Lüneburg Heath

The remaining areas of heath are kept clear mainly through grazing, especially by a North German breed of moorland sheep called the Heidschnucke.

Several of these hills - the Wilseder Berg, the Falkenberg, the Haußelberg and the Breithorn - were used by the mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss, as triangulation stations in his topographical surveys of the Kingdom of Hanover from 1821 to 1825.

[1] Rivers in the area, beside the numerous small heathland streams, include the Wümme, which rises on the western slopes of the Wilseder Berg, in the south the Lachte with its tributary the Lutter, and the Aller, the Vissel, the Böhme, the Grindau, the Meiße and the Örtze.

During the Saalian Stage (230,000–130,000 years ago) the area of the present-day Lüneburg Heath was covered three times by a continental ice sheet.

In the last glacial period (110,000–10,000 years ago) the ice sheet no longer covered the Lüneburg Heath area; it reached only as far as the River Elbe.

Due to the lack of vegetation, the much more rugged terrain at that time was heavily eroded by water, wind and by soil fluction; this resulted in valleys like the Totengrund.

At its heart, around the Wilseder Berg, is the Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve (Naturschutzgebiet or NSG) founded as long ago as 1921 with 234 square kilometres (90 sq mi) of land which is roughly 58% woods and 20% heathland.

The heath and its surrounding area belong to those regions of the North German Plain in which the hunter culture of the Mesolithic era was superseded quite early on by Neolithic farmers.

By about 3000 BC, during the Neolithic, large open areas appeared on the lightly undulating, sandy stretches of geest on Lüneburg Heath.

The typical heath farming economy emerged: due to the poor soils the few available nutrients from a large area were concentrated on relatively small fields, from which grain, in particular, could be produced.

Soil life is severely damaged, which results in a hard layer of earth underneath the root zone on the heath at a depth of about 40 centimetres (16 in).

The oft-expressed view in the literature that the heath arose in the Middle Ages as a result of the demand for wood by the Lüneburg salt pans is incorrect.

Finally heathland has frequently developed in areas where there are no salt pans, such as the sheep-grazing regions on the coasts of Norway to Portugal and in Scotland and Ireland.

In the 20th century, numerous conservation measures were implemented on Lüneburg Heath; as a result, it is one of the best researched regions of central Europe.

[8] Many species of animal live on Lüneburg Heath, particularly birds that are at home in the wide, open landscape, some of which are seriously threatened by the intensive-farming techniques in other areas.

These include the: black grouse (Tetrao tetrix), the nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus), the woodlark (Lullula arborea), the great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor), the red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio), the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe), the wryneck (Jynx torquilla), the European green woodpecker (Picus viridis), the stonechat (Saxicola torquata), the Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata), the common quail (Coturnix coturnix) and the black stork (Ciconia nigra).

[10][11] Numerous species including European bison, moose and brown bear which once inhabited the region may be seen in the Lüneburg Heath Wildlife Park alongside more exotic animals like snow leopards and Arctic wolves.

[13] After the withdrawal of the Lombards in the migration period, from about 700 AD Lüneburg Heath belonged to the Duchy of Saxony, which was conquered by Charlemagne in the 9th century and became part of the Frankish Empire.

The resulting close control of the population and the Christianization meant that the rural settlements had to stay in one place and could no longer move about freely.

The region was dominated by heath farming which was a less intensive form of land usage necessary for its large areas of barren terrain and heathland.

[15] The villages were usually encircled by small tracts of woodland, sometimes interrupted by fields or meadows, and merged without clear boundaries into the surrounding landscape.

In order to prevent cattle trampling flat the gardens attached to the houses, village roads were enclosed with wooden fences and, later, with characteristic stone walls.

As late as the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, the barren and almost treeless heathlands were still perceived as hostile and threatening environments, as evinced by two travel logs of journeys between 1799 and 1804: As I had traversed the Hanoverian dominions in so many directions, I did not expect to find nature clothed in charms, or a high degree of population, fertility, and cultivation.

The most famous heath poet was the local writer Hermann Löns (1866–1914), who spent some time living in a hunting lodge near Westenholz.

In the same year, an appeal by Curt Floerike appeared in Kosmos magazine, citing the establishment of national parks in the United States and calling for them in Germany.

Although plans to build a motorway through the park and for the heath to be used as a military training area were stopped, in 1933 the Heidewacht was disbanded, mainly because it was made up of members of social democratic youth organisations.

Not until the Soltau-Lüneburg Agreement, was signed in 1959 between the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada, were the boundaries of the tank training area fixed.

Serious forest fires broke out in the southern part of the area near Stüde, Neudorf-Platendorf, Meinersen and then by Eschede near Celle, with devastating effects and fatalities.

On 4 May 1945, the heath was the scene of the unconditional surrender to the Allies, under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, of German forces in the Netherlands, north-west Germany, including all islands, Denmark, and all naval ships in those areas, at the end of World War II in Europe.

It is also the area where the body of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS in Nazi Germany, was secretly buried in an unmarked grave, following his suicide after capture.