Hist. Geo Space Sci., 8, 29–51, 2017
www.hist-geo-space-sci.net/8/29/2017/
doi:10.5194/hgss-8-29-2017
© Author(s) 2017. CC Attribution 3.0 License.
Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
– a translation of the German text with
supplementary notes
Guido Meinhold
Universität Göttingen, Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum Göttingen, Abteilung Sedimentologie/Umweltgeologie,
Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Correspondence to: Guido Meinhold (guido.meinhold@geo.uni-goettingen.de)
Received: 5 January 2017 – Revised: 23 March 2017 – Accepted: 25 March 2017 – Published: 24 April 2017
Abstract. This work is in honour of Franz Kossmat (1871–1938) and his esteemed paper the Gliederung des
varistischen Gebirgsbaues published 1927 in Abhandlungen des Sächsischen Geologischen Landesamts, Volume
1, pages 1 to 39. It constitutes the foundation of the general subdivision of the Central European Variscides into
several geotectonic zones and the idea of large-scale nappe transport of individual units. In the English translation
presented here an attempt is made to provide a readable text, which should still reflect Kossmat’s style but would
also be readable for a non-German speaking community either working in the Variscan Mountains or having
specific interests in historical aspects of geosciences. Supplementary notes provide information about Kossmat’s
life and the content of the text. Kossmat’s work is a superb example of how important geological fieldwork and
mapping are for progress in geoscientific research.
1 Introductory comments
Franz Kossmat is a well-known scientist with a lot of
achievements of paramount importance in geosciences in the
first quarter of the 20th century. A brief summary may intro-
duce the vita of Kossmat, before giving the translation of his
truly groundbreaking publication, and the reader may consult
the given literature (Winkler-Hermaden, 1938; Lauterbach,
1972; Seibold and Seibold, 1991; Drost et al., 2005, and ref-
erences therein) for further information about Kossmat’s life.
Franz Kossmat was born on 22 August 1871 in Vienna,
Austria. After passing his high school exam in 1890 he began
his studies at the University of Vienna where he received his
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1894. His doctoral thesis
focused on the stratigraphy of phosphorus-bearing sediments
from Utatur (original title in German: Beitrag zur Stratigra-
phie der phosphatführenden Schichten von Utatur). He ob-
tained his habilitation degree in 1900 at the University of Vi-
enna. His habilitation thesis focused on the geology of the
mining area at Idria (original title in German: Geologische
Verhältnisse des Bergbaugebietes von Idria).
Kossmat was Privatdozent for Geology and Paleontology
(1900–1909) and non-scheduled extraordinary professor at
the University of Vienna (1909–1911). After his years as
professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the Graz Univer-
sity of Technology (1911–1913), he was director of the Insti-
tute of Geology and Paleontology at Leipzig University and
director of the Geological Survey of Saxony (1913–1934).
During this time, Leipzig was in a leading position for geo-
logical and geophysical research not only in Germany, but
also in Europe. Kossmat was 1 of the 24 founding mem-
bers of the German Geophysical Society in Leipzig in 1922
(Börngen et al., 2007), and he was also a member of the so-
ciety council for some time. From some time Kossmat was
responsible for the seismological station in Leipzig. During
his time in Leipzig, he worked not only in Saxony, but also
across Europe and in the Middle East, with a major focus on
the Balkans area in south-eastern Europe (Kossmat, 1924).
Kossmat presented the first geological overview map of Sax-
ony and summarized the geology in his book Übersicht der
Geologie von Sachsen (Kossmat, 1916a, 1925a). In 1920,
Franz Kossmat and Hans Lissner presented a map show-
ing the first gravity measurements of central Europe (Koss-
Published by Copernicus Publications.
30 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
mat, 1921). Amongst his many publications (see Winkler-
Hermaden, 1938), one of Kossmat’s key papers during his
scientific carrier is the Gliederung des varistischen Gebirgs-
baues, published in 1927, which is translated into English
after the introductory comments. In this paper, he estab-
lished, among others, the three main zones (Rhenohercynian,
Saxothuringian, and Moldanubian zones) of the Central Eu-
ropean Variscides and the idea of large-scale nappe trans-
port of individual units (e.g. tectonic klippen of Münchberg,
Frankenberg, and Wildenfels). Geologists still use this con-
cept today with no significant changes.
