Dangers for the Benninger fen
Originally the fen came up to the city of Amendingen in the north, in the south it extended over the current municipal area of Benningen. You can also see this from the view over the city of Memmingen of the year 1634 which represents the siege of the city by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War. At that time the "Moras(t)" (ancient German word for fen) was an important element of the city's defense. For this reason people began very late to drain and to cultivate the fen's area. The current area of 22 ha of the Benninger fen is only a small part of its original area which at the beginning of the 19th century had still a size of 133 ha. The reasons for this are above all the ever since growing cultivation of the fen and - especially after the 2nd World War - the intensive building activities in this area.
Topographic Map
Townscape in 1630, in the foreground "Moras"
But also in the current protected area the natural succession quickly reduces the area populated by Armeria purpurea. Especially because of the missing dynamics of the spring discharge being already on a globally low level the succession of bushes is spreading out very quickly over the whole vegetation.
