East Westphalia-Lippe - Ostwestfalen-Lippe

The unofficial landmark of the region: The Hermannsdenkmal in Detmold

Ostwestfalen-Lippe (often also briefly:OWL) is a region in the northeast of the state North Rhine-Westphalia. Ostwestfalen-Lippe is largely congruent with the administrative district of Detmold and includes the districts Gutersloh, Herford, Höxter, lip, Minden-Lübbecke, Paderborn and the independent city Bielefeld. It thus includes the historical landscapes of East Westphalia and Lippe. The most famous landscape in the region is the Teutoburg Forest.

Regions

Political and natural structure of OWL

In Ostwestfalen-Lippe there are a large number of overlapping natural areas and districts that offer tourist attractions. Because of the overlap, these are summarized in a few general terms:

places

Big cities
  • Bielefeld - University city on the slopes of the Teutoburg Forest and largest city in OWL
  • Paderborn - District town in the Westphalian bay with an old town that is well worth seeing
other larger and touristic relevant places

Other goals

background

The region is actually still very young, but has already established itself as a "brand". The incorporation of the state of Lippe into the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on January 21, 1947 laid the foundation for its understanding today. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia was founded in 1946.

Since OWL is furthest away from the state capital, the region has acquired a certain stubbornness that insists on independence.

language

getting there

By plane

The only commercial airport with scheduled traffic in OWL is Paderborn Lippstadt AirportWebsite of this institutionPaderborn Lippstadt Airport in the Wikipedia encyclopediaPaderborn Lippstadt Airport in the Wikimedia Commons media directoryPaderborn Lippstadt Airport (Q685536) in the Wikidata database(IATA: PAD). Other nearby airports are Munster Osnabrück AirportWebsite of this institutionMünster Osnabrück Airport in the Wikipedia encyclopediaMünster Osnabrück Airport in the Wikimedia Commons media directoryMünster Osnabrück Airport (Q673760) in the Wikidata database(IATA: FMO) (65 km west of Gütersloh), Dortmund AirportWebsite of this institutionDortmund Airport in the Wikipedia encyclopediaDortmund Airport in the media directory Wikimedia CommonsDortmund Airport (Q313587) in the Wikidata database(IATA: DTM) (85 km southwest of Gütersloh) and Hanover AirportWebsite of this institutionHannover Airport in the Wikipedia encyclopediaHannover Airport in the media directory Wikimedia CommonsHannover Airport (Q170169) in the Wikidata database(IATA: HAJ) (75 km northeast of Minden).

By train

The supraregional rail traffic is served with the lines ICE 10 Berlin – Hanover–Bielefeld–Düsseldorf / Cologne (hourly), IC 55 Cologne – Dortmund–Gutersloh–Bielefeld–Herford–Minden–Hannover – Dresden (every two hours), IC 77 Berlin – Hanover–Minden–Bad Oeynhausen–Osnabrück – Amsterdam (every two hours) and IC 50 Leipzig / Halle – Weimar–Warburg–Altenbeken–Paderborn–Düsseldorf (twice a day) the region.

In the street

Ostwestfalen-Lippe can be reached on various transport routes. The highways A2 Ruhr area – Hanover – Berlin, A44 Ruhr Area – Kassel, A30 Amsterdam – Bad Oeynhausen and A33 Paderborn – Bielefeld-Osnabrück run through the region.

By boat

You can also arrive by ship via the Mittelland Canal and the Weser.

mobility

Tourist Attractions

Höxter monastery region

Monasteries in the Höxter district
Corvey Monastery

In a circle Höxter There are a large number of monasteries that are accessible to guests in different ways, some only for sightseeing, others also offer accommodation with, in part, very different levels of comfort:

  • former Corvey Monastery, today Corvey Castle, the former imperial abbey of the Benedictines directly on the Weser near Höxter,
  • Neuenheerse Abbey with the collegiate church, the so-called Eggedom of the former Kanonissenstift near Bad Driburg,
  • Marienmünster Abbey, former Benedictine abbey,
  • Hardehausen Monastery, former Cistercian monastery near Warburg, now houses a Catholic country folk high school and a youth center,
  • Gehrden Monastery, today's Hotel Schloss Gehrden Brakel is a former Benedictine convent,
  • Manufacture, the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross high above the small town on the Weser Beverungen is one of the still fully managed monasteries in which religious life is practiced as it used to be.

