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49-654: Important for the emergence of the Urstromtäler is the fact that the general lie of the land on the North German Plain and in Poland slopes down from south to north. Thus the ice sheet that advanced from Scandinavia flowed into a rising terrain. The meltwaters could therefore only flow for a short distance southwards over the sandurs (outwash plains) before having to find a way to the North Sea basin that

98-538: A four-winged building with enclosed courtyard and outside dimensions of 50 x 60 metres. In converting it into a Renaissance palace, architecture and ornamentation were influenced by the Weser Renaissance style, of which the Wolfsburg is a typical example, as well as the most northeasterly one. The builders, stonemasons and sculptors who took part had also been involved in building palaces in

147-630: A sandur and a terminal moraine . Urstromtäler of Central Europe (Poland, Germany and Denmark especially) were directly connected to the North Atlantic Ocean, via the Channel River , during Pleistocene maximum glaciations, i.e. at times of confluence of the British and Fennoscandian ice-sheets in the intervening North Sea. Urstromtäler should not be confused with tunnel valleys . The latter are formed beneath, not in front of,

196-480: A section of the building that had fallen into disrepair, demolished and erected in its place the present north wing with the entranceway to the schloss . When he died in 1583, his relative Günzel, his brother Günther and their uncle Jakob continued the work and built the ostentatious east wing. Then followed the south wing as the Palas with its Great Hall. Not until 1620 was the palace completed in its present shape as

245-523: Is a medieval lowland and water castle in North Germany that was first mentioned in the records in 1302, but has since been turned into a Renaissance schloss or palace. It is located in eastern Lower Saxony in the town of Wolfsburg named after it and in whose possession it has been since 1961. The Wolfsburg developed from a tower house on the River Aller into a water castle with

294-771: Is drained by rivers that flow northwards into the North Sea or the Baltic and tributaries to the Rhine river that flows West. The Rhine, Ems , Weser , Elbe and Havel are the most important rivers which drain the North German Lowlands into the North Sea and created woods in their flood plains and folds, e.g. the Spreewald ("Spree Forest"). Only a small area of the North German Plain falls within

343-455: Is integrated as an element of the west wing into the main structure and is recognisable as such by its lack of decoration and windows. The tower has an area of 9 x 9 metres, a height of around 23 metres and wall thickness of up to 3 metres. It is the oldest part of the whole site and its origins may go back to the 13th century. In the internal corners of the courtyard there are three other towers with staircases that enable

392-460: Is made out by the four brothers: Borchard, Günzel, Günter and Werner von Bartensleben. They were a ministerialis family (unfree knights), who came from the village of Bartensleben near Helmstedt . Their family members appeared at that time in the region, including in 1288 at the castle in Vorsfelde. In addition there is another record dating to 1135, but it is not clear whether this refers to

441-742: Is one of the major geographical regions of Germany . It is the German part of the North European Plain . The region is bounded by the coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the north, Germany's Central Uplands ( die Mittelgebirge ) to the south, by the Netherlands to the west and Poland to the east. In the west, the southern boundary of the North German Plain is formed by the Lower Saxon Hills : specifically

490-497: The Altes Land near Hamburg , which is characterised by relatively mild temperatures year round due to the proximity of the North Sea and lower Elbe river, providing excellent conditions for fruit production. Azonal vegetation complexes of moors, riparian forests, fens and water bodies originally stretched along the rivers Ems , Weser , Elbe , Havel and Spree . Distinctive salt marshes , tideflats and tidal reed beds in

539-864: The Elbe–Havel Canal or the Oder–Havel Canal . Because the land in North America and on the Russian Plain tilts towards the south, the formation of Urstromtäler there during the ice age did not take place. The Mississippi River and its tributaries carried the meltwaters of the North American ice sheet away. In Eastern Europe the meltwaters flowed down the river basins of the Dnieper , Don and Volga . Urstromtäler , whether sandy or boggy, posed considerable obstacles to movement in

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588-637: The Middle Ages . As a result, the trade routes converged on points where the valley could be crossed comparatively easily. These hubs thus became favourite sites for the founding of towns or castles. Examples from the German state of Brandenburg include Berlin , Fürstenwalde , Luckenwalde and Baruth/Mark , and from Lower Saxony the town of Vorsfelde and Wolfsburg Castle . North German Plain The North German Plain or Northern Lowland ( German : Norddeutsches Tiefland )

