Ravensberg Land

The Ravens Berger country is a cultural landscape in East Westphalia -Lippe in the north- east of North Rhine - Westphalia. It lies between Wiehengebirge in the North, the Teutoburger forest in the south, the border to Lower Saxony in the west and the large Weserbogen and the Lippe district border in the east. It thus includes essentially the Westphalian part of the Ravens Berger hill country. The most important cities are Bielefeld (with its northern and central city districts ), Herford, Bad Oeynhausen and frets.

Features of the landscape are an old intensive agricultural use under the special conditions of Lößhügellandes, diverse industry and a high population density. History of the area is marked by centuries of belonging to Prussia. Until the 20th century, its population was purely Lutheran and made ​​use of a common dialect, the Ravens Berger Platt.

The Ravens Berger country is explicitly equated with the natural space of the Ravens Mulde or the territory of the county Ravens mountain. It is often overlooked that these three terms each have different contexts and their underlying spaces of reference, are not identical despite large overlaps.

• 2.1 Political and conceptual history
• 2.2 Settlement history

Geography

Demarcation

The Ravens Berger country is surrounded by the cultural landscapes of the Minden- Lübbecker country in the north and northeast, the Lipper country in the southeast, the Ostmünsterlandes in the southwest and the Osnabruck region in the west.

The ridges of the highlands highlight significant natural boundaries to the north and southwest and also form the dividing line between the inner hills and surrounding lowlands. Both have caused a different cultural landscape development, although historically, religiously, sometimes dialect quite close links exist in these directions. Conversely, it behaves toward the southeast and west, where the hill country initially continued, and a change in the landscape is not detectable. Here, the political divisions were crucial, as they had developed since the 17th century, when the sub-areas of the Ravens Berger country, unlike lip and Osnabrück were incurred (Brandenburg ) Prussia. At times, outright state borders depicting these fault lines as Westphalian- Lippe limit or border to Lower Saxony today in the consciousness of the population are available.

Thus, the Ravens Berger country like few other cultural landscapes is very clearly delineated.

Area

The Ravens Berger country covers the entire District of Herford to the Vlothoer district Uffeln, in the Minden -Lübbecke the municipalities of Bad Oeynhausen and Hüllhorst, in the district of Gütersloh Werther and a small northern part Borg Holzhausen, finally, the Bielefeld city districts Mitte, Dornsberg, Gadderbaum, Heepen, Joellenbeck, Schildesche and Stieg Horst, along about 755 km ² with 580,000 inhabitants ( 2005).

Also south of the Teutoburg Forest, that is, in the southern part of Bielefeld and in the northwestern district of Gütersloh, sometimes identifies with the term " Ravens Berger country." However, it is another, purely historical criterion applies, namely, the former belonging to the county Ravens mountain whose count's headquarters from about 1080 to 1346 which is located on a ridge south side of the Teutoburg Forest, in present-day district of Gütersloh Ravensburg mountain was. Cultural landscape is the area Munsterland closer.

Natural space

The Ravens Berger country is formed mostly by hill country to the facing slopes of Wiehen and Teutoburg Forest and the natural area to Lipper Bergland scoring area around Vlotho come. The hill country is predominantly lößbedeckt and thus very fertile, in conjunction with the relatively high rainfall shaker has coined the term " wet flange ". Numerous streams, the reshaped by man Sieke, have cut deep and given the country a kuppiertes relief. It is drained towards the Weser by the Werre and its tributaries Else and Aa, which still affect the area in the northeast. While the original oak -hornbeam forests have almost completely disappeared in the hill country as a result of intensive agriculture, can be found at the abruptly rising mountain slopes dense forest of cultivated mixed forest.

See also: Ravens Mulde

History

Political and conceptual history

The area was divided in the Middle Ages between the county Ravens mountain, the Bishopric of Minden and the pin or the imperial city of Herford. In the 17th century, the three now fully become Lutheran territories Herford, Ravens mountain and the Principality of Minden to Brandenburg- Prussia arrived and were united in 1719 in the administrative area of ​​Minden- Ravensburg mountain.

As a result, the name Ravens mountain went from the county to the clearly defined by the Central Mountains core Minden - Ravensburg mountain and thus on former mindische areas, favored by existing since time immemorial cultural landscape similarities in the space of Ravens Mulde. Compared with the effect similar to neighboring areas dominated by Melle and lip now, however, the political boundaries had strengthened further, in addition were added certain denominational differences. Unlike the Lutheran Minden- Ravensberg the Osnabrück country was mixed Lutheran- Catholic and came to Hanover, the Calvinist lip long remained independent. In the 19th century the Ravens Berger country was strongly detected by the Lutheran pietism and revivalism. Above all, through the preaching and missionary work of the Lutheran pastor Johann Heinrich Volkening there was a substantial increase of many parishes. One particular form of piety found in the brass band movement, which aired in Germany under John Kuhlo of Bielefeld - Bethel out in Protestant regions. Another expression found the revival in diakonia through ups people Happenings and Friedrich von Bodelschwingh.

The now gradually einbürgernde term Ravens Berger country thus described a landscape that had its own profile in political, religious and with the beginning of industrialization, increasingly, economically, and therefore constituted a separate cultural landscape.

After the brief interlude of the Napoleonic period, the area belonged to the governmental district of Minden in 1815 in the Prussian province of Westphalia. On the lower level of administration of the circle frets, the District of Herford (including the newly formed county of Bielefeld since 1878 ) of the ( rural) district of Bielefeld were completely, mostly and the circles Hall, Luebbecke Minden and to a lesser extent in the Ravens Berger country.

1946/47, was the province of Westphalia to the end of Prussia in the newly formed state of North Rhine -Westphalia, is at the county level since 1973, the above mentioned administrative division.

Settlement history

The fertile loess soils have led to an early settlement of the area. The oldest cores of the built environment dates back to the old Saxon period. Even for the Pre-Roman Iron Age settlement traces have been detected archaeologically. Especially in the 18th century, then made ​​the large-scale clearing of forest supporting lowlands and conversion to green and farmland. Today, the surrounding highlands are only forested throughout.

The landscape of the Ravens Berger hill country is generally characterized as parkland. Typical of these are relatively numerous copses and shrubbery within the predominantly used for arable and grassland fields and meadows and an originally distinct scattered settlement, ie next to the small village cores numerous farmsteads were present, who were half-timbered buildings and calibration champions for the scenic beauty of this area is essential.

The fertility of the soil led together with Heuerling beings and the applicable Anerbenrecht in the 18th and early 19th century to overpopulation and the impoverishment of large segments of the population that could not be absorbed by the said internal colonization (brand division ). Forced only by a substantial, partly by the Prussian state, diversified industrialization following the construction of the Cologne - Minden railway succeeded gradually to bring the steadily growing population on the payroll, although there were long a strong migration, especially to America. The combination of still existing rural embossing with strong industrial influences was a typical feature of the Ravens Berger country until well into the 20th century.

The period after the Second World War brought a renewed population growth by expellees, the still flourishing economy attracted immigrants. Today Bielefeld stands ( which, however, extends to the south over the Ravens Berger hills ) among German cities in 18th position and the District of Herford is one of the most densely populated ( rural) counties in Germany. The area forms the core area of the compression chamber Gütersloh Bielefeld - Herford, Minden.

The high population density in conjunction with the rising especially from the mid-20th century standards of housing, mobility and infrastructure limit the appeal of the old Ravens Berger cultural landscape more and more. Mention may be made here V.A. the massive urban sprawl and the fragmentation of the landscape through road construction. In addition, in many places took the municipal policy in the wave of modernization since the 1960s, little consideration to the historic farm buildings.