Kossmat decided to retire from his professorial position at
Leipzig University in 1934 because of health problems. Af-
ter a long and successful scientific carrier as geologist, min-
eralogist, and geophysicist, Franz Kossmat passed away on
1 December 1938 in Leipzig. Kossmat’s name is still well
known among geoscientists because of his impetus in com-
bining geology and geophysics to investigate the geological
history of Europe with a special focus on the Variscan moun-
tain belt. After these introductory comments I present Franz
Kossmat’s Gliederung des varistischen Gebirgsbaues.1
Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
Preface
When in the 1880s Eduard Suess2 attempted to combine the
individual fragments of old mountain remains in western and
central Europe into a Paleozoic mountain chain, he recog-
nized the importance of the zones stretching from the French
Massif Central through the Vosges and Black Forest to the
Erzgebirge3 and the Sudetes. From a region of this moun-
tain chain he borrowed the name which he gave to the en-
tire fold-belt. “Nowhere are the contours of single old moun-
tain cores as prominent as in front of this principal line, in
the Münchberg Gneiss Massif near Hof and in the Saxon
Granulite Massif. It is therefore appropriate that in the coun-
1Translator’s footnote (footnotes by the translator are indicated
with a capital T to discriminate them from the original footnotes
of Kossmat). Kossmat wrote his publication in German, but it is
slightly different to the German used today. The translator has tried
to keep Kossmat’s grammatical expressions to a great extent. Some
sentences are quite long and are subdivided into several comma-
separated sub-clauses. The translator also recognized that Koss-
mat’s writing style changes throughout the text. It is purely specula-
tive, but it seems Kossmat made substantial progress in better struc-
turing his writing and clarifying his thoughts while coming closer
to the end of his publication.
2T: Eduard Suess (1831–1914), Austrian geologist; he coined,
among others, the terms Gondwana-Land, Tethys, Laurentia,
Variscan Mountains, Caledonian Mountains, eustasy, biosphere,
lithosphere, hydrosphere, foreland, listric fault, horst, and graben
(Seidl, 2009; S¸engör, 2014).
3T: For convenience, throughout the text the German word
Erzgebirge is preferred instead of the English term Ore Mountains.
try of the Varisci, the Vogtland, the name of the mountain
range comprising most of the German horst regions is cho-
sen, and the Variscan Mountains4 will be named after the
Curia Variscorum (Hof in Bavaria)” (Suess, 1888, p. 131).
Since Suess published his synthesis, the systematic geo-
logical mapping by the German Geological Surveys and the
Austrian Geological Survey has progressed so far that the
overall picture created by Suess has been completed and
deepened in many respects. On the other hand, numerous
new problems of a petrographic, stratigraphic, and tectonic
nature emerged during the refinement of the observations.
Their solution would be extremely difficult if one had not
gained new perspectives for the explanation by studying the
Alpine, young mountain chains. Above all, the realization
of the great importance of thrust tectonics brought in many
cases the answer to petrographic and stratigraphic questions.
Once again the crystalline core region of the Variscan Moun-
tains became the focus of attention, especially as Franz Ed-
uard Suess (Suess, 1912a, b) had recognized the major thrust
faults in the Moravian eastern section of the Bohemian Mas-
sif, and soon afterwards explained the “old mountain core”
of the Münchberg Gneiss Massif as a klippe5. Also within
the seemingly simple anticline structure of the Erzgebirge
and the Saxon Granulite Massif one could more and more
recognize the effects of major tangential movements in the
crystalline basement (Kossmat, 1916b; Scheumann, 1925).
The exploration of the outer fold belts of the large moun-
tain range, especially in the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge6
and the Harz Mountains, is so far advanced, after overcoming
great difficulties, which the structure of the Paleozoic strata
posed, that the attempt is worthwhile to develop an overall
picture of the Variscan Mountains according to our present
knowledge. Since the Saxon Mountains represent one of the
theoretically most important sections of the Variscan arc, I
consider it justified to open the first issue of the Abhandlun-
gen des Sächsischen Geologischen Landesamts with such a
summary, in order to characterize the location of Saxony in
the geological framework of central Europe.
4The newer spelling is usually “varistisch”, but some authors
prefer the spelling “variszisch” or “variskisch”.
5T: A klippe is an erosional remnant of a formerly continuous
nappe. The reader is referred to Tollmann (1987) for further details.
6T: For convenience, throughout the text the German word
Rheinisches Schiefergebirge is preferred to the English term Rhen-
ish Slate Mountains. Karl von Raumer (1783–1865), a German ge-
ologist and educator, coined the term Rheinisches Schiefergebirge,
defined its borders, and showed it for the first time as a geological
unit. Von Raumer (1815, p. 10) wrote “Schiefer herrscht vor allem
andern Gestein in unserm Gebirge, welches ich deshalb nach ihm
nenne” [sic], which can be translated into English as follows: “Slate
dominates above all other rocks in our mountains, which I therefore
name after it”.
