The Geigersberg in the Sachsenheim district of Ochsenbach, which is mainly used for viticulture, towers strikingly over the Kirbach Valley, which is part of the Stromberg Nature Park. This is one of the last vineyards in the Stromberg still terraced with traditional dry stone walls, while the other sites have long since been reshaped for machine cultivation by land consolidation and the removal of the terraced walls on the much flatter slopes compared to the Neckar valley. In addition to the horizontal retaining walls, the lateral cheek walls, which are particularly pronounced on the Geigersberg to compensate for the transverse gradient, together with the Wengertschützenhäusle, give it its unmistakable and particularly characteristic "face".
In order to counteract the progressive decay of the dry stone walls, a total of more than 100 square meters of dry stone walls were professionally renovated on state-owned land in the winter of 2018 / 2019 and in the past year 2020 on behalf of the lower nature conservation authority of the Ludwigsburg district office. This is not just a matter of piling up bricks. These must be professionally interlocked with a carefully constructed backing wall that can withstand the pressure of the ground so that the walls remain stable for many decades to come. Dry stone wall construction is a strenuous craft, as Dr. Rolf Gastel, the nature conservation expert from the district office who supervised the restoration work, emphasizes. The restoration work was financed with funds from the Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Fund Foundation amounting to 52,000 euros, which came from compensation payments under nature conservation law for interventions in nature and the landscape (see info box), and other landscape conservation funds from the state.
At the same time and in close coordination, extensive dry stone wall renovations were also carried out by the Landesbetrieb Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg office, which manages the state-owned properties. The state enterprise primarily had the wall damage that was relevant for traffic safety repaired and the particularly artistically built wall at the Wengertschützenhäusle renovated in detail so that every usable stone is in the same place again.
Dry stone walls characterize the landscape in the district of Ludwigsburg in particular: with around 370 hectares out of 1400 hectares nationwide, it has by far the most terraced dry stone wall sites. For this reason, the district of Ludwigsburg is also particularly affected by the increasing decay of the historic cultural landscape, which has been painstakingly shaped by hand over centuries by many generations, and the abandonment of increasingly unprofitable vineyard slopes. Especially in densely populated urban areas, such historically significant and attractive landscapes for biodiversity also fulfill important functions for local recreation and tourism.
On the Geigersberg, it has so far been possible to counteract the threat of abandonment by improving road access and other management measures as part of a land consolidation process while largely preserving the walls. Partial areas that were problematic for the winegrowers were acquired by the state and the state hunting association for nature conservation purposes. These are being developed into species-rich rough pastures with the involvement of farmers, the social enterprise Neue Arbeit, the BUND district association in Ludwigsburg and German and Hungarian young people as part of the district partnership with Pest County. An attractive and well-received circular trail with information boards leads through the "Geigersberg/Ochsenbach Cultural-Historical Wine Landscape". This was designed by the Stuttgart Regional Council and is maintained by the town of Sachsenheim. In addition, the Environmental and Nature Conservation Foundation of the Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg, which has a funding focus on dry stone wall restoration in the district, has also been providing financial support for measures on the Geigersberg for a long time. The foundation is currently funding the renewal of the information boards on the circular trail.
Farmers of vineyard plots can contact the Environmental and Nature Conservation Foundation of Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg for funding for dry stone wall restoration.
Info box:
- Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Fund Foundation
For more than 40 years, the Nature Conservation Fund Foundation has been committed to preserving the diverse cultural landscape in Baden-Württemberg. It creates prospects for nature and people. It supports its numerous partners in implementing exemplary, innovative and creative nature conservation projects. At the same time, it is involved in a large number of its own projects for the common goals. The Nature Conservation Fund Foundation is a foundation with legal capacity under public law, which was established in 1976 on the basis of the Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Act. The main aim of the Nature Conservation Fund Foundation is to initiate and promote new, innovative approaches to nature conservation and to support model projects.
Among other things, the Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Fund Foundation receives the compensation payments stipulated by nature conservation law in accordance with the Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Act, which are incurred when direct compensation for interventions is not possible on site. The Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Fund Foundation ensures that these payments, which are usually made in the course of construction work in nature and the landscape, are used for nature conservation and landscape management projects as close as possible to the site of the intervention. The projects must achieve an enhancement of nature and landscape and must be agreed in advance with the relevant regional councils. The projects can be implemented by various sponsors, for example regional councils, districts, cities, municipalities, associations and clubs.
- Environmental and Nature Conservation Foundation of the KSK Ludwigsburg
The foundation was established in 1996 by the Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg and supports projects in the field of environmental protection, animal welfare and nature conservation as well as landscape conservation in the district of Ludwigsburg. A "lighthouse project" of the foundation is the promotion of the restoration of dry stone walls. These are a formative and valuable part of the cultural landscape in the Ludwigsburg district, where viticulture on steep slopes has traditionally played a major role. The dry stone walls also serve an important purpose in the ecological cycle by providing shelter for small animals such as slow worms and lizards.
