Heidkopf (Wiehen Hills)

The Wiehen Hills (German: Wiehengebirge, pronounced [ˈviːənɡəˌbɪʁɡə] , also locally, just Wiehen) are a hill range in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Germany. The hills run from west to east like a long finger away from the main upland area of the Lower Saxon Hills, beginning at the Weser River near Minden and terminating in the vicinity of Osnabrück. It is the northernmost of the German Central Upland ranges extending into the Northern Lowlands. Their highest hill is the Heidbrink near Lübbecke with an altitude of 320 metres (1,050 ft).

The Heidbrink is a hill which lies south of Lübbecke in central Germany and, at 319.6 m above sea level (NN), is the highest peak in the Wiehen Hills. It is also the highest elevation in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its height is commonly given as 320 metres. About 200 yards east of the summit is a transmission tower for television and radio links and a wayside hut for walkers. The mast has a paved access road from the B 239. The summit of the Heidbrink itself is in a small open area and, until 2008, was marked by a boulder. Due to the surrounding high trees the view is blocked to the north; to the south can parts of the Ravensberg Basin be seen. The Ronceva rises on the western slope of the mountain. To the north are the peaks of the Reineberg, 276 m above sea level, and the Heidkopf, 273 m. The southern flank of the mountain drops steeply to the hamlet of Ahlsen-Reineberg in the municipality of Hüllhorst. The ridgeway (Kammweg) passes over the top of the mountain. It forms the boundary between the town of Lübbecke and the municipality of Hüllhorst. The ridgeway runs as a footpath (the Wittekindsweg) along the Wiehen ridge from Osnabrück to Porta Westfalica, and links the Heidbrink with the Straußberg (276 m) in the east, and the Horsthöhe (275 m) and Kniebrink (315 m) in the west. To mark the highest point on the Heidbrink a five-ton sandstone block with strong iron deposits, typical of the local Wiehen Hills, was set up on 24 May 2008. According to information boards by the TERRA.vita Nature Park, members of the Lübbecke marketing association (Stadtmarketingverein) and the municipal curator of Hüllhorst have marked the route to the "highest stone" with their own symbol. These are sometimes signposts, sometimes coloured markings, on wayside tree trunks. The symbol, the letter "H" on a hill symbol, is meant to be linked with the name and the appearance of the hill. At the new summit stone are two tablets; the upper one describes the Heidbrink as the highest hill in the Wiehen range; the lower panel lists the sponsors of this marketing campaign. The new summit stone is not in the same place as the old and rather less imposing summit stone, but about 20 metres east. The original stone was removed during the work to set up the new one. But it appears that the original spot had marked the exact peak, but was not so obviously recognisable from the main footpath.

The Reineberg is a hill on the Wiehen ridge, south of the town of Lübbecke. With a height of 275.9 m above sea level it is, from a topographical point of view, not a particularly impressive eminence in this part of the Wiehen Hills, because, in the immediate vicinity are considerably higher summits, such as the 320 m high Heidbrink just under 1 km to the south. East of the Reinberg on the other side of a valley bottom rises the Heidkopf, west of the Meesenkopf, on the summit of which there was once a fortification. 230 metres southwest of the summit lies the Wittekind Spring, that had a certain importance for the garrison of the castle at the summit, but today is just a small pond by a rock outcrop at the edge of a track. The Reineberg, which is the local hill for the town of Lübbecke, owes its significance to the fact that, until 1723, the year of its demolition, Reineberg Castle (German: Burg Reineberg or Reineburg) stood here.

The Meesenkopf, also called the Mesenkopf, is a hill in the Wiehen range, south of the town of Lübbecke in Northern Germany. Whilst not particularly prominent, the hill is historically significant as the site of a medieval castle.

Lübbecke ([ˈlʏbəkə] ; Westphalian: Lübke) is a town in northeast North Rhine-Westphalia in north Germany. This former county town lies on the northern slopes of the Wiehen Hills (Wiehengebirge) and has around 26,000 inhabitants. The town is part of district of Minden-Lübbecke within the Regierungsbezirk of Detmold in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region. Lübbecke was first mentioned in the records in 775 as hlidbeki and was given town rights in 1279.

