Other divisions · Land
Where the ice reached
In three cold stages ice sheets pushed into northern Germany. The last, the Weichselian, stayed in the north-east: 84.5 % of the German land it covered lies in the former GDR and Berlin, the other 15.5 % in Schleswig-Holstein. It covered 36 % of the East but only 2.9 % of the West. The older Saalian and Elsterian ice sheets each reached about 43 % of today's Germany.
| Zone | Districts | People | Share | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last ice age (Weichselian) Mostly inside the Weichselian ice margin | 28 | 8.6 m | 10.3% | 46,449 km² |
| Saalian Mostly inside the Saalian, but not the Weichselian, margin | 99 | 23.9 m | 28.7% | 108,508 km² |
| Elsterian only Mostly inside the Elsterian margin only | 21 | 3.5 m | 4.2% | 18,484 km² |
| Alpine glaciers Mostly inside the Riss or Würm extent of the Alpine glaciers | 21 | 3.1 m | 3.7% | 17,750 km² |
| Never glaciated Not reached by the ice sheets or Alpine glaciers mapped here | 232 | 44.4 m | 53.1% | 166,399 km² |
By the majority of their area, 28 districts lie inside the Weichselian ice margin: 18 in the East, Berlin, and 9 in the West, all in Schleswig-Holstein.
The Saalian ice covered 73 % of the East and 30 % of the West; in the West it reached the Ruhr (Duisburg, Essen and Dortmund). The Elsterian margin runs furthest south in the East: 84 % of the East lies inside it, against 25 % of the West, and Dresden, Chemnitz, Zwickau, Erfurt, Jena and Gera lie mostly inside it.
232 districts lie outside every ice margin on the map, 13 of them in the East, among them Erzgebirgskreis, Vogtlandkreis, Schmalkalden-Meiningen, Ilm-Kreis and Saalfeld-Rudolstadt. In the far south 21 districts lie mostly inside the margins of the separate Alpine glaciers of the Riss and Würm cold stages.
Does the line still show?
Today's figures on each side, as population-weighted averages of the district values (our calculation from the live themes on this site).
| Indicator | Last ice age (Weichselian) | Saalian | Elsterian only | Alpine glaciers | Never glaciated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AfD vote 2025 | 21.5% | 20.6% | 35.3% | 17.9% | 19.3% |
| Green vote 2025 | 13.1% | 11.2% | 6.4% | 13.2% | 12.3% |
| Unemployment 2025 | 8.3% | 7.4% | 6.9% | 3.5% | 5.5% |
| Gross monthly salary € 31.12.2025 | 4,025 | 4,023 | 3,641 | 4,220 | 4,316 |
| Young people 31.12.2025 | 13.0% | 13.1% | 11.7% | 12.5% | 13.4% |
| Childcare 1 March 2025 | 51.6% | 40.4% | 54.0% | 28.1% | 34.8% |
| Foreign population 31.12.2025 | 17.0% | 14.9% | 9.9% | 16.2% | 18.5% |
How we drew the line
Ice margins from the BGR's Geological Map of Germany 1:2,000,000 (GK2000), layer "Eisrandlagen", which draws the ice margins of the Weichselian, Saalian and Elsterian ice sheets (and of the Alpine Würm, Riss and Mindel glaciers). Each northern margin was closed into an area on its ice side; 3 small closed Elsterian margins in Thuringia lie inside that area and were treated as ice-free islands. The Alpine Würm and Riss margins were closed towards the Alps; short gaps in the Riss margin east of the Inn were bridged with straight lines. For each of today's districts we estimated the share of its area inside each extent from about 2,000 sample points on the official BKG boundaries (VG2500). A district takes the youngest northern glaciation that covered more than half of it; districts not mostly covered by any northern ice sheet are "Alpine glaciers" if more than half lies inside the Alpine extent, otherwise "Never glaciated". Area shares for East and West are sums of district areas (official land survey, 31.12.2022) times the share covered.
- GK2000 is a 1:2,000,000 overview map; its lines are generalised, so district shares near a margin are approximate.
- GK2000 draws one ice margin (Eisrandlage) per cold stage; inner margins of later advances and retreats are not shown.
- Black Forest glaciers and the fragmentary Alpine Mindel margin are not used; a district reached only by those would count as "Never glaciated" here.
- On this generalised map the Saalian margin on the Lower Rhine leaves most of Kleve outside (29 % inside), so it counts as never glaciated.
- The closed Elsterian rings in Thuringia are read as ice-free islands because they lie inside the main margin; GK2000 does not label them.
- Assignments follow the majority of each district's area; districts close to 50 % could go either way.