Hainleite

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Hainleite
The northwestern Hainleite south of Münchenlohra

The northwestern Hainleite south of Münchenlohra

Highest peak Wettenburg southwest of Straussberg ( 463.2  m above sea  level )
location Districts of Kyffhäuser , Nordhausen and Sömmerda ; Thuringia , Germany
Part of the main unit Ringgau – Hainich – Obereichsfeld – Dün – Hainleite , Thuringian Basin (with edge plates)
Classification according to Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany
Hainleite (Thuringia)
Hainleite
Coordinates 51 ° 23 '  N , 10 ° 44'  E Coordinates: 51 ° 23 '  N , 10 ° 44'  E
Type Layered mountain range
rock Shell limestone
surface 270 km²
dep2
p1

The Hainleite is one to 463.2  m above sea level. NHN high, about 210 square kilometers large and widely forested limestone - mountain ridge in the districts Kyffhäuser , Nordhausen and Sömmerda in the north of Thuringia ( Germany ). It represents the northeastern part of the northwestern edge plate of the Thuringian Basin .

geography

location

The Hainleite extends mostly in the Kyffhäuserkreis, its northwest part is in the district of Nordhausen and a corner in the middle of the small eastern part in the district of Sömmerda. It stretches in a wedge-shaped narrowing to the east-southeast, its steep, approximately 40 km long north (northeast) flank is flanked by the gradually approaching valley of the Wipper from Wipperdorf northeast of Bleicherode (district of Nordhausen) via Sondershausen to Seega , where the river breaks through the ridge and separates a small eastern part, which stretches to the Thuringian gate of the Unstrut near Oldisleben .

Beyond the gently sloping southern flank and already in the Thuringian Basin , Kindelbrück (Sömmerda district) lies in the east and Ebeleben in the west.

Differentiation from thin

The Helbetal west of Sondershausen

Dün and Hainleite merge comparatively smoothly in ridges, while the southern borderline is clearly orographically clear.

The central Helbetal of the Helbe from its northernmost point south-eastwards to Wiedermuth north of Ebelebens forms a comparatively sharp southern western border to the Dün .

To the north this line blurs somewhat; from north to south the border usually drawn from Großlohra to the Helbe runs as follows:

  • Renkgraben with L 1016
  • Root path (L 1033)
  • Cold valley
  • Martinsgrund

This demarcation corresponds in particular to the designation of protected areas; so the limit from the root runs along the path and the Renkgrabentals conservation area Dün-Helbetal to reserve Western Hainleite . It also corresponds to the names on cards and also correlates with the naming of Wettenburg as the highest elevation of the Hainleite in current reference works. The saddle between the two mountain ranges is located at a good 410 m on the root path.

It should be mentioned, however, that the valleys of the Bebra (from the south in the direction of Sondershausen ) and above all the Wipper ( Wipper breakthrough from Seega in the south) , which are already clearly within the Hainleite, represent significantly more distinctive ridges.

Alternative demarcation from the Katzenstein

The eastern Dün at the transition to the Hainleite (from the left the Reinhardberg, in the middle the Katzenburg and on the far right the Katzenstein or Kattstein)

In the landscape map of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy as well as in the villages around Sollstedt located around 200 m below the almost 90 ° north-east bend of the stratification level at Katzenstein (around one and a half kilometers south-south-east of Sollstedt) is shown as a seam line from Dün (ridge course to the north ) and Hainleite (ridge course to the east). Its most obvious extension to the northernmost point of the Helbe would follow the northeastern border from Helbedündorf ( Kyffhäuserkreis ) to the district of Nordhausen , which runs along a side valley of the Helbe.

According to this borderline, the Katzenburg south of Obergebras would be the highest elevation of the Hainleite with 476.8 m , which, however, would only have about 20 m notch  height (notch at approx.  457  m ) and 3 km dominance over the Kriegsberg ( 485  m , southwest), while The dominance of Wettenburg, which is centrally located in the western part of the Hainleite, is 9 km at a height of about 53 m.

Neighboring landscapes

To the north of the Hainleite, beyond the Wipper, lies the Windleite ridge and to the northeast, beyond the Kleine Wipper and Solgraben creeks, the Kyffhäuser Mountains. To the northeast is the Diamantene Aue in the Wipper valley between Bad Frankenhausen and Artern on the Unstrut . In the east-southeast - beyond the Thuringian Gate , a small breakthrough valley of the Unstrut near Oldisleben (north) and its district of Sachsenburg (south) - lies the Schmücke with the Hohe Schrecke northeast of it . To the south the landscape falls into the Thuringian Basin with the rivers Helbe and Unstrut and in the west the Hainleite merges seamlessly into the dune in ridges .

structure

The Wipper breakthrough at Günserode
The Thuringian Gate near Sachsenburg
Wöbelsburg near Hainrode, one of the many mountain spurs of the Hainleite

The Hainleite is divided into three segments by a valley in the ridge area and a breakthrough valley - with areas in square kilometers (km²) and heights in meters (m) above sea level:

The seam line to the Dün reaches saddle locations of a good 410 m in the ridge area and is significantly weaker there than the saddle south of the valley of the Bebra, which stretches from Sondershausen upstream to the south and is accompanied and finally extended by the Nordhausen – Erfurt railway line . Along the railway line, the shell limestone is completely broken up by loess and loess derivatives .

