Wendland and Altmark

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Wendland and Altmark (German : Wendland und Altmark), named after the German regions of Wendland and Altmark, is the name of a natural regional major landscape unit group in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, North Germany. In the Handbook of Natural Region Divisions of Germany it is given serial number 86, [1] the Bundesamt für Naturschutz gives the same region the serial number D29.

German language West Germanic language

German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

Wendland German landscape

The Wendland is a region in Germany on the borders of the present states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Its heart is the Hanoverian Wendland in the county of Lüchow-Dannenberg in Lower Saxony.

Altmark region in the north west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

The Altmark is a historic region in Germany, comprising the northern third of Saxony-Anhalt. As the initial territory of the March of Brandenburg, it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Prussia", as by Otto von Bismarck, a native from Schönhausen near Stendal.

Contents

Location

The eastern part of the North German Plain showing Wendland and Altmark as major landscape group 86 Haupteinheitengruppen Tiefland Ostteil und Loessboerden.png
The eastern part of the North German Plain showing Wendland and Altmark as major landscape group 86

The natural region is located in the central part of the North German Plain, straddling the border between the states of Lower Saxony (only the county of Lüchow-Dannenberg) and Saxony-Anhalt (counties of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, Stendal and Börde). It extends from Dannenberg in the north via Lüchow and Salzwedel to the Breslau-Magdeburg-Bremen glacial meltwater valley (including the River Ohre and Mittelland Canal) north of Magdeburg in the south; and from the Lower Saxony / Saxony-Anhalt border region northeast of Wolfsburg and the Drömling in the west as far as Stendal in the east. The landscape region is thus largely the same as the cultural landscape regions of Wendland and Altmark – albeit not universally. For example, the Drawehn region is socio-culturally mainly part of the Hanoverian Wendland, but is party of the Lüneburg Heath landscape unit, D28. The flood plain of the Elbe also forms a separate natural region.

North German Plain plain in Germany

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. The region is bounded by the coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the north and Germany's Central Uplands to the south.

Lower Saxony State in Germany

Lower Saxony is a German state (Land) situated in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with 47,624 km2 (18,388 sq mi), and fourth-largest in population among the 16 Länder federated as the Federal Republic of Germany. In rural areas, Northern Low Saxon and Saterland Frisian are still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining.

Lüchow-Dannenberg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany, which is usually referred to as Hanoverian Wendland or Wendland. It is bounded by the districts of Uelzen and Lüneburg and the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt.

The major landscape group of Wendland and Altmark (86) is bounded and bordered by the groups of Lüneburg Heath (64) to the northwest, the Weser-Aller Plain (62) to the southwest, the Eastern Harz Foreland and Börde (50) to the south and the Elbe Valley (87) to the east and north.

Lüneburg Heath landscape, area of heath, geest and woodland in Lower Saxony, Germany

Lüneburg Heath is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen and is named after the town of Lüneburg. Most of the area is a nature reserve. Northern Low Saxon is still widely spoken in the region.

Elbe Valley

The Elbe Valley is most often used as a term for that section of the river valley in which most of the quarters of Dresden are located. The Dresden Elbe Valley was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005 and has lost the title June 25, 2009 due to a dispute between UNESCO and the City of Dresden. The city plans to construct bridge across the Elbe river, that will span it in the middle of the former World Heritage Site. In the opinion of UNESCO this construction will "deface" the historic site.

Related Research Articles

Saxony-Anhalt State in Germany

Saxony-Anhalt is a state of Germany.

Uelzen is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Gifhorn, Celle, Heidekreis, Lüneburg and Lüchow-Dannenberg, and by the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The county capital is the town of Uelzen.

Gifhorn is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Altmarkkreis Salzwedel is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is bounded by the districts Gifhorn, Uelzen, Lüchow-Dannenberg in Lower Saxony, and the districts of Stendal and Börde (district).

Eastphalian dialect Low German dialect

Eastphalian, or Eastfalian, is a West Low German dialect spoken in southeastern parts of Lower Saxony and western parts of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.

The Ohrekreis was a district (Kreis) in the north-east of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Neighboring districts are Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, Stendal, Jerichower Land, the district-free city Magdeburg, Bördekreis, and the districts Helmstedt and Gifhorn in Lower Saxony. Its territory is now incorporated into Börde.

