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| Classification | Handbook of Natural Region Divisions of Germany |
|---|---|
| Level 1 Region | North German Plain |
| Level 3 Region | 64 → Luneburg Heath |
| State(s) | Lower Saxony |
| Country | Germany |
Lüneburg Heath (German:Lüneburger Heide,pronounced[ˈlyːnəbʊʁɡɐˈhaɪdə]ⓘ) is a large area ofheath,geest, andwoodland in the northeastern part of the state ofLower Saxony in northernGermany. It forms part of thehinterland for the cities ofHamburg,Hanover andBremen and is named after the town ofLüneburg. Most of the area is anature reserve.Northern Low Saxon is still widely spoken in the region.
Lüneburg Heath has extensive areas, and the most yellow ofheathland, typical of those that covered most of the North German countryside until about 1800, but which have almost completely disappeared in other areas. The heaths were formed after theNeolithic period byovergrazing of the once widespread forests on the poor sandy soils of the geest, as this slightly hilly and sandy terrain in northern Europe is called. Lüneburg Heath is therefore a historiccultural landscape. The remaining areas of heath are kept clear mainly through grazing, especially by a North German breed of moorland sheep called theHeidschnucke. Due to its unique landscape, Lüneburg Heath is a popular tourist destination inNorth Germany.
Lüneburg Heath covers an area which includes the districts (Landkreise) ofCelle,Gifhorn,Heidekreis,Uelzen,Lüneburg,Lüchow-Dannenberg, southeastRotenburg (the town ofVisselhövede,Fintel, part of the municipality ofScheeßel and the eastern half ofBothel) and therural district of Harburg. The easternmost fringes of theStade Geest belonging toLandkreis Verden are called theLinteln Geest (Lintelner Geest) orVerden Heath (Verdener Heide) and form part of the municipality ofKirchlinteln. This region has no sharply defined boundary with the Lüneburg Heath.
Today the area is a popular tourist destination. Contributing to this are the theme park,Heidepark Soltau, theWalsrode Bird Park, theSerengeti Safari Park at Hodenhagen,Snow Dome Bispingen, and aCenter Parc as well as the many farms offering holiday stays, making the Lüneburg Heath especially popular for families. Another group of tourists are the elderly on free guided bus tours (Kaffeefahrten), stopping for coffee and wool plaids at a farm before touring Lüneburg for an hour.
TheKunststätte Bossard in theNordheide nearJesteburg is anexpressionistGesamtkunstwerk open to the public.
The memorial exhibition at the formerBergen-Belsen concentration camp near the town of Bergen is also located in the Lüneburg Heath.
From a geographical point of view, Lüneburg Heath is a specificnatural region, that is an area distinguished by a specific combination of abiotic factors (climate, relief, water resources, soil, geology) and biotic factors (flora andfauna). Lüneburg Heath is a sub-division of theNorth European Plain. In the list of the major natural regions of Germany issued by theFederal Office for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz) it is region number D28.
Lüneburg Heath lies between the riversElbe to the north, theDrawehn to the east, theAller to the south and southwest, the middle course of theWümme to the west and theHarburg Hills (Harburger Berge) to the northwest.
On the northwestern edge of Lüneburg Heath are the Harburg Hills and south ofSchneverdingen there arebogs, such as thePietzmoor. Also of note are other smaller bogs insinkholes, like theGrundloses Moor ("bottomless bog") near Walsrode or theBullenkuhle near Bokel (part ofSprakensehl). The eastern boundary to theWendland is formed by theGöhrde-Drawehn Hills (the Ostheide natural region). Parts of Lüneburg Heath are in theSüdheide Nature Park, others in theLüneburg Heath Nature Park.
