EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

74 NOMINATION DOSSIER "ANCIENT BEECH FORESTS OF GERMANY"
Stelzbuche in the Jasmund
National Park
Beech forests of Jasmund
started developing as late
as 800 years ago.
Kreidefelsen auf Rügen, 1818
(Caspar David Friedrich)
The present forests of
Jasmund have been forests
for 1,000 years.
2.b.1 Jasmund
Forest history
Following the fi nal retreat of the glaciers of
the last ice age, over 3,000 years would
pass before the late glacial tundra vegetation
gave way to permanent woodlands in the
Preboreal period. Another 3,000 years saw
the vegetation cover being dominated by
pine forests with birch and aspen, later on
with hazel and elm. During the following
six and a half millennia, the property was
covered with various types of mixed oak
forest.
In Jasmund, so called the mixed oak forests
(the lime Tilia cordata was the main tree)
would develop into beech forests as late as
some 800 years ago. Th ey have ever since
been dominating all forest-compatible mineral
soil sites in Jasmund without restrictions,
while alder and ash trees continue to
be prevalent in wet sites. At the same time,
Jasmund’s steep coast was carved by coast
adjustment processes of the intermittently
rising sea level. Special sites developed
where photophilic and thermophilic plants
could spread together with the beech.
Human interference
With insular clearances and thinning out of
the mixed oak forests, the neolithic colonisa-
tion about 5,000 years ago had a fi rst lasting
impact on Jasmund’s forests. With the extension
of the settlement during the Bronze
Age (3,800 – 2,600 BP), which is testifi ed
by 389 burial mounds in the national park,
the forest was pushed back. Th e Iron
Age (2,600 – 1,350 BP) saw an increase in
wood demand caused by iron production and
smelting. Th e Migration period, 1,600 –
1,350 BP was a time of recovery for the forest.
In medieval times however, the area was
the "wood basket" of the almost unwooded
island of Rügen, in the process of which
the coastal slope forests were spared. Wood
harvest was restricted as early as in the
16th century. From 1648 to 1815, Jasmund
was a Swedish crown forest which was
managed gently. After Rügen had fallen to
Prussia, the old customary laws of forest
grazing and free wood removal were gradually
abolished. 1,500 hectares of forest became
a preserve in 1929. Stubnitz became a
nature conservation area in 1935. After 1945,
large-area wood harvest took place within
the scope of reparations, which had a
massive impact on Jasmund’s beech forest.
In the context of a treatment directive,
the 1960s saw the designation of a fi rst strict
forest reserve of 256 ha that included the
slope forests, the brook valleys of Kiel and
Brisnitz, and the Herthasee surroundings.
Following the political turning point in 1990,
the area was designated as national park
with 3,003 ha of total land area within the
scope the national park programme of
the GDR. Jasmund is legally protected as
national park and Natura 2000 territory.
Th e area of the present national park Jasmund
is of outstanding signifi cance also
in terms of cultural history. Th e chalk coast
has been providing artists, philosophers,
and scientist with inspiring motives since
the 19th century. Th e most famous exponent
is Caspar David Friedrich, whose