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 31
The Variscan phases of movement
The orogenetic processes leading to the construction of the
Variscan Mountains extended to an extraordinarily long pe-
riod, from the end of the Devonian period to the younger
Dyas7. Stille (1925) has divided the course of these move-
ments into phases which he characterizes in terms of discor-
dances in the layer sequence as follows:
Breton phase between Upper Devonian and Lower Car-
boniferous,
Sudetic phase between Lower Carboniferous and lower
Upper Carboniferous (Waldenburger Stage),
Asturian phase between Saarbrücker and Ottweiler
stages of the uppermost Upper Carboniferous,
Saalian phase between lower and upper Rotliegend,
Palatine phase between upper Dyas and Buntsandstein
(more correctly between upper Rotliegend and Zech-
stein).
It should be added that in Saxony there is a pronounced oro-
genetic phase between the lower and middle Upper Carbonif-
erous, that is, between Waldenburger and Saarbrücker stages.
In the sense of the above outline, I call it the “erzgebirgische
Phase”, which is to be inserted between the Sudetic and As-
turian phases. The main phases of folding of the Variscan
Mountains occurred in the first four phases, with the Sude-
tic and Asturian phases being dominant, although the Breton
discordance is very prominent in large areas, especially in
the more central parts of the mountains. The movements of
the Saalian and the Palatinate phases already show the de-
cay of the main mountain formation process. Stille’s8 cate-
gorization into phases is undoubtedly very useful for a clear
description of the processes and for the temporal comparison
of the individual mountain zones, if one keeps in mind that it
let appear the rhythm of the orogenetic processes too strictly
graded, since it naturally only highlights their culminating
points.
7T: The term Dyas was introduced by Jules Marcou in 1859 and
was used in Germany for the Permian (Geinitz, 1861). The older
and better known term Permian was coined by Sir Roderick Impey
Murchison. The usage of Dyas instead of the older and better term
Permian led to much debate (Murchison, 1862).
8T: Hans Stille (1876–1966), German geologist.
The subdivision of the Variscan mountain zones
A. The western part of the fold belt between the Maas
and the Elbe
I. The marginal folds (Westphalian Zone)
In the same way as the young mountain chains of Europe are
separated from the frontal parts of the continent by a filled
fore-deep (Alps and Carpathian Foreland) with a thick suc-
cession of eroded material, the Variscan mountain range is
accompanied by a long depression on its northern side. This
formed a sedimentation trough in which non-coal-bearing
sandstones were deposited concordant above Lower Car-
boniferous, and then the productive hard coal beds were de-
posited with a thickness of several thousand metres. This
concordant deposition also took place at times when the older
main phases of folding occurred in the interior of the moun-
tain range. First the Asturian movements also affected the
outer zone.
In the northern French–southern Belgian coal district,
where the spread of the Variscan Mountains was hindered
by the old Brabant Massif (Cambrian and Silurian with a
discordant overlying Middle Devonian), the coal belt was
forced into a strongly compressed depression, over which the
Ardennes advanced along flat thrust faults. Such conditions
dominate the border area up to the Aachen coal mine. Fur-
ther east, at the same time as the submerged Brabant Massif,
a freer development of the folding takes place. The extent
of the thrusting is reduced, while at the same time the coal
zones continue to move northwards in the Ruhr area. In the
subsurface of the Lower Rhine Bay, a swivelling of the mar-
gin of the mountain range took place, which Eduard Suess
designated as “Sigmoide”. He compared it with the swivel-
ling which, on the boundary of the Eastern and Western Alps,
affects the course of the tectonic zones far into the mountain.
Numerous cross-cutting faults are connected with this phe-
nomenon.
The sharp tectonic demarcation of the coal belt against the
southern neighbouring mountain zones is no longer present
in the Ruhr area. On the contrary, it is observed that individ-
ual anticlines, such as the Velbert Anticline, enter the Car-
boniferous belt in a scenery-like manner, and generally sub-
merge towards the east (Paeckelmann, 1926).
In the northern part of the Ruhr, the folds become weak
and finally appear flattened on the subsurface of the Dutch
plain. In this way, the coal field is likely to extend to the
North Sea, and finally reappears in the low-lying Carbonif-
erous regions of north-eastern England. One could speak of
a North German Great Trough in this part of the former
Variscan foreland.
