The Irrhain, located near Kraftshof (Kraftshofer Forst) near Nuremberg, is the meeting place of the Pegnesian Flower Order, a language and literature society that has existed since 1644. The original complex was a maze-like forest.
History
Originally, the circle of poets around Georg Philipp Harsdörffer and Johann Klaj, who founded the Flower Order in 1644, met in the so-called Poetenwäldchen near the Weidenmühle, a peninsula formed by an old river in the Pegnitz. After the owner of the property had made this place inaccessible with a fence, the members met in the house Zum halbe Mond, which belonged to Andreas Ingolstätter.
In order to be able to cultivate poetry close to nature again, the pastor of Kraftshof, Martin Limburger, made the suggestion to the then head of the order, Sigmund von Birken, in 1676 to create a new meeting place in an overgrown oak grove near the village of Kraftshof. Limburger developed the concept of a talking garden; he understood the "Irr-Wald" as a symbol of the "Welt-Irr-Wald", which corresponded to the contemporary pietistic spirit. The work was completed in 1678, and in 1681 the forest alms office of the Sebalder city side confirmed to the Flower Order that it had received the "Irrhain" as a perpetual fief.
The original labyrinthine idea was finally completely abandoned. In 1796 the snake path was abandoned because it was too expensive to maintain, further simplifications followed in 1802 and in 1878 the route was changed in such a way that it was no longer possible to get lost.
In the following years, the Irrhain became more and more a place for the preservation of tradition. In 1855, the Bavarian King Maximilian II visited the Order's Irrhain Festival. The entrance portal that still exists today was built in 1894 to mark the 250th anniversary. In 1944, the Irrhain was damaged by the effects of war, temporarily became overgrown and was only used for private purposes.
In the Irrhain there are memorial stones from the 18th and 19th centuries dedicated to members of the Order, for example an obelisk for honorary member Christoph Martin Wieland. Of the more than thirty memorial plaques that were once attached to trees, only one remains. After 1996, four new plaques were added.
In 1992, the social hut was rebuilt. The "Irrhain Festival" took place every year on the first Sunday in July, during which an "Irrhain play" was performed on the natural stage. The plays performed were mainly by Hans Sachs.
The Nuremberg forestry department informed the association in May 2008 that the Irrhain could no longer be used as an event location. The reason for this is the protection of the hermit beetle by the EU's Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive. To protect the beetle, dead wood may not be removed and trees may not be pruned, which also means that the Irrhain festival cannot be held.
Shape
The Irrhain was divided into several areas. The larger part consisted of an irregular network of hedge-flanked paths, with patches of meadow in between. In another section there was a four-way zigzag path, which was known as the snake path. There was also the Irrwald, with a mock cemetery and memorial stones. Several arbors and a social hut served as meeting points.
Source: Wikipadia