The canyon-like Wipper breakthrough valley even represents a completely independent natural area . Geologically, it is similar to the Creuzburg Werra breakthrough of the Werra near Creuzburg , which also breaches the shell limestone of the northwestern edge of the Thuringian basin .

mountains

The Hainleite decreases from (west-north) west to (east-south) east at an average height. The mountains and peaks are distributed over the three segments ( see above ) as follows - sorted by height in meters (m) above sea level:

geology

In the area of ​​the north-east roofing of the Hainleite, the near-surface geological subsoil is formed by the sequence of layers of limestone from the Lower Muschelkalk . The compact layer package forms a distinctive layer on the morphologically softer clays and marls of the Röt (Upper Buntsandstein) stored below . While the strata in the area of ​​the Lower Muschelkalk breaks off vertically and with rock faces of different heights, the base of the Röt rocks is flatter and gently leads into the Wipper depression, which is characterized by the sandstones of the Middle Buntsandstein and Auelehmen. In the south there is a mostly less distinctive transition to the plateau formed by the rocks of the Upper Muschelkalk. The layer of the Upper Muschelkalk can only be seen clearly south of Straussberg.

The rocks of the shell limestone are water-permeable and karstified due to their strong fissures and their solubility . Precipitation that seeps away usually drains quickly underground. Along the steep northern drop of the Hainleite, spring horizons form on the layer boundary between Lower Muschelkalk and Röt. The Hainleite plateau is a karst area. The valley of the Helbe, for example, in the area of ​​the shell limestone, is dry for most of the year for the reasons mentioned above. The upper reaches of the Helbe can therefore be regarded as the longest dry valley in Germany with a length of 20 km . In the area of ​​the Upper Muschelkalk, sinkholes are common. Their formation is due to the collapse of underground cavities in the rock. The cave formation is mostly related to faster dissolving gypsum lenses in the Middle Muschelkalk.

Typical for the northern descent are slides of entire layers of the Lower Muschelkalk, so-called floe slides. This process can lead to the formation of clefts at the edge of the grove. In places, this also resulted in rocks , such as on the Rauchberg near Straussberg.

To the north the ridge falls relatively steeply to the valley of the Wipper (approx. 200–163 m), which flows into the Unstrut in Sachsenburg , and relatively flat to the south towards the Erfurt plain (part of the Thuringian basin ).

vegetation

The potential natural vegetation is formed by forest barley and woodruff beech forests . Small areas of orchid and yew-beech forests are formed on the slope edges. In the hillside rubble areas, there are also small areas of sycamore, ash, hillside rubble and steep slope forests. On the rock fronts, the vegetation changes into dry bushes in places and on rubble heaps sometimes into forest-free blue-grass heaps. In the area of ​​the Upper Muschelkalk, waterlogged clay soils are often developed, which favor the oak. The ground vegetation there is often formed by the grass clown .

Protected areas

A larger part of the Hainleite lies in the Hainleite landscape protection area (8,676  hectares , first designation 1970), which extends to the east on Scharfen Berg (250 m) to just above the Unstrut. It completely contains the part of the 7548 hectare large and largely congruent bird sanctuary in Hainleite - Westliche Schmücke .

In addition to various FFH areas, it contains the following nature reserves :

In the far northwest of the Hainleite, within the FFH and bird sanctuary Westliche Hainleite -  Wöbelsburg (1170 ha):

In the very south-east are:

  • NSG Hotzenberg (85 ha, 1961) southwest of Schernberg on the seam line to the Helbetal
  • NSG Himmelsberg (68 ha, 1961) west of Himmelsberg in the Helbetal

Economy and tourism

On the antics at Sondershausen

The Hainleite is mainly used for forestry because of the good forest population. But tourism also plays an important role. Sights are:

hike

There are over 30 hiking routes around the district town of Sondershausen. The following three routes are known nationwide, some of which lead from west to east over long stretches over the ridge of the Hainleite:

traffic

In terms of traffic, the Hainleite area is well developed. A comfortable journey by train is possible via the cities of Nordhausen and Sondershausen . By car you come from the north via the A 38 and B 80 and from the south via the A 4 . The routes B 4 and B 85 lead directly over the Hainleite and connect the two main roads. The A 71 touches the low mountain range to the east .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  2. ↑ a b c d measurement via geopaths (kmz, 7 kB) according to the natural boundaries of the three segments and 2 dividing valleys (west 105, middle 75 and east part 20 km²; Bebratal and Wipper breakthrough each by 5 km²)
  3. ↑ Naming of Wettenburg as the highest elevation and a. in:
    • Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany 6th delivery. 1959.
    • Meyer's Lexicon. 8th edition. Bibliogr. Institute, Leipzig 1938, Volume 5, p. 702.
    • Brockhaus Small Conversation Lexicon. 1911, Volume 2, p. 976.
    • Meyer's Large Conversation Lexicon. Leipzig 1905, Volume 19, p. 517.
    • Brockhaus Kleines Konsversations-Lexikon. 5th edition. F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1911, Volume 1, p. 747.
    • Meyer's Large Conversation Lexicon. 1907, Volume 8, p. 634.
  4. ^ In: Johann Georg Theodor Grasse: Book of legends of the Prussian state. 1–2, Volume 1, Glogau 1868, pp. 428–431 “Legend of the Goddess Lohra” explicitly states:

    “From the Ohmgebirge an arm stretches towards the east and forms one pillar of the Porta Eichsfeldica near Elende. The opposite pillar, the Düngebirge, at the northern foot of which is Münchenlohra, ... "

    This description would not be compatible with the demarcation to the Katzenstein described below.
  5. ^ Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (2002): Landscapes. 1: 1000000
  6. ↑ Hydrogeological map of Thuringia from the Thuringian State Institute for Environment and Geology (PDF; 4.37 MB) ( Even finer maps are available for each district .)
  7. ^ E. Meynen and J. Schmithüsen : Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany - Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Remagen / Bad Godesberg 1953–1962 (9 deliveries in 8 books, updated map 1: 1,000,000 with main units, 1960)
  8. ↑ a b Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )

Web links

Commons : Hainleite  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Hainleite  - travel guide