At , the Wilseder Berg is the highest point on the
Lüneburg Heath
Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen a ...
in
North Germany
Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...
. Due to its position in the middle of the nature reserve Lüneburg Heath it is a popular tourist destination, especially in the period when the
heather is in flower.
Description
The Wilseder Berg is part of a
nature reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...
within the Lüneburg Heath and lies near the villages of
Wilsede
Bispingen is a municipality in the Heidekreis district of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a popular tourist destination with several holiday/theme parks. Its territory also includes the nature preserve of the Lüneburg Heath around the Wilseder ...
and
Bispingen
Bispingen is a municipality in the Heidekreis district of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a popular tourist destination with several holiday/theme parks. Its territory also includes the nature preserve of the Lüneburg Heath around the Wilseder B ...
in the
Heidekreis
Heidekreis ("Heath district") is a district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Harburg, Lüneburg, Uelzen, Celle, Hanover, Nienburg, Verden and Rotenburg.
History
Hist ...
. The hill was formed during the penultimate
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 ...
, the
Saale glaciation
The Saale glaciation or Saale Glaciation, sometimes referred to as the Saalian glaciation, Saale cold period (german: Saale-Kaltzeit), Saale complex (''Saale-Komplex'') or Saale glacial stage (''Saale-Glazial'', colloquially also the ''Saale-Eiszei ...
, and was part of a
terminal moraine
A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...
. It has a broad plateau and a flat summit. Around it lies a varied landscape of hollows, valleys and small ravines. The surrounding area has leached, gravelly-sandy soils with layers of
hardpan
In soil science, agriculture and gardening, hardpan or soil pan is a dense layer of soil, usually found below the uppermost topsoil layer. There are different types of hardpan, all sharing the general characteristic of being a distinct soil layer ...
, covered by open sand, large areas of
heathland
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...
and extensive
coniferous forest
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...
. The heathland is grazed by a variety of moorland sheep, known as the ''
Heidschnucke
The Heidschnucke is a group of three types of moorland sheep from northern Germany. Like a number of other types from Scandinavia and Great Britain, they are Northern European short-tailed sheep. The three breeds of Heidschnucke (in order of popu ...
''.
The Wilseder Berg lies on a watershed, from which several headstreams emerge, such as those of the
Este,
Luhe,
Wümme
Wümme () is a river in northern Germany, in the states Lower Saxony and Bremen, marking the border between the two states for part of its course. It is the main headstream of the Lesum.
The Wümme's length is . Including the Lesum, that runs in ...
and
Böhme. Some of these streams feed the river system of 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 ...
, others flow eventually into the
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 ...
.
There is a stone on the summit plateau on which there is a metal cone engraved with the directions and distance of neighbouring hills and towns, near and far.
Totengrund and Steingrund
The best-known valley in the vicinity of the hill is the ''Totengrund'' hollow, several hectares in area, south of the museum village of Wilsede. It is an old
dead-ice
Dead ice is ice which, though part of a glacier or ice sheet, is no longer moving. When this melts it does so in situ, leaving behind a hummocky terrain known as dead-ice moraine which is produced by the deposition of glacio-fluvial sediments and a ...
kettle hole
A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating gla ...
with sides up to 40 metres high, covered in heather and juniper bushes. The name means "dead ground" and was probably so called because of its very infertile, i.e. dead, soil, because the valley is very dry. The ''Totengrund'' became the heart of the present-day
nature reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...
when
Egestorf
Egestorf is a municipality in the district of Harburg, 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 Russia, ...
priest, Wilhelm Bode, purchased it in 1906 with donations. There is a controversy involving current plans to build seven
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
s of a height in excess of 180 metres (over 600 feet) near Behringen. These would be visible from the Totengrund and according to local environmentalists spoil the view.
Another nearby valley is the ''Steingrund'', which is covered thickly with stones deposited during the ice age and is a typical heathland dry valley.
Triangulation station
![Gauss Stein Wilseder Berg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Gauss_Stein_Wilseder_Berg.jpg)
In 1820
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
of the United Kingdom, who was also the King of Hanover, tasked the Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at Göttingen University,
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refer ...
, to survey the
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Han ...
. Gauss used the summit of the Wilseder Berg, amongst others, as a
triangulation station
A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...
for his land surveys. Other central triangulation points were the
Falkenberg
Falkenberg is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Falkenberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 27,813 inhabitants in 2019 (out of a municipal total of about 45,000). It is located at the mouth of river Ätran (river), Ätra ...
(150 m above NN) to the south and the
Haußelberg
The Haußelberg is a hill, above Normalnull, NN, in the Lüneburg Heath in the north German district of Landkreis Celle, Celle. It is a popular viewing point in the otherwise very flat terrain of the Südheide Nature Park.
In 1820 George IV of ...
(118 m above NN) to the east.
Part of the triangulation network, depicting the Wilseder Berg, was represented on the reverse side of the 4th series of 10 Deutschmark banknotes.
10DM note, on the reverse side: Sextant and triangulation network (Wilseder Berg at centre right)
/ref>
Tourism
The picturesque landscape is popular with tourists. There are horse-drawn carriages for hire to the Wilseder Berg from the villages of Oberhaverbeck, Niederhaverbeck, Undeloh
Undeloh (Low German: Unnel) is a village in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Geography
Location
Undeloh lies on the Lüneburg Heath near its highest hill, the Wilseder Berg.
Neighbouring communities
* Jesteburg, ...
, Döhle or Sudermühlen and it can also be reached on foot from Volkwardingen.
On a clear day the TV tower
Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-made ...
at Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
can be seen on the horizon
The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...
. There are also scenic views over the heath towards the west and north.
Gallery
File:Valentin Ruths Wilsede.jpg, Valentin Ruths (1825–1905): Wilseder Berg
File:Lüneburger Heide 090.jpg, View to the north from Wilseder Berg
File:WilsederBergGipfelstein.jpg, Stone on the summit
File:WilsederBergNordhang retouched.jpg, Blueberry-covered sandy heath on the northern slope
File:Heideimkerei Wilseder Berg.jpg, Heath beekeeping near the Wilseder Berg
References
External links
Landscape profile with map from the Federal Office for Nature Conservation
Wilseder Berg in the nature photograph archives of NABU Uelzen
{{Authority control
Lüneburg Heath
Heidekreis
Hills of Lower Saxony