The highest elevation on Lüneburg Heath is theWilseder Berg (169.2 metres (555 ft)) aboveNN). Other hills over 100 metres (330 ft) high are:Falkenberg (150 metres (490 ft)), nearBergen, Ahrberg (145 metres (476 ft)), Hakenberg (143 metres (469 ft)),Hoher Mechtin (142 metres (466 ft)), Pampower Berg (140 metres (460 ft)), Lüßberg (130 metres (430 ft)),Brunsberg, nearSprötze (129 metres (423 ft)), Goldbockenberg (129 metres (423 ft)), Hingstberg (126 metres (413 ft)), Staffelberg (126 metres (413 ft)), Hengstberg (121 metres (397 ft)), Höpenberg near Schneverdingen (120 metres (390 ft)),Haußelberg (119.1 metres (391 ft)), Breithorn (118 metres (387 ft)), Mützenberg (115 metres (377 ft)), Tellmer Berg (113 metres (371 ft)), Wümmeberg (107.9 metres (354 ft)), Schiffberg (107 metres (351 ft)), Hummelsberg and Wulfsberg (each 106 metres (348 ft)), Drullberg and Thonhopsberg (each 104 metres (341 ft)), Kruckberg andWietzer Berg (each 102 metres (335 ft)) and Höllenberg (101 metres (331 ft)).
Several of these hills - the Wilseder Berg, the Falkenberg, the Haußelberg and the Breithorn - were used by the mathematician,Carl Friedrich Gauss, astriangulation stations in his topographical surveys of theKingdom of Hanover from 1821 to 1825.[2]
Rivers in the area, beside the numerous small heathland streams, include theWümme, which rises on the western slopes of the Wilseder Berg, in the south theLachte with its tributary theLutter, and theAller, theVissel, theBöhme, theGrindau, theMeiße and theÖrtze. They all belong to theWeser river system. Those flowing into theElbe are theAue, theIlmenau, theLuhe and theSeeve.
The immediate subsurface layers on Lüneburg Heath are almost exclusively made up of deposits from thequaternary ice age. The landscape consists of flat plains ofground moraines, ridges of hillyterminal moraines and also ofsandar - glacial outwash plains deposited at the edge of the ice sheet.
During the Saalian Stage (230,000–130,000 years ago) the area of the present-day Lüneburg Heath was covered three times by a continental ice sheet. In the last glacial period (110,000–10,000 years ago) the ice sheet no longer covered the Lüneburg Heath area; it reached only as far as theRiver Elbe. Due to the lack of vegetation, the much more rugged terrain at that time was heavily eroded by water, wind and bysoil fluction; this resulted in valleys like the Totengrund. The material displaced byerosion, referred to assediment (Geschiebedecksand), has a depth of 0.4 to 0.8 metres (on slopes up to 1.5 metres).
The region is mostly covered by aheathland landscape consisting of bigheather andjuniper areas, forests and some smallerswamps. In contrast to the areas in the north of Lüneburg Heath, the landscape is very hilly, as it is placed on aterminal moraine.
Lüneburg Heath is divided into the following natural sub-divisions:
Lüneburg Heath lies in a temperate maritime climatic region moderated by the Atlantic, with mild winters, cool summers and precipitation all-year round. The Hohe Heide, however, has a "low mountain climate" with lower temperatures and higher precipitation than in the surrounding area.
In the northwestern part of Lüneburg Heath is theLüneburg Heath Nature Park which covers an area of 1,130 square kilometres (440 sq mi). At its heart, around theWilseder Berg, is theLüneburg Heath Nature Reserve (Naturschutzgebiet or NSG) founded as long ago as 1921 with 234 square kilometres (90 sq mi) of land which is roughly 58% woods and 20% heathland. Other nature parks in the Lüneburg Heath region are theSüdheide Nature Park andElbufer-Drawehn Nature Park. Right in the north of the area is theHarburg Hills Nature Park. The Lüneburg Heath NSG, together with the open heathland of the hugeMunster Nord and Süd training areas and theBergen-Hohne Training Area, is the largest single area of heathland inCentral Europe. And within the former province (Regierungsbezirk) of Lüneburg there are no less than 212 individualnature reserves (as at 31 December 2006).[5]
After the end of theWeichselian Ice Age (115,000 to 10,000 years ago) the first woods appeared in the area that now forms Lüneburg Heath which, following the naturalecological succession and encouraged by a gradual improvement in the climate, progressed frombirch andpine forest throughhazel woods to light woods ofsessile oaks.