637-560: The Volkswagen . After the end of the Second World War , the city council decided to rename the city Wolfsburg on 25 May 1945. Since the 17th century the castle has been a four-sided, solid building surrounding an inner courtyard. The main body of the castle thus has four wings, which are named after the points of the compass. The upper outline of the castle with its finely decorated cross-gables, lucarnes and pointed roofs of

686-433: The bergfried , is the oldest surviving part of the present site. It was accessible halfway up by a wooden staircase or ladder that could be hauled up in the face of enemy attack. To begin with, it may have been the tower house of the von Bartenslebens themselves. Over time it did not do justice to as an aristocratic residence and domestic building, and as a consequence other buildings and fortifications were constructed. Within

735-531: The estuaries existed permanently in the tidal zone of the North Sea coast. The natural vegetation of the North German Plain is thought to have been forest formed mainly by the dominant species European Beech (Fagetalia). According to Germany's Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the BfN , the North German Plain consists of the natural regions listed below. Where possible, their names have been derived from authoritative English-language source(s), as indicated by

784-482: The wall towers form a contrast with the fortification-like walls. Outsize stone figures on horseback decorate the palace entrance with its round arch. Above the portal there are stone shields with the coat of arms of the Bartenslebens, chimera ( Neidköpfe ) and equestrian figures. The portal architecture, like the terrace with its great perron on the park side, is a 19th-century addition. The bergfried

833-731: The Aller Urstromtal are parts of the Breslau-Magdeburg-Bremen Urstromtal . The Baruth, Berlin and Eberswalde Urstromtäler are common short names for the associated sections of the Urstromtal in Brandenburg . In addition to the large main valleys there are also numerous smaller meltwater valleys ( Urstromtalungen ). Their appearance is similar to that of the great Urstromtäler , but they are considerably shorter. They are also not linked to

882-595: The Aller river was artificially confined and controlled. In 1574, thanks to his great fortune, Hans von Bartensleben , the Wealthy ( der Reiche ), was able to begin the conversion of the castle. For this work he employed masons, stonemasons and carpenters, whom he paid. The socage rendered him by the peasants of the villages of the Vorsfelder Werder provided free manual labour as well as horses and carts. When

931-463: The Bartenslebens unduly imposed on them, the farmers complained (for example in 1600) to their overlord, Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel . From then on, socage was restricted to "only" ten hours in summer and eight hours in winter, twice a week, although travel time from the villages, which were up to 15 kilometres away, was not counted. Hans the Wealthy had the Red House ( Rotes Haus ),

980-570: The Börde areas (Hildesheim Börde, Magdeburg Börde, with their fertile, loess soils). High-level bog peat can be found in the poorest soils, e.g. in the Teufelsmoor . In the loess areas of the lowland are found the oldest settlement locations in Germany ( Linear Pottery culture ). The northeastern part of the plain (Young Drift) is geomorphologically distinct and contains a multitude of lakes (e.g.

1029-544: The Fulda Gap option was seen as the most likely invasion route because of easier and closer access to tactical and strategic goals important for an invasion of Western Europe. Of the two North German plain invasion options, the southern route of the attack, which had the better strategic opportunities, would have been led by the Soviet Third Shock Army . The plain's geography, which makes it suitable for

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1078-650: The Mueritz lake in the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau ) which are vestiges of the last ice age. The retreating glaciers left this landscape behind around 16,000 to 13,000 years ago. In comparison, the dry plains of northwestern Germany (Lower Saxony, western Schleswig-Holstein, and the Bochum area of North Rhine Westphalia) are more heavily weathered and levelled ( Old Drift ) as the last large scale glaciations here occurred at least 130,000 years ago. The region

1127-460: The Wolfsburg or a predecessor castle. Emperor Lothar III then awarded the newly founded Benedictine abbey of Kaiserdom Königslutter with diversified estates, including a Wulvosburg , that was named in connection with the village of Käsdorf. During the Middle Ages the castle was not an enclosed site, but consisted of the bergfried and an attached building, the Old House ( Altes Haus ) in

1176-568: The catchment area of the Oder and Neiße rivers which drain into the Baltic. The North Sea coast and the adjacent coastal areas of the facing East and North Frisian Islands are characterised by a maritime climate . South of the coast, a broad band of maritime and sub-maritime climate stretches from the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein to the western edges of the Central Uplands . To

1225-427: The character of a fortification. In the 17th century it was turned into a representative, but nevertheless defensible palace that was the northernmost example of the Weser Renaissance style. Its founder and builder was the noble family of von Bartensleben . After their line died out in 1742 the Wolfsburg was inherited by the counts of Schulenburg . The name Wolfsburg (literally "Wolf Castle") does not indicate that

