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Natural regions of Germany

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Through Natural region, Geomorphology and Geology

Lab · Class 6–11The Restless Earth

In addition to a division of Germany by natural regions, the federal authorities have also produced a division by so-called landscape areas (Landschaftsräume) that is based more on human utilisation of various regions and so has clearly different boundaries.

Groundwork by the Federal Institute of Regional Studies (BfL)

The natural region classification of Germany, as used today by the Federal Office for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz or BfN) and by most state institutions, is largely based on the work in producing the Handbook of Natural Region Divisions of Germany between the years 1953 to 1962. This divided the present federal territory (then West and East Germany) into 86 so-called major landscape unit groups (Haupteinheitgruppen) each with a two-digit number between 01 and 90. These, in turn, were subdivided into up to ten, in some cases more, major landscape units (Haupteinheiten), each with a three-digit number. The handbook was accompanied by 1:100,000 scale mapping and, in the updated 1960 map, the major landscape unit groups were bundled together into major regions (Großregionen).

As a result, a regional classification of Germany emerged with five (since 1976: six) primary landscape regions (naturräumliche Großregionen 1. Ordnung), divided into 18 (since 1964: 19) secondary landscape regions (naturräumliche Großregionen 2. Ordnung). The major unit groups form, in effect, the third or tertiary level, of landscape regions and the major units form the fourth level. Many secondary landscape regions only have one major unit group (Mecklenburg Coastal Lowland, Harz, Thuringian Basin, Upper Main-Upper Palatine Hills, Southern Alpine Foreland), others group well-known major regions together (Rhenish Massif, South German Scarplands); others are entirely new groupings.

In the subsequent work at 1:200,000 scale that lasted until the 1990s, that further split the landscape regions into a fifth and lower levels (using the three-digits numbers supplemented with further numbers placed after a decimal comma), it became apparent that the boundaries of major regions at the second and third levels had to be corrected in several places and, in individual cases, were no longer compatible with boundaries of the major unit groups. This has no impact on the numbering system of the lower levels, however.

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