Glacial Striations at Spielberg near Böhlitz

Today we know that during the glacial period the glaciers arriving from Scandinavia advanced as far as south of Leipzig (Flint Line). From there they also carried rock blocks inside masses of ice called erratic blocks or erratic boulders. In the 19^th century geologists differed in their opinion on the origin of these blocks. According to the boulder or mud flood theory, giant deluges of water were said to have brought mud and rocks from northern Germany. The drift theory assumes there was a sea that stretched from Scandinavia to the edge of the Central German Uplands. The erratic blocks are said to have been transported along with drifting blocks of ice to the northern European lowlands. It wasn’t until 1875 that the Swedish geologist Otto Martin Torrel (1824-1900) was able to verify the theory of a large-scale northern German inland glaciation which is still acknowledged today. A whole 31 years previously Carl Friedrich Naumann and other scientists verified the effect of the inland ice in the Hohburg Mountains (see geotope wind and glacial striations on the Kleiner Berg near Hoburg). The glacial striations bear witness of this until today.