3) What are the major physical features and formations in Germany?

The diversity of Germany's natural landscapes reflects and mirrors the physical variety of Central Europe as a whole. It consists of four major physical regions:

1. The North German Lowlands, part of the North European Plain and made up geologically of Quarternary deposits.

2. The Central German Uplands, part of the Central European Hills, predominantly consisting of Paleozoic and Mesozoic geological formations .

3. The Foothills of the Alps, consisting of glacial deposits and hence geologically similar to the North German Lowlands.

4. The South German High Mountains, upliftet and folded Mesozoic and Tertiary deposits, geologically part of the outer ranges of the Alps.


The North German Lowlands were formed during the Pleistocene period by glaciers from different glaciation periods. As a consequence, glacial features, such as end or ground moraines, glacial lakes, sanders etc. represent the most typical landscapes in this part of the country. The shoreline of the Baltic Sea is a very typical example of a coast shaped by the ice, where moving ice lobes have eroded deep channels into the ground. These channels filled with salt water after the retreat of the ice due to the rising sea level and became much later the ideal locations for harbour cities. More to the east, the ground moraines were partly submerged by the rising sea, leaving behind numerous islands The North Sea, on the other hand, is built of marshland with a great number of islands just beyond the coastline. These islands [2] and the coastline itself are permanently threatened by the tides and by sea currents and need constantly to be protected. For hundreds of years dykes have been built to achieve this protection, but even in the more recent history there have been dramatic land losses. For land conservation purposes, this coastal region, including the islands, was declared a national park in the mid 1980s.


The landscape of the North German Lowlands varies according to the glaciation periods in which they were formed. The end moraines formed at this time were built up as high as 179 m. Another glacial feature is the many lakes of Schleswig-Holstein and of Mecklenburg which represent an important natural resource for the development of tourism in these regions. The soils of the northern plains are mainly produced from parent materials derived from glacial deposits. Depending on whether they are more sandy (podzols) or clayish, they are of different value for agricultural use. Especially in the north-western parts, where vast areas are being covered by marshland and swamps, agricultural use is widely limited to dairy farming. The southern fringe of the North German Uplands, however, is one of the richest agricultural zones in the whole country. This is mainly due to the loess deposits that allow intensive use for crop and sugar beet growing. The Magdeburger Börde and the Leipziger Bucht are particularly renown for their high soil fertiliy.


The Central German Uplands have a highly fragmented geological and morphological structure. Their extension reaches from the loess belt in the North to the Danube river (Donau) in the South, covering almost half of the country. The western and the eastern peripheries are part of old Paleozoic mountain ranges, stretching from the Massif Central in France to the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland. The Rhenish Uplands (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge) in the West are mainly renown for their rich coal and ore bodies. In contrast, the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) in the southwestern corner of the country has a high reputation as a tourist region. The Harz, the Thuringian Forest (Thüringer Wald), the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) and the Bavarian Forest (Bayerischer Wald) in the east also belong to these old massifs. Especially the Harz and the Ore Mountains are rich in mineral resources, which were an important economic factor for these regions in the past.


The old massifs contour the Mesozoic uplands, which stretch from the Weserbergland in the North to the Danube in the South. They are mainly made up of the debris from the older massifs and/or from marine or lacustrine deposits which have buried the older rocks. The landscape is much more marked by widely spanned plateaus and cuestas. Especially the southwestern part of the country, where several cuestas succeed each other, is very distinctively marked by such a landscape. Historically, this poor quality sandstone has been blamed as being the "cause of misfortune" of the Hessian people.


In the southwestern part of the Central German Uplands, the Upper Rhine Valley represents a special feature with particular tectonic interest. The 35 to 40 km wide and some 300 km long valley separates Germany from its neighbours to the west (since ancient times). Two famous old roads run trough it: the "Bergstrasse", called strata montana in Roman times, and the "Weinstrasse" (vinery road), famous for its excellent vineyards. The most important volcanic massif of Germany is the Vogelsberg in central Hesse. A special landscape feature is the Thuringian Basin (Thüringer Becken), an extended lowland formed by tectonic activities of Tertiary age, but now covered by rich soils.


The South German High Mountains, together with their foothills, are part of a greater mountain range, the Alps, which extends to the neighbouring countries (France, Switzerland, Austria). South of the Danube river are found mainly glacial, fluvial, and lacustrine debris of different time periods which form the so-called "Schotterplatten", which are mostly flat lands with fair agriculture. They are overlaid to the south by deposits from the Würm glaciation period (most recent period. Germany's portion of the Alps is very little. They are barely reaching into German territory. Germany's highest point is the Zugspitze in the so-called Bayerische Alpen (2,963 m) [7].


4) What are the different natural vegetations in Germany?

The largest share of Germany's forests is characterized by a mixture of broadleaf and needleleaf trees. The most common species are oaks, maple and elms in the lowland areas, whereas beeches, pines and firs predominate in higher altitudes. Most broadleaf trees drop their leaves in the fall to retard loss of the moisture in the dormant period. According to Poulsen (1997, 65), this is quite likely to have happened due to the elimination of many species during the glacial periods. Another reason is the alteration of the vegetation by human activities for more than 5,000 years. Without this influence, more than 80 % of the Central European landmass would still be covered by forests. But human expansion has retreated the margins to today's limits. Moreover, today's forests reflect selective forestry practices which have been exercised for hundreds of years. Thus some species have been reduced if not eliminated. In some areas, new species have been introduced without always matching them to the ecological environment. A major present concern is the damage to German forests [6] (only available in German) due to air pollution. Especially in the eastern parts of the country. One of the main reasons for this was the high emission of pollutants [8] from industrial plants during GDR times. After the opening of the border, immediate steps were undertaken, to reduce this environmental threat. The result has been a considerable decrease of sulphur dioxide emission.


Soils are vegetation, a product of the climate, but at the same time they reflect the nature of the parent rock on which they have developed. Especially in the Northern Lowlands poorly drained, podzolic soils are dominant. Outside the glaciated regions, soils contain greater amounts of organic materials and are less leached of minerals. This is the most typical soil in Germany with generally fair farming conditions because of the relatively high components of incorporated fixed nitrogen and other nutrients. By far the best soils have developed on the loess sediments of the North German "Börde" (the transition zone between the North German Lowlands and the Central German Uplands) and in most of the geological basins. Rich in organic materials and due to the moderate rainfalls they are somewhat similar to chernozem soils.


The water bodies of Germany are intimately intertwined with human occupation, be it the North and/or the Baltic Sea, or the navigable rivers [9], which have always been important trade routes and means of access to the country. Most rivers like the Rhine (Rhein), Weser, Elbe and Odra (Oder) have their watersheds drain towards the north, whereas the Danube (Donau) is one of the important rivers that drains into the Black Sea. Interconnections through canals to other important waterways [10] such as the Danube, make it even on a European scale an important factor of communication and transportation. On top of this, the Rhine valley [11] especially between Mainz and Bonn is admittedly one of the most scenic river passages of the whole continent and thus of very high tourist value.