East Hesse Highlands

Landscape characteristics

The East Hesse Highlands is bounded immediately to the east by the West Hesse Highlands and Lowlands. Almost all of the region is formed by Bunter sandstone and this defines both its relief and the surface of the land apart from occasional layers of overlying volcanic basalt.

All the prominent ridges are, at least partly, characterised by volcanic features. Between the Hoher Meissner (754 m) and Kaufungen Forest (up to 643 m high) in the north, the Knüll (636 m) in the centre, the Vogelsberg (773 m) in the southwest and the Rhön (950 m) in the southeast, there are numerous individual singularities which catalogue the volcanic activity between the two Central Uplands regions.

Location of geographical units

The northern part of this natural region includes the Fulda-Werra Uplands, with the Hoher Meissner and Kaufungen Forest, which descends to the Lower Werra Land in the northeast and into the Salzungen Werra Uplands in the southeast. In the southwest of the area are the Knüll Uplands, in the south the Fulda-Haune Plateau and in the southeast the Anterior Rhön and Kuppen Rhön (including the Landrücken) to the southeast, which run into the High Rhön still further to the southeast.

South of the Fulda-Haune Plateau and west of the Rhön are the Lower und High Vogelsberg hills, the former encircling the latter.

Hills (selection)

• Wasserkuppe (950.2 m, High Rhön)
• Kreuzberg (927.8 m, Bavarian High Rhön)
• Dammersfeldkuppe (927.9 m, Border of Hesse and Bavaria, High Rhön)
• Heidelstein (925.7 m, Border of Hesse and Bavaria, High Rhön)
• Milseburg (835.2 m, Kuppen Rhön)
• Taufstein (773.0 m, High Vogelsberg)
• Kasseler Kuppe (753.6 m, Hoher Meissner)
• Gebaberg (750.7 m, in the east the Thuringian Anterior Rhön)
• Pleß (645.4 m, Salzunger Werra Highlands)
• Hirschberg (643 m, Söhre))
• Bilstein (641.2 m, Kaufungen Forest)
• Eisenberg (635.5 m, Knüll)
• Knüllköpfchen (633.8 m, Knüll)
• Rimberg (591.8 m, southeastern Knüll foothills in the Ottrau Highlands)

Rivers

The central river in the area is the Fulda, which runs from south to north and leaves the East Hesse Highlands just before its confluence with the Werra in the West Hesse Depression. Left of the Fulda lie the Knüll and Vogelsberg, right of it the major part of the Fulda-Werra Highlands and the Rhön.

Right hand tributaries of the middle and lower reaches of the Schwalm, which lie almost entirely in the West Hesse Depression, drains the western part of the area, whilst left hand tributaries of the Werra drain the east. Only the source of the Schwalm and the mouth of the Werra lie within the Highlands themselves.

The tributaries are also north of the Rhine-Weser watershed, apart from the Ohm the only tributary of the Lahn, which is clearly oriented in a south-to-north direction, whilst the streams running into the Main tributaries of the Nidda, Kinzig and Franconian Saale flow south.

Table of most important rivers

The most important rivers of the East Hesse Highlands are listed in the following table, in clockwise order, beginning on the north side of the Rhine-Weser watershed by the Vogelsberg.
For a better overview or to see them listed in a downstream order, by river system, enter the DGKZ numbers after the number of the parent river followed by a dash.
River names and lengths listed in italics are those which clearly leave the region of the East Hesse Highlands (depressions on the perimeter excluded), where catchment areas and discharges are given in italics, it indicates that part of the catchment area is external and has significant tributaries from outside the East Hesse Highlands (see the notes below the table). Main rivers are linked if they are entirely located outside the area.

(*: the source of the Haune lies, strictly speaking, still just in the Western Rhön Foreland, 353.1
**: the Wehre rises, strictly speaking, in the Rommerode Hills, 357.53, the eastern foreland of the Söhre)
***: the values for catchment area and discharge of the Taft are limited to the Hessian part and do not include its confluence area in Thuringia)

The following parts of the (catchment areas of the) rivers listed are not in the East Hesse Highlands:

• Antreff - entire middle and lower course in the Upper Hesse Ridge
• Schwalm - almost all left tributaries in various parts of the West Hesse Highlands; river lies on the western boundary of the area
• Fulda - mouth lies on the northwestern border; left tributaries above the Eder lie outside; of the catchment area of the Eder, which is largely in the Rest-Fulda catchment area, only the right-hand tributaries of the Schwalm come from the East Hesse Highlands, whilst the Eder is fed by the West Hesse Highlands apart from the upper course which is fed by the Süder Uplands.
• Streu - lower course in the Grabfeld
• Brend - middle and lower reaches lie, without major tributaries, in the part of the Südrhön belonging to the Spessart region
• Sinn - middle and lower courses lie in various parts of the Spessart
• Bracht and Seemenbach - lower courses lie, without major tributaries, in the Büdingen Forest region of the Spessart
• Nidder - from the Seemenbach it runs along the eastern boundary of the Wetterau to the Ronneburg Hills, but without any major tributaries
• Horloff - middle and lower reaches on the southeastern boundary; (only moderately sized) right tributaries from the Wetterau
• Nidda - from the confluence with the Horloff it runs into the Wetterau; where it is joined by the Wetter and Nidder
• Wetter - leaves the East Hesse Highlands shortly after its source and nimmt draws water from, inter alia, the Taunus.
• Ohm - from the confluence with the Felda it runs through various parts of the West Hesse Highlands