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  • September 22, 2014
  • Clotten’s 1868 Viticultural Map of the Saar and Mosel (Second Edition)

  • by Lars Carlberg

ockfen_clotten_second_editionOn August 26, the wine critic David Schildknecht and I visited Van Volxem to taste Roman Niewodniczanski's 2013s. As we entered the tasting room, we were flabbergasted to see the rare second edition (1890) of the 1868 Saar und Mosel Weinbau-Karte (Viticultural Map of the Saar and Mosel) from Franz Josef Clotten, which was framed and resting on a heater by the entrance. In fact, neither of us had ever seen this print before. Unlike the first or the fourth edition (1906) of Clotten's 1868 tax map of the Saar and Mosel vineyards, the second edition has some green to indicate the forests.* It gives it more color than the other two maps.

In my close-up shot of Ockfen, you can see the dark-red markings for the highest-taxed vineyards, including the famous Bocksteiner and Geisberg. The latter, however, wasn't on the first edition of Clotten's tax map. (Here's a shot of David S. taking a photo of the Saar part of the map.)

During the Mosel's heyday, new plantings on slate slopes expanded into side valleys, such as in Ockfen, Serrig, and Avelsbach, where the Staatsdomäne, or State Domain, started to plant more vines by the 1890s. These hillsides were covered in small oak trees and shrubs, called Lohhecken in German. Like the vineyards on the Ruwer, the wines from these areas were once called Heckenweine, or "hedge wines." In the fourth edition (1906) of Clotten's Saar and Mosel map, there are new plantings on the Saar in Serrig (Schiesaberg, Würzberg, Eichenheck, Serrigertal, Vorm Wild, and Saarstein, among others), Ockfen (an expanded Geisberg), Ayl (Wald), Wiltingen (Schlangengraben, Acht auf Neuenberg, Giebelsberg, and Nilles), Oberemmel (Karlsberg), and Falkenstein (de Nysberg). The Mosel had new sites, too.

Roman purchased the map at Antiquariat Peter Fritzen in Trier. This impressive antiquarian bookshop is located in an old mansion and has a sizable collection of old and rare books and maps. Unfortunately, Herr Fritzen doesn't have another original second edition of Clotten's viticultural map of the Saar and Mosel. And that's too bad. David S. and I would love to have even a copy of this edition.

Unlike the first edition, Fritzen points out that the second edition doesn't have "Berliner lithogr. Institut" on the bottom right-hand corner. The main differences between the first and second edition are the new vineyard sites on the Saar and the addition of Sirzenich, a village to the west of Trier. The Moselbahn is on the second edition, including the station at Ürzig. This stretch of the railroad, which was called the Kanonenbahn ("cannons rail line"), was completed in 1879 (the two-track line in 1896). After the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, the Prussians wanted a railroad line to connect Berlin with Metz. This also helped the transport of Mosel wine.

In Der Weinbau an der Mosel und Saar (Viticulture on the Mosel and Saar, 1869) by Otto Beck, which was published in Trier (and went with the first edition of the map), he praises Clotten and says that the map is not only a keepsake for the winegrowers but also of great historical and cultural importance for future generations, which is true. ♦

*It turns out that I had taken photos of the second edition (1890) of the 1868 Saar and Mosel map at the Trier library in February 2012. This original didn’t have the green, though.

<< Clotten's 1868 Viticultural Map of the Saar and Mosel

  • As director for viticulture in the Prussian Rhine Province, Friedrich Wilhelm Koch (no relation to Karl Heinrich Koch) wrote a book titled Weinbau an der Mosel und Saar (Lintz, 1881). Along with this book, he made with the Trier publisher Heinrich Stephanus an extensive vineyard map of the Mosel, which marks the vineyards in green, but there is no classification of vineyards. One original, at the Trier municipal archives, is a leather-bound scroll from 1897. Koch’s map competed with the Prussian tax maps. In the 1930s, a similar map with the Riesling vineyards marked in green was printed by the publisher Jacob Lintz, who also published the second, third, and fourth edition of Clotten’s Saar and Mosel maps.

    Friedrich Wilhelm Koch and Heinrich Stephanus had a separate book that accompanied their map, too. The title is Die Weine im Gebiete der Mosel und Saar (The Wines in the Region of the Mosel and Saar, Heinrich Stephanus, 1898). The third and last edition was published in 1914.

    In addition, the wine author Joachim Krieger has republished the fourth edition (1906) of Clotten’s 1868 Saar and Mosel map and the second edition (1908) of the 1897 Mosel map of the district of Koblenz, which runs further downriver from Traben-Trarbach to Koblenz. Both of these last editions show the Mosel at its height.

  • Evan Spingarn says:

    “…And that’s too bad. David S. and I would love to have even a copy of this edition.”
    So uh… Roman at Von Volxem is not forthcoming with his map? To have professional copies made, I mean? I sense a slight weight of the unspoken here…

    • Evan, I haven’t really asked Roman at Van Volxem about it. On our visit in late August, I made the suggestion, but he didn’t say yes (or no). But there should be copies made, as with the first edition. I don’t need an original.

  • It turns out that I had taken photos of the second edition (1890) of the 1868 Saar and Mosel map at the Trier library in February 2012. This original didn’t have the green, though. I forgot that I had seen it before and will add this comment as a footnote, too.

  • I told Frau Eich at the Trier library about the 1890 map. She will bring this up to the board members and see if they have interest in making copies of the original owned by Roman, who told me that he’s willing to let them use it.

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