1274-510: The deployment of armored and mechanized maneuver , led to it being identified as a major invasion route into West Germany . The defense of the Plain was the responsibility of NATO's Northern Army Group and Second Allied Tactical Air Force , made up of German, Dutch, Belgian, British, and some US forces. 53°36′N 10°24′E  /  53.600°N 10.400°E  / 53.600; 10.400 Wolfsburg Castle The Wolfsburg

1323-484: The edges of an Urstromtal may have been significantly altered by more recent processes, especially the thawing of dead ice blocks or the accumulation of sand dunes . In the post-glacial period , many Urstromtäler became bogs due to their low lying situation and the high water table. In Central Europe , there are several Urstromtäler from various periods. Some sections of the aforementioned main valleys have been given their own names. The Lusatian Urstromtal and

1372-423: The fortifications slighted. Six years later the von Bartenslebens had the fortifications rebuilt because they wanted to retain the military character of the castle. In the early stages around 1300 the Wolfsburg only had a stone tower house ( Wohnturm ) on the Aller, whose precursor may have been a wooden watchtower in the style of a lowland motte . The present, roughly 23 metre high tower, later designated as

1421-430: The grain size can vary considerably, however. Fine sand dominates especially in the upper sections of the Urstromtal sediments. The thickness of the Urstromtal sediments also varies a great deal, but is mostly well over ten metres. Urstromtäler have wide and very flat valley bottoms that are between 1.5 and 20 kilometres wide. The valley sides, by contrast are only a few to a few dozen metres high. The bottom and

1470-751: The ice age which formed them) – e.g., on the Fläming Heath (200 m (660 ft) above sea level) and the Helpt Hills 179 m (587 ft)). Following the ice ages, rain-fed, raised bogs originated in western and northern Lower Saxony during warm periods of high precipitation (as influenced by Medieval Warm Period). These bogs were formerly widespread but much of this terrain has now been drained or otherwise superseded. The coastal areas consist of Holocene lake and river marshes and lagoons connected to Pleistocene Old and Young Drift terrain in various stages of formation and weathering. After or during

1519-410: The ice mass. In addition most tunnel valleys run from north to south. The principal direction of Urstromtäler is from east to west. Today Urstromtäler are only partly used by rivers, because the majority have found shorter routes to the sea (like the Oder and Vistula ). The straight troughs of the Urstromtäler between the rivers were used for canal routes due to their low gradient, for example for

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1568-556: The individual floors to be accessed. These are the Watchman's Tower ( Hausmannsturm ) which at around 30 metres is the highest, the Owl Tower ( Uhlenturm ) and the hexagonal Wendelstein tower with its circular staircase . They were built in the 16th century as the castle was converted into a palace. The north and south wings from the 16th century were mainly used for residential purposes. The roughly 25 metre high east wing

1617-455: The inner courtyard the wing shows traces of an arcade that once ran in front of it. At roof height it is surrounded by corbels that presumably once carried a wooden wall walk . This wing of the building clearly shows how, by the end of the 16th century, the power of the von Bartenslebens was visibly demonstrated through their architecture. The reason for the construction of the Wolfsburg

1666-419: The larger outer ward ( Vorburg ), a refuge place for the lord's subjects in time of war. In addition this area was protected by a curtain wall with defensive bastions or Rondellen , against which the later domestic buildings and stables, the present coach houses ( Remisen ) were built. Investigations in recent times revealed that the castle was not, as previously suspected, built on piles in boggy terrain. For

1715-538: The later castle, the bergfried acted as a dungeon and prison. Due to its situation in the Aller valley, the castle was probably surrounded by water from the outset. Certainly until the 19th century it was protected by two moats that were fed from the nearby Aller and the Hasselbach stream. The inner moat encircled the castle itself which, together with its drawbridges, made it a water castle . The outer moat surrounded

1764-436: The most part it stands on a sandy subsoil and only rests in places on oak piles. In the middle of the 15th century, a medieval castle no longer reflected the status of the von Bartenslebens. They turned the less comfortable building into a showy palace in the Weser Renaissance style with gardens and parks. Nevertheless, it retained the character of a fortified water castle until 1840, when the protective moats were filled in as

1813-523: The name "wolf" with them, because they can be traced back to 1188 when they were still living at Bartensleben Castle in the village of Bartensleben about 40 kilometres to the south. In the 20th century, the city built here in 1938 was named after Wolfsburg Castle. Initially it was called the Stadt des KdF-Wagens ("Town of the Strength through Joy Car") because of the industrial plant established to build

