Teutoburg Forest - Geography

Geography

The Teutoburger Wald is a peripherical section in the north of the central European uplands, a long narrow range (compound of three parallel ridges) extending from the eastern surroundings of Paderborn in the south to the western surroundings of Osnabrück in the northwest. South of the city centre of Bielefeld, a transverse incision called Bielefelder Pass cuts the range into two sections, which can be called Northern Teutoburg Forest (two thirds) and Southern Teutoburg Forest (one third). In addition, the northeastern and southwestern ridges are cut by the exits of the longitudinal valeys between the ridges.

The geologically oldest ridge is the northeastern one, which consists of limestone of the Triassic.

Most of the ridges and part of the valley is covered by deciduous forest. Parts of the valley areas are used by agriculture, especially production of cereals.

The highest elevation in the Southern Teutoburg Forest is the Velmerstot (468 m) (south of Horn-Bad Meinberg). In the Northern Teutoburg Forest the highest elevation is the Dörenberg (331 m) (north of Bad Iburg).

The river Ems has its source at the western base of the southernmost portion of the Teutoburg Forest.

The soutern half of the range, situated about 30 km southwest of Weser valley, is part of the watershed between Ems bassin in the west an Weser bassin in the east. The drainage towards Weser is linked by Werre river. The northwestern half of the range is drained to river Ems on both sides.

The neighbouring landscapes are the Westphalian Lowland in the west, Hase valley in the north, the hilly Ravensberg Basin in the northeast, Lippe Uplands in the east, and Eggegebirge (Egge Range) in the south.

Except for a short area south of Osnabrück, which belongs to the Bundesland of Lower-Saxony, the whole forest is part of North Rhine-Westphalia.