The Wildeshausen Geest (german: Wildeshauser Geest) is part of the northwest Germany's

geest Geest is a type of landform, slightly raised above the surrounding countryside, that occurs on the plains of Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark. It is a landscape of sandy and gravelly soils formed as a glacial outwash plai ...

ridge, that begins near

Meppen Meppen (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Möppen'') is a town in and the seat of the Emsland district of Lower Saxony, Germany, at the confluence of the Ems (river), Ems, Hase, and Nordradde rivers and the Dortmund–Ems Canal (DEK). The name stems from t ...

on the river Ems with the

Hümmling The Hümmling (''Homelinghen'', from ''hömil'' = small stone) is a ground moraine landscape, up to , in the Emsland region on the North German Plain in the western part of the German state of Lower Saxony. Location The wooded Hümmling, whic ...

, is broken by 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 ...

depression, continues with the

Osterholz Geest The Osterholz Geest (Northern Low Saxon: ''Oosterholter Geest'') is an undulating, sandy area of ground moraine between the city of Bremen and the towns of Bremerhaven and Bremervörde. Geography The Osterholz Geest forms the southern part of ...

and reaches the marshes of

Kehdingen Kehdingen is the name of a landscape in the north German district of Landkreis Stade, Stade on the Niederelbe, Lower Elbe, the lower reaches of the River Elbe. It extends roughly from the mouth of the Oste in the north to the town of Stade in the s ...

by the river

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

with the ridges of the

Wingst Wingst () is a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Wingst belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, established in 1180. In 1648 the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the Duchy of Bremen, which was ...

and

Stade Geest The Stade Geest (German: ''Stader Geest''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Stoder Geest'') is a natural region of low, sandy heath (geest) in the North German Plain. It includes a large part of the Elbe-Weser Triangle between the cities of Hamburg, Bremen a ...

. It gives its name to the eponymous nature park.

Landscape

The term

is a substantivisation of the

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

adjective , which means "dry and infertile". It is an

Old Drift Old and Young Drift are geographic names given to the morainic landscapes that were formed in Central Europe; the Old Drift during the older ice ages and the Young Drift during the latest glaciations – the Weichselian in North Germany and th ...

landscape, characterised by the sandy depositions of the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

. In the depressions between them are wet meadows and, where drainage is poor, bogs. To the north the Wildeshausen Geest borders on the coastal marshes, to the south on a belt of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

, which includes the Großes Moor, the and the Sulinger Moor,Bartl, Hans 1998, p. 115. which reaches as far as the

Wiehen Hills The Wiehen Hills (german: Wiehengebirge, , also locally, just ''Wiehen'') are a hill range in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Germany. The hills run from west to east like a long finger away from the main upland area of the Lower Saxon ...

. The geest plateaux lie mainly at an elevation of 50 to 60 metres above sea level (), but reach elevations even as high as 80 metres in the southeast Nienburg, an area which is outside the Nature Park itself. The striking eastern edge of the geest rises between Hoya and Syke about 40 metres above the Weser Lowlands, west of Syke the land is still about 20 to 30 metres high. On the southern perimeter there is a height difference of 20 metres in places, but often no difference at all. The larger waterbodies of the Wildeshausen Geest flow from south to north. Apart from the

Hunte Hunte is a long river in north-western Germany (Lower Saxony), a left tributary of the Weser. The Hunte rises in the Wiehen Hills. In the North German Plain it flows through lake Dümmer. It flows generally northwards through the towns Bad Es ...

coming from the Wiehen Hills, they are rivers that rise in the geest itself, especially the Delme, Klosterbach and Hache. The valleys of these small rivers given the landscape a characteristic division and rolling nature. On the northern edge of the geest between

Ganderkesee Ganderkesee (Northern Low Saxon: ''Gannerseer'') is a municipality in Oldenburg district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Ganderkesee is located on the northern edge of a nature park called "Wildeshauser Geest". The northernmost part of the c ...

and they bend towards the east. Small streams on the eastern rim of the geest gather themselves into the northwards-flowing lowland rivers such as the

Süstedt Süstedt is a village and a former municipality in the district of Diepholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2016, it is part of the municipality Bruchhausen-Vilsen Bruchhausen-Vilsen is a municipality in the Diepholz district, in ...

er Bach. The present pattern of land use forms a mosaic of woods, arable fields and grassland, which in places is separated by hedges. The woods are partly mixed, partly coniferous. The proportion of woodland is highest in the Wardenburg–

Twistringen Twistringen is a town in the district of Diepholz, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 30 km northeast of Diepholz, and 30 km southwest of Bremen. The source of the Delme river is located in the city. The most important ...

– Syke triangle, which includes the towns of

Wildeshausen Wildeshausen (Low Saxon: ''Wilshusen'') is a town and the capital of the Oldenburg district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated by the river Hunte. History In 1648, Wildeshausen and the surrounding district was ceded to Sweden, in the Peace ...

and

Harpstedt Harpstedt is a municipality in the district of Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, south of Bremen (30 km). Harpstedt is also the seat of the ''Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Harpstedt Harpstedt is a municipality in the district ...

References

Sources

* Hans Huntemann: . Oldenburg, 1981. * Helga Klöver: Bremen 2000. * Harald Witt: . Bremen, 2003. * Nils Aschenbeck and Rüdiger Lubricht (photos): . Oldenburg, 2000. * Ernst Andreas Friedrich: . Hanover, 1980.

External links

Wildeshausen Geest Nature Park

Tourism

The Wildeshausen Geest Nature Park at the Weser-Ems culture portal

Long barrows and passage graves in the Wildeshausen Geest at the Weser-Ems culture portal
{{Coord missing, Lower Saxony Geest Geography of Oldenburg Nature parks in Lower Saxony Regions of Lower Saxony

Landscape

See also

References

Sources

External links