1862-399: The present west wing. The site was a strong fortification of considerable strategic importance. Later it was even equipped with cannon, for according to a 1437 document the number of guns was to be increased by 10 pieces in the event of war. According to this record, there were only attacks on the castle during the feud of the von Bartenslebens against Duke Otto of Lüneburg in 1464, whereby it

1911-652: The references. During the Cold War , in the event of war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact , NATO military strategists identified the North German plain as an area that could have been used for two of three major invasion routes into Western Europe by Warsaw Pact forces. The third route was the Fulda Gap further south. The North German plain routes were the best attack options for an attacking army. However,

1960-466: The region of the Vorsfelder Werder in which the castle is located had a large number of wolves, even though there were certainly wolves in the nearby wet meadows of the Drömling . The wolf that gave its name to the castle is a heraldic beast on the coat of arms of the von Bartensleben family who built the edifice. Their coat of arms comprises a leaping wolf above two sheaves of corn. The family brought

2009-494: The retreat of the glaciers, wind-borne sand often formed dunes, which were later fixed by vegetation. Human intervention caused the emergence of open heath such as the Lüneburg Heath , and measures such as deforestation and the so-called Plaggenhieb (removal of the topsoil for use as fertilizer elsewhere) caused a wide impoverishment of the soil ( Podsol ). The most fertile soils are the young marshes ( Auen-Vegen ) and

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2058-990: The ridge of the Teutoburg Forest , the Wiehen Hills , the Weser Hills and the Lower Saxon Börde, which partly separate it from that area of the Plain known as the Westphalian Lowland . Elements of the Rhenish Massif also act a part of the southern boundary of the plain: the Eifel , Bergisches Land and the Sauerland . In the east the North German Plain spreads out beyond the Harz Mountains and Kyffhäuser further to

2107-674: The south as far as the Central Saxon hill country and the foothills of the Ore Mountains . It is known that the North German Plain was formed during the Pleistocene era as a result of the various glacial advances of terrestrial Scandinavian ice sheets as well as by periglacial geomorphologic processes. The terrain may be considered as part of the Old or Young Drift ( Alt- or Jungmoräne ), depending on whether or not it

2156-609: The south east and east, the climate becomes increasingly subcontinental: characterised by temperature differences between summer and winter which progressively increase away from the tempering effect of the ocean. Locally, a drier continental climate can be found in the rain shadow of the Harz and some smaller areas of upland like the Drawehn and the Fläming . Special microclimates occur in bogs and heathlands and, for example, in

2205-526: Was completed at the beginning of the 17th century. With its splendid decorative shapes in the Weser Renaissance style, it was very much an ostentatious reception building. On the ground floor there is a 30 metre long and 9 metre wide hall, the present Garden Hall ( Gartensaal ). Adjacent to it is a smaller hall the Chamber Room ( Kaminzimmer ) and the Gerichtlaube (district office). From

2254-648: Was formed by the ice sheets of the last glacial period, the Weichselian Ice Age . The surface relief varies from level to undulating. The lowest points are low moorlands and old marshland on the edge of the ridge of dry land in the west of Schleswig-Holstein (the Wilster Marsh is 3.5 m (11 ft) below sea level) and in the northwest of Lower Saxony (Freepsum, 2.3 m (7.5 ft) below sea level). The highest points may be referred to as Vistula and Hall glaciation terminal moraines (depending on

2303-512: Was intended to be largely demolished ( mehrentheils demoliret worden seyn ). The Wolfsburg emerged from the Thirty Years' War as one of the few aristocratic castles that remained undestroyed. It was almost continuously garrisoned by troops of the warring parties, the last being the Swedes. The lords of Brunswick and Magdeburg forced their withdrawal came in 1650 by having the castellans have

2352-413: Was parallel to the ice margin. At that time, the area that is now the North Sea was dry as a result of the low level of the sea. As elements of the glacial series, Urstromtäler are intermeshed with sandur areas for long stretches along their northern perimeters. It was over these outwash plains that the meltwaters poured into them. Urstromtäler are relatively uniformly composed of sands and gravels ;

2401-534: Was the enfeoffment of land in the area of the present-day city of Wolfsburg to the noble family of von Bartensleben in the 13th century. These knights also watched over the trade routes where they crossed the River Aller and that entailed the construction of a fortification to protect their lordship. The first definite record of the castle was in 1302 where it is referred to as the Wluesborch . The document

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