in all other directions the Dresdener Heide is bordered by districts of the city and reaches nearly to the city centre in the southwest.
The forest indicates a transition, both in its geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and in its plant and animal life, between the north German plain and the Mittelgebirge
Mittelgebirge
A Mittelgebirge is a relatively low mountain range, a typical geographical feature of Central Europe, especially Central and Southern Germany; it refers to something between hill country and a proper mountain range...
. Except for small areas, the Dresdener Heide is considered part of the western Lusatian Highlands and, consequently, is one of the westernmost parts of the Sudetes. Though the rocky subsoil
Subsoil
Subsoil, or substrata, is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. The subsoil may include substances such as clay and/or sand that has only been partially broken down by air, sunlight, water, wind etc., to produce true soil...
of the forest was raised during the tectonic formation of the Dresden Basin
Dresden Basin
The Dresden Basin is a roughly 45 km long and 10 km wide area of the Elbe Valley between the towns of Pirna and Meißen. The city of Dresden lies in the Dresden Basin.- Geography :...
, the mixed woodland of the Heide is largely characterized by dune-like sand deposits of the Wolstonian Stage and Kansan glaciation
Kansan glaciation
The Kansan glaciation or Kansan glacial was glacial stage and part of an early conceptual climatic and chronological framework composed of four glacial and interglacial stages.-History:...
. The proximity of the Dresdener Heide to the centre of Dresden lead to its history as an electoral hunting ground, as well as the cultivation and cultural impression of the Heide.
Location
Located in the northeast of the Saxon capital, the main part of the Heide stretches from the city centre to the border of Dresden. The forest is mainly outside the built-up area of Dresden and is largely in the administrative region of LoschwitzLoschwitz
Loschwitz is a borough of Dresden, Germany, incorporated in 1921. It consists of ten quarters :Loschwitz is a villa quarter located at the slopes north of the Elbe river...
. in contrast to the other areas of this administrative area, the 4,836 hectare region isn't considered an urban district, but forms a full-fledged district of the same size. Smaller regions on the edge of the Heide belong to the administrative districts of Neustadt and Klotzsche
Klotzsche
Klotzsche is a district of Dresden, Germany....
, as well as to the city of Radeburg
Radeburg
Radeburg is a town in the district of Meißen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of Meißen, and 18 km north of Dresden. The main tourist attraction is the narrow-gauge Radebeul-Radeburg railway line that connects Radeburg and Radebeul via Moritzburg. The...
. In the south, the main part of the Heide stretches between Loschwitz
Loschwitz
Loschwitz is a borough of Dresden, Germany, incorporated in 1921. It consists of ten quarters :Loschwitz is a villa quarter located at the slopes north of the Elbe river...
and the Waldschlösschen district, to the slopes of the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
and to Radeberger Vorstadt. The southernmost offshoots even border on the heavily populated Äussere Neustadt
Aussere Neustadt
Aussere Neustadt can refer to:* Äußere Neustadt, Dresden* Äussere Neustadt...
. In the west, the forest meets Albertstadt and Klotzsche
Klotzsche
Klotzsche is a district of Dresden, Germany....
. In the north, it is bordered by the Weixdorfer districts of Lausa and Friedersdorf as well as by Langebrück and Liegau-Augustusbad. In the east the forest is bordered by the city of Radeberg
Radeberg
Radeberg is a small town located approximately 20 kilometres north-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. The company Elektronik Radeberg GmbH, formerly well known in East Germany for the production of portable television sets, is located there....
and its districts of Großerkmannsdorf and Ullersdorf.
The Junge Heide ('Young Heide'), the smaller part, is to the west of the main part of the Heide in the northwest of Dresden. It's bordered in the north by the districts of Wilschdorf and Hellerau
Hellerau
Hellerau is a quarter in the City of Dresden, Germany. It was the first garden city in Germany.Based on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard, businessman Karl Schmidt-Hellerau founded Hellerau near Dresden in 1909. The idea was to create an organic, planned community...
, in the east by the Heller and in the south by Trachenberge and Trachau. In the west the Junge Heide meets the Radebeuler districts of Oberlößnitz and Alt-Radebeul, in the northwest, Boxdorf. The part of the Junge Heide in the districts of Hellerberge and Wilschdorf belongs to the administrative district of Klotzsche. The western part of the Junge Heide, on the other hand, is assigned to Trachau. Together with a small area on the edge of the Heide in the south that belongs to Trachenberge, it's in the administrative district of Pieschen. Further areas in the west of the Junge Heide are administered from Moritzburg or Radebeul.
Surrounding landscapes include Lößnitz
Lößnitz
Bergstadt Lößnitz , sometimes also called Muhme for its age, is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, Saxony, Germany, and belongs to the Town League of Silberberg...
in the West, the Friedewald
Friedewald
Friedewald is a municipality in the district of Altenkirchen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany....
and the Moritzburg
Moritzburg
Moritzburg is a municipality in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany, between Meißen as early centre of Saxony and the today's capital Dresden. It is most famous for its Baroque castle, Schloss Moritzburg....
pond region in the northwest. In the north, the Königsbrück-Ruhlander Heiden and the Seifersdorfer Valley borders the forest in the northeast. The landscape to the southeast is the Schönfeld Upland
Schönfeld Upland
The Schönfeld Upland is a plateau in Dresden. It is named after Schönfeld, the district of Dresden in the middle of the plateau. Up to 1950, when Pillnitz was incorporated into Dresden, the upland was known as the Pillnitzer Elbe Plateau.-Location:...
