보르스텔-호엔라덴 주변 최고의 교통량 없는 자전거 라이딩 코스

Even a four- or five-meter-high hill, built for visitors, offers a much better overview of the landscape left behind by decades of peat extraction.

5,810 meters of track remain from the Himmelmoor Peat Railway. Built in 1900, it was used to transport peat from the mining area to the peat works on the eastern edge of the moor, operating on constantly changing routes. Small diesel locomotives, some of which were built in-house, pulled the trains carrying the peat floes until mining ended in 2018. Since 2015, the Himmelmoor Peat Railway Association has offered tours on the remaining line. The association maintains the railway and the industrial facilities. Trains are also regularly used for renaturation work.

Peat cutting, i.e., the above-ground extraction of peat, is no longer economically viable today. Peat as a fuel has largely been replaced by other high-energy fossil fuels. Many large-scale peatlands suitable for industrial extraction have now been drained. New peat cutting areas are only permitted under strict conditions. Raised bogs have an important regulatory effect on the water balance due to the large amounts of precipitation they can absorb. The preservation of the original habitats serves landscape conservation and species protection, as most species of peatland flora and fauna are considered threatened or critically endangered. Bogs grow extremely slowly; an intact peat body increases in thickness by only one millimeter per year. It therefore takes a thousand years for a one-meter-high layer of peat to form. Thus, bog areas recover very slowly during restoration attempts.

According to a 1919 contract, peat extraction, which began around 1780, was to continue until the moor had completely disappeared. However, extraction was discontinued in 2018. The gradual renaturation and rewetting of the Himmelmoor had already begun. The "Himmelmoor Friends' Association" was founded in December 2005.

The reclamation of the Himmelmoor began around 1780. Its edges were divided into 1,000 to 5,000 square meter plots and transferred to farmers from neighboring villages for peat extraction. Industrial peat extraction began in the 1870s. Peat was now also extracted from the center of the moor using machines. Peat excavators extracted the black peat, compressed it, and divided it into sods. Turning the drying sods was increasingly done by machine, as was the collection of the dry peat. The low-energy fuel was packaged and loaded at the peat works.

In the middle of the moor - sometimes not even recognizable

Beautiful tour through a wide forest area

From April to October, the exhibition is open every first and third Sunday and on public holidays in the old peat works at Himmelmoorchaussee 61 in Quickborn. It features pictures and old maps, presenting, among other things, the historical peat extraction process, the tools and machinery used, the climate impact of moors, and the diverse flora and fauna of the Himmelmoor Nature Reserve. Depending on the weather, short, spontaneous tours can be arranged. Admission is free, and donations for volunteer work are always welcome. https://www.hamburg-tourism.de/sehen-erleben/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungskalender/open-torfwerk-am-himmelmoor/