The East Hesse Highlands (German: Osthessisches Bergland) describes a heavily wooded range of hills lying mainly in the German state of Hesse, but also extending a little way into Lower Saxony to the north, Thuringia to the east and Bavaria to the southeast. The region is sandwiched between the West Hesse Depression to the west, the Weser Uplands to the north, the Thuringian Basin to the northeast, the northwestern edge of the Thuringian Forest to the east, the Spessart to the south and the Wetterau to the southwest.
The East Hesse Highlands forms a natural region (no. 35 or D47) and is both part of the European Central Uplands as well as the Rhine-Weser watershed.
The West and East Hesse Highlands together form the Hesse Highlands and correspond to the geological unit of the Hesse Depression in its wider sense, because geologically recent layers of Zechstein and Bunter sandstone, and in places even younger Muschelkalk rocks, from the lower Jurassic and Tertiary periods have been preserved here.[1]
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The Hesse Environmental Atlas[2] distinguishes the following major geographical units (three-figure numbers):
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 Hohe 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.
The northern part of this natural region includes the Fulda-Werra Highlands, with the Hohe Meißner and Kaufungen Forest, which descends to the Lower Werra Land in the northeast and into the Salzungen Werra Highlands 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 Vorderrhön and Kuppenrhön (including the Landrücken) to the southeast, which run into the Hohe 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.
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.
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.[3]
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.
| Name |
Main river |
Length [km] |
Catchment area [km²] |
Discharge (MQ) [l/s] |
Source region |
Main geog. units |
DGKZ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antreff | Schwalm (l) | 38.6 | 115.3 | 980 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 4288-2 |
| Schwalm | Eder | 97.1 | 1,298.8 | 9,044 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 428-8 |
| Berfa | Schwalm (r) | 20.0 | 42.2 | 218 | Ottrau Highlands | 355.0 | 4288-16 |
| Grenff | Schwalm (r) | 22.0 | 86.4 | 711 | Ottrau Highlands | 355.0 | 4288-32 |
| Efze | Schwalm (r) | 38.2 | 220.5 | 1,481 | Knüll | 356 | 4288-8 |
| Rohrbach | Fulda (l) | 18.0 | 73.9 | 576 | Neuenstein-Ludwigseck Ridge | 357.0 | 42-714 |
| Geisbach | Fulda (l) | 22.1 | 76.2 | 487 | Knüll | 356 | 42-596 |
| Aula | Fulda (l) | 22.6 | 124.8 | 919 | Knüll | 356 | 42-56 |
| Jossa | Fulda (l) | 22.9 | 122.0 | 780 | Schlitzer Land | 355.1 | 42-54 |
| Schlitz | Fulda (l) | 43.3 | 314.6 | 3,715 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 42-4 |
| Lüder | Fulda (l) | 36.4 | 190.0 | 2,306 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 42-36 |
| Fliede | Fulda (l) | 22.1 | 271.4 | 3,627 | Landrücken | 353.0 | 42-2 |
| Fulda | Weser | 220.7 | 6,946,6 | 66,924 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 42 |
| Lütter | Fulda (r) | 17.5 | 50.7 | 672 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 42-14 |
| Haune* | Fulda (r) | 66.5 | 499.0 | 4,113 | Kuppenrhön | 353.2 | 42-6 |
| Nüst | Haune (r) | 22.8 | 97.2 | 1,029 | Kuppenrhön | 353.2 | 426-6 |
| Solz | Fulda (r) | 21.4 | 91.5 | 682 | Kuppenrhön | 353.2 | 42-712 |
| Ulfe | Fulda (r) | 27.6 | 71.5 | 552 | Seulingswald | 357.2 | 42-72 |
| Pfieffe | Fulda (r) | 21.5 | 117.1 | 1,235 | Stölzinger Hills | 357.4 | 42-78 |
| Losse | Fulda (r) | 28.9 | 120.6 | 1,418 | Stölzinger Hills | 357.4 | 42-96 |
| Nieste | Fulda (r) | 21.8 | 88.1 | 921 | Kaufungen Forest | 357.7 | 42-98 |
| Gelster | Werra (l) | 18.2 | 60.6 | 771 | Söhre | 357.7 | 41-96 |
| Wehre** | Werra (l) | 36.5 | 451.7 | 4,147 | Söhre | 357.7 | 41-8 |
| Taft*** | Ulster (l) | 11.8 | 61.6 | 564 | Kuppenrhön | 353.2 | 414-8 |
| Ulster | Werra (l) | 55.5 | 421.0 | 5,279 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 41-4 |
| Weid | Ulster (r) | 36.0 | 539 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 414-4 | |
| Felda | Werra (l) | 38.8 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 41-? | ||
| Streu | Franconian Saale (r) | 35.5 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 244-2 | ||
| Brend | Franconian Saale (r) | 26.2 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 244-32 | ||
| Sinn | Fränkische Saale (r) | 61.1 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 244-8 | ||
| Schmale Sinn | Sinn (r) | 27.6 | 103.6 | 1,439 | Hohe Rhön | 354 | 2448-2 |
| Steinaubach | Kinzig | 23.2 | 64.8 | 798 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 2478-16 |
| Salz | Kinzig (r) | 29.8 | 91.3 | 1,219 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 2478-2 |
| Bracht | Kinzig (r) | 31.5 | 117.7 | 1,644 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 2478-4 |
| Seemenbach | NidThe (l) | 37.4 | 145.0 | 1,452 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 2486-6 |
| Nidder | Nidda (l) | 68.6 | 435.7 | 3,875 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 248-6 |
| Nidda | Main (r) | 89.7 | 1,942.4 | 13,065 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 24-8 |
| Horloff | Nidda (r) | 44.5 | 279.2 | 1,004 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 248-2 |
| Wetter | Nidda (r) | 68.8 | 517.0 | 2,994 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 248-4 |
| Seenbach | Ohm (l) | 18.3 | 96.5 | 1,288 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 2582-2 |
| Ohm | Lahn | 59.7 | 983.8 | 7,950 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 258-2 |
| Felda | Ohm (r) | 29.9 | 107.4 | 1,276 | Vogelsberg | 350/1 | 2582-4 |
(*: 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: