Old Bavarian Donaumoos

The Old Bavarian Donaumoos (German: Altbayerisches Donaumoos) is an old fen on the southern side of the Danube, southwest of Ingolstadt, Bavaria, in the Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district. The fen, drained from 1790 onwards, has now dropped 3 metres (9.8 ft) in surface level because of the drainage and associated environmental effects. The Donaumoos was once the largest area of fenland in Southern Germany.

It is one of two former fens named Donaumoos, the other being the Swabian Donaumoos (German: Schwäbisches Donaumoos), also predominantly located in Bavaria, between Ulm and Gundelfingen. Of the Bavarian fens, the Moose, 95 percent have been dried out, a trend the Bavarian government wishes to reverse by re-flooding some of the former fens.

The Donaumoos was formed after the last glacial period, which ended approximately 10,000 years ago, in the wet lowlands on the southern side of the Danube (German: Donau). Over a period of time, peat was formed in the Donaumoos through the incomplete decomposing of plant materials. The peat formed at a rate of one millimetre per annum, to eventually reach a thickness of up to 10 metres in the Donaumoos.

Up until 1790, the 180 square kilometres of the Donaumoos fen were mostly inaccessible. From 1790 onwards, under the initiative of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, the fen was systematically drained. 473 kilometres of canals were built to drain the Donaumoos and, alongside the straight canals, villages were formed. Living conditions in the Moos were however difficult and new settlers for the region were hard to find.

To compensate for the later problem, the Bavarian government relaxed its long-standing policy of not allowing non-Catholics to live in Bavaria. In 1802, it permitted 120 Mennonite families to settle in the Danube fens. The new settlers were given numerous advantages, like subsidies, freedom from military service, tax-and rent-free use of the land for 10 years. Economic difficulties in the mid-1850s however forced the Mennonites to abandon their colony again and eventually emigrate to the United States.

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