Sieben Steinhäuser (Bad Fallingbostel)

After my first attempt to visit the Sieben Steinhäuser failed in 2019, I tried it again almost exactly a year later, on the return journey of my megalithic tour through the Weser-Elbe triangle. This time I had informed myself beforehand whether a visit to the megalithic tombs at the NATO training area Bergen-Hohne is possible. Nevertheless, I was a little nervous when I approached the gatehouse, because my disappointment to have to stand in front of a locked barrier again and have to turn back would have been correspondingly high. But this time it worked without any problems. After registering, I received a visitor badge, instructions on how to behave, and a short information letter about the megalithic tombs. From the gatehouse you have to drive about 5 km to the parking lot, leaving the road and the marked ways is strictly forbidden, as there may still be ammunition left outside the roads and paths.

The Sieben Steinhäuser near Bad Fallingbostel are among the most famous large stone graves in Germany. Since they only consist of five graves, research was long carried out on two allegedly destroyed graves. However, an engraving from 1744 shows that there were only five tombs at that time. In the vernacular, ”sieben” (seven) simply means in this context ”several“. For example, ”meine Siebensachen” meaning ”my seven things” do not consist of seven parts, but means ”all my belonings“. The good state of preservation of the tombs also suggests that there were originally only five.

Today, the tombs are protected by high earth walls against shooting practice and are surrounded by a fairly narrow fencing, which has a somewhat disturbing effect on the atmosphere. Nevertheless, it is worth a visit. When do you have the chance to see such five impressive megalithic tombs within a radius of only 200 m.

If you want to visit the site, please read my first fieldnotes below for a link, when the site is open for the public.

Visited June 2019

taken from the on-site information board:

As evidence of the oldest cultural landscape in northern Germany, megalithic tombs are among the most important archaeological monuments. The outstanding group of the Sieben Steinhäuser was already listed as a historic monument during the agricultural reform in 1923. Since it consists of only five individual graves, research was long carried out on two allegedly destroyed graves. However, an engraving from 1744 shows that there were only five tombs at that time.

In the 3rd millennium BC the tombs were built by the first farmers of the Funnel Beaker Culture. After the ice age glaciers melted, the stones boulders remained scattered in the heath.

Four of the five megalithic tombs were excavated and restored between 1924 and 1937. They were originally covered by mounds of earth. The sand that flowed through the wind and rain over the course of the millennia was not heaped up again during the restoration.

The transportation of the boulders and the construction of the graves using the simple technical means available at the time testify to the organizational talent and technical skills of the Neolithic people.

The Sieben Steinhäuser are now in a military training area. To protect against granite impacts, earth walls have been raised that surround the individual graves. The visual context between the tombs and the surrounding landscape has been lost as a result, but so far the group of monuments has been saved from being destroyed.

The Sieben Steinhäuser (aka Siebensteinhäuser) are a group of five passage graves, which are situated within the NATO Bergen-Hohne Training Area. The only public access to the tombs begins at a military checkpoint in Ostenholz, about 4 kilometers southeast of the motorway interchange Walsrode. Access to the site is only possible on weekends and public holidays from 8am and 6pm, if no military practice takes place.

On my last attempt, during my return from a holiday on Föhr, access to the sites was unfortunately not permitted, as the Training Area was not open to the public :-(.

I found the following link, which may inform if access is permitted or not.