The heath and its surrounding area belong to those regions of theNorth German Plain in which the hunter culture of theMesolithic era was superseded quite early on byNeolithic farmers. By about 3000 BC, during the Neolithic, large open areas appeared on the lightly undulating, sandy stretches ofgeest on Lüneburg Heath. This was a result of the intensive grazing of the sessile oak woods and the associated destruction of successive new stands of trees. These open areas became dominated by thecommon heather (Calluna vulgaris), a largely grazing-resistant species of plant. Nevertheless, oak and beech woods succeeded time and again in establishing themselves wherever man left areas of heath untended. Over a long period of time the region of Lüneburg Heath alternated between periods when the heathlands spread and dominated the scene and times when it was largely covered with forest and only small areas of heath existed. Finally, after themigration period, the wooded areas of the region increased considerably.[6]
Not until after 1000 AD does thepollen analysis show a continuous reduction in the woodlands and a considerable increase inheather. This was brought about by a change from nomadic farming to settled farming with permanent settlements. The typical heath farming economy emerged: due to the poor soils the few available nutrients from a large area were concentrated on relatively small fields, from which grain, in particular, could be produced. This was achieved by the regular removal of the turf (a method known asPlaggen), which was used as hay for the pens of the moorland sheep, theHeidschnucken. This was then enriched with the manure and urine of the sheep – and spread over the fields as fertiliser.
By cutting the turf the regenerative capacity of the soils was exhausted. The regular removal of the top layer of soil contributed to the spreading of heathland. As heather decomposes, thepH value of the soil falls drastically, as far as the iron buffer-region at pH 3, which initiates the process ofpodsolisation. Soil life is severely damaged, which results in a hard layer of earth underneath the root zone on the heath at a depth of about 40 centimetres (16 in). The iron and humus particles released by the topsoil precipitate onto this impervioushardpan. Thesubsoil thus separates itself from the topsoil. The nutrients are largely washed out of the topsoil which leads to leaching and causes the typical grey-white coloration of the paths on the heath.
The oft-expressed view in the literature that the heath arose in theMiddle Ages as a result of the demand for wood by the Lüneburgsalt pans is incorrect. The Lüneburg salt ponds certainly needed firewood for the production ofsalt, but they did not appear until around 1000 AD, by which time the heath had already been around for 4,000 years. The amount required, even in the heyday of production, could have been continuously supplied by an area of woodland about 50 km2 in area, yet the heath covers over 7000 km2. In any case the wood certainly did not come from the heath, but via the waterways, especially fromMecklenburg up the Elbe and from the area of theSchaalsee. Transportation overland would have been far too expensive (apart from theRiver Ilmenau which was navigable at the time, no rivers flow from the main areas of heathland to Lüneburg), as can be seen not only from some of the delivery notes which still survive, but also from the fact that there are still large woods around Lüneburg itself, such as theGöhrde. Finally heathland has frequently developed in areas where there are no salt pans, such as the sheep-grazing regions on the coasts of Norway to Portugal and in Scotland and Ireland.
The heath is not therefore anatural landscape, but acultural landscape created by the intervention of man. In order to prevent its semi-open heathland from being repopulated by trees, especiallypines and, to a lesser extent,silver birches, which would cause the loss of this millennia-old environment and its many inhabitants, including often very rare animal and plant species, sheep are allowed to graze it regularly; these are almost exclusively the local German moorland sheep, theHeidschnucke.
In the 20th century, numerous conservation measures were implemented on Lüneburg Heath; as a result, it is one of the best researched regions of central Europe.
