The Osterwald is a ridge (up to ) in the

Calenberg Uplands The Calenberg UplandsNesselberg and the

Kleiner Deister The Kleiner Deister is a ridge of hills (up to ) in the Calenberg Uplands which, together with the Nesselberg and the Osterwald, forms a group of three adjacent hill ranges in the northern part of the Leine Uplands. It lies between Springe and ...

forms a unified group of three adjacent ranges in the

Leine Uplands The Leine Uplands (, ) is a region in Germany's Central Uplands which forms a part of the Lower Saxon Hills and lies along the River Leine between Göttingen and Hanover. It borders on the Weser Uplands in the west, the Innerste Uplands in th ...

. It lies between

Coppenbrügge Coppenbrügge is a municipality in the Hamelin-Pyrmont district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximatively 15 km (10 miles) east of Hamelin. The Municipality covers the following villages: * Bäntorf * Behrensen * Bessingen * ...

Eldagsen Springe () is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated near the Deister hills, southwest of Hanover. Town structure * Springe (core settlement, seat of the mayor), population 13,184 * Bennigsen, population ...

and

Elze Elze () is a town in the district of Hildesheim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Leine, approximately west of Hildesheim. The municipality of Elze also comprises the villages of ''Esbeck, Mehle, Sehlde, Sorsum, Wittenburg' ...

in the North German state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Geography

The Osterwald is located in the

Calenberg Uplands The Calenberg Uplands Calenberg Land The Calenberg Land () is an historic landscape southwest of Hanover in Germany, roughly formed by the rural area between the Leine and the Deister hills. The name of this landscape comes from the Principality of Calenberg that ruled the area du ...

there. It lies about halfway between

Hamelin Hameln ( ; ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hameln-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. History Hameln ...

in the west and

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; or ; ) is a city in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of t ...

in the east and between the villages of

in the southwest and

in the north and

in the east. In terms of natural regions it belongs to the

Lower Saxon Hills The Lower Saxon Hills () are one of the 73 natural regions in Germany defined by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). Geographically it covers roughly the same area as the Weser Uplands () in its wider sense.However at least one sour ...

and borders on the Calenberg Loess Börde in the north and east. The districts of

and

Hameln-Pyrmont Hameln-Pyrmont is a district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Schaumburg, Hanover, Hildesheim and Holzminden, and by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (district of Lippe) ...

and the region of

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

meet near the Triangular Rock (''Dreieckiger Stein'') not far from the Shepherd's Hut (''Sennhütte''). On the southern rim of the Osterwald is the eponymous village of Osterwald in the municipality of

Salzhemmendorf Salzhemmendorf is a village and a municipality in the Hamelin-Pyrmont district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 km east of Hamelin and 31 km west of Hildesheim Hildesheim (; or ; ) is a city in Lower Saxony, ...

. The Osterwald spreads southeast of the valley of the Gehlenbach and Gelbbach streams, through which the state road (the ''

Landesstraße ''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'' ) are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are road ...

'' 422) runs from Coppenbrügge in the southwest to Eldagsen. Immediately north-northwest of this valley is the hill of Nesselberg. On the other, southern, side of Coppenbrügge is the knife-edge ridge of the

Ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometers, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is i ...

Hydrography

Numerous streams rise in the Osterwald, their waters flowing through the

Haller Haller is a surname of English language, English and German language, German origin. Notable people and characters with the surname include: * Albin Haller (1849–1925), French chemist * Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777), Swiss anatomist and physi ...

and the

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...

into the

Leine The Leine (; Old Saxon ''Lagina'') is a river in Thuringia and Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Aller and the Weser and is long. The river's source is located close to the town of Leinefelde in Thuringia. About downriver ...

. The only exception is a stream that starts west of the ''Fast'' and passes through the Gelbbach and the Hamel into the

River Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports of Br ...

Places of interest

Monastery

On the eastern side of the Osterwald, behind the large, former monastic estate, lies Wülfinghausen Abbey, founded in the 12th century. The present abbey buildings only date to the beginning of the 18th century, however, thanks to several major fires. Since 1994 it has been occupied by a Protestant community of seven sisters.

Hillfort

About 1 kilometre west of Wülfinghausen Abbey on a spur-shaped foothill of the Osterwald is the ruined castle of

Barenburg Barenburg is a municipality in the district of Diepholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the A ...

. This was a

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

site with an internal area of 5.5 hectares. The site is located in a strategically favourable position, because two sides are naturally protected by steep, rock faces and slopes. To the south security is provided by a roughly 300 metre long stone rampart with an outer rampart and protective ditches. Because no excavations have been carried out to date and there are no known finds, the construction period of the site has only been estimated as being in the pre-Roman

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. It could have been used as a

refuge castle A refuge castleCreighton, Oliver (2015). ''Early European Castles''. Bloomsbury. or refuge fort (, also ''Fluchtburg'', ''Volksburg'', ''Bauernburg'' or ''Vryburg'') is a castle-like defensive location, usually surrounded by Rampart (fortification ...

until the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, because it was part of the estate of the monastery.

Mining

Up to the mid-20th century

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

were mined in the Osterwald. Coal mining had a more-than-400-year-old tradition. The first prospecting for coal was carried out in 1585 by order of Duke Julius of Brunswick.Steinkohleabbau im Osterwald, Calenberger Zeitung vom 13 October 2006 p. 13 Today the Hüttenstollen Osterwald is a

visitor mine A show mine is a mine that is accessible to visitors. A mine, i.e. an industrial facility for the underground extraction of mineral products, has three operating phases: it may be open or running, or closed or it may be a working museum. Most ...

and

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

. In the Osterwald a Wealden Sandstone known as Osterwald Sandstone was broken and used extensively in the region as well as in the area of

in the

Gründerzeit The (; ) was a period of Economic history of Europe (1000 AD–present), European economic history in mid- and late-19th century German Empire, Germany and Austria-Hungary between Industrialization in Germany, industrialization and the great P ...

period.

Hills

The hills and elevations of the Osterwald include the following − with heights in metres above sea level (NN): * Fast (419.2 m) * Hoher Stuhl, 391.0 m * Ahrensberg, ca. 365 m * Ritterkreuz, ca. 360 m * Hohlenberg, 358.0 m * Hainholz, 298.0 m * Großer Rotehengst, 268.1 m * Limberg, 182.0 m * Kendelke, 141 m

Villages near the Osterwald

Dörpe Dörpe is a small river of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is 6.5 km long and flows into the Wupper near Hückeswagen. See also *List of rivers of North Rhine-Westphalia A list of rivers of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: A B C * C ...

* Ikenburg * Salzburg (with forester's lodge) * Osterwald (Salzhemmendorf) * Mehle * Oldendorf (Salzhemmendorf) with its hamlet of "Glashütte" * Sorsum * Wittenburg (with forester's lodge) * Klostergut Wülfinghausen * Farrensen (with forester's lodge) * Holtensen

References

External links

Information sheet on Hainholz Quarry
(pdf file; 227 kB) {{Commons category, Osterwald (Höhenzug) Central Uplands Ridges of Lower Saxony Hanover (region) Natural regions of the Weser-Leine Uplands