High Ochsenkopf
| Hoher Ochsenkopf | |
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The Bannwald and remains of the blown up viewing tower on the summit of the Hoher Ochsenkopf
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,054.5 m above sea level (NHN) (3,460 ft) |
| Coordinates | 48°38′36″N 8°16′08″E / 48.64333°N 8.26889°ECoordinates: 48°38′36″N 8°16′08″E / 48.64333°N 8.26889°E |
| Geography | |
 Hoher Ochsenkopf
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| Parent range | Black Forest |
| Geology | |
| Mountain type | Bunter Sandstone |
The Hoher Ochsenkopf ("High Ochsenkopf", literally "High Oxen Peak") is a mountain in the Northern Black Forest in the municipality of Forbach in south Germany. At 1,054.5 m above sea level (NHN) it is the highest point in Forbach and also in the county of Rastatt. The mountain, whose domed summit or kuppe was already a nature reserve lies in the Black Forest National Park which was founded in 2014. Its name (which means "high oxen-peak") recalls its former use as wood pasture.
The Hoher Ochsenkopf lies about six kilometres northeast of the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest, the Hornisgrinde, which is 108 metres higher. Like the Badener Höhe three kilometres north it is part of an eastern spur of the main chain of the northern Black Forest, which runs between the Upper Rhine Plain and the Murg valley. This spur is bounded by two western side valleys of the Murg, the valley of the Hundsbach with the Forbach village of Hundsbach in the south and the Schwarzenbach valley with the village of Herrenwies in the north and the Schwarzenbach Dam in the northeast. The Hoher Ochsenkopf is linked to the Mittlerer Ochsenkopf ("middle oxen-peak", 1,004.9 m) to the south over the Kegelplatz, a 977-metre-high saddle. The 964-metre-high Vorderer Ochsenkopf ("anterior oxen-peak") adjoins the Mittlerer Ochsenkopf to the south and, further east, is the Nägeliskopf (994 m). In the northwest, the 948-metre-high saddle of Dreikohlplatten links the Hoher Ochsenkopf to the Mehliskopf (1008 m).
The flat and once deforested domed summit or kuppe, then a typical grinde of the Northern Black Forest, was used in past centuries as pasture. The forest recolonised the area after grazing ended. In 1970 a Bannwald forest, 41.1 hectares in area, was declared around the summit and, in 1975, it was turned into a nature reserve. In 1986, in order to protect the capercaillie, a bird reserve, 600 ha in area, was declared around the Hoher Ochsenkopf. In 2000 the Bannwald was extended to an area of 100.7 ha and complemented by the surrounding, 427 ha of Schonwald, a form of semi-protected forest, called the Nägeliskopf.
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