Sand heaths form about 20% of the Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve and may be broken down into further sub-divisions, the most important being:
The greater part (about 58%) of the Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve consists of woods, primarilypine forests, which were planted in the second half of the 19th century on former heathland and drifting sand. In some cases the dunes simply became naturally overgrown, again with pines. There are only a very few old stands ofsessile oaks, which stem from the logging industry during the time of theKingdom of Hanover. In many parts of the nature reserve there are so-calledStühbüsche (a form of coppice), trees that were coppiced by repeatedly being cut short. In the meantime they have grown wild again and have a characteristic and unusual appearance with their multiple trunks. NearWilsede there is the remnant of aHutewald, a wood pasture with giant, multi-stemmedbeech trees.[8]
The largest bog on Lüneburg Heath is thePietzmoor, which lies east ofSchneverdingen. It was drained however and peat was cut there until the 1960s. The Nature Park Association carried out work in the 1980s to try to turn it back to its natural waterlogged state. For example, some of the drainage ditches were filled which led to a considerable rise in the water levels of the former peat cuts. However typical bog vegetation has not yet re-established itself.[9]
Many species of animal live on Lüneburg Heath, particularly birds that are at home in the wide, open landscape, some of which are seriously threatened by the intensive-farming techniques in other areas. These include the:black grouse (Tetrao tetrix), thenightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus), thewoodlark (Lullula arborea), thegreat grey shrike (Lanius excubitor), thered-backed shrike (Lanius collurio), thenorthern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe), thewryneck (Jynx torquilla), theEuropean green woodpecker (Picus viridis), thestonechat (Saxicola torquata), theEurasian curlew (Numenius arquata), thecommon quail (Coturnix coturnix) and theblack stork (Ciconia nigra).[10] In the Lüneburg Heath, the population of the very rare black grouse is rising continually. In 2007, 78 were counted, 13 more than in the previous year. Since 2003, the number of grouse has doubled.
Wolves, although once extinct in the area, have returned to the Lüneburg Heath.[11][12]
Numerous species includingEuropean bison,moose andbrown bear which once inhabited the region may be seen in theLüneburg Heath Wildlife Park alongside more exotic animals likesnow leopards andArctic wolves.
Pollen analyses show that the dry geest soils of North Germany have been cultivated since about 3000 BC. Clearance by fire and the cultivation of crops on thePleistocene sandy soils quickly led however tosoil degradation. So the land cleared by fire could only be used for a short time. The settlements moved frequently and woods elsewhere were cleared. Even at that time the firstCalluna (heather) heaths appeared.[13] Evidence of relatively dense settlement is found especially inUelzen district. On Lüneburg Heath there are numerousMegalithic sites andtumuli from theNeolithic and the earlyBronze Age. The most famous are theOldendorfer Totenstatt (Oldendorf Grave site) and theSieben Steinhäuser (Seven Stone Houses). But even in the Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve there are more than a thousand tumuli, especially near Nieder- and Oberhaverbeck. The largest of these tumuli is the so-called Prince's Grave (Fürstengrab). Also near Wilsede there is the well-known stone and juniper group known as Hannibal's Grave (Hannibals Grab).[14]
After the withdrawal of theLombards in themigration period, from about 700 AD Lüneburg Heath belonged to theDuchy of Saxony, which was conquered byCharlemagne in the 9th century and became part of theFrankish Empire. The resulting close control of the population and theChristianization meant that the rural settlements had to stay in one place and could no longer move about freely. The land had to be farmed more intensively which led to the heathland spreading.[15]
Lüneburg Heath was always relatively sparsely populated due to the poor soils in the area. The region was dominated by heath farming which was a less intensive form of land usage necessary for its large areas of barren terrain and heathland. An important economic sideline of past centuries was heathlandbeekeeping.[16] The villages were usually encircled by small tracts of woodland, sometimes interrupted by fields or meadows, and merged without clear boundaries into the surrounding landscape. The farmsteads were arranged relatively arbitrarily, many stood very close to one another; others were spread out at some distance from each other. They were loose cluster villages (lockere Haufendörfer). In order to prevent cattle trampling flat the gardens attached to the houses, village roads were enclosed with wooden fences and, later, with characteristic stone walls. The typical design of farmhouse was theFachhallenhaus, a large timber-framed single building, in which people and animals lived under a single roof. Each village had relatively few complete farms; inWilsede there were only four, in the church village (Kirchdorf) ofUndeloh there were eleven, but that was an exception. In addition there were Koten (small, single houses), sheep pens and shared bakehouses. The farms themselves, however, were very large. In Wilsede all the features of a heath village described here may still be seen.Wilsede Heath Museum (Heidemuseum Wilsede) was established in aFachhallenhaus and it gives an insight into the working and living conditions of a heathland farm around 1850.[17]Walsrode Heath Museum was one of the first German open air museums and also portrays the life of heathland folk. In rural parts of the region they still sometimes use today aLow German dialect calledHeidjerisch. This word derives from the name given to inhabitants of the Lüneburg Heath – theHeidjer.
