Lübbecke (; ) 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.
Geography
Lübbecke is situated just north of the Wiehen Hills, approx. north of Herford and west of Minden.
Location Lübbecke is located in northeast North Rhine-Westphalia, north of East Westphalia-Lippe (Ostwestfalen-Lippe), in the southwestern part of the district of Minden-Lübbecke. From a landscape perspective, the town lies in the west of the Minden Land. Geographically, most of the built-up area is on the North German Plain. Only its southern suburbs lie on the northern slope of the Wiehen Hills, whose crest that marks the southern boundary of the borough. The town itself lies on the edge of the hills, whils the rest of the borough is more rural in character. The northern boundary of the borough is defined by the Midland Canal (Mittelland Canal). In the northeast of the borough is the Großes Torfmoor which, together with the Oppenweher Moor, is the largest moor in Westphalia. Between the wet lowlands south of the Mittelland Canal, the glacial valley of the River Weser and the higher ground is a narrow fringe of fertile loess soils at the foot of the Wiehen Hills called the Lübbecker Lößland. The far north of the area is part of the Rahden-Diepenau Geest. In the geest there are only the villages of Stockhausen and Alswede and part of Lübbecke industrial estate.
The highest hills in Lübbecke's territory are the Heidbrink (320 m), the Wurzelbrink (319 m) and the Kniebrink (315 m). Next to the town itself is the Reineberg (276 m), the Heidkopf (273 m) and the Meesenkopf (226 m). The hills in the south of the borough are the highest in the whole of the Wiehen ridge. In the north the land only attains a height of about 50 m. The lowest point is about 48 m.
Waterbodies
Because the watershed of the Wiehen Hills forms the southern boundary of the borough, almost the entire territory of Lübbecke is drained towards the north. Only the few hectares of land on the southern slopes of the Wurzelbrink drain towards the south. The Ronceva river flows through the town itself (mostly through pipes) and via the rivers Flöthe and Große Aue to the Weser. The Weser does not cross the borough, however, and even the Große Aue only enters it in the extreme west. The marketed "mountain spring water" (Gebirgsquellwasser) is still of great importance for the breweries in Lübbecke.
The borough of Lübbecke does not have many natural lakes. Both the river channels and the lakes and ponds in the moor are man-made. The largest bodies of water are the Mittelland Canal, with about 50 ha of water surface in Lübbecke's territory, and an unnamed lake in the moor area, which has a contiguous water area of about 9 ha. All other bodies of water have areas under 1 ha. A total of 1.5% of the borough's area (98.2 ha) is covered by water.
Geology and natural resources
Geologically, the surface is mainly covered with unconsolidated rock of the Quaternary period i.e. sand, gravel, loess and glacial till, predominantly from the Pleistocene epoch. In the Wiehen Hills rocks of the Jurassic period, such as sandstone, also occur on the surface. Of particular importance, today as in the past, is the recovery of limestone for use as ballast for buildings and roads, and there is a large working quarry in the Wiehen Hills, south of Nettelstedt, where rock is broken and crushed. Numerous small quarries in the Wiehen show that there is a long mining tradition in Lübbecke. Ore appears to have been mined in the hills here for centuries; at Horst Hill there is an old mine gallery. Until the mid-20th century peat was harvested in the Großer Torfmoor, mainly for use in domestic fireplaces. Old transport systems (using tipplers) still existed until a few years ago, when production stopped due to the exhaustion of the deposits and for reasons of nature conservation.
Despite the steep natural gradients, water power cannot be used today because the small catchment area of the mountain streams only delivers small quantities of water. In the past, several water mills worked in the borough. There is a water wheel at the foot of the Wurzelbrink in the village of Eilhausen that can be visited. The use of wind power as a natural resource has recently received a boost. Windmills in places such as Eilhausen show that this energy source has been used since ancient times. The borough's location on the North German Plain favours the use of wind generators, although they are still less cost-effective than other energy generators.
Lübbecke is rated almost everywhere as good to very good in terms of its use of geothermal heat sources, especially borehole heat exchangers, and heat production using heat pumps (see the accompanying map).Geologischer Dienst NRW: Erdwärme nutzen – Geothermiestudie liefert Planungsgrundlage
Extent and land usage
The borough has a total area of , with a maximum west–east extent of and north–south extent of around .
