Natural regions of Germany

This division of Germany into major natural regions takes account primarily of geomorphological, geological, hydrological, and pedological criteria in order to divide the country into large, physical units with a common geographical basis. Political boundaries play no part in this, apart from defining the national border.

In addition to a division of Germany by ''natural regions'', the federal authorities have also produced a division by so-called ''landscape areas (Landschaftsräume)'' that is based more on human utilisation of various regions and so has clearly different boundaries.

Groundwork by the Federal Institute of Regional Studies (BfL)

The natural region classification of Germany, as used today by the Federal Office for Nature Conservation (''Bundesamt für Naturschutz'' or BfN) and by most state institutions, is largely based on the work in producing the Handbook of Natural Region Divisions of Germany between the years 1953 to 1962. This divided the present federal territory (then West and East Germany) into 86 so-called major landscape unit groups (''Haupteinheitgruppen'') each with a two-digit number between 01 and 90. These, in turn, were subdivided into up to ten, in some cases more, major landscape units (''Haupteinheiten''), each with a three-digit number. The handbook was accompanied by 1:100,000 scale mapping and, in the updated 1960 map, the major landscape unit groups were bundled together into major regions (''Großregionen''). E. Meynen and J. Schmithüsen: Handbuch der naturräumlichen Gliederung Deutschlands – Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Remagen/Bad Godesberg 1953-1962 (9 editions in 8 books, updated 1960 1:1,000,000 map with major units)

As a result, a regional classification of Germany emerged with five (since 1976: six) primary landscape regions (''naturräumliche Großregionen 1. Ordnung''), divided into 18 (since 1964: 19) secondary landscape regions (''naturräumliche Großregionen 2. Ordnung''). The major unit groups form, in effect, the third or tertiary level,However, in some instances, the third level landscape regions combine several groups together. of landscape regions and the major units form the fourth level. Many secondary landscape regions only have one major unit group (Mecklenburg Coastal Lowland, Harz, Thuringian Basin, Upper Main-Upper Palatine Hills, Southern Alpine Foreland), others group well-known major regions together ( Rhenish Massif, South German Scarplands); others are entirely new groupings.

In the subsequent work at 1:200,000 scale that lasted until the 1990s, that further split the landscape regions into a fifth and lower levels (using the three-digits numbers supplemented with further numbers placed after a decimal comma), it became apparent that the boundaries of major regions at the second and third levels had to be corrected in several places and, in individual cases, were no longer compatible with boundaries of the major unit groups. This has no impact on the numbering system of the lower levels, however.

New Classification by the Federal Office for Nature Conservation (BfN)

From 1992 to 1994, Axel Ssymank revised the major unit groups 01-90 under the direction of the BfN. Most groups retained their boundaries, however, in some cases two to four major units groups according to the handbook were combined, whilst in the North and Baltic Seas, one old group was divided into four new ones.

The numbering of the new units, D01 to D73, is entirely new and runs from north to south not, as in the handbook, from south to north. So it is not compatible with the numbers of the main and subordinate landscape units, which is why it has not been adopted by the state institutions. Even the BfN has largely followed the older system in the handbook in its landscape fact files (''Landschaftssteckbriefe'').

Ssymank combined the natural regions into eight so-called great landscapes (''Großlandschaften''), which are rather less finely divided than the secondary main regions (''Großregionen 2. Ordnung'') of the BfL. The only discrepancy between the two systems is the division of the North German Plain into western and eastern parts, which is based on their climatic division into Atlantic and Continental areas. The boundary runs randomly east of landscape units D22, D24, D28, D31, and D33. These great landscape definitions have yet to be used in the literature.

List of major landscape regions - levels 1 to 3

Germany can be divided into three major geographical regions: the Northern Lowland or North German Plain, the Central Uplands, and the Alps running roughly west to east across the country.

The official major landscape groups, which more or less correspond to the tertiary level of major landscape regions, are grouped following the primary and secondary landscape region system. These subdivisions largely correspond to the publications of the Institute for Regional Studies (BfL) since 1960 which are:

*The first version by Heinrich Müller-Miny appeared in the updated handbook map, the overview maps of the individual map sheets from 1960 and in the ninth edition of the handbook (1962)Naturräumliche Großregionenkarten 1960–1963, 1964–1978 und 1979–1994
nach Müller-Miny et al. (pdf, 1.2 MB)
*In the map sheets from publication year 1964 this version was slightly changed:
**The Upper Palatine-Upper Main Hills (''Oberpfälzisch-Obermainische Hügelland'') was raised from the third to the second level.
**The secondary landscape region of ''Lössbörden'' was expanded, especially in the west.
*There was another change in the map sheets from 1979 (Sheet 182 Burghausen) until their last publication (Sheet München and Tegernsee 1994):
**The primary landscape region, Central Uplands (''Mittelgebirge''), was divided in two into ''Mittelgebirgsschwelle'' and ''Schichtstufenland''
*The classification of the Natural regions in Saxony, published after that of the Institute for Regional Studies and continually revised, allocates the larger northern part of the major unit group of Upper Lusatia (''Oberlausitz'') to the Lössbörden, so that only the Lusatian Mountains (''Lausitzer Bergland'') in the south remains within the Central Uplands.

