Liliental - Forest testing ground

The land around the Lilienhof is a very old settling area and farmland. Findings of old billhooks and donkey horseshoes show that the land was already cultivated during the Middle Ages. It is assumed that the wooded areas regrew during the Thirty Years War due to the high depopulation. In the middle of the 19th century the association of tobacco products and business of Baden began to change the newly formed woods into an agricultural area. The agricultural engineer Freiherr von Babo made a significant contribution to the re-cultivation of the area. He established on behalf of the Graf Bismarck the property of the Lilienhof with its 280ha of agricultural lands. The farm estate earned a good reputation in Germany during the 19th century as a stud and wine-growing estate. In 1075 it was stopped due to economic reasons and the whole land was sold to the state forest management. The afforestation through the Forest Research Institute was the beginning of the Liliental as it is today.