The Schnee Eifel is a heavily wooded landscape in Germany's
Central Uplands
The Central UplandsDickinson (1964), p.18 ff. (german: die MittelgebirgeN.B. In German die ''Mittelgebirge'' (plural) refers to the Central Uplands; das ''Mittelgebirge'' refers to a low mountain range or upland region (''Mittel'' = "medium" and ...
, up to ,
that forms part of the western
Eifel in the area of the German-Belgian border. The name may have been derived in the 19th century from the
Schneifel
The Schneifel is a range of low mountains, up to , in the western part of the Eifel in Germany, near the Belgian border. It runs from Brandscheid near Prüm in a northeasterly direction to Ormont.
The name Schneifel has nothing to do with the G ...
chain of hills which had nothing to do with snow (''Schnee''), but with the name for a forest swathe (''Schneise'').
Geography
The Schnee Eifel natural region is formed by the southern part of the
Hohes Venn-Eifel Nature Park. To the north it is bounded by the river
Kyll, the border with the
North Eifel The North Eifel (german: Nordeifel), the northern part of the Eifel, a low mountain range in Germany and East Belgium, comprises the following six sub-regions:
* Venn Foreland,
* Hohes Venn,
* Rur Eifel,
*Limestone Eifel,
* Our Valley and
* High Eif ...
, that begins near
Hallschlag
Hallschlag is a village in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The municipality (German: ''Ortsgemeinde'') belongs to the Gerolstein (Verbandsgemeinde), ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Obere Kyll, whose seat is in the municipality of ...
and
Kronenburg with the
Zitter Forest The Zitter Forest (german: Zitterwald) is located in the Eifel region in the German district of Euskirchen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and in the Belgian province of Liège (Wallonia). Its highest point is .
The Zitter Forest lies in the North Eifel ...
; To the east the Kyll forms the boundary river with the
High Eifel
The High Eifel (german: Hocheifel (Ost) or ''Hohe Eifel'') forms part of the Eifel Mountains in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The landscape here between Adenau, Mendig and Daun rises to a height of 747 m. The region is not to be ...
. To the south the Schnee Eifel merges into the
South Eifel to
Pronsfeld in the
Prümer Land. Its highest elevation is found on the
Schneifel
The Schneifel is a range of low mountains, up to , in the western part of the Eifel in Germany, near the Belgian border. It runs from Brandscheid near Prüm in a northeasterly direction to Ormont.
The name Schneifel has nothing to do with the G ...
ridge: the high
Schwarzer Mann
The Schwarzer Mann ("Black Man") is a mountain in the western part of the Eifel which is known as Schnee Eifel. With a height of 697.8 meters it is the highest peak in the Schnee Eifel and third highest in the Eifel.
Geography Location
The ...
("Black Man").
The term ''Schneifel'' is frequently employed in publications to mean the whole Schnee Eifel region, but they are not synonymous. The
Schneifel
The Schneifel is a range of low mountains, up to , in the western part of the Eifel in Germany, near the Belgian border. It runs from Brandscheid near Prüm in a northeasterly direction to Ormont.
The name Schneifel has nothing to do with the G ...
is actually the uninhabited central chain of hills in the Schnee-Eifel; whose coverage goes beyond the narrow definition of the Schneifel and includes the southern source region of the
Kyll and its upper reaches as well as the adjoining Prüm Forest southeast of the main crest.
The largest town in the Schnee Eifel is
Prüm which lies on the river of the same name. Its well-known
ski area
A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort.
...
s are the ''Schwarze Mann'' and the ''Wolfsschlucht''. They lie about northwest and north of Prüm respectively.
Geology
Much of the Eifel belongs to the
Rhine Massif
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, source ...
. The Schnee Eifel, and in particular, the
Schneifel
The Schneifel is a range of low mountains, up to , in the western part of the Eifel in Germany, near the Belgian border. It runs from Brandscheid near Prüm in a northeasterly direction to Ormont.
The name Schneifel has nothing to do with the G ...
, its highest region, is a
truncated upland, the stumps of once great mountains that were formed by
Hercynian
The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny was a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Euramerica (Laurussia) and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangaea.
Nomenclature
The name ''Variscan'', come ...
folding during the
Devonian period of geological history. After a long period of severe
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...
they were uplifted again in the
Quaternary period. Scattered areas of old rock with smooth relief still exist, although at times they are hard to discern. Rougher highlands stand out from this base, especially in the north (''Prümer Land'') ], owing to the hardness of their rocks, like the
quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...
ridge of the Schneifel. This long, sinewy ridge juts out above the less jagged, old plateau by around 100 metres and is clear evidence of the resistance of the local quartz rock to the forces of weathering.
It is remarkable for its length of against an average width of just . With little variation in height, it runs from
Brandscheid
Brandscheid is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country ...
as far as
Ormont
Ormont is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' (a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality) situated in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Gerolstein, wh ...
near
Stadtkyll, where it ends at the Steinberg (654 m).
Fauna
Due to its remote location the ''Schnee-Eifel'' is undeveloped, where rare plants and animals may be found, including the
wildcat
The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while th ...
and, for several years now, the
Eurasian lynx
The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is a medium-sized wild cat widely distributed from Northern, Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia and Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. It inhabits temperate and boreal forests up to an eleva ...
.
Fiction
The hamlet of
Winterspelt
Winterspelt is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country i ...
is the setting for the novel of the same name by
Alfred Andersch
Alfred Hellmuth Andersch (; 4 February 1914 – 21 February 1980) was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland. Ma ...
, which takes place in the final months of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
See also
*
West Eifel
The West Eifel (german: Westeifel) refers to that part of the Eifel mountains in Germany that is centred on the town of Prüm and reaches as far as the border with Belgium and Luxembourg. It is not geographically precisely defined however, overla ...
,
Belgian Eifel
The Belgian Eifel (german: belgische Eifel, Luxembourgish: ''Belscher Äifel'') in the German-speaking part of Belgium generally refers to the southern part of the German-speaking community which forms the Canton of Sankt Vith (German: ''Kanton S ...
,
North Eifel The North Eifel (german: Nordeifel), the northern part of the Eifel, a low mountain range in Germany and East Belgium, comprises the following six sub-regions:
* Venn Foreland,
* Hohes Venn,
* Rur Eifel,
*Limestone Eifel,
* Our Valley and
* High Eif ...
,
South Eifel,
Vulkan Eifel
The Volcanic Eifel or Vulkan Eifel (german: Vulkaneifel) is a region in the Eifel Mountains in Germany that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of this volcanic field are its typical explosion crater la ...
,
Rur Eifel The Rur Eifel (german: Rureifel) lies in the district of Düren in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and is a local recreation area from the regions of Cologne, Aachen, Düsseldorf, Krefeld, Mönchengladbach and Bonn. Its name comes from t ...
,
Hohes Venn
The High Fens (german: Hohes Venn; french: Hautes Fagnes; nl, Hoge Venen), which were declared a nature reserve in 1957, are an upland area, a plateau region in Liège Province, in the east of Belgium and adjoining parts of Germany, between the ...
*
Basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
,
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...
References
External links
List of holiday resortsSchneifel - Schwarzer Mann
{{Authority control
Regions of the Eifel
Landscapes of Rhineland-Palatinate