The Teufelsbäder ("Devil's Baths") is the name of a moor landscape near

Osterode am Harz Osterode am Harz, often simply called Osterode (; Eastphalian: ''Ostroe''), is a town in south-eastern Niedersachsen on the south-western edge of the Harz mountains. It was the seat of government of the district of Osterode. Osterode is loca ...

in the

Harz Mountains The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German w ...

of central Germany. It lies within the nature reserve of the same name southeast of Augustental on the B 243 federal road.

Description

The ponds and marshy depressions in the nature reserve, which covers an area of roughly , are fed by the Teufelsloch, a

karst spring A karst spring or karstic spring is a spring (outflow of groundwater) that is part of a karst hydrological system. Description Because of their often conical or inverted bowl shape, karst springs are also known in German-speaking lands as a ''T ...

in the highland forest. They are the remains of an intensive deposition of Werra

anhydrite Anhydrite, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, is a mineral with the chemical formula CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with t ...

s and a representative part of the gypsum karst landscape of the South Harz. The Großes and Kleines Teufelsbad ("Large and Small Devil's Bath") were formed by embankments and have become silted up fishing ponds. Their runoff empties into the

Apenke The Apenke is a left tributary of the Söse in Osterode in the Harz Mountains in the German state of Lower Saxony. Course The Apenke rises south of the Feenhöhe heights in the Bärengarten. It flows initially parallel to the Eipenke strea ...

stream after flowing for just a few metres. in 1980 the Lower Saxon State Office of Soil Science drilled 145 metres into the karst cavities below the anhydrite. In the hole, a steel pipe was installed from which about 1.5 litres of karst water flowed per second. With the help of contrast water testing unsuccessful attempts were made to determine the origin of the water. The area, which has been a nature reserve since 1984, is a habitat for rare plant species and a breeding ground for numerous birds typical of such features. Walkers are not permitted to leave the

Karst Trail The Karst Trail (german: Karstwanderweg) is a marked and signed footpath that runs for over 250 kilometres between Förste in Lower Saxony and Pölsfeld in Saxony-Anhalt through the karst landscape of the South Harz in Germany. The path ru ...

that runs past the Teufelsbäder.

External links

Teufelsbäder Nature Reserve
on the web pages of the

Lower Saxon State Department for Waterway, Coastal and Nature Conservation The Lower Saxon Department for Water, Coastal and Nature Conservation (german: Niedersächsischer Landesbetrieb für Wasserwirtschaft, Küsten- und Naturschutz) or NLWKN is a department of the state of Lower Saxony, with its headquarters in Norden ( ...

(NLWKN)
Teufelsbäder
at karstwanderweg.de

at karstwanderweg.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Teufelsbader BTeufelsbader Osterode am Harz Wetlands of Germany Nature reserves in Lower Saxony Landforms of Lower Saxony