Low mountains

A Mittelgebirge (German term) is a relatively low mountain range or highland area, a typical geographical feature of Central Europe, especially Central and Southern Germany; it refers to something between rolling low hill country or Hügelland and a proper mountain range (German: Gebirge or Hochgebirge) like the High Alps.

The term is not precise, but typically refers to topography where the peaks rise at least 200 metres (660 ft) to 500 metres (1,600 ft) above the surrounding terrain (as opposed to above sea level). The summits usually do not reach the tree line and were not glaciated after the last glacial period. In contrast, Hochgebirge is used to refer to mountain ranges rising above approximately 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) to 1,800 metres (5,900 ft). The delineation corresponds with the differentation between Montane and Alpine level according to altitudinal zonation.

In the plural, die Mittelgebirge (as opposed to the singular, das Mittelgebirge), sometimes qualified as die deutschen Mittelgebirge, usually refers to the Central Uplands of Germany which is a belt of low mountain ranges or hills between the Northern Lowland and the Bavarian Alpine Foreland.

The ranges stretch from the North German Plain up to the Alps in the south. The northern limitation is marked by the Mittelgebirge threshold (Mittelgebirgsschwelle), running from the Belgian Ardennes in the west along the Rhenish Massif, the Rhön and Harz Mountains, the Thuringian Forest and the Fichtel Mountains to the Bohemian Massif on the Czech border, including the Bavarian Forest and the Ore Mountains, leading to the Bohemian Forest and to the Sudetes in the east.

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