The Drawehn is a partly wooded and partly agricultural region of hills in the northeastern part of the German state of
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, lying between the districts of
Lüneburg
Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also called ...
and
Uelzen
Uelzen (; officially the ''Hanseatic Town of Uelzen'', German: ''Hansestadt Uelzen'', , Low German ''Ülz’n'') is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a ...
in the west and
Lüchow-Dannenberg
Lüchow-Dannenberg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany, which is usually referred to as Hanoverian Wendland (''Hannoversches Wendland'') or Wendland. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Uelzen and Lüneburg and the s ...
in the east.
It is named after the Slavic tribe of the
Drevani
The Drevani (german: Draväno-Polaben or ''Drevanen'') were a tribe of Polabian Slavs settling on the Elbe river in the area of the present-day Lüchow-Dannenberg district of Lower Saxony, Germany.
They were a constituent tribe of the Obodrite c ...
.
Definition
In the German federal system of natural geographic regions, the Drawehn forms the eastern end of the
Lüneburg Heath
Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen ...
(D28), the ''
Ostheide'', bordering the neighbouring area of
Wendland and Altmark Wendland and Altmark (german: Wendland und Altmark), named after the German regions of Wendland and Altmark, is the name of a natural regional major landscape unit group in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, North Germany. In the Handbook of Natural ...
(D29). From a cultural perspective the Drawehn is, however, largely oriented towards Wendland. Its precise boundary is not clear: the name is often used synonymously for the ridge known as the East Hanoverian End Moraine (''Osthannoverschen Endmoräne''). Then again it may refer only to its southern portion - the northern part being referred to as the ''Göhrde''. Sources from the 14th to the 16th century counted the entire upper and lower
geest
Geest is a type of landform, slightly raised above the surrounding countryside, that occurs on the plains of Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark. It is a landscape of sandy and gravelly soils formed as a glacial outwash ...
west of the
Jeetze plain and east of the Uelzen-Bevensen Bowl as well as the Dahlenburg Basin as the Drawehn. In this sense the term is defined as the main ridge of the East Hanoverian End Moraine including its foothills as well as the flatter eastern slopes to the
fluviatile
In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluv ...
Lüchow plain. The northern end of the East Hanoverian End Moraine can be further subdivided into the ''Göhrde'' and ''Klötzie'' regions – with no clear cut transition or boundary. The ''Klötzie'' (also the ''Elbhöhen'' or "Elbe Heights") is the northern edge of the ridge, up to 70 metres high, which slopes steeply down to the
glacial valley
U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...
of the
River Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Rep ...
between
Hitzacker
Hitzacker is a town in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Elbe, approx. 8 km north of Dannenberg, and 45 km east of Lüneburg. The 2007 population of Hitzacker was 4,982, and its posta ...
and
Neu Darchau
Neu Darchau is a municipality in the district Lüchow-Dannenberg, in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by ...
. And ''
Göhrde
Göhrde is a municipality in the district of Lüchow-Dannenberg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
The municipality was named after the Göhrde State Forest, which has an area of about , famous for its oaks, beeches and game preserves. The hunting lodge s ...
'' refers to the more or less wooded terrain of the
Göhrde State Forest
The Göhrde State Forest (german: Staatsforst Göhrde) is the largest contiguous mixed forest region in North Germany. It lies in the districts of Lüchow-Dannenberg and Lüneburg.
Description
The Göhrde includes the entire unincorporated are ...
(rather than the administrative area) which is located on a rolling area of high ground on the northwest part of the ridge.
Formation
The
old moraine landscape of Lower Saxony emerged in the course of four great
glacial
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...
advances of the Scandinavian ice sheet 350,000 to 130,000 years ago – one during the
Elster glaciation
The Elster glaciation (german: Elster-Kaltzeit, ''Elster-Glazial'' or ''Elster-Zeit'') or, less commonly, the Elsterian glaciation, in the older and popular scientific literature also called the Elster Ice Age (''Elster-Eiszeit''), is the oldest k ...
and three during the
Saale glaciation
The Saale glaciation or Saale Glaciation, sometimes referred to as the Saalian glaciation, Saale cold period (german: Saale-Kaltzeit), Saale complex (''Saale-Komplex'') or Saale glacial stage (''Saale-Glazial'', colloquially also the ''Saale-Eiszei ...
. The glacier of the most recent,
Weichselian glaciation
The Weichselian glaciation was the last glacial period and its associated glaciation in northern parts of Europe. In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation. It was characterized by a large ice sheet (the Fenno-Scandian ice sheet) ...
only reached the northeastern edge of the present Elbe valley depression, so that the existing
terminal moraine
A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...
s beyond that point there were only affected
periglacially, for example in the shape of
solifluction over the frozen ground, by meltwater erosion and
sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand ...
s or through wind-blown deposits of sand. The last two Saale glaciation advances in particular, the Drenthe II and the Warthe stadia, unfolded the East Hanonerian Terminal Moraine. It is therefore
geomorphologically younger than the geest in western and central Lower Saxony, but clearly older than the young moraine landscapes in
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...
and
Ostholstein
Ostholstein (; da, Østholsten) is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by (from the southwest and clockwise) the districts of Stormarn, Segeberg and Plön, the Baltic Sea and the city of Lübeck.
History
The district wa ...
(=
Baltic Uplands
The Baltic UplandsDickinson, Robert E. (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 614. . (german: Baltischer Landrücken or ''Nördlicher Landrücken'') is a chain of morainic hills about wide that bord ...
).
Sources and further information
*Klaus Duphorn & Ulrich Schneider: ''Zur Geologie und Geomorphologie des
Naturparks Elbufer-Drawehn.'' – Abhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins in Hamburg (NF) 25 (1983): Mittelelbe und Drawehn - Lebensräume, Flora und Fauna im Hannoverschen Wendland. S. 9-40.
*Lisel Gillandt, Eckhard Grimmel & Johannes M. Martens: ''Naturräumliche Gliederung des Kreises Lüchow-Dannenberg aus biologischer Sicht.'' – Abhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins in Hamburg (NF) 25 (1983): Mittelelbe und Drawehn - Lebensräume, Flora und Fauna im Hannoverschen Wendland. S. 133-150.
*Wolfgang Jürries & Berndt Wachter (Hrsg.): ''Wendland-Lexikon, Band 1, A–K''. Schriftenreihe des Heimatkundlichen Arbeitskreises Lüchow-Dannenberg, Band 12, Lüchow 2000 (2. Aufl. 2008).
*HB-Verlag (Hrsg.): ''Naturpark Elbufer-Drawehn.'' – Naturmagazin draußen, Heft 9 (1980), Hamburg.
*Dieter Knabenschuh: ''Wendland, Elbufer, Drawehn.'' – FDNF Fahrradtouristik GbR, Gartow, 1997.
*Hansjörg Küster: ''Geschichte der Landschaft in Mitteleuropa. Von der Eiszeit bis zur Gegenwart.'' – Verlag C. H. Beck, München, 1995/1999.
*Richard Pott: ''Lüneburger Heide, Wendland und Nationalpark Mittleres Elbtal.'' – Kulturlandschaften Exkursionsführer, Ulmer-Verlag, Stuttgart, 1999.
{{Mountain and hill ranges of Lower Saxony
Hill ranges of Lower Saxony
Regions of Lower Saxony
Forests and woodlands of Lower Saxony