Havelland

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Sub-regions and waterbodies of the Havelland Havelland FHSW.gif
Sub-regions and waterbodies of the Havelland

Geographically, the Havelland is the region around which the River Havel flows in a U-shape between Oranienburg to the northeast and Rhinow to the northwest. The northern boundary of the Havelland is formed by the River Rhin and the Rhin Canal. In the history of Brandenburg, the Havelland represents a historic region.

Contents

In the heart of the Havelland is the county of the same name. In addition the Havelland includes the south of Ruppin Land with the Rhinluch, the western part of Berlin's Spandau, parts of Potsdam, the town of Brandenburg an der Havel and several villages in the county of Potsdam-Mittelmark.

The Tourist Association of Havelland has chosen a rather different boundary. It covers the county of Havelland, the town of Brandenburg an der Havel and the northern part of the county of Potsdam-Mittelmark, including communities south of the Havel river, that belong to the region of Zauche.

The writer Theodor Fontane described the Havelland as well as the other landscapes of Brandenburg. In the ballad Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland [1] he helped to give this region special prominence and his novel character Effi Briest grew up here. The Havelland was also given its own volume of Fontane's accounts of hiking across Brandenburg, the Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg .

Countryside

The Havelland Cycleway near Paaren im Glien Havellandradw Glien.png
The Havelland Cycleway near Paaren im Glien
The Hohennauensches Bruch in the West Havelland Nature Park Rhin Wassersuppe.JPG
The Hohennauensches Bruch in the West Havelland Nature Park

Wide urstromtal lowlands characterize the countryside of the Havelland. Plateaux rise above the general level of the land like islands, mostly formed from Ice Age ground moraines. But end moraines from the Saale and Weichsel glaciations also occur. The former were overlain to a greater or lesser extent by the advancing Weichselian ice sheet.

The sandy, dry plateaux support arable farming as well as woodlands. The largest is the Nauen Plateau (Nauener Platte). North of it there are several morainic plateaux or Ländchen . West of the bend in the Havel river is Land Schollene.

In the urstromtäler either side of the Havel north of the Nauen Plateau are the former marshlands of the Havelland Luch and Rhinluch, separated from one another by the Ländchen, south of the Nauen Plateau the small morainic hills of the East Havel lowlands are divided by numerous lakes or Havelsees. From 1700 to the 1950s large areas, especially in the north of the Havelland, were drained by canals.

The western part of the region between Rhinow and Pritzerbe belongs to the West Havelland Nature Park. This contains the largest inland wetlands in Western Europe, the Lower Havel Lowlands.

Settlement

The Havelland is very sparsely populated. The larger towns developed by the crossings over the River Havel: Spandau (today part of Berlin), Potsdam, Brandenburg and Rathenow. Other central settlements in the Havelland are Rhinow, Premnitz, Nauen and Friesack. The town of Falkensee and its surrounding villages have grown rapidly.

Economy and transport

Arable and cattle farming dominate large areas of the Havelland. Fruit and vegetable farming is also common, especially around Werder. Both are also processed into juices, as well as fruit and vegetable preserves. The Havel and the Havelsee lakes also provide a few fishermen with a livelihood.

Tourism is playing an increasingly important role in the Havelland, which is viewed as one of the recreation areas for the metropolis of Berlin.

On the edge of Berlin, in Wustermark, a freight transport centre has been established. In Paaren im Glien, the Märkische Exhibition and Leisure Centre (Ausstellungs- und Freizeitzentrum) offers a venue for larger trade fairs and events.

A continuing problem for the Havelland is transport communication. On the one hand, the Havel is an important waterway, especially between Brandenburg and Oranienburg, on the other, its lakes and the large wetland areas form an obstacle to roads and railways.

The most important roads are the B 5 federal highway from Berlin via Nauen towards Hamburg, from which the B 188 to Rathenow branches. North-south routes are the B 102 from Brandenburg via Rathenow to Rhinow and, in the east, the Berlin ring motorway, the A 10. From Spandau, two railway lines carry high-speed trains through the Havelland. These are the Berlin–Hamburg line via Nauen and the Lehrte Railway via Rathenow. In the west the Brandenburg Städtebahn links Brandenburg and Rathenow. In the east the Berlin outer ring grazes the region.

Literature

Related Research Articles

Havel River in Germany

The Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe and 325 kilometres (202 mi) long. However, the direct distance from its source to its mouth is only 94 kilometres (58 mi).

Havelland (district) District in Brandenburg, Germany

Havelland is a district or county in Brandenburg, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Ostprignitz-Ruppin and Oberhavel, the city-state of Berlin, the district of Potsdam-Mittelmark, the city of Brandenburg and the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Nauen Place in Brandenburg, Germany

Nauen is a small town in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is chiefly known for Nauen Transmitter Station, the world's oldest preserved radio transmitting installation.

Bundesautobahn 10 Federal motorway in Germany

Bundesautobahn 10 is an orbital motorway around the German capital city of Berlin. Colloquially called Berliner Ring, it is predominantly located in the state of Brandenburg, with a short stretch of 5 km in Berlin itself. It should not be confused with the Berliner Stadtring around Berlin's inner city.

Province of Brandenburg

The Province of Brandenburg was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Lower Lusatia region, and became part of the German Empire in 1871. From 1918, Brandenburg was a province of the Free State of Prussia until it was dissolved in 1945 after World War II, and replaced with reduced territory as the State of Brandenburg in East Germany, which was later dissolved in 1952. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, Brandenburg was re-established as a federal state of Germany, becoming one of the new states.

