Other divisions · Landscape
Mountains and lowlands
39% of Germany's land lies in districts averaging under 100 m, almost all of it in the north; 13% in districts averaging 500 m or more. The highest district on average is Garmisch-Partenkirchen at 1,105 m, the lowest Wesermarsch at 1 m.
| Zone | Districts | People | Share | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowlands district mean below 100 m | 124 | 32.4 m | 38.8% | 140,899 km² |
| Hill country 100–300 m | 104 | 22.6 m | 27.1% | 69,624 km² |
| Uplands 300–500 m | 119 | 18.4 m | 22.1% | 99,570 km² |
| Mountains district mean 500 m and higher | 54 | 10.1 m | 12.1% | 47,496 km² |
Germany tilts from south to north. The North German Plain, shaped by Ice Age glaciers, covers the north from the Dutch to the Polish border: 124 districts with an average elevation under 100 m, home to 39% of the population. Outside the north, only 6 districts on the floor of the Upper Rhine valley around Mannheim and Ludwigshafen fall below 100 m. A belt of low mountain ranges (Mittelgebirge) crosses the middle of the country, from the Eifel and the Sauerland to the Harz, the Thuringian Forest and the Ore Mountains.
The south rises to the Alpine foreland and the Alps. The five highest districts on average are Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1,105 m), Oberallgäu (1,050 m), Berchtesgadener Land (963 m), Miesbach (916 m), Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen (834 m). The highest 200 m grid cell, at 2,915 m, lies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which contains the Zugspitze.
Averaged over the country, a square metre of Germany lies 260 m above sea level; the average resident lives in a district averaging 232 m. Of the cities with more than half a million people, München is the highest (520 m) and Bremen the lowest (5 m).
Relief cuts across the old inner-German border: the former West averages 308 m, the former East 151 m, because the Alps and most of the southern uplands lie in the West. The Harz, the only real mountain range on the old line, straddles it.
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 | Lowlands | Hill country | Uplands | Mountains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AfD vote 2025 | 19.2% | 21.0% | 22.3% | 20.2% |
| Green vote 2025 | 12.4% | 11.9% | 10.2% | 12.8% |
| Unemployment 2025 | 7.6% | 6.6% | 4.9% | 4.2% |
| Gross monthly salary € 31.12.2025 | 4,106 | 4,187 | 4,138 | 4,397 |
| Young people 31.12.2025 | 13.2% | 13.4% | 12.8% | 13.1% |
| Childcare 1 March 2025 | 41.9% | 38.9% | 35.9% | 32.7% |
| Foreign population 31.12.2025 | 16.9% | 16.8% | 15.7% | 18.9% |
How we drew the line
Mean terrain elevation of each district from the BKG digital terrain model with a 200 m grid (DGM200, ETRS89/UTM32). District boundaries were projected to UTM32 and every grid cell was assigned to the district containing its centre (8,930,897 cells). The value is the plain mean of those cells (heights above sea level); the highest cell is reported as maximum. Zone breaks at 100, 300, 500 m: the district means are strongly skewed (median 268 m, a quarter of districts below 74 m, a tenth above 543 m), and these round breaks separate the North German Plain (<100 m), the hill country and river valleys of the centre and west (100–300 m), the low mountain ranges and Swabian–Franconian plateaus (300–500 m) and the Alpine foreland, Alps, Black Forest, Swabian Alb, Bavarian Forest and the highest parts of the Ore Mountains and Thuringian Forest (≥500 m).
- A district mean hides relief inside the district: Oberallgäu or Berchtesgadener Land include valleys well below their mean and peaks far above it.
- At 200 m resolution, summits are smoothed; the highest cell lies well below the true summit height of the Zugspitze.
- Water surfaces (Lake Constance, larger lakes) count with their surface height; tidal flats and sea areas outside the grid are excluded.
- The terrain model reflects survey data from 2000–2019 (one older area in Lower Saxony); relief does not change on the timescale that matters here.