In the Lüneburg Heath region, sixnunneries from theMiddle Ages survived, which became Protestant convents after theReformation. These establishments are the abbeys of:Ebstorf,Isenhagen,Lüne,Medingen,Wienhausen andWalsrode.
From 1831feudalism was abolished in theKingdom of Hanover and those heathland areas that werecommon land for the villages were divided amongst the individual farmers. Heathland farming died out at the end of the 19th century. Many farmers sold their land to thePrussian treasury or the Hanover monastic chamber, who afforested the land with pines. As a result, the area of heath was drastically reduced. In the late 19th century a number of farmers from the area were encouraged by British authorities to settle in thePhilippi area of Cape Town, South Africa due to their knowledge of farming in barren sandy soils.[18]
In 1800, large parts of Northwest Germany had been covered with heaths and bog. Today, by contrast the only large, continuous areas of heath remaining are in the Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve and on a fewmilitary training areas.
As late as the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, the barren and almost treeless heathlands were still perceived as hostile and threatening environments, as evinced by two travel logs of journeys between 1799 and 1804:
As I had traversed the Hanoverian dominions in so many directions, I did not expect to find nature clothed in charms, or a high degree of population, fertility, and cultivation. Next to Lauenburg, I think it is the worst tract of an equal extent that I ever met with. The soil is one vast sandy desert, which is either naturally bare, or covered with patches of heath or grass.
On leavingZell we passed through a dark wood, of at least two leagues in extent; and from that city toHarburgh, in a line of nearly twenty German miles, we travelled over sandy plains and extensive heaths. At a great distance, geese, ducks and sheep of a very poor appearance, never failed to indicate the vicinity of some wretched hamlet. What habitations! Whole families, of the most wretched appearance, and covered with tattered garments, associate together, eat and sleep with their cattle. Near these real catacombs we observed growing a few stalks of rye and barley, and here and there a few tufu of buck-wheat. The straw is short and stunted, and the ears of a diminutive size. Population and agriculture must ever be dependant on each other.
The poemDer Heideknabe ("The Heath Lad") from the year 1844 byFriedrich Hebbel stresses the unearthly atmosphere and the bleak solitude of the heaths:
:(...) Out, out of the town! And there it stretches,
- The heath, misty, ghostly,
- The wind swishing over it,
- Oh, every step here is like a thousand others!
- And all so still, and all so quiet,
- You look around for signs of life,
- Only hungry birds dart by
- Out of the clouds, to spear worms (...).
Towards the middle of the 19th century the first positive descriptions of the heath emerged, initially inspired by theromantic movement. With theIndustrial Revolution in Germany, unspoilt nature became more important for people, providing a welcome contrast with the rapidly burgeoning cities. Because the heathlands of North Germany were being increasingly decimated by cultivation and reforestation, they now appeared to be worth protecting. Numerous writers and painters portrayed the beauty of the heath, particularly when it was in bloom in August and September. One important heathland artist was Eugen Bracht. The most famous heath poet was the local writerHermann Löns (1866–1914), who spent some time living in a hunting lodge nearWestenholz. He worked the heath countryside into his books and promoted the foundation of the first Germannature reserve on Lüneburg Heath. His purported remains were buried in a juniper copse at Tietlingen near Walsrode in 1935. His works were a source forHeimatfilme that were shot on Lüneburg Heath, such asGrün ist die Heide ("The Heath Is Green") from1932 and remade in1951 and1972, as well asRot ist die Liebe ("Red is Love") from 1956.