Rhinow Place in Brandenburg, Germany

Rhinow is a town in the Havelland district (Landkreis), in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 16 km north of Rathenow, and 22 km south of Kyritz. Rhinow is the administrative seat (Verwaltungssitz) of the Rhinow district (Amt).

Schönwalde-Glien Place in Brandenburg, Germany

Schönwalde-Glien is a municipality in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany.

Bezirk Potsdam District in 15 Kreise and 2 Stadtkreise, German Democratic Republic

The Bezirk Potsdam was a district (Bezirk) of East Germany. The administrative seat and the main town was Potsdam.

Wustermark railway station

Wustermark station is a railway station in the town of Wustermark in the Havelland region of the German state of Brandenburg, to the west of Berlin. The station is located on the Berlin–Lehrte railway and is connected with the Jüterbog–Nauen railway, part of which became part of the Berlin outer ring in the 1950s. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.

Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region Place in Germany

The Berlin/Brandenburg metropolitan region or capital region is one of eleven metropolitan regions of Germany, consisting of the entire territories of the state of Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg. The region covers an area of 30,370 square kilometres (11,730 sq mi) with a total population of about 6 million.

Brandenburg an der Havel – Potsdam-Mittelmark I – Havelland III – Teltow-Fläming I

Brandenburg an der Havel – Potsdam-Mittelmark I – Havelland III – Teltow-Fläming I is an electoral constituency represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 60. It is located in western Brandenburg, comprising the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, most of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, and parts of the Havelland and Teltow-Fläming districts.

Rhinluch

The Rhinluch is a fen landscape in the German state of Brandenburg, bisected by the river Rhin to which it owes its name. This wetland region lies north of Fehrbellin in the county of Ostprignitz-Ruppin. The upper Rhinluch covers an area of about 23,000 hectares. The suffix luch is used to describe several wet areas in the state of Brandenburg, in which, prior to the advent of modern drainage systems, water remained largely stagnant rather than flowing.

Havelland Luch

The Havelland Luch is a lowland area inside a bend of the River Havel west of Berlin, and forms the heart of the Havelland region.

<i>Ländchen Friesack</i>

Ländchen Friesack is a small ridge, up to 77 metres above sea level (NN). It is situated in Brandenburg, northwest of Germany's capital city, Berlin and southwest of the town of Friesack. The Ländchen extends for just under 5 kilometres in a north-south direction and separates the lowland and former marshes of the Rhinluch in the north from that of the Havelland Luch in the south. The upland is almost entirely forested. It is divided into the parishes of Friesack, Kleßen-Görne and Mühlenberge. Part of the Ländchen – around the lake of Görner See – is a nature reserve.

<i>Ländchen</i> (Havelland)

A Ländchen is the German name given to several Ice Age plateaux in the Havelland region, which climb to over 70 metres above the formerly marshy urstromtal levels of the Havelland Luch and the Rhinluch. The difference between these Ländchen and the surrounding countryside is even more marked because of the different land uses to which they are put. Extensive pastures in the lowlands contrast with the arable fields and woods on the low hills. Geologically they are largely complete formations of ground moraine from the Saale and Weichselian glaciations that, in places, are covered by gently rolling end moraines.

Nauen Plateau

The Nauen Plateau is a low plateau in the German states of Brandenburg and Berlin. It rises above the surrounding countryside by an average of 15 metres (49 ft) and is a largely contiguous upland area that was formed during the Saale and Weichselian glaciations. It consists predominantly of ground moraine deposits, partly overlain by gently rolling end moraine formations. Whilst the neighbouring regions of Zauche to the south, the Teltow to the southeast and the Barnim to the northeast have the same name as their geological formation, the cultural landscape on the Nauen Plateau bears the historical and regional name of Havelland. That said, the river country of the Havelland extends beyond the plateau to include the Havel valley and other lowland areas.

Teltow (region)

Teltow [] is both a geological plateau and also a historical region in the German states of Brandenburg and Berlin. As an historical region, the Teltow was one of the eight territories out of which the March of Brandenburg was formed in the 12th and 13th centuries. As a result of the Teltow War (1239–1245) the question of territorial lordship of the newly created heart of the expanding march was finally decided here. Between 1835 and 1952 there was also a county, Teltow district; in addition a town immediately south of Berlin, in the present-day county of Potsdam-Mittelmark, bears the name Teltow.

North Brandenburg Plateaux and Upland

The North Brandenburg Plateaux and Upland is a natural region in the northwest of Brandenburg and, to a lesser extent, the southwest of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and northeast of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It is major unit group no. 77 in the natural regional divisions of Germany. The Brandenburg portion of the North Brandenburg Plateaux and Upland is largely coextensive with the natural region of Prignitz and Ruppin Land in the structural atlas of the state of Brandenburg.

Central Brandenburg Plateaux and Lowlands

The Central Brandenburg Plateaux and Lowlands form a natural region in the German state of Brandenburg and in parts of southwest Berlin and the east of Saxony-Anhalt. They are major unit group 81 in the system of natural regions of Germany and part of the East German Plateaux and Heathlands. The Brandenburg portion of the Central Brandenburg Plateaux and Lowlands is largely coincident with the natural region designated as the Central March in the structural atlas of the state of Brandenburg.

References

  1. Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland (a pear tree in his garden stood ...) at Wikisource

Coordinates: 52°30′00″N12°45′00″E / 52.5000000°N 12.7500000°E / 52.5000000; 12.7500000