The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's
Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high.
It lies about 40 km southwest of
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in
North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediately northwest of the
Hils
The Hils is a range of hills in Germany's Central Uplands that is up to 480.4 m high. It is located in the districts of Landkreis Holzminden, Holzminden, Landkreis Hildesheim, Hildesheim and Landkreis Northeim, Northeim, in the state of Lowe ...
ridge in the
Leine Uplands. It runs in a northwest-southeast direction from
Coppenbrügge in the north to
Holzen in the south. The highest elevation on this forested knife-edge ridge is the ''Lauensteiner Kopf'' at which has an observation tower, the ''Ithturm'', and is located in the northern half of the Ith, the so-called ''Krüllbrink'', between the villages of Bisperode and Lauenstein.
The streams on the Ith flow west via the Ilse, Remte and
Lenne into the
Weser
The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports of Bre ...
or east via the Saale into the
Leine
The Leine (; Old Saxon ''Lagina'') is a river in Thuringia and Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Aller and the Weser and is long.
The river's source is located close to the town of Leinefelde in Thuringia. About downriver, t ...
.
The Ith is crossed by two roads: in the north by the L 425 between Haus Harderode and Lauenstein over the ''Lauenstein Pass'', and in the south by the
B 240 between
Lüerdissen
Lüerdissen is a municipality in the district of Holzminden, 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 Rus ...
and Capellenhagen over the ''Holzener Pass''.
Hills
The highest hill on the densely forested Ith is the ''Lauensteiner Kopf'' at . It is located in the ''Krüllbrink'', the name of the northern part of the Ith and has an observation tower, the
Ith Tower
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
.
This hill, together with other summits, crags and foothills of the Ith are given below in order of their height in metres (m) above
Normalnull
("standard zero") or (short N. N. or NN ) is an outdated official vertical datum used in Germany. Elevations using this reference system were to be marked (“meters above standard zero”). has been replaced by (NHN).
History
In 187 ...
(NN unless stated otherwise
):
* Lauensteiner Kopf (ca. 439 m), between
Bisperode and
Lauenstein; with the
Ith Tower
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
* Hunzener Klippen (ca. 412 m), near Hunzen
* Oberberg (ca. 407 m
[Kartendienste](_blank)
des BfN
The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (german: Bundesamt für Naturschutz, ''BfN'') is the German government's scientific authority with responsibility for national and international nature conservation. BfN is one of the government' ...
), between
Coppenbrügge and Lauenstein; with the
Falkenstein
Falkenstein or Falckenstein ("falcons' stone" in German) may refer to:
Places
Austria
* Falkenstein, Lower Austria, a market town in the district of Mistelbach
Germany
* Falkenstein, Bavaria, a market town in the district of Cham
* Falkenst ...
natural monument
* Rothestein (ca. 395 m), near Holzen-Ith; with Ithwiesen Glider Airfield and near the
Rothestein Cave
* Eggerser Berg (ca. 380 m), between Bremke and Domäne Eggersen
* Hohenstein (307.2 m
), between Lauenstein and
Marienau
* Krähenberg (ca. 270 m), near Lauenstein
* Dornbrink (ca. 233 m), near Lauenstein
Sport and tourism
![Ith segelflug](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Ith_segelflug.jpg)
The Ith is a popular destination especially for hikers, climbers and glider pilots. The ridgeway draws many walkers especially in the springtime, when trees and flowers are blossoming,
due to the distinctive stands of
Wood Anemone The phrase wood anemone is used in common names for several closely related species of flowering plants in genus ''Anemonoides'', including:
* ''Anemonoides nemorosa
''Anemonoides nemorosa'' (syn. ''Anemone nemorosa''), the wood anemone, is an e ...
and
Bulbous Corydalis.
There are several well-signed
footpath
A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...
s on the Ith heights. The section from
Bisperode to
Holzen of
European walking route E11
The E11 European long distance path or E11 path is one of the European long-distance paths, running 4700 km (about 2900 miles) west-east from The Hague in the Netherlands through Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia to Tallinn, Estonia. It sta ...
runs along the crest of the Ith.
There are a large number of striking
rock formation
A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock formation'' can also refer to specific sediment ...
s (''Klippen'') along the Ith ridge, some of which may be used for climbing. These include the ''Lüerdissener Klippen'' that are up to 30 m high. As a result, the Ith is the busiest climbing area in the state of Lower Saxony.
Almost all the rocks are named; examples include the ''Adam und Eva'', the ''Kamel'', the ''Teufelsküche'' ("Devil's Kitchen"), the ''Mönchstein'' ("Monk's Rock"), the ''Krötenkopf'' ("Frog's Head"), and the ''Garwindelstein''.
At the southern end of the ridge, north of the parish of
Holzen – reached over the Holzen Pass (B 240) – lies below the 395 m high Rothenstein the Ithwiesen Glider Airfield used by the aviation sports club of Ithwiesen.
[ithwiesen.de](_blank)
> Unterseiten „Flugplatz“ und „Wir über uns“
There has been an airfield on the crest of the Ith since the early 1930s. In 1942 the Nazi leadership established the Ith Reichs Glider School in Holzen-Ith. Many pilots received their basic flying training there until the end of the war. After the war ended British occupation forces used the terrain as a "Rest Centre", a type of recreation centre.
In 1949 the AHQ Gliding Club, to which up to 30 active pilots in the
RAF belonged, took over training on the site. In 1971 the first
community service school in Germany was established here, the ''Zivildienstschule I''. The present glider airfield is located somewhat south east of the original one and no longer uses the old buildings. On 8 June 1979 a Bundeswehr helicopter of the
Alouette II type crashed on landing on the Ith airfield. The pilot from the 12th Army Aviation Squadron (''Heeresfliegerstaffel 12'') and two accompanying soldiers of the 352nd Panzergrenadier Battalion (''Panzergrenadierbataillon 352'') were killed. Since 8 June 1987 there has been a monument on the Ith in their memory.
On the Ith, but not at the top, there are two other glider airfields: Hellenhagen Airfield in
Halle Halle may refer to:
Places Germany
* Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt
** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt
** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany
** Hall ...
-Bremke and Ith-West Airfield in Bisperode.
Literature
* Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumforschung: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme 1:200000. Naturräumliche Gliederung Deutschlands. Die naturräumlichen Einheiten auf Blatt 86 Hannover''. Bad Godesberg 1960
* Hans-Jürgen Klink: ''Naturräumliche Gliederung des Ith-Hils-Berglandes.'' Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumforschung. 1966. ISBN B0000BS19H
* Friedmut Lehmeier: ''Regionale Geomorphologie des nördlichen Ith-Hils-Berglandes auf der Basis einer grossmaßstäbigen geomorphologischen Kartierung''. Goltze Druck, Göttingen. 1981.
* Michael Geschwinde: ''Höhlen im Ith. Urgeschichtliche Opferstätten im südniedersächsischen Bergland''. o.O. 1988.
* Richard Goedeke: ''Weser-Leine-Bergland.'' Verlag J. Berg, München. 1991. (zum Ith: S. 76–217)
* Ludger Feldmann, Hans Joachim Franzke, Rainer Müller:
Die geologische Entwicklung der Tiefebene und der Mittelgebirge in Niedersachsen.' (pdf) In: ''Veröffentlichungen der Akademie für Geowissenschaften zu Hannover''. 20/2002. S. 8–19
References
External links
Ith Nature Reserve
{{Authority control
Central Uplands
Geography of Lower Saxony
Climbing areas of Germany
Nature reserves in Lower Saxony
Natural regions of the Weser-Leine Uplands