Unit 2: The natural landscape of Germany

Teaching aim: To describe the complexity of the physical landscape of Central Europe with special emphasis on the processes of land formation. A problem-oriented evaluation and classification of the environment should derive from this

Keywords: Nature regions, physical landscapes, lowlands, clay belts, mountains, basins and trenches, geomorphology and morphogenetics, glacial deposits, volcanism, natural resources and mineral deposits

The diversity of Germany's natural landscapes reflects and mirrors the physical variety of Central Europe as a whole. It consists of four major physical regions:

The North German Lowlands were formed during the Pleistocene period by glaciers from different glaciation periods, just as this was the case in Canada and northern parts of the United States. As a consequence, glacial features, such as end or ground moraines, glacial lakes, sanders etc. represent the most typical landscapes in this part of the country. But a closer look reveals a much greater variety. Very distinct differences exist between the shorelines of the Baltic Sea (Ostsee) and the North Sea (Nordsee). The shoreline of the Baltic Sea is a very typical example of a coast shaped by the ice, where moving ice lobes have eroded deep channels into the ground, the so-called Förden (Flensburger Förde, Kieler Förde and others). These channels filled with salt water after the retreat of the ice due to the rising sea level and became much later the ideal locations for harbour cities such as Kiel, Luebeck, Rostock and some others. More to the east, the ground moraines were partly submerged by the rising sea, leaving behind numerous islands (e.g., Ruegen [1]), peninsulas and lagunes. The North Sea, on the other hand, is built of marshland with a great number of islands just beyond the coastline. These islands [2] and the coastline itself are permanently threatened by the tides and by sea currents and need constantly to be protected. For hundreds of years dykes have been built to achieve this protection, but even in the more recent history there have been dramatic land losses. For land conservation purposes, this coastal region, including the islands, was declared a national park in the mid 1980s.

The landscape of the North German Lowlands varies according to the glaciation periods in which they were formed. Especially the eastern parts of Schleswig-Holstein and the northern parts of Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania were covered by the latest advance of the ice during the Weichsel glaciation period (corrensponds to the Wisconsin ice age in North America). The end moraines formed at this time were built up as high as 179 m. Another glacial feature is the many lakes of Schleswig-Holstein and of Mecklenburg which represent an important natural resource for the development of tourism in these regions. More to the south, deposits from older glaciation periods prevail. The soils of the northern plains are mainly produced from parent materials derived from glacial deposits. Depending on whether they are more sandy (podzols) or clayish, they are of different value for agricultural use. Especially in the north-western parts, where vast areas are being covered by marshland and swamps, agricultural use is widely limited to dairy farming. The southern fringe of the North German Uplands, however, is one of the richest agricultural zones in the whole country. This is mainly due to the loess deposits that allow intensive use for crop and sugar beet growing. The Magdeburger Börde and the Leipziger Bucht are particularly renown for their high soil fertiliy.

The Central German Uplands have a highly fragmented geological and morphological structure. Their extension reaches from the loess belt in the North to the Danube river (Donau) in the South, covering almost half of the country. Hence, there are different types of these uplands according to their geological underpinnings. The western and the eastern peripheries are part of old Paleozoic mountain ranges, stretching from the Massif Central in France to the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland. The Rhenish Uplands (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge) in the West are mainly renown for their rich coal and ore bodies. In contrast, the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) in the southwestern corner of the country has a high reputation as a tourist region. Highest point of the Black Forest is the Feldberg [3], reaching 1,493 m. The Harz, the Thuringian Forest (Thüringer Wald), the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) and the Bavarian Forest (Bayerischer Wald) in the east also belong to these old massifs. Especially the Harz and the Ore Mountains are rich in mineral resources, which were an important economic factor for these regions in the past.

The old massifs contour the Mesozoic uplands, which stretch from the Weserbergland in the North to the Danube in the South. They are mainly made up of the debris from the older massifs and/or from marine or lacustrine deposits which have buried the older rocks. The landscape is much more marked by widely spanned plateaus and cuestas. Especially the southwestern part of the country, where several cuestas succeed each other, is very distinctively marked by such a landscape. While in the southern part of the Central Uplands sediments from the Upper Trias and Jurassic formation prevail, the central parts, especially the Hessian Mountains (Hessisches Bergland), are mainly built of "Buntsandstein". Historically, this poor quality sandstone has been blamed as being the "cause of misfortune" of the Hessian people.

In the southwestern part of the Central German Uplands, the Upper Rhine Valley represents a special feature with particular tectonic interest. This graben opened in Tertiary times and is tectonically still active. The 35 to 40 km wide and some 300 km long valley separates Germany from its neighbours to the west (since ancient times). Two famous old roads run trough it: the "Bergstrasse", called strata montana in Roman times, and the "Weinstrasse" (vinery road), famous for its excellent vineyards. The trench continues north into the so-called Westhessische Senke, but here it splits into a couple of smaller basins due, in part, to Tertiary volcanic actions which has filled parts of the graben. The most important volcanic massif of Germany is the Vogelsberg in central Hesse. A special landscape feature is the Thuringian Basin (Thüringer Becken), an extended lowland formed by tectonic activities of Tertiary age, but now covered by rich soils.

The South German High Mountains, together with their foothills, are part of a greater mountain range, the Alps, which extends to the neighbouring countries (France, Switzerland, Austria). South of the Danube river are found mainly glacial, fluvial, and lacustrine debris of different time periods which form the so-called "Schotterplatten", which are mostly flat lands with fair agriculture. They are overlaid to the south by deposits from the Würm glaciation period (most recent period). These extended masses of ground and end moraines form a west to east sequence of large lakes [4] (e.g. Chiemsee [5]). Germany's portion of the Alps is very little. They are barely reaching into German territory. Nevertheless, several peaks [6] above 2,500 metres exist. Germany's highest point is the Zugspitze in the so-called Bayerische Alpen (2,963 m) [7]. But one could find similar classic glacial alpine features in the Canadian Rockies.

Questions that may be asked:

  • What are the main physical features that transcend a big part of present day Germany?
  • Explain the formation of unique highly fertile agricultural areas.
  • Suppose you drove from north to south Germany with a friend and were asked to describe the landscape. What would you say to him/her while on the road?
  • Collect and interpret the web-page on Germanys highest peak Zugspitze [8]!
Interactive Quiz

[1] http://www.ruegen.de/index.php3?irss=314198e63356d5644&lng=2
[2] http://www.destatis.de/basis/e/geo/geoinset.htm
[3] http://www.schwarzwald.de/gallery
[4] http://www.destatis.de/basis/e/geo/geoseent.htm
[5] http://www.prien.chiemsee.de
[6] http://www.destatis.de/basis/e/geo/geobodet.htm
[7] http://home.t-online.de/home/Yudschin/dkarte.htm (27.08.2003)
[8] hppt://www.zugspitze.de/

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