Stendal is a district (Landkreis) in the north-east of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its neighbouring districts are : Jerichower Land, Börde, Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, Lüchow-Dannenberg in Lower Saxony, and the districts of Prignitz, Ostprignitz-Ruppin and Havelland in Brandenburg.

Jeetzel river in Germany

The river Jeetzel, which begins in the Altmark under the name Jeetze, flows from Saxony-Anhalt through Lower Saxony, in Germany. From its source near the village of Dönitz, it flows north through Beetzendorf, Salzwedel, Wustrow, Lüchow and Dannenberg, before joining the Elbe in Hitzacker. Its total length is 73 kilometres (45 mi).

Drawehn

The Drawehn is a partly wooded and partly agricultural region of hills in the northeastern part of the German state of Lower Saxony, lying between the districts of Lüneburg and Uelzen in the west and Lüchow-Dannenberg in the east.

Elbhöhen-Wendland Nature Park nature park in Lower Saxony, Germany

The Elbhöhen-Wendland Nature Park, formerly known as the Elbufer-Drawehn Nature Park is a German nature park east of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony.

Bundesstraße 71 federal highway in Germany

The Bundesstraße 71 is one of the longer German federal roads numbered in the 60s and 70s series. It begins at the B 6 in Bremerhaven by the Unterweser and ends in Könnern near Halle (Saale) in Saxony-Anhalt. To begin with it is one of the east-west links across the Elbe-Weser Triangle and runs in a gentle curve via Bremervörde and Zeven (71 km) over the Hansa Line A 1 (83 km) to the district town of Rotenburg (Wümme) (97 km). Here it crosses the B 75 and continues past the Lüneburg Heath to Soltau (133 km), where it crosses the B 3. Carrying on towards the east it runs through heathland to Uelzen (190 km), where the road again crosses another major federal route, the B 4. Next it runs through the Elbufer-Drawehn Nature Park and crosses the old Inner German Border and present-day state border between Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt at kilometre marker 222.

Magdeburg Börde

The Magdeburg Börde is the central landscape unit of the state of Saxony-Anhalt and lies to the west and south of the eponymous state capital Magdeburg. Part of a loess belt stretching along the southeastern rim of the North German Plain, it is noted for its very fertile Chernozem soils.

The Magdeburg Region is the name of the central region in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in North Germany. It includes the landscape units of Magdeburg Börde, Jerichow Land, the northern Harz Foreland and the Colbitz-Letzlingen Heath. The centre of the region is the city of Magdeburg; other important towns are Haldensleben, Aschersleben, Staßfurt, Oschersleben, Schönebeck (Elbe) and Burg. Towards the east the Elbe-Börde Heath transitions into the neighbouring region of Anhalt-Wittenberg. To the south lies the Harz and the Saale-Unstrut Region, to the north the Altmark. The regional tourist association uses the name Elbe-Börde-Heide which came originally from regional planning and was first coined in the 1990s. Currently it is used in the fields of tourism or regional marketing.

County of Dannenberg

The County of Dannenberg was a fief in the Duchy of Saxony. Its heartland was largely identical with the present-day collective municipality of Elbtalaue in north Germany.

Salzwedel–Dannenberg railway railway line

The Salzwedel–Dannenberg railway was a branch line between Salzwedel in the north of Saxony-Anhalt and Dannenberg in eastern Lower Saxony in Germany. It was built in 1891 by the Prussian state railways, initially as a stub line from Salzwedel to Lüchow and extended in 1911 to Dannenberg. Shortly before the end of the Second World War the line between Salzwedel in the Soviet Zone and Lübbow in the British Zone was cut. Passenger services ceased in 1975, goods trains continued tor run until the end of 1997. The section still being worked between Lüchow and the station at Dannenberg Ost has been owned since 2001 by the Deutsche Regionaleisenbahn (DRE) and is called the Jeetzel Valley Railway (Jeetzeltalbahn).

References

  1. ↑ Emil Meynen and Josef Schmithüsen: Handbuch der naturräumlichen Gliederung Deutschlands, Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, 8th edition, Bad Godesberg, 1961 (a total of 9 issues in 8 books, updated 1960, 1:1,000,000 scale, map of major landscape units)

Coordinates: 52°52′48″N11°25′48″E / 52.8800°N 11.4300°E / 52.8800; 11.4300

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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