Around 1900, there were growing demands to save the heathland and bogs of northwest Germany, which were threatened by reforestation and drainage. On Lüneburg Heath, Wilhelm Bode, then thepastor atEgestorf, was particularly active in pressing for the preservation of the endangered countryside. He had learned in 1905 of plans for building weekend houses on the Totengrund. In order to prevent this, he persuaded Andreas Thomsen, a professor fromMünster, to acquire the area as a nature reserve. In 1909, Pastor Bode and district administrator (Landrat) Fritz Ecker prevented the planned reforestation of the Wilseder Berg.
In the same year, an appeal by Curt Floerike appeared in Kosmos magazine, citing the establishment ofnational parks in the United States and calling for them in Germany. In order to realise this goal, the Nature Park Society or Verein Naturschutzpark (VNP) was founded inMunich on 23 October 1909. They planned to createnational parks in theAlps, theCentral Uplands and in the north Germangeest region. By 1913, the society had 13,000 members.
The area of Lüneburg Heath nearWilsede was selected as the location for the north German national park. Using the VNP's funds, more than 30 km2 of heathland were purchased or rented by 1913. In 1921, a police ordinance placed more than 200 km2 of Lüneburg Heath under protection, the first time this had been achieved in Germany. One problem that arose as early as the 1920s was the steadily increasing number of visitors. In 1924, in order to keep visitors away from sensitive areas of heathland, a volunteer Heath Guard (Heidewacht) was founded.
The Reich conservation law was passed in 1933 and Lüneburg Heath was designated as an official nature reserve. Although plans to build a motorway through the park and for the heath to be used as amilitary training area were stopped, in 1933 theHeidewacht was disbanded, mainly because it was made up of members of social democratic youth organisations. In 1939, a new law that granted the chairman of the VNP – now called Führer – wide-ranging powers.Jews could no longer be members of the society.
Between 1891 and theSecond World War, large military training areas were established on Lüneburg Heath, including the largest one in Europe, theBergen-Hohne Training Area on theSüdheide. Here the heathland has largely been preserved, albeit no longer accessible to the general public.
A large area of the nature park belonging to the society nearSchneverdingen was taken over by theBritish Army of the Rhine in 1945 for use as a tank training area. In the 1950s, during military exercises, British tanks even pushed forward as far as the Wilseder Berg. Not until theSoltau-Lüneburg Agreement, was signed in 1959 between theFederal Republic of Germany, theUnited Kingdom andCanada, were the boundaries of the tank training area fixed. Continual exercising over the area by armoured vehicles completely destroyed the vegetation on the Osterheide nearSchneverdingen, forming large areas of sand dunes. In 1994, the British returned the so-called "Red Areas" of theSoltau-Lüneburg Training Area to the Nature Park Society who, with the help of money from the federal government, set about the work of renaturation. Nowadays hardly any traces of the tank training area are left. The base camp for military exercises,Reinsehlen Camp, has been turned into a nature reserve.
In August 1975, fire broke out on theSüdheide which turned out to be the biggest forest fire in West Germany to that date.Serious forest fires broke out in the southern part of the area nearStüde,Neudorf-Platendorf,Meinersen and then byEschede nearCelle, with devastating effects and fatalities.
On 4 May 1945, the heath was the scene of theunconditional surrender to the Allies, underField MarshalBernard Montgomery, of German forces in the Netherlands, north-west Germany, including all islands, Denmark, and all naval ships in those areas, at theend of World War II in Europe. It is also the area where the body ofHeinrich Himmler, head of theSS inNazi Germany, was secretly buried in an unmarked grave, following his suicide after capture.
Three motorways (Autobahnen) run across Lüneburg Heath, theA 7,A 27 andA 250, as well as various federal roads, theB 3,B 71,B 440 and others.
Lüneburg Heath is served by the following railway lines:
Lüneburg Heath travel guide from Wikivoyage53°10′07″N9°56′23″E / 53.16861°N 9.93972°E /53.16861; 9.93972
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