The Mensinger Ravine (German: Mensinger Schlucht) is a steep-sided valley in the Wiehen Hills in Central Germany that is situated on the territory of the town of Lübbecke in the district of Minden-Lübbecke. The ravine begins on the eastern slopes of the Wurzelbrink hill and runs northwards from there in a curve as far as the B 239 federal road. The ravine is around 800 metres long. The valley floor in its upper section lies at a height of around 210 m above NN and drops to 150 m above NN at the end of the valley, where the source of the Ronceva stream is found. In the ravine itself, although it was formed by erosive influences, there is no permanent stream - only during heavy rainfall at the "upper reaches of the Ronceva", so to speak, does any water flow. The valley floor itself is impassable on foot in places. However, immediately to the east is a forest track, that enables the valley to be walked from end to end in 15 minutes. The ravine is forested throughout. The Mensinger Ravine is a typical example of a Siepe, a narrow, wet, ravine-like, V-shaped valley in higher hills or low mountains with a source stream. (in the East Westphalian region of Ravensberg Land and in the Lipperland such a terrain feature is known as a Siek). The source streams in such a valley do not necessarily carry water all-year round, as in the case of that in the Mensiger Ravine, however, the stream is the reason the V-shaped valley was formed. It must however be taken into account for terrain shaping, that in the post ice age the water levels flowing out of the mountain ranges, including the Wiehen, were greater, so that streams were able to cut into the terrain much more than they do today. This is the reason the ravine is so deep despite the rather low levels of water flow on the ravine floor today.

The Ernst Barre Private Brewery (German: Privatbrauerei Ernst Barre GmbH) is a brewery in the East Westphalian town of Lübbecke in the north-western German district of Minden-Lübbecke. It was founded by Ernst Johann Barre in 1842. Along with its immediate competitor, the Herforder Brauerei, it is one of the largest breweries in East Westphalia (based on beer production), and is thus of regional importance. The brewery is located at the southern end of the pass over the Wiehen Hills (Bundesstrasse 239) between Lübbecke and Hüllhorst, at the base of the Reineberg hill, and has been in the same family for generations.

The present-day Evangelical-Lutheran parish church of St. Andrew (St. Andreas) in Lübbecke is one of the ancient parishes (Urpfarreien) of the Bishopric of Minden.

Gehlenbeck is a village in the East Westphalian borough of Lübbecke in the county of Minden-Lübbecke in North Germany. The former clustered village (Haufendorf) is the second most populous village today in the borough. A stream flows through the village, the Gehle Beke (High German: gelber Bach; English: "Yellow Brook"), that once gave its name to the village. The village's parish has an area of around 11 km2. With 297 inhabitants per km2 Gehlenbeck is rather less densely settled than the borough of Lübbecke (398 people/km2).

The Kniebrink, at 315 m above sea level (NN), is the third highest mountain in the northern German Wiehen Hills. Its immediate summit belongs administratively to the village of Oberbauerschaft in the municipality of Hüllhorst. However, its boundary with the town of Lübbecke runs just north of the summit, so that its northern slopes belong to Lübbecke. The Kniebrink is just 3 metres lower than the more northerly Wurzelbrink, which obscures it from view in Lübbecke. The hill is largely trackless. In spring 2007 its trees suffered major storm damage. The top can be reaches from Lübbecke in under 45 minutes. From the south you need about 20 minutes for the short but steep climb.

The Wartturm ("watchtower") is an observation tower in the Wiehen Hills on the Wurzelbrink, a wooded hill that, at 319 metres, is the second highest in this hill range. The tower stands on the territory of the town of Lübbecke. The stone tower was built in 1857 by the barons (Freiherrn) of Bussche-Münch from Benkhausen and was completely renovated in 1996. The tower was erected in response to the increasing gymnastics and hiking movement in Germany at that time. During the Nazi era and the Second World War the tower acted for a time as a training area for the Hitler Youth as well as an observation point, for which purpose it had been increased in height by the addition of a wooden superstructure. In 1986 a radio competition took place at the Wartturm. In the early to mid-1980s a very high transmission mast stood next to the tower, that was significantly higher than the tower itself and, unlike the Wartturm, could be clearly seen from Lübbecke. The uninformed often say that the tower is linked to the medieval castle of Reineberg because of its castle-like appearance but are then often surprised to find that it is a product of the Modern Age.The Wartturm has since become the landmark of the traditional Wartturm Run (Wartturmlauf). This fun run takes place annually in June, beginning in the centre Lübbecke, is 13.9 kilometres long and climbs a total height of 346 metres.

The Wurzelbrink is a hill south of Lübbecke which, at 318 m above NN, is the second highest peak in the Wiehen Hills in north Germany. Immediately to the south is the no less majestic Kniebrink (315 m). There is an old and rather small watchtower, the Wartturm, on top of the Wurzelbrink, which was built in 1857, whose outstanding views of the local area are partly obscured by the trees that have now grown up around it.