Lübbecke Loessland
Encyclopedia
The Lübbecke Loessland is a natural region
that is mainly situated in northeastern North Rhine-Westphalia
but with a small area also lying in the western part of Lower Saxony
in Germany. It is a belt of land, covered by loess
, about 2 to 5 km wide and around 35 km long, that lies just north of the eastern part of the Wiehen Hills. The total area of the region is about 100 km². The Lübbecke Loessland is a transitional region between the North German Plain
and the Central Uplands
. To the north it borders on the Rahden-Diepenau Geest
and, to the east, on the Middle Weser Valley
. The town of Lübbecke
lies in the centre of the region.
in the Lower Saxon district of Osnabrück, as well as Preußisch Oldendorf
, Lübbecke, and Hille in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Minden-Lübbecke
, where Minden
also has a small stake in the region.
landscape that falls gently from south to north and is undulating in places. Whilst the southern boundary of the region is clearly defined by the edge of the forests on the Wiehen Hills, its transition to the Rahden-Diepenau Geest is rather more gradual. Only in the east is there a sharp dividing line to the Großes Torfmoor
and the Bastau meadows. Its main characteristic is the rich loess
soil that gives the region its name, and which was blown out of the sandur
on the edge of the glacier during the last ice age
and deposited on the northern slopes of the Wiehen.
Because of its outstanding loess soils the region is mainly used for arable farming. Grassland only occurs, if at all, on steep sections of the terrain, e.g. along the course of streams and, in places, immediately next to the forest edges on the Wiehen Hills.
There are no large areas of woodland in the Lübbecke Loessland, just occasional small copses, some of which are protected, such as the Finkenburg Nature Reserve.
Apart from the short streams that rise in the Wiehen Hills to the south and cut more or less straight across the Lübbecke Loessland without meandering, there are no significant natural waterbodies. Lakes and ponds only occur where pits or hollows have arisen in the course of quarrying for clay, and which have subsequently filled with groundwater or where men have laid out mill ponds in order to utilise water power.
The Lübbecke Loessland begins in the north at about 50 metres above sea level and climbs towards the south, initially gently, but then increasingly steeply. The southern boundary, say on the forest edges of the Wiehen lies at between 100 and 130 metres above sea level. In other words, for example, in the area of the town of Lübbecke the region is steeper over a distance of about 1.5 kilometres than over the 150 kilometres from the northern edge of the area to the North Sea.
, barley
and mangelwurzel
s) being especially common, sometimes mixed with large areas of special crops (apples, cherries, strawberries and bush fruits. Sugar beet
cannot be economically produced here, although the soils would favour its cultivation, because there aer no sugar factories nearby.
Where the loess has the quality of clay, clay pits and consequently brick factories were able to be established, however most of them no longer exist.
The Lübbecke Loessland belongs to the more charming loess landscapes in Germany because, unlike the rather monotonous and bare Börde countryside around Magdeburg or Cologne, here the forested Wiehen Hills in the south or the bog-rich geest
of the Rahden-Diepenau Geest
in the norther is never very far away. The landscape is very varied so that it is little wonder that several of the few state-recognised climatic spas in North Rhine-Westphalia, such as Bad Holzhausen or Börninghausen, occur here.
The aforementioned relatively steep gradient in the region favoured the use of water power from the earliest times. This was restricted, however, by the low discharge of the streams, because they generally had only a small catchment area. Nevertheless, there were no less that five water mills in Lübbecke in 1750 along the course of the Ronceva
, and the utilisation of water power was a crucial factor in enabling towns and villages to be established and thrive here rather than elsewhere. For example, the foundation of the town of Lübbecke was closely linked to the availability of a stream that could supply water power. (The name "Lübbecke" is derived from Hlidbeki, i.e. "small stream").
Today, however, water power no longer plays a significant role.
,came from the east to the northern foot of the Wiehen Hills, i.e. they moved through the Lübbecker Loessland before being destroyed at Venne by the Germanic general, Arminius
. Due to the typical geography of the area the Romans were bottled up between the bogs and the hills, which had a decisive influence on the outcome of the battle.
Later the medieval Minden-Osnabrück military rooad (Heerstraße Minden-Osnabrück) ran through the region. This corresponds to the western section of today's federal road, the B65, and runs mostly in the more northerly, level part of the Lübbecke Loessland linking the Osnabrück and Minden regions.