Churches

Paderborn Cathedral

Palaces and castles

  • Bielefeld: Sparrenburg
  • Blomberg: Blomberg Castle, The castle, which was built from the 13th century onwards, still has a defensive character with its Gothic gate, but inside it has been redesigned into a castle in the style of the Weser Renaissance
  • Büren: Wewelsburg - Former castle of the prince-bishops of Paderborn, built between 1600 and 1609 with a triangular shape. During the Nazi era, the castle was converted into a cult site for the SS and designed according to Heinrich Himmler's ideas
  • Detmold: Princely residential palace
  • Lemgo: Brake Castle - Count's castle in the style of the Weser Renaissance
  • Paderborn:
    • Imperial Palace
    • Neuhaus Castle - Created from 1370, little by little parts were added or redesigned, so that today the complex is shaped in the style of the Weser Renaissance, surrounded by a beautiful baroque garden. Today the castle houses a secondary school - certainly one of the most beautiful school buildings in Germany - but also a museum for history and natural history
  • Warburg: Desenberg castle ruins

  • Sparrenburg

  • Blomberg Castle

  • Wewelsburg

  • Princely residential palace in Detmold

  • Brake Castle

  • Neuhaus Castle, Paderborn

  • Desenberg and castle ruins

Museums

  • Bad Oeynhausen: German fairy tale and Weser saga museum
  • Frets: German Tobacco and Cigar Museum
  • Detmold
    • LWL open-air museum
    • Lippe State Museum im Kornhaus - the historic half-timbered building from the 16th century houses the oldest museum in OWL with exhibitions on natural history, prehistory and early history as well as history, folklore and everyday culture in the former Lippe region
  • Herford: Marta - Museum of contemporary furniture art and design
  • Paderborn: Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum - the world's largest computer museum
  • Petershagen: Gernheim glassworks - Part of the LWL Museum for Industrial Culture; Glass production facility from the 19th century, which at that time even produced for the world market; here the traditional way of making glass is demonstrated in practice
  • Warburg: Museum in the star - City museum with exhibitions on prehistory and early history, city, economic and art history

  • Detmold open-air museum

  • Kornhaus / State Museum Detmold

  • Marta Herford

  • Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum

  • Gernheim glassworks

Parks and gardens

  • Graflicher Park Bad Driburg

  • Kaiser-Karls-Park Bad Lippspringe

  • Gütersloh Botanical Garden

  • Flora Westfalica

  • Stukenbrock Safari Park

various

Externsteine
Historic town hall of Bad Salzuflen
  • Externsteine, Horn-Bad Meinberg-Holzhausen - striking sandstone rock formations in the southern Teutoburg Forest; they are several hundred meters long as a rocky line, but the 13 highest rocks are particularly impressive. According to tradition, the old Saxons held pagan rites here before Christianization.
  • Altenbeken: Great viaduct - 24-arch railway bridge over the valley of the Beke in the Eggegebirge. The limestone structure was built in the 1850s, the earliest phase of German railway history, and runs on the Hamm – Warburg railway line, which connects the Ruhr area with northern Hesse and central Germany. It was destroyed in the Second World War and then rebuilt.
  • Bad Salzuflen: Historical old city
  • Blomberg: romantic old town with half-timbered houses, medieval castle and city gate
  • Detmold: Hermann Monument in the district of Hiddessen on the Grotenburg - larger than life-size statue of the Cheruscan prince who defeated the Romans in the battle in the Teutoburg Forest; it is the unofficial landmark of the OWL region.
  • Minden: Waterway intersection
  • Porta Westfalica: Kaiser Wilhelm Monument

activities

Bald eagles in the Berlebeck Eagle Observatory
  • Bielefeld: Bielefeld Theater
  • Detmold
    • Adlerwarte Berlebeck - Bird park with 46 different species of birds of prey from five continents, free flight demonstrations several times a day
    • State Theater

kitchen

The East Westphalian cuisine is part of the North German cuisine, but a cuisine of the inland, i. H. Fish plays a subordinate role in it. The Westphalian ham is available in a mildly smoked and air-dried form, with the dark wholemeal pumpernickel bread, or onion meatbread rolls are popular at any time of the day.

nightlife

security

climate

literature

Web links

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