. On the southern border of the Heide, the forest segues into the park and garden landscape of the Dresden Elbe valley.
History of the Forest
Originally, the Dresdener Heide was part of the expansive, continuous border forest between the SorbianSorbian
Sorbian may refer to more than one article:* Sorbs, a Slavic people in modern day Germany* Sorbian languages, a group of closely related West Slavic languages-See also:...
regions of Nisan and Milska. It was out of this forest that the Mark of Meißen and Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia is a region a biggest part of which belongs to Saxony, a small eastern part belongs to Poland, the northern part to Brandenburg. In Saxony, Upper Lusatia comprises roughly the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz , in Brandenburg the southern part of district Oberspreewald-Lausitz...
developed. Originally, the Dresdener Heide began in the city centre of Dresden and stretched seamlessly to the Lößnitz as well as to Kaditz, in the form of the Kaditz Forest. Archaeological discoveries, such as the bronze age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
burial grounds and late stone age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
Corded Ware pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
give evidence of early settlements in this area. The settlement of the region reduced the area of the forest with time. As part of the German eastward settlement in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, efforts to clear the forest reduced it to something close to its current size, though the Dresdener Heide still stretched into the centre of Dresden, and the Junge Heide wasn't yet a separate forest.
After 1372, the Dresdener Heide was sovereign property assigned to the office of Radeberg, servicing the court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
of Saxony as a vast hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
territory from the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
to the First World War. The court in Dresden could 'hunt' its way from Dresden to the hunting retreat Schloss Moritzburg
Schloss Moritzburg
Schloss Moritzburg is a Baroque castle in Moritzburg, in the German state of Saxony, about northwest of the Saxon capital, Dresden. The castle has four round towers and lies on a symmetrical artificial island. It is named after Duke Moritz of Saxony, who had a hunting lodge built there between...
. Evidence of the Heide's hunting history are the four so-called Saugärten ('Swine gardens,' used in the hunt to hold captured wild boar
Boar
Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...
, until it could be released to be hunted). Farmers have also used parts of the Heide, such as the two meadows, for agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. In the light, sandy soil, agriculture didn't last long and fields were often actively reforested or reclaimed by the forest itself. Since 1484 the Heide was administered by the Dresden Forest Office. The forest was heavily damaged in the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
as enemy troops burned parts of the forest and plundered surrounding villages. The Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
also brought great losses of wood to the Prussian occupiers. In 1831 the Heide became a possession of the Saxon State but remained hunting grounds of the sovereign.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the Heide had an area of over 70 square kilometres, roughly fifty percent more than now. It still reached in the city centre across the Bischofsweg. The Förstereistraße ('Forestry Street') in Neustadt is named after a forester's lodge that existed there near the forest. Then the Heide was reduced by 10 square kilometres for military reasons. Large areas were deforested after 1827 to create a training ground for the Saxon army, resulting in the existence of the Heller. After 1873 barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
were constructed in the new military district in Albertstadt, significantly reducing the southwestern area of the Heide. Adjacent areas of the forest were also inaccessible because they were behind firing ranges. In the late nineteenth century, the former suburbs of Dresden began to grow. The Radeberger Vorstadt (city suburb in the direction of Radeberg) stretched further and further into the forest. Within a few years, people pushed the Heide back out of the city centre by two kilometres. Klotzsche also grew into a city, in part at the expense of the forest. In Radebeul-Ost, Bad Weißer Hirsch, Klotzsche-Königswald and the Radeberger Vorstadt more of the Heide was converted into 'Forest Parks.' In the beginning of the twentieth century, the responsible authorities required compensatory plantings to counter smaller clearings of the Heide. This resulted in the planting of a small forest near Biegau in 1910.
The separation between the Dresdener and Junge Heide was brought about by the development of transportation corridors such as Radeburger and Königsbrücker Streets as well as the Saxon-Silesian railway and, finally, the present Autobahn A4. In the Third Reich, planned highway construction affected the northeast part of the forest. The plan was for a continuation of the present Autobahn 13, resulting in a Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
-Dresden-Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
connection. Some of the deforestation between Radeberg and Heidemühle was completed, but construction didn't begin in the Second World War. The plans were later discarded and, in 2000, the same connection was built but with a completely different route and without affecting the Heide in any way. In the 1930s there were plans for a continuation of the now-decommissioned rail line between Dürröhrsdorf and Weißig, along the Prießnitz valley across the Heide. This, too, remained in the planning stage and, since then, the forest hasn't been reduced by large constructions.
Since its incorporation into the city on the fourth of March, 1949, the Dresdener Heide belongs to Dresden. Declared a special forest and recreation area in 1967, it has been a protected landscape since 1969. Due to forestry however, almost no area of the Heide can be considered old growth forest. There are still inaccessible parts of the Heide, a result of the former military use or of the construction of transportation buildings.
See also
- Großer GartenGroßer GartenThe Großer Garten is a baroque style park in Dresden. It is oblong in shape and covers an area of about 2 km² in a central location of the city. Established in 1676, it has been a public garden since 1814. Pathways and avenues are arranged symmetrically throughout its area...