Landforms and Landform Evolution in West Germany

Few publications exist in English on the landforms in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is hoped that this book, which is published in connection with the Second International Conference on Geomorphology (Frankfurt am Main, 1989) fills, to some extent, that gap. Following a general introduction, four papers describe and discuss the major land-form regions. They provide the background for the other papers and, in addition to covering basic factual information, also deal with major questions of landform development that have long been of particular interest to German geomorphologists. In the North German Lowlands, H. Liedtke discusses the chronology of the Pleistocene glaciations and the relationship between the age of glacial depositional landforms and their subsequent modification by non-glacial processes. In the Central Uplands north of the rivers Main and Nahe, W. Andres directs attention to the conflicting interpretations of the effects of tectonics and of past climates in the development of Tertiary planation surfaces and Quaternary river terraces. In the South German Scarplands, H. Bremer focuses on the role of structural and climatic controls in the long-term evolution of cuestas and valleys. K. Fischer discusses the effects of the complex nappe structure, of the lithology and of exogenic processes upon the landforms of the German Alps and the development of glacial, glaciofluvial and periglacial landforms in the Alpine Foreland. Most of the remaining papers are studies of smaller regions or local areas. Their sequence in this volume is arranged more or less regionally; their geographical locations are shown in fig. l (p.2). Several of these papers expand on themes in the general regional papers and examine, sometimes from differing points of view, particular aspects of landform development in detail. The wide variety of topics reflects in some measure the trends in geomorphological research in the Federal Republic. A number of the papers deal with structural landforms and their relationship to planation surfaces. Two papers discuss Pleistocene glacial and glacio-fluvial landforms in type regions of particular interest. Karst and paleo-karst landforms and processes are investigated in three papers, Quaternary valley development and present-day sediment yields in several others. The relationships between geomorphology and hydrology, geoecology and soils are considered in papers on groundwater quality, interflow, soil formation, soil erosion and the diagnostic value of loess. A brief paper reviews the status of geomorphological mapping in the Federal Republic.