Natural region
A Natural region is one which is distinguished by its natural features of geography and usually more important, geology. The natural ecology of the region is likely to be significant but one of these factors tends to influence the others....
that is mainly situated in northeastern North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
but with a small area also lying in the western part of Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
in Germany. It is a belt of land, covered by loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
, about 2 to 5 km wide and around 35 km long, that lies just north of the eastern part of the Wiehen Hills. The total area of the region is about 100 km². The Lübbecke Loessland is a transitional region between the North German Plain
North German plain
The North German Plain or Northern Lowland is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain...
and the Central Uplands
Central Uplands
The Central Uplands is one of the three major natural regions of Germany and covers most of the land area of the country. To the north lies the North German Plain or Northern Lowland; to the south, the Alps and the Alpine Foreland.- Formation :...
. To the north it borders on the Rahden-Diepenau Geest
Rahden-Diepenau Geest
The Rahden-Diepenau Geest is a natural region in the extreme northeast of North Rhine-Westphalia and in the neighbouring state of Lower Saxony in north Germany...
and, to the east, on the Middle Weser Valley
Middle Weser Valley
The Middle Weser Valley is part of the Weser Depression around the River Weser on the North German Plain, extending from the gap of Porta Westfalica to the town of Hoya. It is not a true valley, because it is only bordered by low hills at two points...
. The town of Lübbecke
Lübbecke
Lübbecke is a town in northeast North Rhine-Westphalia in north Germany. This former county town lies on the northern slopes of the Wiehen Hills and has around 26,000 inhabitants. The town is in the Eastwestphalian district of Minden-Lübbecke...
lies in the centre of the region.
Administrative divisions
Administratively the Lübbecke Loessland includes the greater part of the parish of Bad EssenBad Essen
Bad Essen is a small municipality and health resort in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony. Bad Essen with its historical centre is located on the German Framework Road.-Geography:...
in the Lower Saxon district of Osnabrück, as well as Preußisch Oldendorf
Preußisch Oldendorf
Preußisch Oldendorf is a town in the Minden-Lübbecke district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. in 1905 the town name Oldendorf was changed officially by putting "Preußisch" in front of it, to make the distinction from other towns with the same name more easy .-Geography:Preußisch Oldendorf is...
, Lübbecke, and Hille in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Minden-Lübbecke
Minden-Lübbecke
Minden-Lübbecke is a Kreis in the northeastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Diepholz, Nienburg, Schaumburg, Lippe, Herford, Osnabrück.-Geography:...
, where Minden
Minden
Minden is a town of about 83,000 inhabitants in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The town extends along both sides of the river Weser. It is the capital of the Kreis of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detmold. Minden is the historic political centre of the...
also has a small stake in the region.
Natural features
The Lübbecke Loessland is a BördeBörde
Börde, a district in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, is arguably best known as the area of the former repository for radioactive waste Morsleben. The disposal of waste into the facility ended in 1998.- History :...
landscape that falls gently from south to north and is undulating in places. Whilst the southern boundary of the region is clearly defined by the edge of the forests on the Wiehen Hills, its transition to the Rahden-Diepenau Geest is rather more gradual. Only in the east is there a sharp dividing line to the Großes Torfmoor
Großes Torfmoor
The Großes Torfmoor is a raised peat bog or moor located in the northeast of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany south of the Mittelland Canal. It is between the town of Lübbecke and the community of Hille...
and the Bastau meadows. Its main characteristic is the rich loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
soil that gives the region its name, and which was blown out of the sandur
Sandur
A sandur is a glacial outwash plain formed of sediments deposited by meltwater at the terminus of a glacier.- Formation :Sandar are found in glaciated areas, such as Svalbard, Kerguelen Islands, and Iceland...
on the edge of the glacier during the last ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
and deposited on the northern slopes of the Wiehen.
Because of its outstanding loess soils the region is mainly used for arable farming. Grassland only occurs, if at all, on steep sections of the terrain, e.g. along the course of streams and, in places, immediately next to the forest edges on the Wiehen Hills.
There are no large areas of woodland in the Lübbecke Loessland, just occasional small copses, some of which are protected, such as the Finkenburg Nature Reserve.
Apart from the short streams that rise in the Wiehen Hills to the south and cut more or less straight across the Lübbecke Loessland without meandering, there are no significant natural waterbodies. Lakes and ponds only occur where pits or hollows have arisen in the course of quarrying for clay, and which have subsequently filled with groundwater or where men have laid out mill ponds in order to utilise water power.