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32 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
II. The Greywacke zones of the Variscan Mountains
(Rhenohercynian zones)9
II A. The Sauerland–Oberharz Zone (Ardennes Zone
west of the Rhine)
As already mentioned, the Ardennes Zone west of the Rhine
borders with a large thrust fault the southern margin of the
Belgian coal belt. It was also here, for the first time in the
Variscan Mountains, that denudation remnants of the thrust-
up mountain parts were discovered in the form of klippes
above beds of the coal-bearing syncline. A discussion of the
details of these phenomena is not planned in this work.
The Silurian and Devonian beds pushed to the north sink
southwards in individual folds, forming the Carboniferous
Dinant Syncline. The older strata rise up again on the op-
posite side, so that in the region of Rocroi and the Ho-
hes Venn10, the Cambrian group of rocks appears below the
transgressional overlying Lower Devonian. A line, which fol-
lows the axis of this anticline, intersects at an acute angle the
strike of the northern margin of the mountain, which here has
an east-north-easterly direction, while the mentioned anti-
cline strikes north-east. Therefore, the two tectonic elements
converge in the direction of the Rhine. This may be related
to the submergence of the Brabant Massif and the resulting
advancement of the Variscan arc. In the Hohes Venn, the con-
vergence has advanced so far that the tightly compressed
Devonian and Carboniferous beds of the southern part of
Marginal Zone I are exposed in the window of Theux, un-
derneath the upward-thrust Lower Devonian and Cambrian
of the Ardennes (Anonymous, 1920).
Further inward, the Middle Devonian Eifel Syncline be-
longing to the south-eastern wing of the large Ardenne Anti-
cline also shows the arrangement oblique to the general east-
north-eastern strike of the mountain.
In the eastern part of the Rhine region, as the most impor-
tant building element, the Lower Devonian Siegen Syncline
east of the Eifel Syncline region comes to the fore. It also has
a tendency to approach in the north-east the outer zone of the
mountain range. On the northern margin, in the Sauerland,
there is often overturned folding, but opinions are still di-
vided. It does not appear to be the case of thrust faults of first
order, but rather of overturned folding, and partly advancing
of the higher rock packages. There are, however, phenomena
which are part of the continuation of the southern Belgian
major thrust fault zone.
The occurrence of various special anticlines, from which
the northernmost dies out in the marginal Carboniferous re-
gion, has already been mentioned (Paeckelmann, 1926).
9The author suggests the names “Rhenohercynian Zone” for II
and “Saxothuringian Zone” for III (Chapter III).
10T: For convenience, throughout the text the German word Ho-
hes Venn is preferred instead of the English term “High Fens”.
The Lower Devonian of the Siegen Anticline descends to-
wards the north-east like the keel of a capsized ship, so that
the axis is then formed by the East Sauerland Middle Devo-
nian. Finally, it runs narrowly into the north-eastern tip of the
Rheinisches Schiefergebirge. In the north and south-east, the
limbs of the main anticline are made up of Upper Devonian
and Culm11: in the north, these strata form the margin of the
Ruhr Carboniferous, and in the south-east they represent the
youngest horizons of the Lahn–Dill Syncline, divided into
numerous thrust stacks and folds. To the south of the lat-
ter rises a new, widely running tectonic element, namely the
Hunsrück–Taunus Zone, whose Lower Devonian and partly
even older rocks form the southern heights of the Rheinis-
ches Schiefergebirge.
From the eastern margin of the Rheinisches Schieferge-
birge and the northern Kellerwald, which submerge beneath
the post-Variscan younger rocks, the tectonic arrangement
leads us into the narrow, Culm greywacke ridges of Allen-
dorf on the Werra, further into the Upper Harz (north-western
Harz) and beyond to the Culm area of Magdeburg. As in
the tectonically disturbed areas of the Lahn–Dill Syncline as
well as the Kellerwald, we have an east-north-east-striking
system of folds and thrust stacks of the Culm and the De-
vonian. In general, the Culm prevails, while the underlying
layer is exposed mostly in the form of more or less nar-
row thrust stacks of the Upper and Middle Devonian. The
most important zone of this type is the so-called Upper Harz
Greenstone Belt between Osterode and Altenau. Only in the
area south of Goslar is, as wide, north-west-folded anticline,
the Lower Devonian of the Kahleberg still exposed. This up-
lifting seems to be in the same direction as the large Devo-
nian anticline in the northern Kellerwald. In the south-west,
the Kahleberg Anticline is bordered by the west-north-west-
striking fault of Bockswiese–Schulenberg, against the Culm
of Clausthal, which is traversed here by numerous veins.
