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Floodplains through the letter – Land use and fluvial dynamics in the Upper Rhine area reconstructed from written sources, 1200-1700

1000 Worte Forschung: Ongoing research project at the Department for History of the Middle Ages at the Institute of History at the Technical University of Darmstadt

 

Land reclamation and intensified land use along rivers are a phenomenon since the high middle ages.[1] By contrast to the industrial period, pre-modern livelihoods relied heavily on ecosystem services of the active floodplain. These relationships are still unexplored. The DFG Priority Programme 2316 investigates the creation of the human-dominated floodplain – the Fluvial Anthroposphere. Within this program the research project Deciphering the Fluvial Metabolism of the Upper Rhine area (DEMUR) is set to study changes within the catchments of the Kinzig river in the Black Forest and of the Fecht river in the Vosgues mountains prior to industrialization (fig. 1). Three sub-projects at the University of Freiburg and the Technical University of Darmstadt are each dedicated to society, to hydroclimates and to sediments and fluviomorphology.

The sub-project presented here deals with the organization of floodplain-related crafts documented in written sources c. 1200–1700. The main goals are to identify relevant actors and institutions in the floodplains, to assess their interactions, to compare the different catchments and to integrate the results of the sub-projects.

Archival sources

Documentation from floodplain-related tribunals starts during the late middle ages.[2] Case files on perennial conflicts feature old legal titles, investigation reports and maps as well as judicial sentences.[3] These are connected to normative sources, such as laws, statutes and legal codes aimed at preventing future disputes among land users at the river and at regulating their procedure.[4] Rental book series, such as those of Fürstenberg and of Württemberg, both starting around 1500, provide the fluvio-social context.[5] Those registers list all assets rentable by subjects for an annual lease within the territory of the Kinzig valley. The floodplain-related activities indicated in the Upper Wolf valley, e.g. for the year 1453 are fishing, milling, meadow irrigation, production of rafting material and possibly ore mining.

Since laws and rentals were periodically updated, their diachronic comparison may reveal developments of land use, socio-political constellations and governance institutions and refer to underlying causes, such as economic trends or climate-related crises.

Fig. 1: DEMUR study region with the major catchments (blue names) tributary to the southern Upper Rhine area draining the Black Forest (orange) and the Vosgues mountains (red). Radiocarbon and core sampling sites are indicated with small dots, and cities with important archives with large dots (Jan Blöthe 2022, all rights reserved).

Fig. 1: DEMUR study region with the major catchments (blue names) tributary to the southern Upper Rhine area draining the Black Forest (orange) and the Vosgues mountains (red). Radiocarbon and core sampling sites are indicated with small dots, and cities with important archives with large dots (Jan Blöthe 2022, all rights reserved).

Timber rafting – a history of connection and conflict

In the Black Forest forestry was closely tied to rafting, i.e. driving single and bound logs from the upper catchment to the lower reaches. Due to its wide-spanning dimension and its manifold interactions with other crafts, timber rafting was chosen as a thematic main focus for this sub-project. In the Kinzig catchment this economic practice persisted over centuries, but is documented only from the late middle ages (fig. 2).[6] From the 15th to the early 17th century a large share of timber was destined to Strasbourg.[7] From 1648 construction wood was exported to Mainz and Cologne and, especially from 1700, to the Dutch shipyards. The transport capacity of timber rafting enabled a growing extractive economy of proto-industrial scale.[8]

Fig. 2: The Schiltacher Flößer association preserving the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage through historical timber rafting re-enactment on the Kinzig at the anniversary 200-year anniversary Lebendiges Lehengericht on May 5th–6th, 2018 (Naturpark Schwarzwald Mitte/Nord, all rights reserved).

Fig. 2: The Schiltacher Flößer association preserving the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage through historical timber rafting re-enactment on the Kinzig at the anniversary 200-year anniversary Lebendiges Lehengericht on May 5th–6th, 2018 (Naturpark Schwarzwald Mitte/Nord, all rights reserved).

Resource conflicts among actors in the floodplain reveal actors, land use practices and institutional arrangements. Legally tied to the river, rafting was under the supreme authority of the sovereign, such as the counts of Fürstenberg, Württemberg and Geroldseck, the Bishop of Strasbourg and the bailiff of the imperial fiefdom Ortenau. The main actors of timber rafting were cooperatives based on lay juries. Their composition and competence varied considerably. While the peasants in the side valleys were monitored by their lord, guild-like associations like the Schiffherren of Schiltach and those of Wolfach enjoyed trade privileges, but were frequently impeded by downstream communities.[9] During the 16th and 17th centuries damage caused by driving timber from Wolfach to the hydraulics of the two imperial mills at Offenburg were reported repeatedly.[10]

All of this suggests a strong connectivity between forestry, rafting and wood markets along the entire river course and with a nexus in the floodplains where user groups sought to control commercial timber flows. These constellations and ties are being investigated as well as the effects of floating pond surges on the natural runoff and sedimentation regimes.

