Walsrode: Tietlingen Juniper Grove

The heathland in Tietlingen is one of two belonging to the town of Walsrode.

The previous owner of these areas, Wilhelm Asche, was a big fan of the heath poet, Hermann Löns. After the latter’s death, Asche had the Löns memorial erected and the Erica heather could flourish undisturbed. Wilhelm Asche’s grave is situated on Hilligenberg in this grove.

Today the administrative district is the owner of these areas and manages the heathland by regularly removing self-seeded trees, shrubs, and grasses so that these do not gain the upper hand. 

Getting there:

You can reach Tietlinger Lönshain (Tietlingen’s Löns Grove) via the local road connecting Honerdingen with Tietlingen. The access road to the heathland is a left turn off this road immediately at the entrance to Tietlingen.

Information about Hermann Löns

Under a simple stone in the midst of Tietlinger Wacholderhain (Tietlingen Juniper Grove) is where the heath poet, Hermann Löns, found his last resting place. He came to Walsrode in Lüneburg Heath, this "wonderful land" as he liked to call the Heath, for the first time in 1893.

Hermann Löns was born on 29 August 1866 in Kulm, West Prussia. His parents came from Westphalia. His father, a prospective senior grammar school teacher, had obtained his first teaching post there and was thus at last able to marry his bride, the Paderborn pharmacist’s daughter, Klara Kramer. In 1884 Hermann Löns´ parents were posted back home so that their son could sit his matriculation examination. Originally he had wanted to study natural sciences but his father thought there was no future in this. Hence Hermann Löns enrolled to study the unloved subject of medicine.

After Münster, Greifswald and Göttingen universities were the sites of his scientific studies. In 1890 he fell out with his father. Herman Löns left his parents’ home and never darkened their door again.

As he himself said: he jumped with both feet into the newspaper trade. Via Kaiserslautern, Gera, and Hamburg his path took him to Hannover, where he was also able to marry his bride, Elisabeth Erbeck.

Löns found his first job with the Hannover Anzeiger newspaper. Under the pseudonyms "Fritz von der Leine" and "Ulenspiegel", he wrote witty and clever jottings and soon made a name for himself. During the time Löns was making his mark as a journalist, he also got to know and love the Heath. From that time onwards, he could not forget the flora and fauna of this typical north German landscape and described it in many different ways. His poems did not exhaust the topic by a long shot.

In 1914 Löns joined up as a 48-year-old volunteer. After brief training, Löns arrived at the collapsing Marne front with the 73 Fusilier Regiment at the beginning of September 1914. He fell after only four weeks during his first assault on 26 September 1914 at Loivre (near Reims in Champagne).

In 1934, his remains were transferred to Lüneburg Heath.

After a long and inglorious odyssey, the remains of the Poet of Lüneburg Heath were interred on 2 August 1935 under a boulder with the inscription "Here lies Hermann Löns at rest".