Ravensberg Basin
The Ravens Mulde (also: Ravens Berger Hill Country ) is a 1021.3 km ² large area in the north- east of North Rhine -Westphalia and to a lesser extent in the adjacent Lower Saxony. It is situated mostly in Detmold from Westphalia-Lippe.
In the natural spatial structure of Germany is a main unit, 4th order and part of the Greater Region 3rd order Lower Saxony Bergland. It comprises the hilly countryside between Beck Wiehengebirge in the north, Lippe Uplands in the east, the Teutoburg Forest in the south and hills in the west of Osnabrück. The core area of the Ravens Mulde is nearly coextensive with the field of the cultural landscape of the Ravens Berger country.
Demarcation
The definition of a natural area can rarely be made clear and linear, since in this case various features ( terrain and climate, soil, geology, water resources, flora and fauna) are taken into account and you can get depending on their weighting to different results. This is also true for the Ravens Mulde, because consist mainly eastward transition areas to the adjacent natural areas.
North, south and south-west, however, the boundaries of the hills are clearly determined, they are here to clear auszumachenden mountain feet of Wiehengebirge and the Teutoburg Forest. To the west, the Osnabrück hill country joins, here there is no such sharp transition. The dividing line runs roughly west of the Mellerstadt parts Buer, middle and Wellingholzhausen. To the east and southeast is a close link with the Lippe Uplands. The closest possible boundary line roughly follows the Werre (starting position ) and is initially about 2 km to the west, from the east and from Herford wages up to 8 km south of the river bed. Sometimes the shallower western parts of the country are expected to Lipper mountain Ravens Mulde, rarely also the location already beyond the Weseraue hill country south of the Westphalian gate.
In the Ravens Mulde thus lie in whole or greater part, all municipalities in the Herford district except Vlotho, continue to the independent city of Bielefeld ( northern half of the city center ), Bad Oeynhausen and Hüllhorst (both in the Minden -Lübbecke ), Leopold height ( Lippe ), Werther ( circle Gütersloh ) and the Lower Saxony Melle ( district of Osnabrück). In a broader sense, the territory of the municipalities of Lippe Bad Salzuflen, Detmold, Dörentrup able Oerlinghausen ( district Helpup ) and Lemgo and Porta Westfalicas may be wholly or partially added counted.
Nature regions
The Ravens Berger hill country is divided from north ( west to east) to south ( west to east) as follows:
- ( to Lower Saxony Bergland )
- ( 53 Lower Weser Uplands ) 531 Ravens Berger hills 531.0 Quernheimer hill and mountain country (north) 531.00 Meesdorfer heights
- 531.01 Quernheimer hills
- 531.10 Else lowland
- 531.11 Werre valley
- 531.20 Krukum - Bünder plates and hills
- 531.21 Oeynhausener hills
- 531.22 Neuenkirchener hills
- 531.23 Herford plates and hills
- 531.24 Stieghorster Osning foreland
Nature Spatial Features
The Ravens Mulde is a gently undulating, between 50 and 140 m above sea level. NN -lying hills, which is strikingly framed by the surrounding, to over 300 m high mountain countries.
Numerous small, shaped by human hand box valleys (called Sieke ) intersect often suddenly and deeply into the otherwise weak kuppierte country. Prior to human intervention, the numerous streams have already created a number of V- valleys and transformed the once- flat surface into a lot of flat, shield -shaped backs and tops extensive hill country. Farmers, most of these valleys to create grazing land, broadened by tapping the grass sods that were used for fertilization and as fodder to the flat, often rectangular Sieken and laid therein may watercourses located on the edge of the valley. Since the valleys yet - even without running water - are ground moist, they are mainly used for grazing. The original V- valleys are preserved only in the few remaining forest areas. An example of this is the Nightingale.
In the underground, find essentially Liasplatten ( shales ) that were deposited before about 180 million years ago at the bottom of a shallow, warm sea and have correspondingly many fossils such as ammonites, snails and mussels. The Liastone are overlain by sand, clay and gravel, which, however, become apparent only rarely. About the waterproof Liastonen - the area is therefore soil moist - these detrital cover layer has formed in the Quaternary glacial ice cover and ice drift by. More legacy of the ice ages are the frequently encountered and often originating from Scandinavia boulders. About these layers has in the last ice age ( Weichsel glacial period ), beginning about 70,000 years ago, a closed, average deposited one to five meters thick loess layer. The area is among the loess clay belts, including Jülich, Soest and Magdeburg belongs. The loess is a porous, moisture -storing, lightweight and easy to work with brown earth, which is fairly low in lime through leaching, but overall, but ever heard of the most fertile farmland.
The area is drained almost entirely by the Werre and its tributaries, which Else and Aa are the most important. In fact, the Ravens Mulde is in the broad sense, can be seen on the peripheral areas of the highlands, largely congruent with the area of the Else Werre River system. However, are the upper reaches of the Werre and the area of its tributary Bega, although similarly constructed hill country, mostly to Lipper Bergland expected.
The Elsetal and the lower reaches of the Werre form the low-lying, running from west to east glacial valley of the Else- Werre valley, which is also known as Osnabrück valley. From the low terraces on both sides of the Else and Werre the fertile loess was washed away and angeschwemt for sand, clay and gravel ( gravel terrace ). Partial but also occurs directly reveal the old valley floor, the ground moraine or Lias mudstone. The soils are much less fertile than the loess hill country. Directly along the rivers usually extend moist meadows that were regularly flooded before straightening and diking, from the front of meandering rivers and are therefore covered by an up to two meter thick layer of clay.
North of the valley, the Osnabrück Quernheimer bay rises (also: Quernheimer hill country) gradually to Wiehengebirgsfuß to. The wide south adjacent low-lying area is called Herford Herford bay or trough.
The highest areas of the Ravens Mulde are laminated from about 150 to about 200 m at the edges, where the mountain range to connect. On the Steinegge in the transition region to the Lipper Bergland 256 m can be achieved. A little more in the core area is the Schweichler mountain with 165 meters height, geologically considered part of Herford Keuper projection also a continuation of the Lipper mountain country, however, but among other things, because of its location west of the Werre is still counted to the hill country.
The climate is Atlantic. The primary natural forest community is that of the oak-hornbeam forest.
See also: Climate in East Westphalia -Lippe
Settlement history
→ Main article: Ravens Berger country
The most fertile soils and its sheltered position between mountain ranges resulted in the Ravens Mulde to early settlement and intensive agricultural use, whereby the original vegetation is almost entirely given way to a small-scale cultural landscape. The convenient location between Bielefeld Pass and Porta Westfalica promoted trade and commerce. In the early modern period put the proto-industrialization with the linen trade as a basis, it was replaced by an intense and diverse industrialization in the 19th century. Today, the landscape is one of the most densely populated areas of Germany.