Geographical features
Germany has an extraordinary variety of charming
landscapes. Low and high mountain ranges intermingle with upland plains,
terrace country, hilly regions and lakelands as well as wide, open lowlands.
From north to south Germany is divided into five regions with different
topographical features: the North German Plain, the Central Upland Range,
the terrace panorama of the southwest, the Alpine foothills in the south
and the Bavarian Alps.
In the north are dry, sandy lowlands with many
lakes as well as heaths and moors. There is also the fertile land stretching
southward to the Central Upland Range. These lowland penetrations include
the Lower Rhenish Bight, the Westphalian Bight and the SaxonThuringian
Bight. The marshes along the North Sea coast extend as far as the geest.
Characteristic features of the Baltic Sea coastline are in Schleswig-Holstein
the fjords, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the lakes and the counterbalancing
coastline. The main islands in the North Sea are the East Frisian Islands,
among them Borkum and Norderney, the North Frisian Islands of Amrum,
Föhr and Sylt (and the Halligen), as well as Helgoland in the Helgoland
Bight. Situated in the Baltic Sea are the islands of Rügen, Hiddensee
and Fehmarn. Some parts of the Baltic coast have flat, sandy shores;
others have steep cliffs. Between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea lies
the low-hill country called “Holsteinische Schweiz“ (Holstein
Switzerland).
The Central Upland Range divides northern Germany
from the south. The central Rhine valley and the Hessian depressions
serve as the natural north-south traffic arteries. The Central Uplands
include the Rhenish Schist Massif (Hunsrück, Eifel, Taunus, Westerwald,
Bergisches Land and Sauerland), the Hessian Mountains, and the Weser
and Leine Mountains in western and central Germany. Right in the heart
of Germany are the Harz Mountains. Toward the east are the Rhön
Mountains, the Bavarian Forest, the Upper Palatinate Forest, the Fichtel
Hills, the Franconian Forest, the Thuringian Forest and the Ore Mountains.
The terrace landscape of the Central Uplands
in the southwest embraces the upper Rhine valley with the adjacent mountain
ranges of the Black Forest, the Oden Forest and Spessart, the Palatinate
Forest with the Haardt, and the Swabian-Franconian terrace country with
the Alb.
In a narrow valley between Bingen and Bonn
the river Rhine, the main north-south axis, slices through the Rhenish
Schist Massif, whose highland areas are less densely populated than
the sheltered wine-growing areas on both sides of the Rhine valley which
are very popular with tourists.
The Alpine foothills embrace the Swabian-Bavarian
highlands with their hills and large lakes in the south, broad gravel
plains, the hilly landscape of Lower Bavaria, and the Danube valley.
Characteristic features of this region are the moors, dome-shaped hill
ranges and lakes (Chiemsee, Starnberger See) as well as small villages.
The German part of the Alps between Lake Constance
and Berchtesgaden is limited to the Allgäu, the Bavarian Alps and
the Berchtesgaden Alps. In this Alpine world lie picturesque lakes such
as the Königssee near Berchtesgaden and popular tourist resorts
such as Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Mittenwald.
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