The Stegskopf, at , is the second highest mountain in the

Westerwald The Westerwald (; literally 'Western forest') is a low mountain range on the right bank of the river Rhine in the States of Germany, German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhenish Ma ...

range in

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 Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

after the

Fuchskaute The Fuchskaute is an extinct volcano and, at , the highest mountain of the Westerwald and the county of Westerwaldkreis in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The name ''Fuchskaute'' ("foxhole") refers to a place where the fox (''Fuchs'') h ...

. It is an extinct

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

in the municipality of Emmerzhausen in the county of

Altenkirchen Altenkirchen () is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, capital of the Altenkirchen (district), district of Altenkirchen. It is located approximately 40 km east of Bonn and 50 km north of Koblenz. Altenkirchen is the seat of the ' ...

in the state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Geography

Location

The Stegskopf is part of the High Westerwald (the highest region in the Westerwald) in the eastern part of the county of Altenkirchen about 2 km south of Emmerzhausen and immediately west-northwest of the village of Stegskopf. To the northwest the land descends via the ''Kleines Steinchen'' (587.3 m) to Derschen. Just over 1 km east of the Stegskopf runs a section of the border with the 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 ...

, in within which is the village of

Lippe Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe. ...

, part of Burbach, to the northeast. To the southeast the terrain descends to

Stein-Neukirch Stein-Neukirch is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a community belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography The community of Stein-Neukirch lies in the Westerwald between Siegen in the north an ...

. On the Stegskopf, where there are several abandoned

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

quarries, is thick pine forest.

Daaden Training Area

The Stegskopf was well known for Daaden Training Area (Lager Stegskopf), a

military training area A military training area, training area (Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom) or training centre (Canada) is land set aside specifically to enable military forces to train and exercise for combat. Training areas are usually out of bounds ...

first mentioned in 1914 and taken over by the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

in 1958, which formed a military area south of Derschen and Emmerzhausen; the mountain being on its northern edge. In the first quarter of 2015, Lager Stegskopf was closed by the Bundeswehr in the wake of their 'new orientation'. The radar units, Prinz Eugen - Tegetthoff (1943–1945), called themselves the ''Stegskopfer'', because they went to Lager Stegskopf for special training in

Radio-frequency engineering Radio-frequency (RF) engineering is a subset of electrical engineering involving the application of transmission line, Waveguide (electromagnetism), waveguide, Antenna (radio), antenna, radar, and Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic fiel ...

. To these units belonged several well known

telecommunications engineer Telecommunications engineering is a subfield of electronics engineering which seeks to design and devise systems of communication at a distance. The work ranges from basic circuit design to strategic mass developments. A telecommunication engin ...

s and

physicists A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, for example, Alfred Fettweis, Wolf Häfele, Herbert Daniel and Walter Mayer.

References

{{cite web, title=Stationierungsplanung nach Bundesländern, periodical=Stationierungskonzept 2011, publisher=Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, url=http://www.bundeswehr.de/portal/a/bwde/!ut/p/c4/HYtBDoAgDATf4gfo3Zu_UC-m6IoNpBoo-n3R7GEymSzN1KZ8S2CTUznRSNMqvX-cfza4YhliMTN2g1PUgGKcrGpo7f8I8mfK67H4qhtKYjRkpSsO3QuNNqa3/, accessdate=2013-12-15, date=2013-04-29, language=German Schließungen Friedrich Janssen, Hans-Joachim Menzel, Karl Neumann: ''Wir Stegskopfer. Die Funkmeß-Einheiten Prinz Eugen – Tegetthoff 1943–1945''. Eigenverlag Hans-Joachim Menzel, Murr 1989. S. 11 ff., 280 ff., 319. Mountains under 1000 metres Volcanoes of Germany Mountains and hills of the Westerwald Mountains and hills of Rhineland-Palatinate