For clarity the first and second levels of the major landscape regions are organised from north to south and from west to east. Within a secondary or tertiary landscape region the list follows the numerical order in the handbook; the BfN's numbers are given in brackets. Tertiary major landscape regions are shown in bold italics. Maps, all to the same scale, are shown to the right of the lists.

For clarity, the English names for the natural regions are given; German names may be found at the relevant article. The English names are primarily based on Dickinson (1964)Dickinson (1964). and Elkins (1972)Elkins (1972). where their classification corresponds closely to the handbook's. In such cases the source of the English name is referenced.

The seven major regions are: the Northeast German Plain, the Northwest German Plain, the Western Central Uplands, the Eastern Central Uplands, the South German Scarplands, the Alpine Foreland, and the North and Baltic Seas.

North and Baltic Seas

This is a list, exceptionally, of the three-figure major landscape units of group 90, because this ''de facto'' corresponds to the tertiary major landscape regions.

North Sea

* 900 German Bight (less island of Heligoland) (D70)
* 901 Dogger Bank and adjacent Central North Sea (D71)

Baltic Sea

* 902 Western Baltic (D72)
* 903 Eastern Baltic (D73)

North German Plain

MarshlandA more precise name of this secondary or tertiary major landscape region is not recorded (in German or English).

* 61 Lower Ems and Weser Marshes (D25)
* 67 Lower Elbe Marsh (D24)
* 68 Schleswig-Holstein Marsh (D21)

Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian Littoral

* 71 ''Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian Littoral'' (D01)

Mecklenburg Coastal Lowland

* 70 Schleswig-Holstein Uplands (D23)
* Northeast Mecklenburg PlainKohl, Marcinek and Nitz (1986), p. 34. and Szczecin Lagoon (D02)
** 72 Mecklenburg Ground Moraine Lowland
** 73 Szczecin Lagoon or Lower Oder Plain
* 74 Hinterland of the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau (D 03)
* 75 Mecklenburg Lake Plateau, Mecklenburg Lake Upland or Mecklenburg-Brandenburg Lake Plateau (D04)
* ''(to 80 Oder Valley (D07))''
** major landscape units 800 and 801

Central North German Plain

* ''Ems-Weser Geest''
** Dümmer and Ems-Hunte Geest (D30)
*** 58 Dümmer Geest Lowland
*** 59 Ems-Hunte Geest
** 60 East Frisian Geest (D26)
** 62 Weser-Aller Plains and Geest (D31)
* ''North Elbe Geest''
** 63 Stade Geest (D27)
** 64 Lüneburg Heath (D28)
** 69 Schleswig-Holstein Geest (D22)

* ''East German Lakeland and Heathland''
** Mecklenburg-Brandenburg Plateaux and Upland (D05)
*** 76 South-western foreland of the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau
*** 77 North Brandenburg Plateaux and Upland
*** 78 Luchland
** 79 East Brandenburg Plateau (D06)
** ''(to 80 Oder Valley (D07))''
*** major landscape units 802 and 803
** Brandenburg Heath and Lake District (D12)
*** 81 Central Brandenburg Plateaux and Lowlands
*** 82 East Brandenburg Heath and Lake District
** Lusatian Basin and Spreewald (D08)
*** 83 Spreewald
*** 84 Lower Lusatian Heath
** 85 Fläming Heath (D11)
** 86 Wendland and Altmark (D29)
** 87 Middle Elbe Plain (D09)
** 88 Middle Elbe Plains and Heath or Elbe-Mulde Plain (D10)
** 89 Upper Lusatian Plateau (D13)

* 54 ''Westphalian Lowland'' or Westphalian Basin (D34)
* ''Lower Rhine Plain and Cologne Lowland'' (D35)
** 55 Cologne Lowland or Lower Rhine Bay
** 57 Lower Rhine Plain

Loess Belt

* ''(to 44 Upper Lusatia (D14))''
** 440 Neiß region
** 442 East Lusatian Foothills
** 443 West Lusatian Hills,
** 444 Upper Lusatian Gefilde
* Saxon Lowland