The Hütten Hills (, ) are an area of upland, up to , roughly west of the town of
Eckernförde
Eckernförde (; , sometimes also ; , sometimes also ) is a city located in the of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. Situated on the coast of the Baltic Sea, approximately 30 km north-west of Kiel, it has a populat ...
in the county of
Rendsburg-Eckernförde
Rendsburg-Eckernförde (; ) is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by (from the east and clockwise) the city of Kiel, the district of Plön, the city of Neumünster, the districts of Segeberg, Steinburg, Dithmarschen and S ...
in the North German state of
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
. They lie within the Hütten Hills Nature Park.
Geography
Location
The Hütten Hills − part of the
Schleswig-Holstein Uplands − lie roughly between
Fleckeby to the north,
Ascheffel to the east,
Alt
Alt or ALT may refer to:
Abbreviations for words
* Alt account, an alternative online identity also known as a sock puppet account
* Alternate character, in online gaming
* Alternate route, type of highway designation
* Alternating group, mathem ...
and
Neu Duvenstedt to the south and
Brekendorf to the west. Their neighbouring landscapes are the large
Schleswig Geest to the west,
Schwansen to the northeast and the
Danish Wahld to the east.
Hütten Hills Nature Park
The boundaries of the
nature park
A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are pres ...
(NSG No. 33392), which was established in 1971 and covers an area of about 219 km
2, extends far beyond that of the Hütten Hills to the west and almost reaches the
Bay of Eckernförde in the east. To the north is the Schlei Nature Park and to the south – on the other side of the
Kiel Canal
The Kiel Canal (, until 1948 called in German the ) is a fresh water canal that links the North Sea () to the Baltic Sea (). It runs through the Germany, German states of Germany, state of Schleswig-Holstein, from Brunsbüttel to the Holtenau di ...
– is the Westensee Nature Park.
The nature park covers the following municipalities (most of which belong to the ''Amt'' of
Hüttener Berge):
Ahlefeld,
Alt Duvenstedt,
Ascheffel,
Bistensee,
Borgstedt,
Brekendorf,
Bünsdorf,
Damendorf,
Groß Wittensee,
Haby,
Holtsee,
Holzbunge,
Hütten,
Klein Wittensee,
Neu Duvenstedt,
Osterby,
Owschlag and
Sehestedt.
The lakes of the nature park are the:
Bistensee, Fresensee,
Heidteich,
Owschlager See and
Wittensee. Its rivers and streams include the: Alte
Eider, Hüttener Au, Mühlenbach, Osterbek,
Sorge und
Schirnau.
The
Nature Park Way links five nature parks in
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
.
Hills and landscape

The highest point of the Hütten Hills is the ''Scheelsberg'' near Ascheffel. On the nearby
Aschberg stands a
Bismarck statue and on the dome of the ''Heidberg'' (''Heideberg''), which is popular with hikers, lies a
glacial erratic
A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...
. From the hills may be seen ''inter alia'' the
Bay of Eckernförde and the
Schlei.
Amongst the hills in the Hütten range are the following – with their heights in
metre
The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
s (m) above
sea level (NHN):
* Scheelsberg (105.8 m), west of
Ascheffel
* eine Erhebung (105.1 m), northwest of Ascheffel
*
Aschberg (97.7 m), south of Ascheffel
* Heidberg (also called the ''Heideberg''; 99.1 m), west-southwest of Ascheffel
* Brekenberg (90.0 m), northeast of
Brekendorf
* Immenberg (82.0 m), east-southeast of Brekendorf
* Arnsberg (80.1 m), east of Brekendorf
* Tütenberg (74.6 m), southwest of
Hummelfeld-Fellhorst
The Hütten Hills are the northernmost hill range with elevations over 100 metres in Germany. They are, however, lower than the highest points of
Holstein Switzerland (highest point: the
Bungsberg, 167.4 m) between Kiel and Lübeck.
Climate
A feature of the Hütten Hills is its very variable
microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often slightly but sometimes substantially. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square m ...
. Whilst the western side near
Owschlag has averaged annual temperatures of 9.3 °C (1997–2005), the village of Ascheffel on the eastern side has an average temperature of 9.8 °C. This is due to the gently elevated and relatively sheltered location of this settlement. In addition on the western side of the hills the average annual
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
is around 930 mm (L/m
2) which is much higher than in the east, where it is only 660 mm.
See also
*
List of nature parks in Germany
Nature parks in Germany () have been established under section 22, paragraph 4 of that country's Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG). there were 103 nature parks, comprising about 27 percent of the total land area of Germany and are broug ...
References
External links
''Naturpark Hüttener Berge'' auf naturpark-huettenerberge.de
''Amt Hüttener Berge'' auf amt-huettener-berge.de
Panorama über die Hüttener Berge vom Aschberg(mit zuschaltbarer Beschriftung von Sichtzielen), auf panorama-photo.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutten Hills
Nature parks in Schleswig-Holstein
Regions of Schleswig-Holstein
Rendsburg-Eckernförde