Dark Forests

Originally, the Black Forest was a mixed forest of deciduous trees and firs - see the history of the forest in Central Europe. At the higher elevations spruce also grew. In the middle of the 19th century, the Black Forest was almost completely deforested by intensive forestry and was subsequently replanted, mostly with spruce monocultures. In , extensive damage to the forest was caused by Hurricanes Vivian and Wiebke.

As had happened following the storms, large quantities of fallen logs were kept in provisional wet storage areas for years. The effects of the storm are demonstrated by the Lothar Path , a forest educational and adventure trail at the nature centre in Ruhestein on a highland timber forest of about 10 hectares that was destroyed by a hurricane. Several areas of storm damage, both large and small, were left to nature and have developed today into a natural mixed forest again.

Mining developed in the Black Forest due to its ore deposits, which were often lode-shaped.

The formation of these deposits Schauinsland Pit: More recent research has revealed that most of these lode fillings are much younger Triassic to Tertiary. Economic deposits of other minerals included: Small liquid magmatic deposits of nickel-magnetite gravel in norite were mined or prospected in the Hotzenwald forest near Horbach and Todtmoos. Stone coal is only found near Berghaupten and Diersburg , but was always only of local importance.

Stone Age mining of haematite as red pigment near Sulzburg.

By the 5th and 6th centuries B. In the course of inland colonisation in the Late High Middle Ages even the highlands were cultivated by settlers from the abbeys St. After the Plague, which afflicted the valley in , the German Peasants' War —26 and the Thirty Years' War , mining in the region declined until just a few pits remained. An important mining area was the Kinzig valley and its side valleys. The small mining settlement of Wittichen near Schenkenzell in the upper Kinzig valley had many pits in which in baryte , cobalt and silver of many kinds were mined.

A circular, geological footpath runs today past the old pits and tips. Another boom began in the early 18th century after the loss of the Alsace to France. It lasted until the 19th century. Non-ferrous metal mining in the Black Forest continued until the middle of the 20th century near Wildschapbach and on the Schauinsland to ; fluorite and baryte are still mined today at the Clara Pit in the Rankach valley in Oberwolfach. Iron ores of the Dogger formation was worked until the s near Ringsheim and was smelted in Kehl.

Compared with the Harz and Ore Mountains the quantities of silver extracted in the Black Forest were rather modest and reached only about 10 per cent of that produced in the other silver-mining regions. There are many show mines in the Black Forest. For several centuries logs from the Black Forest were rafted down the Enz , Kinzig , Murg , Nagold and Rhine rivers for use in the shipping industry, as construction timber and for other purposes. This branch of industry boomed in the 18th century and led to large-scale clearances.

As most of the long, straight pine logs were transported downriver for shipbuilding in the Netherlands , they were referred to as "Dutchmen". The logs were used in the Netherlands, above all, as piles for house construction in the sandy and wet ground. Even today in Amsterdam large numbers of historic building are built on these posts and the reforestation of the Black Forest with spruce monocultures testifies to the destruction of the original mixed forest. With the expansion of the railway and road network as alternative transportation, rafting largely came to an end in the late 19th century.

Today, fir trees, especially those which are very tall and branchless to a great height, are shipped mainly to Japan. The global advertising impact of Expo fuelled a resurgence of timber exports.

The Dark Forest - Wikipedia

The importance of the timber resources of the Black Forest has also increased sharply recently due to the increasing demand for wood pellets for heating. The timber resources of the Black Forest provided the basis for other sectors of the economy that have now largely disappeared.

The Black Forest supplied raw materials and energy for the manufacture of forest glass. This is evinced today by a number of glassblowing houses e. In the relatively inaccessible Black Forest valleys industrialization did not arrive until late in the day. In winter, many farmers made wooden cuckoo clocks to supplement their income. This developed in the 19th century into the precision engineering and watch industry, which boomed with the arrival of the railway in many of the Black Forest valleys.

The initial disadvantage of their remote location, which led to the development of precision-engineered wooden handicrafts, became a competitive advantage because of their access to raw materials: As part of a structural support programme the Baden State Government founded the first clockmaking school in in Furtwangen to ensure that small artisans were given good training and thus better sales opportunities.

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Due to the increasing demand for mechanical devices, large companies such as Junghans and Kienzle became established. In the 20th century, the production of consumer electronics was developed by companies such as SABA , Dual and Becker. In the s, the industry declined due to Far Eastern competition. Nevertheless, the Black Forest remains a centre for the metalworking industry and is home to many high-tech companies. Since the start of industrialisation there have been numerous firms in Pforzheim that manufacture jewellery and work with precious metals and stones.