The Iberg Klippe
Strangely isolated, a fossil-rich cliff of reef limestone of the
lower Upper Devonian, which is limited all round by faults,
occurs in the Culm area of the north-western Harz at the Iberg
near Grund. The tectonic interpretation of this peculiar oc-
currence encounters difficulties. At first we might think of
the fact that here, in the south-western extension of the strike
of the cut-off Kahleberg Anticline, there is a horst, which
has again brought a piece of Devonian in the middle of the
lowered part of the Culm. It would be difficult to under-
stand, however, that the higher Upper Devonian is not vis-
ible, and that the Iberg Limestone is a facies which is not
found elsewhere in the north-western Harz. For this reason,
Welter (1910) has explained the Iberg Limestone Block not
as a horst, but as the last denudation residue of a pushed-up
11T: Culm (also known as Kulm) is often used as a synonym for
synorogenic flysch-type deposits of Carboniferous age.
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 33
mountain mass, that is, in the manner of the Swiss klippes.
The question has not been followed. At the present time,
however, it would have to be investigated again, because it
was found that the intensity of the tangential movements in
the Harz was much greater than had previously been thought.
The overturned folds and thrust stacks of the Upper Harz are
not the greatest dimension of the tectonic movements. On
the contrary, we are dealing with large shearing processes in
the eastern parts of the mountain range, which go so far that
the Lower Harz (middle and eastern Harz) was transported
as thrust nappe over the eastern folds and thrust stacks of the
Upper Harz. The latter are exposed in the middle parts of
the mountain range near Elbingerode and Tanne by denuda-
tion as windows. In the meantime, I would like to leave open
the question as to whether the Iberg Klippe was connected
with these eastern occurrences or whether it can have its ori-
gin in the thrust stacks of the Upper Harz Greenstone belt
of Osterode–Altenau. In the latter case, however, the Iberg
Limestone is not known, but the Stringocephalus Limestone
of the upper Middle Devonian is, which is already related to
it in its facies, and is often associated with it. In the win-
dow of Elbingerode the Iberg Limestone is even found in
such a relation. The idea would not be easy to point out that
the squeezed parts of this rock were pushed forward into the
north-western Harz and that they are preserved here as Iberg
Klippe. In any case, further investigation of this problem is
needed.
II B. The Lower Harz Nappe
The south-easterly dipping folds and thrust stacks of the De-
vonian and Culm in the north-western Harz are bounded to
the south-east by the ridge of the Acker-Bruchberg, whose
stratigraphy has not yet been fully clarified despite many in-
vestigations. Its quartzites are reminiscent of many parts of
the Silurian and the Rhenish Lower Devonian. Since typi-
cal lepidophyte remnants of the Culm have been found in
similar rocks near Ilsenburg in the north-eastern extension
of the Acker-Bruchberg, one must reckon with the presence
of this group. Generally, the Acker-Bruchberg seems to be a
complex rock zone due to tectonic intermixing. Devonian is
certainly represented on the south-eastern side, where north-
westerly dipping Lower Devonian greywackes and Middle
Devonian slates occur as a long succession. They lie in the
seeming hanging wall of the wide Culm zone of the Sieber
valley and are separated by these from the Devonian and Sil-
urian of the area of Andreasberg. To the south of the latter
strip one enters the much-discussed Tanne Greywacke Zone,
which was once considered by Beyrich and Loßen to be the
main anticline of the Harz, but which, on account of its plant
remnants, is younger than both flanks.
In the case of the Lower Harz there are, therefore,
very remarkable tectonostratigraphic conditions, which dif-
fer markedly from the relatively easy-to-see thrust stacks
structure of the north-western Harz, and have always pre-
sented great difficulties for the interpretation. The key to
solving this problem lies, in my opinion, in the Elbingerode
area (Kossmat, 1927a), of which the stratigraphy is particu-
larly well understood based on the documentations by Max
Koch. The region of Elbingerode is encircled all around by
pushed-up Middle and Lower Devonian beds (Fig. 1). It con-
sists of a few fairly regular anticline cores of Middle Devo-
nian volcanoclastics12, the flanks of which are built of iron-
bearing Stringocephalus Limestone, of Upper Devonian and
of Culm, and thus dip beneath the peripheral thrust zone. One
has the typical exposure of a window. The thrusting must
have come from the south over the region, with the lydite13
horizon, under- and over-lain by alum slate, being abraded to
a rather large extent, but being accumulated on the northern
side of the window. The thrust fault has subsequently been
bent by continuous folding. The Elbingerode Complex un-
derneath itself was thus exposed where the arching of the
mountain range occurred.
