Wiehen Hills

Wiehen Hills (Wiehengebirge)
The Wiehen Hills near Schnathorst, seen from the southeast
Highest point
Peak	Heidbrink
Elevation	320 m (1,050 ft)
Dimensions
Length	70 km (43 mi)
Geography
Lage in Deutschland
State	Lower Saxony/North Rhine-Westphalia
Range coordinates	52°17′42″N 8°38′12″E / 52.29500°N 8.63667°E / 52.29500; 8.63667Coordinates: 52°17′42″N 8°38′12″E / 52.29500°N 8.63667°E / 52.29500; 8.63667
Parent range	Lower Saxon Hills

Wiehen Hills

The Wiehen Hills^[1] (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 Hills, beginning at the Weser River near Minden and terminating in the vicinity of Osnabrück. It is the northernmost of the German Central Upland ranges extending into the Northern Lowlands. Their highest hill is the Heidbrink near Lübbecke with an altitude of 320 metres (1,050 ft).

Location of the Wiehen Hills in the Lower Saxon Hills. It is easy to see that it forms a single geomorphological unit with the Gehn, Weser Hills and Süntel. As the map clearly shows, the Wiehen Hills are the northernmost finger of the main body of the German Central Uplands. By contrast, other groups of "real" hills (excluding moraines), such as the Stemmer Berge or the Rehburger Berge at the upper edge of the map not far from the lakes of the Dümmer and Steinhuder Meer, lie like islands in the North German Plain.

The Porta Westfalica defines the eastern end of the Wiehen Hills (left). To the east, on the other side of the Weser, the hills continue as the Wesergebirge (right).

Location

The Wiehen Hills lie within the districts of Osnabrück, Minden-Lübbecke and Herford. Their northern section runs in an east-west direction roughly from the territory of Bramsche (northwest of Osnabrück) via Ostercappeln, Bad Essen, Preußisch Oldendorf and Rödinghausen, Lübbecke, Hüllhorst and Bad Oeynhausen as far as the towns of Minden and Porta Westfalica on the Porta Westfalica gorge and River Weser. They also graze Bohmte and Hille to the north. South of the Wiehen Hills lie Osnabrück, Bissendorf, Melle, Kirchlengern, Bünde, Löhne and Bad Oeynhausen. The Wiehen Hills form the northwestern boundary of the Lower Saxon Hills to which they belong geographically, together with the Westphalian part of the ridge. Whilst the eastern end of the hill chain is clearly defined by the Porta Westfalica gorge and the hill of Wittekindsberg, this is not so simple for its western extremity. To the west the Wiehen descends gradually, transitioning from a hilly ridge into a chain of hillocks and then descending almost imperceptibly into the plain. South of Bramsche the ridge rises again at the Penter Egge to a height of 99 metre, but 2.5 km further west it reaches the level of the surrounding countryside. The waterways of the Mittelland Canal and Osnabrück Canal running away to the south appear to mark the end of the hill range, but west of these canals is the 82 metre high Larberger Egge which forms the westernmost cornerstone of the Wiehen Hills, rising just 2 km northeast of the boundary with the province of Münster. Contrary to popular assumption, Ibbenbüren is no longer considered to be situated by the Wiehen Hills and the Ibbenbüren Plateau (Ibbenbürener Bergplatte comprising the Schafberg, etc.) is no longer part of the Wiehen.^[2] Geological reasons, according to current research, do not support such an assumption.^[3]

To the north, the Wiehen descends to the North German Plain into a region known as the Lübbecke Loessland. On the banks of the Weser, opposite Porta Westfalica, lies the Wesergebirge, which is the eastern continuation of the Wiehen Hills. This ridge is of similar geological construction and runs as far as the area of Hessisch Oldendorf to the Süntel hills. Southeast of the Wiehen Hills are the Lippe Uplands, to the south the Ravensberg Hills, to the southwest in the area of the Tecklenburg Land are the northern foothills of the Teutoburg Forest, and to the northwest are the hills of the Gehn and the Ankum Heights, the Damme Hills and the Stemweder Berg. North of the northwestern tip of the Wiehen liest the great bog of the Großes Moor.

Hills

Southern view near Lübbecke

For a long time seen as the highest point – the 274 m high Nonnenstein

The Wiehen Hills in the fog

The Wiehen Hills seen from Bünde

In the Wiehen Hills near Rödinghausen

The hill forest of the Wiehen, here on the western slopes of the Wurzelbrink

On the summit area of the Kniebrink

Kreisstraße 79 near the Wiehen Tower at the Egge water gap (autumn 2008); built during RAD emergency work (1924–1927); looking north

View of the Nettelstedter Berg from the north. from the Großes Torfmoor ("Great Peat Bog")

The summit of the highest hill, the Heidbrink

The Wiehen Hills near Bad Holzhausen

The hills of the Wiehen range from west to east are:

Height of the highest hill in bold; heights in metres (m) above Normalhöhennull (NHN)

References