There is also a goldsmith 's school in Pforzheim. Due to the large amounts of precipitation and elevation changes the Black Forest has significant hydropower potential. This was used until the 19th century especially for operating numerous mills , including sawmills and hammer mills and was one of the local factors in the industrialization of some Black Forest valleys.

Dark Forest

Since the 20th century, the Black Forest has seen the large scale generation of electrical power using run-of-the-river power plants and pumped storage power stations. In , the Schluchsee reservoir, with its new dam, became the upper basin of a pumped storage power plant. In the association of the Southern Black Forest's Schluchseewerk owned five power plants with 14 storage tanks. In the 21st century, in the wake of the Renewable Energy Sources Act , numerous smaller run-of-the-river power stations were re-opened or newly constructed.

Enz , Rastatt and Calw ; in the middle: Freudenstadt , Ortenaukreis and Rottweil ; in the south: The main industry of the Black Forest is tourism.

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Black Forest Tourism Schwarzwald Tourismus assesses that there are around , direct full-time jobs in the tourist sector and around In spring, summer and autumn an extensive network of hiking trails and mountain bike routes enable different groups of people to use the natural region. In winter, of course, it is the various types of winter sport that come to the fore. There are facilities for both downhill and Nordic skiing in many places.

The most heavily frequented tourist destinations and resorts in the Black Forest are the Titisee and the Schluchsee. Both lakes offer opportunities for water sports like diving and windsurfing. One oft-visited town is Baden-Baden with its thermal baths and festival hall. Other tourist destinations are the old imperial town of Gengenbach , the former county towns of Wolfach , Schiltach and Haslach im Kinzigtal both on the German Timber-Frame Road and the flower and wine village of Sasbachwalden at the foot of the Hornisgrinde.

Baiersbronn is a centre of gastronomic excellence, Freudenstadt is built around the largest market place in Germany. Gersbach 's floral displays have won awards as the German Golden Village of and the European Golden Village of Noted for their fine interiors are the former monastery of St. Blasien as well as the abbeys of Sankt Trudpert , St. Alpirsbach Abbey and the ruined Hirsau Abbey were built of red sandstone in the Hirsau style.

Another idyllic rural edifice is Wittichen Abbey near Schenkenzell. There are well known winter sports areas around the Feldberg, near Todtnau with its FIS downhill ski run of Fahler Loch and in Hinterzarten , a centre and talent forge for German ski jumpers. The height differences in the mountains are used in many places for hang gliding and paragliding.

The Black Forest has a great number of very varied trails; some of pan-regional significance. The European long-distance path E1 crosses the Black Forest following the routes of some of the local long-distance paths. Their framework is a network of long distance paths with main routes and side branches, many of which were laid out in the early 20th century by the Black Forest Club Schwarzwaldverein.

The best known of these is the challenging West Way Westweg with its many steep inclines. After , circular walks were constructed to meet the changing demand, initially from the relatively dense railway network and, later, mainly from locally established hiking car parks. Roads and wide forest tracks are thus less often used than hitherto.

There are numerous shorter paths suitable for day walks, as well as mountain biking and cross-country skiing trails. The Black Forest Open Air Museum at Vogtsbauernhof farm in Gutach has original Black Forest houses that offer insights into farming life of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The buildings were dismantled at their original sites, the individual pieces numbered and then re-erected to exactly the same plan in the museum. The German Clock Museum in Furtwangen gives a comprehensive cross-section of the history of the watchmaking and clockmaking industries. From this early precision engineering a formerly important phonographic industry developed in the 20th century; the history of leisure electronics is presented in the German Phono Museum in St.

The Black Forest Costume Museum in Haslach im Kinzigtal offers an overview of the traditional costume of the whole of the Black Forest and its peripheral regions. Also in Haslach is the Hansjakob Museum and the Hansjakob Archive with numerous works of the writer, priest, politician, historian and chronicler, Heinrich Hansjakob. The MiMa Mineralogy and Mathematics Museum in Oberwolfach houses minerals and mining exhibits from the whole of the Black Forest and links them to mathematical explanations. Several tourist routes run through the Black Forest.

Thanks to its winding country roads, the Black Forest is a popular destination for motorcyclists. This arm of tourism is viewed as controversial due to the high number of accidents and the wide-ranging noise pollution [24] and has been restricted through the introduction of speed limits and by placing certain roads out of bounds. For example, since , motorcyclists have been banned from using the mountain racing route on the Schauinsland during summer weekends. The whole of the Black Forest was once linked by the railway.

