Fotothek df ld 0003066 001 Landschaften ^ Hügellandschaften - Gebirgslandschafte

The Teufelsmauer (''Devil's Wall'') is a rock formation made of hard sandstones of the Upper Cretaceous in the northern part of the Harz Foreland in central Germany. This wall of rock runs from

Blankenburg (Harz) Blankenburg (Harz) is a town and health resort in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, at the north foot of the Harz Mountains, southwest of Halberstadt. It has been in large part rebuilt since a fire in 1836, and possesses a castle ...

via Weddersleben and

Rieder Rieder is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 December 2013, it is part of the town Ballenstedt. Between 1 January 2011 and 19 February 2013, it was part of the town Quedlinburg. There ...

to Ballenstedt. The most prominent individual rocks of the Teufelsmauer have their own names. The Teufelsmauer near Weddersleben is also called the ''Adlersklippen'' ("Eagle Crags"). Many legends and myths have been woven in order to try to explain the unusual rock formation. It was placed under protection as early as 1833 and, in 1852, by the head of the district authority in order to prevent quarrying of the much sought-after sandstone. The Teufelsmauer near Weddersleben has been protected since 1935 as a nature reserve and is thus one of the oldest nature reserves in Germany.

Course

The band of rock that forms the Teufelsmauer outcrops at three places between Ballenstedt in the southeast and

in the northwest, over a distance of 20 km. It begins with an outcrop known as the '' Gegensteine'' northwest of Ballenstedt and is continued in the shape of the Teufelsmauer which runs from south of Weddersleben to Warnstedt. Here, the formations of the ''Königstein'', the ''Mittelsteine'' and the ''Papensteine'' rear up from a line of rock about 2 km long running from southeast to northwest. Away to the northwest it continues as a ridge between Timmenrode and Blankenburg (Harz) which includes the '' Hamburger Wappen'', the ''Heidelberg'' (331.5 m above NN) and the crags of the ''Großvater'' and ''Großmutter'' (317 m above NN).

Geology

The rock outcrops of the Teufelsmauer are formed of hard sandstones from the various epochs of the Upper Cretaceous. The predominantly clayey and limy strata of the Upper Cretaceous are intercalated by harder sandstones such as Neocomian, Involutus and Heidelberg Sandstone, as well as limestones. In addition, quartzitation caused by the ingress of silicic acid has produced extreme hardening of the sandstones, restricted to just a few metres of the formerly horizontally-oriented strata. The layers of rock, like all the strata on the northern edge of the Harz, were sharply tilted or folded over by the uplifting of the Harz up to the Cretaceous period, so that the surface layers are now upside down. A hiatus in the strata between the lias and the Lower Cretaceous and the discordant, overlapping layering of the Upper Cretaceous up to the muschelkalk indicate that activity took place at different times, particularly on the Northern Harz Boundary Fault. The subsequent erosion of softer rock exposed the hard rock strata as prominent ribs that form crags and pinnacles up to 20 metres above the surrounding area. Some were subsequently destroyed by the action of rivers or ice age glaciers. As a result there are a number of gaps in the Teufelsmauer today. The individual elements of the Teufelsmauer are not exactly the same age. The ''Gegensteine'' near Ballenstedt has been weathered from a silicified sandstone stratum of the Emscher epoch. The steeply inclined bands of rock near Blankenburg comprise quartzitic sandstones of the Santonian. The jagged ridge of rock that forms the Teufelsmauer near Weddersleben, by contrast, consists of younger, and therefore undisturbed, deposits of higher-lying

Senonian The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

strata. This reaches its greatest height in the ''Mittelstein'' (185.2 m) and the ''Königsstein'' (184.5 m) and stands some 50 metres proud of the Bode Gorge.

Archaeology

Archaeological finds on the Teufelsmauer show traces of the Old Stone Age,

Linear Pottery culture The Linear Pottery culture (LBK) is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic period, flourishing . Derived from the German ''Linearbandkeramik'', it is also known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Inci ...

and the Bronze Age.

Soils

The soils formed from the sand of the various sandstones are

regosols A Regosol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is very weakly developed mineral soil in unconsolidated materials. Regosols are extensive in eroding lands, in particular in arid and semi-arid areas and in mountain regions. Internat ...

and lithic

leptosols A Leptosol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a very shallow soil over hard rock or a deeper soil that is extremely gravelly and/or stony. Leptosols cover approximately 1.7 billion hectares of the Earth's surface. They are f ...

which are poor in nutrients.

Flora

The sandy soils have been settled by nutrient-poor grasslands of Elijah Blue Fescue and

Grey Hair-grass ''Corynephorus canescens,'' common name grey hair-grass or gray clubawn grass, is a species of plants in the grass family, native to Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa but widely naturalized in North America. In the United Kingdom it is ...

, the pioneer vegetation of open, sunny, sandy terrain outside littoral regions. The grasses are in places rich in colourful herbs such as

Breckland Thyme ''Thymus serpyllum'', known by the common names of Breckland thyme, Breckland wild thyme, wild thyme, creeping thyme, or elfin thyme, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae, native to most of Europe and North Africa. It ...

(''Thymus serpyllum''),

Sheep's-bit ''Jasione montana'' is a low-growing plant in the family Campanulaceae found in rocky places and upland regions of Europe and western Asia. Common names include sheep's-bit, blue bonnets, blue buttons, blue daisy and iron flower. Due to the sim ...

(''Jasione montana'') and

Carthusian Pink ''Dianthus carthusianorum'', commonly known as Carthusian pink, is a species of ''Dianthus'', native to Europe, from Spain north to Belgium and Poland, and east to Ukraine, occurring in dry, grassy habitats at elevations of up to in mountains.Fl ...

