View source for Lappwald

{{Short description|Wooded hills in central Germany}}
[[File:Lappwald Strasse.jpg|thumb|270px|Road in the Lappwald near [[Bad Helmstedt]]]]

The '''Lappwald''' is a heavily wooded range of hills, 20&nbsp;km long and up to 5&nbsp;km wide, in central Germany. It stretches northwards from the town of [[Helmstedt]]. The border between [[Lower Saxony]] and [[Saxony-Anhalt]] runs through the woods, of which about three quarters is on Lower Saxon terrain. The Lappwald is part of the [[Elm-Lappwald Nature Park]].

== Location ==
[[File:Walbecker Warte 1.jpg|thumb|130px|The 1st Walbecker Warte, a [[watchtower]] on the Helmstedt dyke (''Landwehr'')]]
[[File:Lappwald Wartturm.jpg|thumb|130px|Magdeburg watchtower near Helmstedt]]
[[File:Wachturm im Lappwald.JPG|thumb|130px|Watchtower on the former [[Inner German Border]] in the Lappwald]]
The Lappwald runs from north-west to south-east parallel to the [[Elm (ridge)|Elm]] hills, which lie about 10&nbsp;km further west. The forests of the Lappwald are almost entirely uninhabited. The only settlements are the Helmstedt hamlet of [[Bad Helmstedt]] and the [[Harbke]] sector of ''Autobahn'' in the south, and the installations of the old airbase of [[Mariental (Lower Saxony)|Mariental]] in the north.

== History ==
The first records describe the Lappwald as the ''Lapvualt'' in the year 1147.<ref>Hans-Ehrhard Müller: ''Helmstedt - die Geschichte einer deutschen Stadt'', 2. Aufl. 2004, S. 184</ref> There is no clear derivation for the name "Lappwald". The most likely theory is to do with the [[hunting]] term ''Einlappens''. The Lappwald was a border forest for many centuries between the Brunswick and Prussian territories. Numerous smugglers and other criminals, including the well-known figure of "Robber Captain Rose" (''Räuberhauptmann Rose'', real name: Carl Wallmann) used the forest's border situation to their advantage. In the 20th century the [[Inner German Border]] divided the Lappwald, following the old Brunswick-Prussian boundary.

In the Lappwald northeast of Helmstedt are the remains of a defensive ditch forming part of the old dyke to [[Walbeck (Landkreis Börde)|Walbeck]]. The structures that have survived include two [[watchtower]]s from the 13th century which are referred to as the 1st and 2nd Walbeck Watchtowers (''Walbecker Warte''). Another well-preserved [[medieval]] watchtower is located immediately next to the [[Bundesstraße 1|B 1]] federal road to [[Magdeburg]] on the edge of the Lappwald.

== Geology ==
From a geological point of view, the Lappwald, which reaches a height of 211 m on the ''Heidberg'', is a hollow, that only appears like a raised [[horst (geology)|horst]] due to the sharply downfaulted terrain it is surrounded by. In the [[Cretaceous]], a period of some 71 million years, the sea washed chalk, marls and sands in several flood phases into the Helmstedt and [[Schöppenstedt]] hollow and thus covered the underlying rock. Further flooding by the sea in the succeeding [[Tertiary period|Tertiary]] era created large areas of bog in the Helmstedt Basin that were transformed under sub-tropical climatic conditions into massive [[brown coal]] deposits.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.elm-lappwald.de Official tourism website] 
* [http://elm-asse-kultur.de/html/naturpark.html Private website about the Nature Park]
*[http://www.nlwkn.niedersachsen.de/master/C44727667_N5512611_L20_D0_I5231158 Lappwald Nature Reserve]

{{Coord|52|15|21.52|N|11|02|23.30|E|type:landmark_dim:12000_region:DE-NI|display=title}}

{{Mountain and hill ranges of Lower Saxony}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Forests and woodlands of Lower Saxony]]
[[Category:Hill ranges of Lower Saxony]]