This later fold, which partly led to the overturning of the
northern margin of the window, undoubtedly delayed the
recognition of the tectonic nature of the area. But, after re-
ceiving my work (Kossmat, 1927a), Erdmannsdörfer sent me
a hand-drawn sketch from 1919, which had shown the phe-
nomena in the eastern part of the Elbingerode area by anticli-
nal bending of a uniform, north-directed thrust fault, but of a
more local character.
In the same way as Elbingerode, I explain the Tanne
Greywacke Zone, of which, in the year 1870, Ernst Beyrich
wrote in the explanatory notes to sheet Zorge: “The Tanne
Greywacke, with the anticlinal bending of the layers, which
has been proved several times, forms the footwall of the
Wieder slates (i.e. the Middle to Upper Devonian) surround-
ing it, and must accordingly be regarded as the oldest layers
which appear in the Harz at all.” This seemingly so accu-
rate conclusion proved to be wrong. The Tanne Greywacke
Complex, in its facies, strikingly corresponds to the Culm, is
underlain by platy clay slates and a lower lydite horizon, and
is, according to its Cyclostigma flora (with Knorria) much
younger than the strata considered earlier as its stratigraphic
section in the hanging wall14. I consider the stratification
12T: The original term Schalstein was translated as volcanoclas-
tics, and refers here to diabase breccias and diabase tuffs, which
show a foliation.
13T: A variety of radiolarian-bearing black chert.
14The exact stratigraphic age of the Tanne Greywacke requires
further clarification. The statement by Bode (1923), quoted by me in
the last paper (Kossmat, 1927a), that Nathorst suggested a Carbonif-
erous age of Tanne Greywacke, is to put right here that Nathorst
compared the few flora remnants with Upper Devonian occurrences.
Gothan, too, in a publication by Schriel, which has been kindly
made available to me in the correction proof, puts the Cyclostigma-
bearing beds in the horizon of the Upper Devonian of Bear Island.
By the way, it is generally stated that the young Devonian flora al-
ready corresponds practically to the Culm type (see e.g. Wedekind’s
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34 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
Figure 1. Sketch map and profile of the window of Elbingerode in
the Harz. Sketch map based on Plate 2 of the geological guidebook
of the Harz Mountains by Dahlgrün et al. (1925). On the eastern
side of the window are a few small modifications. Profile accord-
ing to Koch (1897). The zone of Wernigerode would be presented
differently according to recent knowledge. Lower Harz Nappe: 1:
Lower Devonian and Wissenbacher slate. Window of the Upper
Harz Series: 2: anticlines of Middle Devonian volcanoclastics, in
the eastern Elbingerode Anticline with intercalations of Tentaculite
slates. 3: iron-bearing Stringocephalus Limestone of the upper Mid-
dle Devonian with Iberg Limestone of the lower Upper Devonian.
4: Buntschiefer and Clymenia Limestone of the Upper Devonian.
5: Culm lydite. 6: Culm clay slates and greywacke. The peripheral
outcrop of the thrust fault, which is assumed to be uniform here,
is represented by a thick line. x: “Silurian” at Wernigerode (only
in the profile). In the original publication, Kossmat (1927b) refers
to these figures as individual figures, i.e. referring to Figs. 1 and 2,
although they are shown together. For simplification, in the present
translation, they refer to a single figure only. Source: Library of the
University of Göttingen.
conditions of this zone, expressed by Beyrich and Lossen,
also expressed on the Harz map 1 : 100 000 in the same way
as those of Elbingerode, and also consider the Tanne succes-
description of the Devonian in Salomon’s Principles of Geology,
Volume II, p. 201). I should, therefore, believe that other plant spec-
imens, possibly in the higher greywackes, are still to be expected till
the age diagnosis can be determined. It is noticeable to me that the
sequence of lydite above clay slate to greywackes and conglomer-
ates is exactly the same as in the clear Culm, which in the Sieber val-
ley in the Harz is only separated by a narrow Devonian ridge from
the Tanne succession. Moreover, if the latter was assigned to the
upper Devonian strata and to the boundary horizon with the Lower
Carboniferous, it would also be necessary to reject Bode’s state-
ment of the presence of Carboniferous animal remains (Cyathaxo-
nia cornu, among others). For the above tectonic considerations, the
decision of these questions does not play an important role. Only the
Culm facies in the Tanne succession would start earlier than in the
north-western Harz, if the layers in question were still the upper-
most Devonian.
sion as a window in the middle of the Lower Harz (Kossmat,
1927a). The idea that in most of the profiles on the north-
ern side of the Tanne Zone the Devonian layers, which had
originally been considered as being pushed up, dip beneath
the mentioned greywackes, does not alter the nature of the
phenomenon. It is simply connected with the fact that the
folding processes, which have continued after the thrusting,
still operated as in the further north-westward region of El-
bingerode. There too, there is an overturning of the anticli-
nal structures of the window. In the thrust belt regions of the
Alps, such and often much larger deformations of the thrust
planes are a well-known phenomenon.
