The Rabenstein Forest is a forest area of around 900 hectares in the west of the city of Chemnitz, a small part is located in the area of the Pleißa district of the city of Limbach-Oberfrohna. It is located on the "Rabensteiner Höhenzug". This ridge separates the northern edge of the Ore Mountain Basin from the southern edge of the Central Saxon loess-loam hill country. Its highest elevation, the Totenstein, reaches 479 meters above sea level (NN), the lowest point 330 m above sea level. NN. To the west it goes into the forests on the Langenbergerhöhe up to the Oberwald reservoir.
The Rabenstein Forest has been used by people for a long time. It has been in Saxon ownership for more than 500 years. In the 16th century it consisted mainly of beech, fir, pine, birch and aspen. The spruce was either insignificant or absent here altogether. There are no indications of "hewn wood" (= plundered forest), so it must have had a high-quality inventory. It was given as half a Saxon mile long and a quarter Saxon mile wide. By 1936, the composition of tree species had changed radically. Now it consisted mainly of pure spruce stands. The beech, pine and birch as well as aspen were pushed back to the smallest areas. According to the theory of pure soil yields, the pure spruce stand was considered the most profitable and the forest management was designed accordingly with the Saxon narrow clearing system. From 1945 the tree species composition changed radically again. Extensive clearing of root stumps and young trees immediately after the Second World War served to alleviate the shortage of wood (firewood). Significant reparations in the form of timber also had to be paid. The tree species spruce was pushed back to less than half of the forest area, as mainly birch and aspen grew in large numbers on the cleared areas. Agricultural land was created on parts of the forest as a result of land reform, which was later converted into allotments and building land. In the mid-seventies of the 20th century, the large routes for the overhead power lines were cut into the forest. At the same time, a start was made on replacing the stands, which were considered to be less productive and were dominated by deciduous trees such as birch, with new spruce plantations in the clear-cutting. This continued until 1990, so that during this time almost no hardwood stands were newly created. The pure conifer stands were able to take up a larger proportion of the area again. These stocks are particularly found around the Totenstein. From 1970 the Oberrabenstein recreation area with the Rabenstein reservoir and the Rabenstein wild gate was set up. In these areas, the forest was significantly influenced by the settlement of European wild animals and construction measures. Some of the brook valleys disappeared into the reservoir and forest stands were gated in and the animals kept there shape them to this day by peeling, browsing and scouring.
(Wikipedia)
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