“Orange!” That’s the color tiny iron flakes paint the edges of the Rodenbeker Quellental’s spring pools. I invite you to step into this unique natural reserve. Here in the Rodenbeker Quellental, water and woods shape the landscape.
The Rodenbeker Quellental owes its name to its natural springs. These springs are some of Hamburg’s few natural water outlets. Three watercourses define the area’s natural borders. They are the Alster, the Rodenbek, and the Bredenbek. The Muehlengraben stream crosses the area. It still feeds the Muehlenteich pond documented as early as 1345.
Since the mid-1980s, extensive restoration programs have enhanced the Rodenbeker Quellental. The goal is to keep the areas open and prevent them from becoming overgrown. The Alsterwanderweg hiking trail leads through the Rodenbeker Quellental. It is considered one of Hamburg’s most beautiful trails.
The Rodenbeker Quellental’s landscape hosts diverse flora. Dominant are mixed deciduous forests. Beech, pedunculate oak, sessile oak, and moor birch trees abound. There are also pure beech and oak-hornbeam forests. These older forests often have young maple and bird cherry trees beneath them. The Alsterwanderweg passes impressive hall-like beech stands. Some trees are up to 300 years old.
The upper reaches of the Alster feature largely untouched riverbanks. Lush ground vegetation thrives with alder swamps, wet meadows, and reedbeds. In the lowlands, you will discover alluvial forests of ash and alder. The Bredenbek River’s banks show the unbridled power of nature. High water levels erode and remove the riverbanks. This process exposes the roots of alder trees creating stilt roots. This sight evokes images of tropical mangrove forests.
Botanical highlights include yellow anemones and high primroses. Violets, scaly male ferns, and yellowroots grow amid carpets of anemones. Sanicle and spleenwort thrive at the edges of the spring pools in the Rodenbeker Quellental. Vast populations of marsh marigolds brighten the green landscape each spring.
The Rodenbeker Quellental teems with diverse wildlife. An ornithological survey from 1997 identified 38 breeding bird species. The most common are robins and wrens. Woodpeckers find food and nesting cavities in deadwood-rich forests.
Streams and rivers offer habitats for reed warblers and little grebes. The kingfisher also lives here. This species is rare and endangered nationwide. The water ouzel is a feathered underwater hunting specialist. This bird dives agilely. It turns stones over to find prey among small creatures.
Grey herons frequent former fish ponds. Countless insects hovering above the water feed rare water bats. They share their hunting grounds with many dragonflies. Numerous amphibians inhabit floodplain forests and former fish ponds. These include moor frogs and smooth newts. Endangered fish species like bitterling, rudd, and spined loach spawn here.
The water quality is so high in some sections that demanding fish species thrive. These include burbot and minnows. Also present are dace and both three-spined and nine-spined stickleback.
The Rodenbeker Quellental formed during the Weichsel Ice Age. Meltwater sought a drainage route to the Elbe River via the Alster. The Bredenbek, Lottbek, and Rodenbek streams formed from meltwater systems. These cut into the subsoil at the base of the glacier. The streams run east-west and drain the melting “Bredenbek Glacier.”
Ground moraine material rises locally in the Rodenbeker Quellental’s wide lowlands. Sediments from an ice lake remain. This lake formed before the drainage toward the Elbe was possible. Today’s watercourses cut through these deposits.
You can reach the Rodenbeker Quellental via U-Bahn line 1 to Ohlstedt. From there, walk toward Bredenbekstrasse into Haselknick. The nature reserve can be traversed via many paths, including the Alsterwanderweg. Take a stroll and enjoy the beauty of the Rodenbeker Quellental.