The pushed up Lower Harz Nappe is intricately imbricated
and shows in an area, designated by Dahlgrün et al. (1925)
as Silurian axis, an almost continues series of fossil-bearing
exposures of Silurian age. These range from Lauterberg over
Hasselfelde and Harzgerode to the eastern part of the north-
ern margin of the Harz. Flat thrust faults are observed here.
With the already mentioned Acker-Bruchberg ridge the
north-western margin of the Lower Harz nappe system is
reached. The former owes its preservation to an introversion
into the Culm of the Upper Harz, which is exposed due to
denudation on the one side in the Söse area and on the other
side in the Sieber valley. The distance of thrust displacement
of the Lower Harz is estimated to be more than 25 km on
the basis of the above interpretation of the situation of El-
bingerode and Tanne.
II C. The Stieger Nappe
There is still a layer of beds on top of the Lower Harz Nappe,
which I would like to call Stieger Nappe (Kossmat, 1927a).
The folded Silurian and Devonian is overlain in the South-
ern Harz Syncline with discordance by a peculiarly mixed
group of beds, which, according to descriptions of Dahlgrün
et al. (1925), is rich in diabase in the lower parts of the
northern margin, and is also composed of a mixed group
of ruffled clay slates, greywacke and quartzite lenses, Wet-
zschiefer15 and lydites, and individual conglomerates. The
hanging wall is formed by Culm lydites, clay slates and
greywackes. Rotliegend lies discordant above.
Dahlgrün et al. (1925) and Schriel (1925) suggest that the
Stieger Complex is lowermost Lower Carboniferous, over-
lying transgressively Devonian and Silurian. I cannot share
this opinion because of the present circumstances, but con-
sider the Stieger Series as a variegated complex, which may
enclose different horizons of Devonian and Carboniferous
15T: Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817), a German geologist
and originator of the theory of Neptunism, coined the term Wet-
zschiefer (Werner, 1787, p. 11; Ludwig, 1804, p. 112, 113) that is
translated into English as whet slate (Jameson, 1804, p. 331–333).
Wetzschiefer describes a variety of slate, which is quartz-rich and
commonly greenish-grey in color, and when cut and polished, it is
used for sharpening knives and other cutting instruments.
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 35
rocks, perhaps even Silurian, and is separated from the un-
derlying bed by a thrust fault. That this is not a transgression
deposit is also evident from the fact that the maps to the west
of Stiege between the mentioned complex and the underlying
bed again contain lots of Culm lydites (Dahlgrün et al., 1925,
p. 146; and the Harz map by Lossen).
In the upper part of the Stieger Complex, Schriel (1925)
has already observed shearing, on which the hanging Culm
greywacke has moved forward in a flat manner. The out-
crop of these shear planes shows a conspicuous parallelism
with the outer margin of the entire Stieger Complex on the
mentioned map section of Stiege, which, in my opinion, is
also an indirect proof of the tectonic nature of this boundary.
To the Stieger Nappe, I also count the metamorphic series
of the south-eastern margin of the Harz and the Selke Syn-
cline, which appears south of Ballenstedt under the discor-
dant Rotliegend and offers the same stratigraphic profile as
at Stiege.
One gets the impression that the Stieger Nappe overall is
to be regarded as the south-eastern hanging wall of the Lower
Harz Series, which was pushed a considerable distance along
detachment surfaces, picking up together various rock layers
over the folded main part of the Lower Harz Zone.
The preceding tectonic interpretation of the stratigraphic
conditions was developed by the author in the winter of
1926/27 on the basis of the literature and maps. When it was
possible for him to examine the gained opinion on the spot,
it became clear that the basic information of the new inter-
pretation were not only found in the area of Elbingerode,
but also in that of Tanne and Stiege. For Elbingerode, there
could be little doubt in this respect after the observations by
Koch and Erdmannsdörfer. But also in the much-discussed
zone of Tanne, it became clear that the relations of the Tanne
Greywacke and the Plattenschiefer were indeed to be de-
scribed as occurring under the Lower Harz Devonian Series,
even where their northern margin is overfolded on it. Where
the Devonian slate and diabase run out in narrow tips, for ex-
ample, north of Voigtsfelde and north of Tanne, they emerge.
