World natural heritage
These UNESCO sites are on German soil
The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea near Westerhever.
© bluecrayola / Shutterstock
There are 213 UNESCO World Heritage Sites worldwide. Three of them are in Germany.
There are 213 world natural heritage sites of the United Nations for Education, Science, Culture and Communication (UNESCO). These are natural structures, geological and physiographical manifestations and places whose protection and preservation should be guaranteed by the contracting states. They include well-known natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon in the USA and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Three world natural heritage sites are wholly or partly in Germany.
The Wadden Sea
According to the official website, the Wadden Sea has been Germany's largest natural world heritage site since 2009. It covers the entire North Sea coast including the West and North Frisian Islands such as Sylt or Borkum, but also coastal sections in the Netherlands. In 2011 and 2014, UNESCO expanded the World Heritage Area to include the Hamburg and Danish Wadden Sea. Overall, the Wadden Sea covers an area of 11,500 square kilometers along a 500-kilometer coastline.
From the point of view of geologists, it is relatively young at 10,000 years. Wind and tides ensure that new forms are constantly emerging, to which the numerous plant and animal species have to adapt. Many of them have become rare elsewhere, including almost 10,000 unicellular organisms and fungi. Particularly worth seeing – and spectacular – is the spring and autumn bird migration, during which up to twelve million birds can be observed and which many tourists cannot miss.
The Messel Pit
The first German world natural heritage site designated by UNESCO in 1995 is the Messel pit in Hesse. Located near Darmstadt, it is an open pit oil shale mine, in the area of which fossils from the Eocene were found – i.e. from a period that began 56 million years ago and lasted until around 34 million years ago.
As can be read on the official online presence, the Messel pit offers "unique information about the early evolution of mammals and documents the development history of the earth 48 million years ago". At that time there were "explosive changes" in the animal and plant world after the end of the dinosaur age. In the meantime, several 10,000 fossils have been discovered in the pit, which was formed 48 million years ago as a maar volcano lake, some of which have been preserved in a unique way. Up to 3,000 more copies are added every year.
The beech forest Grumsin
Since 2011, a German forest has also been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Grumsin beech forest in the Uckermark. A total of 78 unique beech forest areas in twelve European countries are grouped together under the name "Old beech forests and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe". According to the Uckermark Tourism Authority, the beech forest in Grumsin has not been used commercially since 1990 and therefore has the potential to be categorized as a "primeval forest" again in the long term.
The forest northeast of Berlin in Brandenburg is the largest natural development area in the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve. It offers an "extraordinary surface relief, with its deep depressions and rugged mountain ranges that are reminiscent of low mountain ranges". Responsible for this is the last ice age "about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago", through which countless gullies and hollows were created, "which stopped the running water". The attraction of the Grumsin beech forest is also due to the many moors and alder quarries that are home to a diverse range of flora and fauna.