Peat Extraction in Lichtenmoor

The Lichtenmoor is named after the fact that it is tree-free, i.e. light. Until the beginning of the 19th century, the moor was largely natural, only on the edge was there peat extraction by the residents of the surrounding villages. In 1765 the first surveying work took place in the moor. In 1792 the Wölpe office sold the first bog land to farmers. The reclamation of the moor began after the regulation of the alp in 1848, which flows past the moor. During the land consolidation in 1855, the Lichtenmoor was divided. In 1899 the first attempts at cultivation in the moor began from the surrounding villages, which were discontinued in 1905. During the First World War, a prisoner-of-war camp was set up in the moor in 1914, which was not closed until 1924. [1] After the decision of 1912 in Neustadt am Rübenberge to settle the moor, the first settlers came in 1919. It was landless farmers who founded the Lichtenmoor and Lichtenhorst settlements. In 1934 an oil well was found in the Lichtenmoor.

This is a great area. Definitely worth seeing