From the Iron Age to the Roman-Germanic period
With the development of agriculture and metalworking, intensive use of forests began during the Celtic period. Its scale increased during the Roman-Germanic period, especially in the densely populated south-western territories.
Forests in Germania. Free Germania
(Explanation: The Romans used the term Germania (Latin: Germania) to refer to the territory inhabited by the Germanic peoples. Today, it corresponds approximately to the territory of the Netherlands and Germany (partly also the Czech Republic and Poland). At one time, the natural borders of Germania were the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north, the Rhine to the west, the Alps and the Danube to the south, and to the east, natural borders did not exist.)
In the 1st century, Tacitus described “Free Germania” (Germania magna) with the words “terra aut silvis horrida aut paludibus foeda” – “a land covered by fearsome forests and foul swamps”. At that time, Tacitus's homeland on the shores of the Mediterranean was considered a region with a centuries-old cultural landscape – its forests were cleared to create fields, orchards and cities, and a significant amount of timber was consumed for fuel and shipbuilding.
A land where at least 70% of the area was covered by forest and whose climatic conditions were drastically different certainly made a great impression on the Romans. This is confirmed by the words they used to describe what they saw. Mountain ranges, for example, the Black Forest, were called Silva Abnoba, not Mons Abnoba. Therefore, we can conclude that the impassable highlands of that time had largely not yet been touched by human influence. Large forest-covered areas had been preserved even in the lowlands. Forested areas often separated Germanic tribal settlements, serving as a border, a function respected by both sides.
Settlements were also established in areas with coastal forests or in soils rich in forest. The first inter-tribal attacks took place to build their own tribal settlements in a particular location. Afterwards, forests were cleared for agricultural and grazing needs. The felling and use of timber for heating led to an even more pronounced thinning of trees around tribal settlements. For various uses of wood, such as building enclosures, preference was given to durable trees such as oak (Quercus) or beech (Fagus). It is possible that beeches were felled on a larger scale near ore extraction areas because metalworking required fire, which was fuelled by beech charcoal.
Permanent towns and villages were a rarity in Free Germania. After a while, settlements were abandoned and ecological succession took place. This allowed the vegetation to return to a stage similar to its natural state.
Roman-conquered Germania
Forests in Roman-occupied Germania (subject Germania was divided into two provinces — Upper Germania and Lower Germania) were used more intensively than in the unconquered territories. The construction of cities, for example, Mainz, Trier, Cologne and Xanten, required large quantities of timber. A constant supply of timber in large volumes was also needed for heating and thermal baths, under the floors of which a thorough heating system was built and which operated hot water pools.
When the attempt to conquer the entire territory of Germania proved unsuccessful (the fatal defeat was led by Varus in 9 AD), the Romans chose a defensive tactic. This also required a lot of timber. For example, fortifications (limes) over 500 kilometres long were built, using wood rather than stone in their construction; wood was also required for fences and watchtowers, which is why a wide clearing was cut through the forests, stretching from the Rhine all the way to the Danube.
Roman engineers, when planning the layout of the described fortifications, tried to take the natural relief into account as much as possible and to surround fertile land with fortifications. For example, the fertile Wetterau land, located opposite Mainz, was included in the fortification, but the poor, pine-covered soil with sandstone outcrops in the southern Odenwald was left outside the borders. A large part of the beeches and oaks that grew on fertile land had to be removed to find space for farmland and pastures. In some places, grassy and dwarf-shrub covered heaths were formed, which have survived to the present day. The Romans avoided plains with rivers that were unpredictable in spring and autumn. Black alder (Alnus glutinosa) forests located further from the rivers were converted into pastures.
When choosing locations for settlements, the Romans also avoided dense coniferous forests, although areas of mixed forest may still have been attractive to them. The Romans valued softwood timber, especially silver fir (Abies alba), which was useful in construction and shipbuilding. Pines were felled in all accessible places and transported by floating them to distant destinations. Thus, the natural forests of the Black Forest and the Vosges mountains in the Alps were transformed.
The Romans brought the tree species known to them from the Mediterranean region to Germania, including the sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa), the common horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) and the common walnut (Juglans regia). These species had become extinct in Northern Europe during the Ice Age. The trees were valued for their fruit. In addition, the durable wood of the sweet chestnut was used in viticulture.
