Großes Bruch
| Großes Bruch | |
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 View from the Großer Fallstein over the Große Bruch looking towards Hedeper
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| Area | 78.3 km² |
| Classification | Handbook of Natural Region Divisions of Germany |
| Major unit group | 51 → Northern Harz Foreland |
| Level 4 Region (major unit) |
511 → Großes Bruch |
| County/District | Börde, Wolfenbüttel |
| State(s) | Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt |
| Country | Germany |
The Großes Bruch is a 45 kilometres (28 mi) long wetland strip in Germany, stretching from Oschersleben in Saxony-Anhalt in the east to Hornburg, Lower Saxony in the west.
The depression was formed from a glacial valley. The lowland meadow landscape with numerous reed- and willow-fringed ditches is one to four kilometres wide and runs along the Großer Graben and Schiffgraben ditches connecting the river valleys of the Bode in the east and Oker in the west.
Until the region began to be drained in the Middle Ages it was impassable, e.g. "in order to get to Hamersleben Abbey from the south, one has to use a ferry from the place where, today, the Neudamm is located and the village of Wegersleben (later Neuwegersleben)." The oldest building in Neudamm, a residential tower built of rubble stone, is thus called in Low German dat ole Fährhus ("the old ferryman's house"), an adjacent field is de Fährbrai and the road from Schwanebeck dä ole Fährweg ("the old ferry way").
According to legend, a ferryman, Eulunardus, in 1130 refused to ferry across the Saxon count palatine Frederick II of Sommerschenburg during a severe storm, and was therefore killed in a fit of violent temper. Out of remorse for his actions, Frederick confessed his murder to Abbot Siegfried of Hamersleben Abbey, gave the monastery a hide of farmland, supported the family of the victim with money and ensured that Bishop Rudolf of Halberstadt was able to build a strong dyke in 1137. The residential tower became a customs post as the Low German name oppen Tolly recalls. Also, the place name "Neudamm" ("new dyke") implies to the crossing of a wetland. The Hessen Dyke (Hessendamm), too, the metalled, western road across the Großes Bruch between Hessen and Mattierzoll recalls the construction of a medieval road that led through the Bruch and enabled grassland to be cultivated.
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Wikipedia