Falkenberg (Lüneburg Heath)
| Falkenberg | ||
|---|---|---|
 View from the east to Falkenberg (right) and Oerbker terminal moraine with Staffelberg (120 m) |
||
| height | 150 m above sea level NHN | |
| location | Lüneburg Heath (Südheide) | |
| Mountains | Falkenberg terminal moraine | |
| Dominance | 35.6 km → Wilseder Berg | |
| Notch height | 77 m ↓ wild moor | |
| Coordinates | 52 ° 50 '48 " N , 9 ° 51' 39" E | |
|
||
The Falkenberg is located on the northwest edge of the district Celle in the field of NATO - the military training area mountains , between Wardböhmen and Bad Fallingbostel . At 150 m above sea level, it is one of the highest elevations on the Lüneburg Heath and the highest point on the Südheide .
Origin and relief
The Falkenberg belongs to a small mountain range, SSW-NNE-running ridge known as the Falkenberg terminal moraine . It was created as a terminal moraine that was separated from the last ice advance without any accompanying compression processes in the course of the older of two stages of the Saale glaciation , the Drenthe stage , i.e. about 200,000 years ago. The deposits were wedged between two glacier lobes from the Böhmetal in the west and a third, which pushed up from the northeast and left the valley basins of the upper Wietze and Meiße . Therefore, the kame- like northern part of the ridge (Hakenberg, 145 m) rises prominently from neighboring boggy depressions on both sides. In the following icing phases, today's intensive demolition came about. The relief energy and steepness of the central and southwestern part previously gave rise to assumptions that the moraine range belongs to a more recent phase of the Saale Ice Age. Gravel and block accumulations led, especially in the south-western continuation, the Oerbker terminal moraine arch (Goldbockenberg, 128 m), to the formation of isolated, distinctive peaks such as the hardened cone of the Tutenberg (116 m), which has now been lowered by tank exercises .
The Falkenberg itself is a multi-peaked ridge that merges into a southwestern protrusion of the hill country. The 147 meter high west crest drops 45 to 60 meters deep on three sides. Several basin-like dry valleys extend at the foot . Waterlogging and swelling only occur below a height of 82 meters.
Cultural landscape
Like the Lüneburg Heath in general, the Falkenberg area was almost deforested by forest pastures and, to a lesser extent, by blows, up to the end of the 18th century, with the exception of a few steep slopes and swamps. It was not until the major systematic afforestation in the second half of the 19th century that the landscape became today.
Until around 1910, the Falkenberg had been developed intensively for tourism from the Achterberg recreation facility, southeast of Dorfmark in the Boehmetal. Stair paths led over the ridges and through the steep valley head, which is enclosed by the crescent-shaped ridge line of the mountain in the north, to the summit point. From here you could see Hanover in good weather over the Osterheide , which is more than 50 meters lower .
Today you can only visit the seven stone houses of the Falkenberg terminal moraine at weekends , about seven kilometers southwest of the Falkenberg. Otherwise, the entire ridge is a restricted military area to this day. A lookout point on the Falkenberg southwest of Wardböhmen on the Paschenhoop is accessible .
Importance for land surveying
In 1820, the then King George IV commissioned the professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at the University of Göttingen, Carl Friedrich Gauß , to measure the Kingdom of Hanover . The mathematician used, among other things, the summit of the Falkenberg as one of the points of triangulation for the land survey with Gauss stones . Another central triangle point was the Wilseder Berg (169 m above sea level) further north and the Haußelberg to the east . At that time these points were on free, unwooded hilltops, probably surrounded by heather.
Part of the triangular network of the Gaussian degree measurement , with the Falkenberg, was also shown on the back of the "10 DM" banknote of the fourth series of the Deutsche Mark .
literature
- Hans-Dietrich Lang: New results of quaternary geological investigations in the area of the Falkenberg terminal moraine . Ice Age and Present, 43, ISSN 0424-7116 , doi : 10.3285 / eg.43.1.02 . Pp. 23–28, Stuttgart 1993 ( online )