The borough is predominantly used for agricultural purposes and is thus very rural. In general, only the Wiehen Hills are forested. The following table gives an overview of its land usage:
Areaby land use type Agriculturalterrain Forestedterrain Settlementsand transport routes Water-bodies Specialusage Area in ha 3,408 1,316 1,441 98 241 Proportion of total area 52.4% 22.2% 20.2% 1.5% 3.7%
Source: LDSLandesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik NRW: Kommunalprofil Lübbecke
The most densely populated areas are the fertile foothills, known as the Lübbecke Loessland (Lübbecker Lößland); this is where almost all the villages are found. The average population density here is 600-1000 inhabitants/km2. The lowlands south of the canal, apart from Lübbecke's industrial area, are very sparsely populated. The Wiehen Hills themselves are unpopulated as is the Großer Torfmoor.
The most densely populated district is the town of Lübbecke itself: with some 800 inhabitants per km2, its population density is twice as high as in the whole borough. With an average of 250 inhabitants per square km, the other parts of the borough are comparatively thinly populated.
The percentage of agricultural land is lower than in the rest of the district (66%), but slightly above the national average (49.7%). The Lübbecke Loess Land is very fertile. The soil quality here is 75. As a result, this good soil, where the villages have given it space, is used mainly for agriculture. The cultivation of cereals of all kinds as well as of root crops brings in high yields. There are also scattered fruit orchards. Amongst the special crops grown here, asparagus and strawberries in the north of the borough are worth mentioning. There are only occasional pastures in the vicinity of the hill forests or in along the few meandering streams. As one travels further north, especially north-east towards the peat moors, the proportion of grassland steadily increases as the soil becomes poorer and wetter to the peat bog. East of the industrial area, meadows and pastures take up almost the entire land area. In some places the frugal green maize crop still grows albeit requiring heavy supplies of manure. Within the protected area of the peat bog, but still outside of the actual moor, there is some extensive grazing, especially of sheep, almost exclusively for environmental grounds.
The Wiehen Hills are mostly covered by forest. Much of the enclosed forest area in Lübbecke is part of the hill forests of the Wiehen Hills, which begins at around and extends to cover the highest peaks. It is mainly made up of spruce forest, but large areas, particularly in the area south of the town are original beech mixed forests. Apart from the larger woods in Lübbecke Land beyond the town limits, there are only small copses in the lowlands which together comprise less than . Inter alia These are the Stockhauser Busch, small copses in the area of the marina and the birch woods on the Großer Torfmoor. On the border of the town to the north-west at Alswede on the territory of Preußisch Oldendorf is the approximately 44 hectare Hollwinkel Wood. Part of the moor is covered with enclose birch stands. The relative proportion of forest is almost twice as high as the district average (11.2%).
The relatively high proportion of 'special' terrain is essentially that of the Großer Torfmoor. Moors, heath and wasteland cover about 3.3% of the borough.Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik NRW: Kommunalprofil Preußisch Oldendorf
Neighbouring municipalities Hüllhorst Espelkamp Preußisch Oldendorf Hille
Division of the borough
According to §3 of the main by-lawStadt Lübbecke: Hauptsatzung der Stadt Lübbecke vom 30.01.1995 the territory of the borough of Lübbecke is amongst the following districts (population in brackets as at 31 December 2007Stadt Lübbecke: Zahlen und Daten. Einwohner Stand 31. Dezember 2007.): Lübbecke (town) (15,682 inhabitants) Alswede (1,068 inhabitants) Blasheim (1,491 inhabitants) Eilhausen (773 inhabitants) Gehlenbeck (3,279 inhabitants) Nettelstedt (2,725 inhabitants) Obermehnen (1,377 inhabitants) Stockhausen (779 inhabitants)
Climate
The climate in Lübbecke is dictated by its location in the maritime-continental transition region of Central Europe and on the North German Plain. The region mainly enjoys a sub-Atlantic maritime climate, but also has occasional continental influences. The winters, influenced by the Atlantic, are generally mild, the summers moderately warm, and its precipitation spread relatively evenly throughout the year. Westerly and southwesterly winds prevail, bringing precipitation with them. As a result of its location in the lee of the Wiehen Hills and Teutoburg Forest its precipitation is however lower overall than in most of the Central Upland regions of Ostwestfalen, only the tops of the hills receive rather more. The annual precipitation figures in the northern part of the borough are and on the hills about .
Air temperatures average , the warmest month is July with , the coldest is January at . In the hills it is around to colder per of height. For an average of 37 days (during the months of November to March) the average daytime temperatures remain below . The number of hours of sunshine is 1,435 hours per year, with a monthly variation from 200 hours in June to 32 hours in December.Stadt Lübbecke: Willkommen in Lübbecke. Zahlen und Fakten. Klima.
History