Many railway lines run from the Rhine Plain up the valleys into the Black Forest: Georgen , Villingen and Donaueschingen. Most of these routes are still busy today, whilst some are extremely popular heritage lines. Since January the Black Forest Tourist organisation, Schwarzwald Tourismus , whose head office is in Freiburg , has been responsible for the administration of tourism in the municipalities of the region. Hitherto there had been four separate tourist associations. There are many historic towns in the Black Forest.

Other popular destinations include such mountains as the Feldberg, the Belchen , the Kandel , and the Schauinsland; the Titisee and Schluchsee lakes; the All Saints Waterfalls ; the Triberg Waterfalls , not the highest, but the most famous waterfalls in Germany; and the gorge of the River Wutach. The Black Forest Open Air Museum shows the life of 16th or 17th century farmers in the region, featuring a number of reconstructed Black Forest farms. The German Clock Museum in Furtwangen portrays the history of the clock industry and of watchmakers.

Another, more specialized route is the German Clock Route , [27] a circular route which traces the horological history of the region. Due to the rich mining history dating from medieval times the Black Forest was one of the most important mining regions of Europe circa there are many mines re-opened to the public. Such mines may be visited in the Kinzig valley, the Suggental, the Muenster valley, and around Todtmoos. The Black Forest was visited on several occasions by Count Otto von Bismarck during his years as Prussian and later German chancellor — Allegedly, he was especially interested in the Triberg Waterfalls.

The Black Forest featured in the philosophical development of Martin Heidegger. Heidegger wrote and edited some of his philosophical works in a small hut in the Black Forest, [29] and would receive visitors there for walks, including his former pupil Hannah Arendt. This hut features explicitly in his essay Building, Dwelling, Thinking. It covers an area of 10, hectares and lies on the main crest of the Northern Black Forest between Baiersbronn and Baden-Baden.

There are two nature parks named after the Black Forest that cover the region: Their aim is to preserve the countryside as a cultural landscape, to market local produce more effectively and to make the area more suitable for tourism. In addition there are numerous nature reserves , protected areas , forest reserves and bird reserves. In addition to the expected kinds of wildlife to be found in a European forest area, the following types of animals may be observed in the Black Forest. The Black Forest is mainly rural and comprises many scattered villages and a few large towns.

Tradition and custom are celebrated in many places. The main dialects spoken in the Black Forest area are Alemannic and Swabian. Traditional costume or Trachten is still sometimes worn today, usually at festive occasions. The appearance of such costume varies from region to region, sometimes very markedly. One of the best known Black Forest costumes is that of the villages of Kirnbach , Reichenbach and Gutach im Kinzigtal with the characteristic Bollenhut headdress.

Unmarried women wear the hats with red bobbles or Bollen , married women wear black. Georgen weigh up to 5 kilogrammes. Its rural beauty as well as the sense of tradition of its inhabitants had already attracted many artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries, whose works made the Black Forest famous the world over. It is known for its thick, dense leaf canopies.

It has two variants. Dark forests feature a much higher density in trees compared to other forest biomes, which oftentimes block direct views of the sky entirely. Oak, dark oak, and rarely birch trees generate in these biomes; the only place where dark oak trees naturally generate. Additionally, both types of huge mushrooms generate among the trees, though the red variants are more common. Like normal forests, rose bushes, peonies and lilacs generate in this biome family along with the usual dandelions and poppies.

Grass and leaves take on a dark but vibrant green color. Lava lakes that generate in dark forests can cause locally destructive forest fires , due to the extreme density of flammable wood and leaves; the same goes for lightning strikes that hit the trees during thunderstorms , though the fires caused by the strikes are usually quickly put out by the rain. Unique to dark forests are woodland mansions , enormous dungeon-like structures that very rarely generate within the trees. Woodland mansions are home to the dangerous Illager mobs, and are one of the only places where said mobs spawn.

Mansions contain various rooms and valuable loot for the player to plunder. While players will likely never run out of wood in dark forests, survival can still be far more difficult compared to the other forest biomes. The dense leaf canopy can often diffuse sky light to the point that hostile mobs can spawn during the day in certain spots. Additionally, hostile mobs can spawn atop huge mushrooms and surprise the player when they suddenly fall down near them. Woodland mansions can be very dangerous to explore if not adequately prepared, due to their sheer size and the difficult Illager mobs accompanied by typical hostile mobs inside.

The high density of trees can easily lead to players getting lost if they don't mark their trails using torches or other distinct markers. Using flint and steel in these biomes can help to clear out some trees due to their flammability. Dark Forest is the most common dark forest variant. The terrain can range from fairly even to hilly, with occasional lakes. This biome has a dense canopy of leaves that reduces the light sufficiently for undead mobs to inhabit the forest during daytime.