The Location of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

“The Venne region offers the combination of mountains and moors required by the reports. It seems likely that the troops marching here had to cut planked roads, and even more so that the ultimate catastrophe was brought about by boxing in the army between the mountains on one side and the moors on the other. Above all, however, the location corresponds to the natural conditions of communication. Assuming that the march began from the mid-Weser River and did not proceed in the direction of/along the course of the Lippe River, but kept the lower Rhine in view as its final goal, then only two old lines of communication could come into consideration, the only two that led westward from the Weser and have the characteristic features of the terrain here in question, which is marked by extensive moors that defy every attempt to bridge them.

“One line leads from the Weser River at the ford at Sebbenhausen below Nienburg, then along the civilian road—which is mentioned already in the eighth century—to the Hunte River at Büren and from there over the Cloppenburg Geest (sandy moorlands) and the back of Hümling Mountain to the Ems River at Landegg, where it then continues on the other bank on the remains of the pontes longi. The second road leaves the Weser at Minden, goes via Lübbeke, Prussian Oldendorf, Wittlage behind Bramsche to the Hase River, from which the Ems can be reached on various paths. This path sticks to the foot of the said mountain range, which leads from the Weser to the Hase like a long wall and itself seems to point an army the way.

“To the north, even today this road is still bordered in its entirety by bogs and moors, despite intensive drainage. The entire road itself forms a, at times narrow, at times broad, strip of firm diluvial ground, very well suited for a civilian road, and was also used as such in earlier times.

“In particular, at the Barenau Estate, between Venne and Engter, where Kalkriese Mountain protrudes to the north in a triangle, the path between [the mountain] and the moor contracts such that a rather narrow pass arises; the military significance of this position was already recognized correctly by Justus Möser. Since the tradition neither names the goal of Varus’s march nor informs us of the way in which he intended to reach the Rhine from there, the first line of the march from Nienburg to the Ems cannot be regarded as ruled out from the start; but without doubt the second line from Minden to Bramsche satisfies all the requirements, and it is proof of Arminius’s military skill that he knew how to draw the Roman army into just this dangerous gorge, the likes of which will hardly be found elsewhere in this difficult terrain.”

From: Theordor Mommsen, Die Örtlichkeit der Varusschlacht (Berlin 1885). 

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