The Lübbecke Loessland begins in the north at about 50 metres above sea level and climbs towards the south, initially gently, but then increasingly steeply. The southern boundary, say on the forest edges of the Wiehen lies at between 100 and 130 metres above sea level. In other words, for example, in the area of the town of Lübbecke the region is steeper over a distance of about 1.5 kilometres than over the 150 kilometres from the northern edge of the area to the North Sea.
Land usage
The loess region, with its heavy, but fertile soils - soil qualities of 75 or more are not uncommon - has been intensively farmed since ancient times. That partly explains the dense population in this area. In places the built-up area is so dominant that there is hardly any room left for agriculture; and sometimes villages follows one after another in a row. Outside the main areas of settlement, though, arable farming is the predominant form of land use, with cereal crops (wheatWheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
and mangelwurzel
Mangelwurzel
Mangelwurzel or mangold wurzel , also called mangold, mangel beet, field beet and fodder beet, is a cultivated root vegetable derived from Beta vulgaris...
s) being especially common, sometimes mixed with large areas of special crops (apples, cherries, strawberries and bush fruits. Sugar beet
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...
cannot be economically produced here, although the soils would favour its cultivation, because there aer no sugar factories nearby.
Where the loess has the quality of clay, clay pits and consequently brick factories were able to be established, however most of them no longer exist.
The Lübbecke Loessland belongs to the more charming loess landscapes in Germany because, unlike the rather monotonous and bare Börde countryside around Magdeburg or Cologne, here the forested Wiehen Hills in the south or the bog-rich geest
Geest (topography)
Geest is a type of slightly raised landscape that occurs in the plains of in Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark. It is a landscape of sandy and gravelly soils, usually mantled by a heathland vegetation, comprising glacial deposits left behind after the last ice age during the...
of the Rahden-Diepenau Geest
Rahden-Diepenau Geest
The Rahden-Diepenau Geest is a natural region in the extreme northeast of North Rhine-Westphalia and in the neighbouring state of Lower Saxony in north Germany...
in the norther is never very far away. The landscape is very varied so that it is little wonder that several of the few state-recognised climatic spas in North Rhine-Westphalia, such as Bad Holzhausen or Börninghausen, occur here.
The aforementioned relatively steep gradient in the region favoured the use of water power from the earliest times. This was restricted, however, by the low discharge of the streams, because they generally had only a small catchment area. Nevertheless, there were no less that five water mills in Lübbecke in 1750 along the course of the Ronceva
Ronceva
The Ronceva is a stream that flows through the East Westphalian town of Lübbecke.- Course :The source of the Ronceva lies at in the Wiehen between the hills of Heidbrink and Horsts Höhe at the lower end of the Mensinger Ravine. It flows initially to the east of the B 239 federal road on its way...
, and the utilisation of water power was a crucial factor in enabling towns and villages to be established and thrive here rather than elsewhere. For example, the foundation of the town of Lübbecke was closely linked to the availability of a stream that could supply water power. (The name "Lübbecke" is derived from Hlidbeki, i.e. "small stream").
Today, however, water power no longer plays a significant role.
Transport
As a strip of land between the Wiehen Hills in the south and the bogs to the north that was populated early on and thus cleared, the Lübbecke Loessland encouraged the early establishment of an east-west route. What is certain today is that legions of the Roman general, VarusPublius Quinctilius Varus
Publius Quinctilius Varus was a Roman politician and general under Emperor Augustus, mainly remembered for having lost three Roman legions and his own life when attacked by Germanic leader Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.-Life:His paternal grandfather was senator Sextus Quinctilius...
,came from the east to the northern foot of the Wiehen Hills, i.e. they moved through the Lübbecker Loessland before being destroyed at Venne by the Germanic general, Arminius
Arminius
Arminius , also known as Armin or Hermann was a chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest...
. Due to the typical geography of the area the Romans were bottled up between the bogs and the hills, which had a decisive influence on the outcome of the battle.
Later the medieval Minden-Osnabrück military rooad (Heerstraße Minden-Osnabrück) ran through the region. This corresponds to the western section of today's federal road, the B65, and runs mostly in the more northerly, level part of the Lübbecke Loessland linking the Osnabrück and Minden regions.
Source
- Emil Meynen (ed.): Handbuch der naturräumlichen Gliederung Deutschlands. Selbstverlag der Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Remagen 1959-1962 (Part 2, contains delivery nos. 6-9).
External links
- http://www.bfn.de/03/landschaften/steckbrief.php?landschaftid=53301BfNBFNBFN is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* Internet slang for "Bye for now"* In computer science, the Backus Normal Form or Backus–Naur Form is a notation technique for context-free grammars...
landscape fact file]