Schönbuch (; ) is an almost completely wooded area southwest of Stuttgart and part of the Southern German Escarpment Landscape (German: südwestdeutsches Schichtstufenland). In 1972, the central zone of Schönbuch became the first nature park in Baden-Württemberg.
The borders of the Schönbuch-Region are vague; however, the area of the Nature Park itself is strictly defined and is discernible from the adjacent areas. In the south, west, and east, the borders of the Nature Park and Schönbuch-Region are roughly the same; however, the region’s boundaries also include the cities and communities which lie on its edges. The southern border is defined by the Ammer and Neckar river valleys. The western boundary is generally accepted to lie within the Gäu flats, beginning east of the Filder Plateau. The features making up the northern edge of the region are the Siebenmühlental (Seven-Mill Valley), a clearing in the forest referred to as the “Schönbuchlichtung,” along with the surrounding woodlands. In the Schönbuchlichtung lie the villages of (from west clockwise) Hildrizhausen, Altdorf, Holzgerlingen, Schönaich, Steinenbronn, and Waldenbuch, with Weil im Schönbuch and Dettenhausen sitting in the southern portion of the clearing.
Location The Schönbuch is located in central Baden-Württemberg – approximately 25 km south of the city center of Stuttgart and about 15 km southwest of Stuttgart Airport. It is also close to Reutlingen (south-east), the university city of Tübingen (south), Herrenberg (southwest), and Böblingen (northwest).
Transport A commuter train called the Schönbuchbahn runs through the Schönbuch, connecting Dettenhausen to Böblingen where it links to the S-Bahn system.
Awards The Schönbuch was awarded the title of "forest area of the year 2014" and "quality nature park".
Nature Reserves The Schönbuch Nature Park is the largest contiguous forest reserve in the Stuttgart region. The park boundaries were established in the 1974 Nature Park Ordnance. The reserve spans approximately 25 kilometers (about 15.5 miles) from east to west and around 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles) from north to south. Much of Schönbuch is located within the rural districts of Böblingen and Tübingen, with smaller areas included in the Esslingen and Reutlingen rural districts.
Bebenhausen is the only municipality located within the park itself. Beyond the villages of the Schönbuchlichtung clearing, other nearby settlements include (in clockwise order) Aichtal, Schlaitdorf, Walddorfhäslach, Pliezhausen, Kirchentellinsfurt, Tübingen, Ammerbuch, Herrenberg, Nufringen, und Gärtringen.
Major parts of Schönbuch are also designated as FFH (Flora, Fauna, and Habitat) areas (No. 7420-341 totaling 11,249 hectares or ~27,797 acres), as well as Special Protection Areas, or SPAs (the EU’s bird reserve program) (No. 7420-441 totaling 15,362 hectares or ~37,960 acres).
The Schönbuch conservation area contains 12,424 hectares (30,700 acres) over the areas of four districts and therefore additionally covers four nature reserve area numbers (1,15,016, 1,16,037, 4,15,009, and 4,16,004). Economic activity in the conservation area is allowed, although restricted.Siehe auch die Schutzgebietskarte auf: .
Numerous natural monuments in Schönbuch enjoy the strictest reserves, such as those in the nature reserves of Eisenbachhain, Grafenberg, Hirschauer Berg, Neuweiler Viehweide, Schaichtal, Schönbuch-Westhang/Ammerbuch, Spitzberg–Ödenburg, and Sulzeiche. Additionally, there are sections within Schönbuch which have even tighter restrictions, called “Bannwäldern” (protected forest) or forest areas with a protected designation, as dictated by the Nature Park Ordinance. In 2001, the Schönbuch Nature Park and adjacent areas were incorporated into the Europe-wide Natura 2000 protected areas network, as the region is home to many rare plants, forest communities, and endangered species.
History
The Stone Age and Antiquity Pre- and early-historical traces of human settlement are, different from other forest areas, not rare. The earliest piece of evidence is a blade made of Jura limestone that was found by the Teufelsbrücke (Devil’s Bridge); the dating of this piece to 10,000 B.C. remains uncertain. The residence of the Nomads in the Mesolithic period (8,000 until 5,500 B.C.) is confirmed, since there were living areas found by the Schönbuchtrauf near Herrenberg.
During the Neolithic period, a farming culture with dense residential areas emerged in what is today the fertile area on the border of Schönbuch. The central area of Schönbuch remained undeveloped. The seemingly impenetrable ancient forest was often cleared during the Hallstatt period (880 until 450 BCE) for wood and was further damaged for more forest pastures. One can find 300 Celtic mounds from this period, including a mound in Lehbühl near Schlaitdorf. In the eastern part of Schönbuch are three Celtic rectangular ditched enclosures that can be traced back to the European Iron Age.
Schönbuch was annexed by the Roman Empire in 80 A.D., and evidence from this time gives the impression of a lively marketplace. There were quarries, pottery, and farms. After the Romans withdrew, the Alemannic immigrants initially avoided Schönbuch so the forest could recover from its damaged areas. The reclamation and clearing of Schönbuch started from the north only in the 6th century. Only the central area between Herrenberg and Bebenhausen was never touched, and this area would later make up the center of the unsettled Schönbuch forest.
