The Wiehen Hills ( German : Wiehengebirge , pronounced [ˈviːənɡəˌbɪʁɡə] , also locally, just Wiehen ) are a hill range in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Germany . The hills run from west to east like a long finger away from the main upland area of the Lower Saxon Hills , beginning at the Weser River near Minden and terminating in the vicinity of Osnabrück . It is the northernmost of the German Central Upland ranges extending into the Northern Lowlands . Their highest hill is the Heidbrink near Lübbecke with an altitude of 320 metres (1,050 ft).
26-537: The Wiehen Hills lie within the districts of Osnabrück , Minden-Lübbecke and Herford . Their northern section runs in an east–west direction roughly from the territory of Bramsche (northwest of Osnabrück ) via Ostercappeln , Bad Essen , Preußisch Oldendorf and Rödinghausen , Lübbecke , Hüllhorst and Bad Oeynhausen as far as the towns of Minden and Porta Westfalica on the Porta Westfalica gorge and River Weser . They also graze Bohmte and Hille to
52-421: A Samtgemeinde . Populations at 31 December 2007 are given in parentheses. Anja Kebschull ( Die Grünen ) is the full-time Landrat (head of the district authority) since 2019. She is the political representative and president of the district government. Every five years the citizens of the district Osnabrück elect their representatives into the district assembly. The district assembly is the uppermost organ of
78-561: A north-westerly direction from Springe in the south to Rodenberg in the north. The next in the chain of hills to the south is the Kleiner Deister ("Little Deister") from which it is separated by the flat pass of the Deister Gate . It is surrounded by Springe, Wennigsen , Barsinghausen , Bad Nenndorf , Rodenberg and Bad Münder (counter-clockwise, starting in the south). It has a total length of 21 km (14 mi), and rises in
104-616: Is not so simple for its western extremity. To the west the Wiehen descends gradually, transitioning from a hilly ridge into a chain of hillocks and then descending almost imperceptibly into the plain . South of Bramsche the ridge rises again at the Penter Egge to a height of 99 metre, but 2.5 km further west it reaches the level of the surrounding countryside. The waterways of the Mittelland Canal and Osnabrück Canal running away to
130-564: The North German plain ; the mountain ranges Teutoburg Forest and Wiehen Hills run east-west in the southern third of the district. The river Hase flows through the district from south to north. In the eastern part flows the Hunte . The district encloses the district-free city of Osnabrück . Together, they form the Osnabrück Land ( Osnabrücker Land ), which can be divided inter alia into
156-498: The Peace of Westphalia : Lutherans ( Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover ) and Catholics ( Roman Catholic Diocese of Osnabrück ). Because the (Catholic) Osnabrücker Land bordered on Lutheran territories, there have been Lutherans in the district since the 19th century. The confessional distribution has not changed significantly in spite of the influx of Heimatvertriebene after 1945. The following long distance roads pass through
182-658: The Reichstag in Berlin . Today the Deister is a popular target for people of the Hanover area for walking and cycling. The Deister is a border region since ancient times. Here one can find many places with memorial stones, tumuli and ruins of castles. The ridge is covered by a mixed forest of beech and spruce and, in places, also beech and oak . On the Cecilienhöhe near Bad Nenndorf, at
208-792: The Wesergebirge , which is the eastern continuation of the Wiehen Hills. This ridge is of similar geological construction and runs as far as the area of Hessisch Oldendorf to the Süntel hills. Southeast of the Wiehen Hills are the Lippe Uplands , to the south the Ravensberg Hills , to the southwest in the area of the Tecklenburg Land are the northern foothills of the Teutoburg Forest , and to
234-500: The Hofeler to a height of 395 m (1,250 ft). The highest point is the Bröhn at 405 m (1,312 ft). The chain is well-wooded and abounds in game. From the 17th century on there were several coal mines; the last was abandoned in the 1950s. Sandstone from quarries in eastern Deister was used in several important buildings all over Europe, including the opera house in Hanover and
260-464: The city of Osnabrück in the same year. The former district of Osnabrück had already been enlarged with the district of Iburg in 1932. The 1972 local government reform also led to a considerable decrease of the number of municipalities. The present combined territory of the district and the city of Osnabrück is almost identical to the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück which existed until 1802, when it
286-586: The district assembly since 2011: Since 1999 a partnership exists to Olsztyn County in the north-east of Poland . From historical attachment and in view of the entry of Poland in the European Union the Osnabrück district performs its special contribution to the development of the German-Polish friendship. During the past years resulted narrow municipal connections to Polish districts. Thus the district as well as
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#1732845177847312-489: The district. The next election takes place in the autumn of 2016. At the last local election on September 11, 2011, 68 delegates and the Landrat were elected into the assembly. The district committee prepares the decisions of the district assembly and decides affairs which the district assembly must not decide. The committee consists of twelve members from the district assembly, eleven of whom are eligible to vote. Composition of
