East Hesse Highlands


The East Hesse Highlands 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 and is both part of the European Central Uplands as well as the Rhine-Weser watershed. It includes the Vogelsberg-Meißner Axis, also known as the Hessian Central Uplands, the East Hesse Depression and the Rhön.
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.

Natural divisions

The Hesse Environmental Atlas distinguishes the following major geographical units :
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 and Kaufungen Forest in the north, the Knüll in the centre, the Vogelsberg in the southwest and the Rhön 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 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)

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, 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. Main rivers are linked if they are entirely located outside the area.
Name
Main
river
Length

Catchment area

Discharge

Source region
Main
geog. units
DGKZ
AntreffSchwalm 38.6115.3980Vogelsberg350/14288-2
SchwalmEder97.11,298.89,044Vogelsberg350/1428-8
BerfaSchwalm 20.042.2218Ottrau Upland355.04288-16
GrenffSchwalm 22.086.4711Ottrau Upland355.04288-32
EfzeSchwalm 38.2220.51,481Knüll3564288-8
RohrbachFulda 18.073.9576Neuenstein-Ludwigseck Ridge357.042-714
GeisbachFulda 22.176.2487Knüll35642-596
AulaFulda 22.6124.8919Knüll35642-56
JossaFulda 22.9122.0780Schlitzer Land355.142-54
SchlitzFulda 43.3314.63,715Vogelsberg350/142-4
LüderFulda 36.4190.02,306Vogelsberg350/142-36
FliedeFulda 22.1271.43,627Landrücken353.042-2
FuldaWeser220.76,946,666,924Hohe Rhön35442
LütterFulda 17.550.7672Hohe Rhön35442-14
Haune*Fulda 66.5499.04,113Kuppenrhön353.242-6
NüstHaune 22.897.21,029Kuppenrhön353.2426-6
SolzFulda 21.491.5682Kuppenrhön353.242-712
UlfeFulda 27.671.5552Seulingswald357.242-72
PfieffeFulda 21.5117.11,235Stölzinger Hills357.442-78
LosseFulda 28.9120.61,418Stölzinger Hills357.442-96
NiesteFulda 21.888.1921Kaufungen Forest357.742-98
GelsterWerra 18.260.6771Söhre357.741-96
Wehre**Werra 36.5451.74,147Söhre357.741-8
Taft***Ulster 11.861.6564Kuppenrhön353.2414-8
UlsterWerra 55.5421.05,279Hohe Rhön35441-4
WeidUlster 36.0539Hohe Rhön354414-4
FeldaWerra 38.8Hohe Rhön35441-?
StreuFranconian Saale 35.5Hohe Rhön354244-2
BrendFranconian Saale 26.2Hohe Rhön354244-32
SinnFränkische Saale 61.1Hohe Rhön354244-8
Schmale SinnSinn 27.6103.61,439Hohe Rhön3542448-2
SteinaubachKinzig23.264.8798Vogelsberg350/12478-16
SalzKinzig 29.891.31,219Vogelsberg350/12478-2
BrachtKinzig 31.5117.71,644Vogelsberg350/12478-4
SeemenbachNidThe 37.4145.01,452Vogelsberg350/12486-6
NidderNidda 68.6435.73,875Vogelsberg350/1248-6
NiddaMain 89.71,942.413,065Vogelsberg350/124-8
HorloffNidda 44.5279.21,004Vogelsberg350/1248-2
WetterNidda 68.8517.02,994Vogelsberg350/1248-4
SeenbachOhm 18.396.51,288Vogelsberg350/12582-2
OhmLahn59.7983.87,950Vogelsberg350/1258-2
FeldaOhm 29.9107.41,276Vogelsberg350/12582-4

The following parts of the rivers listed are not in the East Hesse Highlands:
*