The Middle Ages and Modern Age
Chapel of the hermitage with an altar on the Bromberg Hill
In the Early Middle Ages, there were many imperially controlled forests. From the middle of the 12th century, the Palatine counts of Tübingen controlled the majority of the area. The House of Württemberg gained control of Schönbuch in its entirety in the 14th century. The hermitage on Bromberg Hill stemmed from the Late Middle Ages (13th to 15th century). It had been previously considered a chapel. In 1974, the defensive walls of a chapel and a small residential building made of Rhaetian sandstone were exposed. The storm “Lothar” heavily damaged the remains of the hermitage. The remains of the small residential building were restored in 2004 after a contract between the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the state monuments office of Baden-Württemberg.
Schönbuch served as a timber source, woodland pasture (Hutewald), and hunting ground until the 19th century. Hunting was reserved only for the rulers of the House of Württemberg, whereas logging and pasture use were carried out by the so-called Schönbuch comrades (Schönbuchgenossen). This involved around 70 townships and cities in the Schönbuch area, which exchanged money, grain, and chicken in return for the use of the land.
Storm Catastrophes
The storms “Vivian” and “Wiebke” in the spring of 1990 caused Schönbuch considerable damage, exacerbated by a subsequent bark beetle plague in the hot and dry years that followed. Nevertheless, “Lothar” surpassed all previous expectations on Boxing Day 1999. While “Wiebke” knocked down the shallow spruces, “Lothar” hit all the trees. A majority of them were knocked down in a domino effect. “Wiebke” toppled over most of the trees together with their roots, whereas “Lothar” simply broke off a good twenty percent, which was also detrimental to the utilization of the wood.
“Lothar” raged throughout all of the Schönbuch. However, the worst was the western part that was affected. According to previous convictions, younger stormproof trees were damaged. According to calculations of the Forestry Office of Herrenberg, the storm has felled around a third of the entire coniferous forest in its area, and eight percent of the deciduous forest. In the entire Schönbuch, the amount of damage was equivalent to approximately one million cubic meters of timber.
The last storm "Kyrill" in January 2007 caused much less damage compared to the earlier storms. The resulting accumulated storm damage was easily within the normal scope of logging. On the one hand, the reason for the far less dramatic consequences was that “Kyrill” did not develop its full impact in the Schönbuch area. On the other hand, the soil was less soaked than usual.
Today, the damage is also seen as an opportunity to change the composition of the forest to increase the proportion of deciduous tree species. The ecological winners after “Lothar” include many sun-hungry plants and the pioneer tree species – the silver birch – the tree of the year 2000. Nevertheless, it will still take decades until Schönbuch is again at a comparable level before “Lothar.”
Additional Flora and Fungi
The former intensive utilization of Schönbuch as a woodland pasture and the extraction of leaf litter has caused a nutrient deficiency in many areas, which is valuable from a nature conservation perspective. As a result, plants are provided a refuge that exists only in the park and not in the area around the park. Alone, the narrow and limiting Goldersbach Valley holds over 400 plants and over 90 species of moss.
Wet Meadows In the large Goldersbach Valley above the Devil’s Bridge and in the Fishbach Valley and the Lindach Valley, the two source streams of the Goldersbach Valley lead to many wet meadows, which are farmed. The masses of Troll flowers that one can find in the spring are striking. The wet meadows are valuable for orchids.
Today, the meadows are useful for agriculture. To preserve biodiversity and natural succession, they must be mowed once a year. The forestry administration mows the meadows in early summer to prevent bush growth in the valley.
Birkensee
Stick Dam at Birkensee
On the edge of Bromberg Hill lies Birkensee, a lake which is the location of rare plant communities. It is designated as a natural landmark, and today, the area provides a “transition biome” from a bog to a wetland.
Birkensee allegedly emerged at the beginning of the 19th century in the base of an abandoned sandstone quarry. The bottom of the lake is stabilized by natural cementation; these stone formations have become impermeable to water. A resource from 1667 depicted Birkensee, the lake, but as a swampy prairie instead. Newer research suggests that Birkensee is the last sandbox created during the removal of sticky sand and silver sand in the Bromberg Hill region.
Birkensee has been exposed to more and more silt in recent years. Many of the rare marsh and bog plants that have been recorded previously have now disappeared. Nevertheless, Birkensee still remains one of the most interesting natural areas of Schönbuch. Among other things, one can find Pipe Grass, Red Foxglove, Broombrush, Bracken, Sundew, Narrow-leaved and Broad-leaved Cottongrass, Heather and Carnations, Lycopodium, Bilberries, various Peat Mosses, and, of course, the Birch Trees that give the area its name. To protect the vegetation from trampling by visitors, a boulder dam and other paths made of bark mulch were laid in 1988.
Orchards
The typical form of fruit production in the past was orchards, which are in many places on the edge of the nature park, especially around the western Schönbuch slope. The extensively used meadows have shaped the landscape on the edge of Schönbuch for over 100 years, and today they are of particular importance from an ecological perspective. Around 3000 animal species have been identified in orchards, including 50 breeding birds, some of which are heavily dependent on the habitat as species on the Red List are.
Mushrooms