The Great Migration (Völkerwanderung)
Gradually, the Romans succumbed to the growing pressure of Germanic tribes. First, after the defeat in the battle with Varus's army, settlements on the right bank of the Rhine were abandoned. After the 2nd century, several tribes (the Marcomanni and Lombards) invaded across the border. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Germanic peoples finally defeated the remaining fortifications. Pollen analysis shows that agriculture was at a standstill in many places at this time. Abandoned Roman castles and manors became forest-covered areas.
In the formerly occupied Germania, the layout of settlements changed. Permanent settlements were abandoned as new types of semi-permanent settlements gained acceptance. If the forest and soil around the settlements were depleted, the inhabitants moved on. As population density decreased, a series of forest stands and massifs in many areas gradually recovered, which had once been significantly affected by the agrarian economy of the Roman migrants. Pollen analysis shows that during this time, European beech (Fagus sylvatica) spread significantly again, occupying both lands abandoned by the Romans and the Pomeranian coastline of the Baltic Sea as far as southern Sweden.
The period of Roman colonisation left serious consequences for forest stands in Central Europe. Many clearings were abandoned that did not “recover” from grazing, the species structure was disrupted in many forest stands due to selective use, and introduced species took their place in the vegetation.
The Middle Ages. The Great Migration and the Middle Ages
Following the re-expansion of forests as villages were abandoned during the Great Migration, the early and middle Middle Ages were followed by a period of forest clearing, which can be described as broad and unregulated wood use, literally deforesting the occupied territories, as well as emphasising the extraction of forest resources for construction and heating needs. These periods have left lasting consequences on Central European landscapes, which we still feel today, because it was during these times that the cultural landscapes of Central Europe were formed as we know them.
The so-called Little Ice Age, whose particularly cold periods — from 1570 to 1630 and from 1675 to 1715 — caused catastrophic crop shortages and disease, led to the emptying of many inhabited places, where secondary forests later expanded. People in parts of Germany only began to recover from the damage and consequences caused by the Thirty Years' War after 1800, slowly regaining (once again reaching) the standard of living that existed in 1600. This situation consequently led to the afforestation of former agricultural areas.
Development of forests in the Middle Ages
Proportion of forest areas
With the changes caused by the Great Migration, forests expanded again in Central Europe. In territories that were cultivated during the Roman colonisation, the forest often regained its place. Only after the end of the Great Migration did human settlements expand again, often established on land suitable for agriculture.
Two periods of intensive forest clearing can be distinguished. The first phase: from approximately 500 AD to approximately 800 AD; the second — from approximately 1100 AD to 1300 AD, which is also considered the beginning of the 14th-century crisis. Especially in the first phase, during the Carolingian Renaissance, territories previously cultivated by the Romans were settled anew. Later, easily accessible areas or those with fertile soil were colonised.
The higher regions of the central highlands (present-day Germany) remained empty during the early phase. The first permanent settlements, for example, in the Black Forest, appeared only after about 1000 AD, and at that time only difficult paths led over the Harz mountains. Coastal forests near rivers (e.g., the Rhine) remained uninhabited due to the unpredictable nature of the river. Floodplain forests further away from the river were used. After 800 AD, the rate of forest clearing for settlement construction in Central Europe slowed down. The population did not increase significantly due to epidemics and invasions by foreign peoples (Normans in the north and Hungarians in the south).
*translated from German
Beginning: https://www.zemeunvalsts.lv/viduseiropas-mezu-vesture-vacijas-mezi-sakums-
1. Helge Walentowski, Susanne Winter (2007): Naturnähe im Wirtschaftswald – was ist das? Tuexenia 27: 19–26
2. Reinhard Mosandl: Geschichte der Wälder in Mitteleuropa im letzten Jahrtausend. Aktuelle Beiträge zum Verständnis der historischen Entwicklung. In: Bernd Herrmann (Hrsg.): Beiträge zum Göttinger Umwelthistorischen Kolloquium 2008–2009. Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2009, S. 91–114. Vorschau bei Google Books
3. Nils Bleicher: Altes Holz in neuem Licht. Archäologische und dendrochronologische Untersuchungen an spätneolithischen Feuchtbodensiedlungen in Oberschwaben. Dissertation, Mainz 2007. Materialhefte zur Archäologie in Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 2010.