Approaches and perspectives

DEMUR approaches the Fluvial Anthroposphere by observing material flows through the fluvial floodplain and how they change in volume, direction, temporality and interaction with society and environment. Their patterns constitute the Fluvio-Social Metabolism. This social-ecological concept is roughly defined as flows of exchanging matter and energy created and modified by a floodplain society in a given territory.[11] The approach offers an initial research perspective and is being developed into a framework for historical-geographical floodplain research.

Charlotte Engelmann and I trace flows of wood, water and sediment. Her work on sediment cores shows a marked increase in heavy metal concentrations beginning between 770 and 310 years ago, which matches with the onset of documentation on ore mining in the region in 1234 and likely predates the accounts of the Upper Kinzig catchment from the 15th century (fig. 3).[12] Integration of historical and sedimentological data with climatological information from the database tambora will be carried out through statistical modelling mostly by Michael Kahle.[13] It will allow for a more pronounced investigation of hydroclimatic extremes and other crisis factors such as wars and their impact on floodplains.

 

Fig. 3: Direct push sediment core from the Kinzig floodplain downstream Wolfach, c. 2 m, reaching the gravel bottom. Contained copper, plumb and barium concentrations show a strong increase from cal. 0.77-0.31 ka BP in Wolfach and 3.6-0.62 ka BP in Schiltach (Charlotte Engelmann 2024, all rights reserved).

Fig. 3: Direct push sediment core from the Kinzig floodplain downstream Wolfach, c. 2 m, reaching the gravel bottom. Contained copper, plumb and barium concentrations show a strong increase from cal. 0.77-0.31 ka BP in Wolfach and 3.6-0.62 ka BP in Schiltach (Charlotte Engelmann 2024, all rights reserved).

 

All links have been checked on 13 October 2024.

 

[1] Lukas Werther [et al.], On the Way to the Fluvial Anthroposphere – Current Limitations and Perspectives of Multidisciplinary Research, in: MDPI Water 13 (2021), no. 2188, here pp. 8–11, https://doi.org/10.3390/w13162188.

[2] Cf. the contributions by Raphael Longoni and by Evelien Timpener in Conflicts over Water Management and Water Rights from the End of Antiquity to Industrialisation, ed. by Michele Campopiano and Gerrit Schenk (Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Beiheft 260), Stuttgart 2024, pp. 17–70.

[3] Karlsruhe, Generallandesarchiv 71 Nr. 79; Donaueschingen, Fürstlich Fürstenbergisches Archiv Jurisdictionalia, Floßwesen IX.

[4] Karlsruhe, Generallandesarchiv 28 Nr. 50 and 193 Nr. 11.

[5] Donaueschingen, Fürstlich Fürstenbergisches Archiv Renovationen XIV, A, 1a–2a and XIII, A, 1 and XIII, B, 3; Karlsruhe, Generallandesarchiv 66 Nr. 3848–3849 and 3853–3858 and 7252.

[6] Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 2: Quellen zur Geschichte der Grafen von Fürstenberg vom Jahre 1300–1399, ed. Sigmund Riezler, Tübingen 1877, no. 449.

[7] Hans Harter, “Bin ich nach Holland mit einem Floß gefahren.” – “Rheinhändel” Kinzigtäler Schiffer, in: Die Ortenau 101 (2021), pp. 53–88, here pp. 59–74.

[8] Joachim Radkau, Holz. Wie ein Naturstoff Geschichte schreibt (Stoffgeschichten 3), Munich 22012, pp. 88–149.

[9] Karlsruhe, Generallandesarchiv 71 Nr. 2227 and Nr. 826.

[10] Karlsruhe, Generallandesarchiv 119 Nr. 535–536.

[11] Adapting Nina Eisenmenger, Method Précis: Material Flow Analysis, in: Helmut Haberl [et al.], Social Ecology. Society–Nature Relations Across Time and Space (Human–Environment Interactions 5), Cham 2016, pp. 234–237.

[12] Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch 1. Quellen zur Geschichte der Grafen von Achalm, Urach und Fürstenberg bis zum Jahre 1299, ed. Sigmund Riezler, Tübingen 1877, no. 379.

[13] Tambora. The climate and environmental history collaborative research environment, ed. by Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg i. Br. 2024, https://www.tambora.org.


D O W N L O A D

(PDF/A-Version)


Empfohlene Zitierweise / Suggested Citation: Raphael Longoni, Floodplains through the letter – Land use and fluvial dynamics in the Upper Rhine area reconstructed from written sources, 1200-1700, in: Mittelalter. Interdisziplinäre Forschung und Rezeptionsgeschichte 7 (2024), S. 41–45, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26012/mittelalter-34427.


Dieser Artikel wurde redaktionell betreut von Karoline Döring und Björn Gebert. 

Raphael Longoni

PhD candidate at the Institute for History at the Technical University of Darmstadt with an interest in medieval to early modern urban construction, environmental history, historical geography and disaster studies

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OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Raphael Longoni (22. Oktober 2024). Floodplains through the letter – Land use and fluvial dynamics in the Upper Rhine area reconstructed from written sources, 1200-1700. Mittelalter. Abgerufen am 12. Februar 2025 von https://doi.org/10.58079/12jnc


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