The Göhrde State Forest (german: Staatsforst Göhrde) is the largest contiguous

mixed forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These for ...

region in

North Germany Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...

. It lies in the districts of

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 ...

and

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 calle ...

Description

The Göhrde includes the entire unincorporated area of Göhrde, parts of the municipality of

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 ...

(both in Lüchow-Dannenberg district) as well as parts of the municipalities of

Nahrendorf Nahrendorf is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russi ...

and Boitze (

Lüneburg district 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 ...

). The forest is also part of the Elbufer-Drawehn Nature Park and is located on a plateau with an average height of 80 metres above NN (roughly from 50 to 110 m NN) in the northwestern area of the

Drawehn The Drawehn is a partly wooded and partly agricultural region of hills in the northeastern part of the German state of Lower Saxony, lying between the districts of Lüneburg and Uelzen in the west and Lüchow-Dannenberg in the east. It is named af ...

. Because the Göhrde region has no rivers it was never settled. The state forest of Göhrde is about 75 km² in area and at its heart has some very old stands of trees. Many of these giant trees (especially

English Oak ''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. It is widely ...

s) have been designated as

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, nat ...

s and are protected. The main species of tree in the woods, which lie on the mostly sandy soils and rolling terrain, are the

Scots Pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...

Common Beech ''Fagus sylvatica'', the European beech or common beech is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae. Description ''Fagus sylvatica'' is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to tall and trunk diameter, though more ...

Spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

and

Oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

. The long-stemmed oaks are important for

silviculture Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, and quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests and wo ...

and belong to the most profitable in Germany, due to their closely spaced annual rings, that are produced by the warm, sunny climate and low levels of rainfall. In the ''Breeser Grund'' (Breese Bottom) in the south of the Göhrde a '' Hutewald'' of some has been preserved with old isolated oaks and heath landscapes.

Fallow Deer ''Dama'' is a genus of deer in the subfamily Cervinae, commonly referred to as fallow deer. Name The name fallow is derived from the deer's pale brown colour. The Latin word ''dāma'' or ''damma'', used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes, ...

Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

and

Mouflon The mouflon (''Ovis gmelini'') is a wild sheep native to Cyprus, the Caspian Sea, Caspian region from eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. It is thought to be the ancestor of all modern domestic sheep breeds. Taxonomy ''Ovis gmelini'' ...

live in the forest. The ''Breeser Grund'' is an EU

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

which is especially worth protecting as are the beech woods in the Göhrde (''Buchenwälder in der Göhrde'') southeast of the village of Göhrde itself.

History

The Göhrde was once a favourite hunting ground of the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Later the Kings of

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

also hunted here and – to 1918 – the German emperors. The buildings of the old Göhrde hunting lodge still stand in the village of

in the heart of the state forest. The castle itself was demolished in 1827. The remaining buildings house the Göhrde Training Centre (''Bildungszentrum Göhrde''). On the northern edge of the forest in the village of Breese am Seißelberge is Göhrde station, on the Wendland Railway, which was named after the forest. Because the emperors of Germany used to alight at this station as they travelled to their hunts in the forest it was also locally known as the ''Kaiserbahnhof'' (Emperor Station).

Literature

*Ernst Andreas Friedrich: ''Naturdenkmale Niedersachsens''. Hannover, 1980. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gohrde State Forest Lüchow-Dannenberg Special Areas of Conservation in Germany Forests and woodlands of Lower Saxony