Ravensberg Land () is a

cultural landscape Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties hatrepresent the c ...

in the district of

Ostwestfalen-Lippe Ostwestfalen-Lippe (, literally ''East(ern) Westphalia-Lippe'', abbreviation OWL) is the eastern region of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, congruent with the administrative region of Detmold and containing the eastern part of Wes ...

in the northeast of the German federal state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. It lies between the

Wiehen Hills The Wiehen HillsElkins, T.H. (1972). ''Germany'' (3rd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus, 1972. . (, , also locally, just ''Wiehen'') are a hill range in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Germany. The hills run from west to east like a long f ...

to the north, the

Teutoburg Forest The Teutoburg Forest ( ; ) is a range of low, forested hills in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Until the 17th century, the official name of the hill ridge was Osning. It was first renamed the ''Teutoburg Forest'' ...

to the south, the state border with

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 ...

to the west and the large bend in 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 ...

and the boundary of Lippe district to the east. It thus essentially encompasses the

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

n part of the

Ravensberg Hills The Ravensberg Basin () or Ravensberg Hills () is a natural region in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold, governorate of Detmold () in the northeastern part of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia; small elements also fall within the neighbouring ...

. The most important towns are

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

(northern and central quarters),

Herford Herford (; ) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is situated in the cultural region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and the Detmold (administrat ...

Bad Oeynhausen Bad Oeynhausen () is a spa town on the southern edge of the Wiehengebirge in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe, East-Westphalia-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The closest larger towns are Bielefeld (39 ki ...

and

Bünde Bünde (; ) is a town in the Herford district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Bünde is situated between Osnabrück (west), Hannover (east) and Bielefeld (south). Waterways The town is crossed from west to east by the River Else ...

. The area is characterised by long-standing,

intensive farming Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of arable farming, crop plants and of Animal husbandry, animals, with higher levels ...

in its loess, hill country, a wide range of industry and a high population density. Historically the region was dominated by centuries of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n overlordship. Until into the 20th century, its people were purely of the

Evangelical-Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

faith and had a common dialect known as ''Ravensberger Platt''. Ravensberg Land must not be confused with the natural region of the

Ravensberg Basin The Ravensberg Basin () or Ravensberg Hills () is a natural region in the governorate of Detmold () in the northeastern part of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia; small elements also fall within the neighbouring state of Lower Saxony. I ...

or the territory of the

County of Ravensberg The County of Ravensberg () was a historical county of the Holy Roman Empire. Its territory was in present-day eastern Westphalia, Germany, at the foot of the Osning or Teutoburg Forest. History Ravensberg was first mentioned in the 12th c ...

. It is often not understood that these three terms are used in different contexts and the areas they relate to, despite significant overlap, are not identical.

Sources

* Hans Riepenhausen: ''Die bäuerliche Siedlung des Ravensberger Landes bis 1770''. Münster 1938. * Adolf Schüttler: ''Das Ravensberger Land''. Aschendorff, Münster 1986. {{Authority control Herford (district) Bielefeld Gütersloh (district) Regions of North Rhine-Westphalia Cultural landscapes of North Rhine-Westphalia