(''Dianthus carthusianorum''). In the open areas of sandy soil there are also species of flower normally found in fields of crops and on roadsides. The vegetation is also characterised by numerous warmth-loving plants such as

Viper's Bugloss ''Echium vulgare'', known as viper's bugloss and blueweed,Dickinson, T.; Metsger, D.; Bull, J.; & Dickinson, R. (2004) ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario. Toronto:Royal Ontario Museum, p. 203. is a species of flowering plant in the borag ...

(''Echium vulgare''), Flixweed (''Descurainia sophia'') and

St. Lucie Cherry ''Prunus mahaleb'', the mahaleb cherry or St Lucie cherry, is a species of cherry tree. The tree is cultivated for a spice obtained from the seeds inside the cherry stones. The seeds have a fragrant smell and have a taste comparable to bitter almo ...

(''Prunus mahaleb'') as well as many common subcontinental species like

Hoary Alison ''Berteroa incana'' is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. Its common names include hoary alyssum, false hoary madwort, hoary berteroa,Jacobs, J. and J. Mangold''Berteroa incana'' Plant Fact Sheet.USDA NRCS Bozeman. ...

(''Berteroa incana''),

Field Eryngo ''Eryngium campestre'', known as field eryngo, or Watling Street thistle, is a species of ''Eryngium'', which is used medicinally. A member of the family Apiaceae, eryngo is a hairless, thorny perennial plant. The leaves are tough and stiff, wh ...

(''Eryngium campestre''),

Field Mugwort ''Artemisia campestris'' is a common and widespread species of plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae. It is native to a wide region of Eurasia and North America. Common names include field wormwood, beach wormwood, northern wormwood, Breckl ...

(''Artemisia campestris''), Spotted Knapweed (''Centaurea stoebe'') and Asparagus (''Asparagus officinalis''). The sandstone rocks themselves are lightly covered in crustose

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Harzer Wandernadel hiking system at various points along the Teufelsmauer: at ''Gasthaus Großvater'', the inn below the ''Großvater'' rocks, (no. 76), by the '' Hamburger Wappen'' (no. 74) and on the south side of the ridge at ''Teufelsmauer Weddersleben'' (no. 188). The formations feature in the film " Frantz" by François Ozon.

The legends of the Teufelsmauer

From the Brothers Grimm collection

''"On the Northern Harz, between Blankenburg and Quedlinburg, one sees an area of rocks south of the village of Thale that the people call the Devil's dance floor, and not far from there is the rubble pile of an old wall, opposite which, north of the village, stands a large ridge of rocks. Those ruins and that ridge are called by the people: Devil's Wall 'Teufelsmauer'' The devil fought long with our dear God for dominion over the earth. (actually the devil built it in order to share the world with Him. But since he was only given a certain time and the whole wall was not completed within the time limit, the evil one in his anger destroyed a great deal of his work again, so that only a few pieces of it were left.) At last, a division of the land then inhabited was agreed. The rocks, where the dance floor now is, were to separate the border and the Devil built his wall with loud cheers and dancing. But soon the insatiable one started new quarrels, which ended in him also being given the valley at the foot of the rocks. There is added a second Devil's Wall."''

The legend of the three elves

''"Once upon a time a soldier was granted a tract of land behind Thale, up to the Teufelsmauer, as a reward for his services. This he cleared by the sweat of his brow. He had almost finished his day's work. The tree-trunks lay criss-crossed, their branches hung limp. Only three trees were still standing against the evening sky and he was too tired even to lay hands on them. As he fell into a slumber, however, it seemed to him that he heard moaning and groaning, and he saw little female figures, gleaming like clouds of mist, in the branches, who wailed that they should now lose their lives like their sisters. "You shall see no harm done", he cried, and kept his word. But when, many years later, a descendant of his chopped off these branches too, the soil dried up and the wind carried it away and with it his wealth. This happens to all those who do not respect the little spirits and look after nothing other than themselves and their own greed."''

The Devil and the cockerel

The legend of "the Devil and the cockerel" in the Harz region has two variants: The first variant of the legend has a market woman from Cattenstedt coming to a small village near Blankenburg with a cockerel: ''"God and the devil were fighting for the possession of the earth, they agreed that God should keep the fertile plains, the Devil, the ore-bearing Harz Mountains, if he had completed a boundary wall by the time the first cock crowed. He built it up to the edge of the Harz. Meanwhile a market woman from Cattenstedt, who was on her way to Blankenburg, came by carrying a cockerel in her basket. With a stone still missing from the wall, the cockerel crowed. The Devil's work had been in vain and he destroyed his wall in a fit of rage."'' The second variant has a farmer's wife from Timmenrode appearing: ''"In a gray time the Devil came to an agreement with the Lord over a division of the estate. He wanted the Harz, however, to be his dominion. So they bet each other that he might have the mountains, if he managed to build in one night a wall as high and strong as the buildings of the emperor. Said and done, the wall rose up in the dark. Then the Lord had a farmer's wife from Timmenrode walk to market with her cockerel and stumble over a small pebble. Whereupon the rooster stretched his neck in the basket and began to crow. The Devil thought the night was over and flung the keystone furiously against his wall, leaving only fragments of it standing."'' These two variants of the North Harz Teufelsmauer legend involving wagers and a cockerel are similar to several versions from the Lower Bavarian Danube region.

External links

Teufelsmauer (Harz)

{{Coord, 51, 45, 27, N, 11, 04, 59, E, type:mountain_region:DE-ST, display=title Rock formations of Saxony-Anhalt Rock formations of the Harz Nature reserves in Saxony-Anhalt Blankenburg (Harz) Ballenstedt Thale