Enclosed land in Germany

Research: Alexandra Kruse & Michael Roth; upload: Bénédicte Gaillard. The entries are still in process.

Fields can be enclosed by plants (initially planted) or with stones. The stones vary from region to region, according to geological aspects. The origin of the stones (in northern Germany) are the ice ages, which have covered parts of Northern Germany, especially the two last ones

• The origine of the word „Hecke“ is „Hag“ (enclosure), Germanic origin, it means protection against attact, wind, wild animals
• In the old German language (althochdeutsch) the word is hegga , American English: hecg, British English: hedge, French: haie, Dutch: heg. All terms include the same radical „hag“, to enclose and the syllable heck means to protect
• In Germany exist many names for villages and locations, with hagen or ha(a)g or which shows the meaning that hedges have had.
• Linear plantations of willow trees exist since the 16th century (police regulation from 1572): We have several regulation about the construction of hedges in forest regulation, in the 18th century.
• A milestone was the introduction of the „Koppelwirtschaft“, beginning of 18th century. This was a kind of orderly, regulated field meadow production cycle, with several years of grazing within the crop rotation. In Mecklenburg (north-east of Germany) was the 7 years rotation, consisted by three years crop, three years of grasing and one year fellow land.
• “The first hedge banks developed more than 10.000 years BC from the dead brushwood hedge, the woven vertical branch fence and the bent woven hedge. They were used to provide a primitive form of protection against wild animals and plundering hordes.” MÜLLER, G. p. 334
• “There is prehistoric evidence of bank-like enclosures around fields, although it is not known whether they were planted with shrubs, on the Geest and in Eastern Westphalia (Groenmann van Waateringe 1970/71; Hohenschwert 1978). Most likely, hedge banks were also widely planted, since at least old Germanic times… “POTT, R.
• There are several remains in different parts in North and South Germany of earth banks and prehistoric, celtic fields. A primeval field at Flögeln, close to Cuxhaven (north) originally covered an area of 100 ha with banks that are between 8-16 m wide and 0.8 m high. MÜLLER, G. 334
• In the modern times, hedge banks have been constructed during the so called agricultural reform years in the 19^th century (s. above).
• There are many regional forms.