338-470: The district: The first railway to reach the district territory was the Hannoversche Westbahn , connecting Osnabrück with Hanover in 1855. It was extended to Rheine in 1856. The Köln - Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft connected Osnabrück with Bremen in 1871, and with Münster in 1873. This turned the town's main station, Osnabrück Hauptbahnhof , into a significant railway interchange. Today
364-450: The following railway lines are used for public transport: [REDACTED] Media related to Landkreis Osnabrück at Wikimedia Commons 52°20′N 8°10′E / 52.33°N 8.17°E / 52.33; 8.17 Deister The Deister is a chain of hills in the German state of Lower Saxony , about 15 mi (25 km) southwest of the city of Hanover . It runs in
390-490: The hills usually admit grudgingly that the Wiehen Hills are not particularly high. In the same breath, they may assert, often with a raised index finger and an odd emphasis on the word gebirge ("hill/mountain range"), that they are the northernmost hill range in Germany and the one closest to the sea. Whether this assertion is true is in fact a matter of definition. It clearly ignores the morainic ridges further north and closer to
416-559: The most northerly hill over 300 metres in Germany. The Heidbrink, at almost 320 metres high, is also the northernmost "three-hundred" on the European continent between the central Ural Mountains and the Atlantic , i.e. excluding the British Isles and Fennoscandinavia . Landkreis Osnabr%C3%BCck Osnabrück ( German: [ɔsnaˈbʁʏk] ) is a district ( Landkreis ) in
442-440: The municipality Bad Essen signed a declaration in 2002 about the collaboration with Wałcz County ; narrow contacts exist to Gryfino County . The Landschaftsverband Osnabrücke r Land , an incorporated society, looks after cultural interests under sponsorship of the administrative district and the district-free city of Osnabrück. The area of the district Osnabrück has been confessionally mixed since Protestant Reformation and
468-536: The north. South of the Wiehen Hills lie Osnabrück , Bissendorf , Melle , Kirchlengern , Bünde , Löhne and Bad Oeynhausen . The Wiehen Hills form the northwestern boundary of the Lower Saxon Hills to which they belong geographically, together with the Westphalian part of the ridge. Whilst the eastern end of the hill chain is clearly defined by the Porta Westfalica gorge and the hill of Wittekindsberg , this
494-673: The northwest are the hills of the Gehn and the Ankum Heights , the Damme Hills and the Stemweder Berg . North of the northwestern tip of the Wiehen liest the great bog of the Großes Moor . The hills of the Wiehen range from west to east are: Height of the highest hill in bold; heights in metres (m) above Normalhöhennull (NHN) According to folklore, regionally conscious residents around
520-572: The picnic area of Lauenau -Feggendorf and southwest of the old forester's lodge at Köllnischfeld are several examples of the rare, native dwarf beech ( Süntelbuche ). Amongst the rarer plants on the Deister are species of holly , mezereon , orchids , sundews , globeflowers , hard shield fern , and great snowdrops . The Deister is home to the typical animals found in the German Central Uplands . Red deer , roe deer and wild boar are very common. Other wild animals occurring here are
546-480: The sea, as well as other true uplands such as the Stemweder Berg or the Rehburg Hills . Of course, these hills are much lower and do not reach the 200-metre contour line. Of the higher, say up to 300-metre-high (980 ft) uplands, the northern foothills of Deister and Bückeberge extend farther north than the eastern Wiehen range. However, it is also true that the highest part of the Wiehen Hills at Lübbecke has
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#1732845177847572-498: The smaller regions of Artland, Grönegau and Wittlage Land. The Tecklenburger Land in the west is the geographical continuation of the Osnabrücker land in the neighbouring federal state North Rhine-Westphalia . Often it is ascribed to be Münsterland , although it belongs to the Osnabrücker land historically. The district is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Emsland , Cloppenburg , Vechta and Diepholz ,
598-596: The south appear to mark the end of the hill range, but west of these canals is the 82-metre-high Larberger Egge which forms the westernmost cornerstone of the Wiehen Hills, rising just 2 km northeast of the boundary with the province of Münster . To the north, the Wiehen descends to the North German Plain into a region known as the Lübbecke Loessland . On the banks of the Weser, opposite Porta Westfalica, lies
624-406: The southwest of Lower Saxony , Germany . With 2,122 km it is the second largest district of Lower Saxony. The district in its present form was established on July 1, 1972 by merging the former districts of Melle , Bersenbrück and Wittlage , and most of the old district of Osnabrück. Eight municipalities (Atter, Pye, Hellern, Nahne, Voxtrup, Darum, Gretesch and Lüstringen) were merged with
650-606: The state of North Rhine-Westphalia (districts of Minden-Lübbecke , Herford , Gütersloh , Warendorf and Steinfurt ) and the City of Osnabrück . The coat of arms displays the Bennoturm ("Benno's Tower") of Bad Iburg , which served as the fortress of the bishops until 1673. There is also a wheel displayed in the coat of arms, which is the heraldic symbol of the City of Osnabrück. The district of Osnabrück encompasses 38 municipalities, eight of which are towns. 17 municipalities are part of
676-564: Was mediatised and assigned to the Electorate of Hanover . It was occupied by France between 1807 and 1813, after which it was returned to the Kingdom of Hanover . After the 1866 Austro-Prussian War , the Kingdom of Hanover (including the former bishopric of Osnabrück) was annexed by Prussia . Since 1 November 1946, the area is part of Lower Saxony . The northern two thirds of the district belong to
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