The contacts with the Tanne Greywacke are tectonic, and the
deepest horizons of the latter, namely, the Plattenschiefer,
form the core of the ridge, and have at Tanne in remark-
able extent the anticlinal-shaped stratification emphasized by
Beyrich.
Very interesting are the cliffs near Bad Lauterberg. The lo-
cality of graptolite slates of the Silurian occurs under a group
of diabase, ruffled slates and Culm lydites belonging to the
Stieger Nappe, but separated from it by erosion. Below, the
Tanne greywackes dip in a south-westerly direction.
The Devonian limestone cliff of the Rothäuser valley
north-west of Bad Lauterberg, which is distinguished by its
Hercynian fauna north-west of Bad Lauterberg, was inves-
tigated by Bode (1923), who found through his excavations
that the contact with the Tanne Greywacke is tectonic.
As far as the “Silurian” area of Wernigerode is concerned,
the author has the impression, based on his crossing the area,
that lydites, cherty limestones, and Plattenschiefer of the
Culm are exposed here, and that this zone, together with the
Culm greywackes of the Schlossberg and Tiergarten, tecton-
ically belongs to the Upper Harz Series. It is separated from
the Elbingerode window by an area a few kilometres wide of
Middle and Lower Devonian of the Lower Harz Nappe. The
profile of Max Koch (see Fig. 1) requires correction here.
Since the Cardiola interrupta, on the basis of which the as-
signment of the Wernigerode beds to the Silurian was made,
comes from a mining stockpile, the whole question seems to
require a re-examination.
Equivalents of the Harz nappes in the Kellerwald and
Lahn–Dill region
If the concept of the Harz given above is correct, these phe-
nomena cannot be isolated, but must show up somehow, in
view of the great extent of the movements, in the continua-
tion of the same Variscan mountain zones.
There is, of course, little to be said about the relations
to the east. Here it is only known that a pale quartzite ap-
pears near Gommern to the east of the zone of the Culm
greywackes of the Flechtingen ridge (continuation of the
Upper Harz Zone). It corresponds in its nature and in its
plant occurrences to the quartzites, which have yielded Culm
Knorria at Ilsenburg and belong to the Acker-Bruchberg
Zone. Consequently, a formation of the Culm occurs, which
is alien to the Upper Harz, but is known in the frontal zone
of the Lower Harz Nappe.
If we go from the Harz to the south-west, we find on the
left side of the Werra at Sooden-Allendorf, in the middle
of the Zechstein–Triassic area, the narrow greywacke horst,
whose rocks Beyrich compared with the Tanne Greywacke
(Moesta and Beyrich, 1886). Plant remains such as Archaeo-
calamites are quoted. On the south-eastern side of this zone,
slate and diabase are found in the apparent hanging wall,
which are comparable to the Devonian complex of the Lower
Harz, i.e. the “Wieder beds” of Lossen. The entire profile
is reminiscent of that of the southern border of the Tanne
Greywacke Zone in the Lower Harz.
Significantly more important are the occurrences in the
Kellerwald. The rock formation, which is found in the
south of the normal Devonian–Culm profiles of the northern
Kellerwald, appears to me to be a picture of a folded nappe
outlier of rocks of the Lower Harz. On its northern side, the
map of Denckmann (1901, Plate 2) shows a whole number of
small quartzite cliffs, enclosed by Upper Devonian and other
layers. In the south, the proven Silurian zone is bounded by a
Culm region, whose lydites, according to Denckmann’s con-
ception, are transgressive above Silurian, as they dip away
from it. I believe that such a stratigraphic discordance might
be different. Although the Culm lydites, because of the radi-
olarians occurring in them, do not have to be deep-sea for-
mations, they do not have the character of the basal strata
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36 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
of a transgressive complex with a strong discordance. After
an orogenic movement, which was so radical that, in a geo-
logically short time (between the upper Clymenia Limestone
and the Lower Carboniferous), the folds could be removed
except for the Silurian, one would have to expect different
basal layers of an overlying sequence of strata. It is much
more probable, as in the case of the Lower Harz, that the ap-
parently horst-like Silurian–Devonian ridge is only the rest
of a group of strata pushed onto the Culm. Their preserva-
tion would be due to the fact that they were subsequently tec-
tonically trapped, their original footwall, namely, the Culm,
which they had overthrust, being folded, or stacked.
Strangely similar conditions are found in the border area
between Lahn and Dill synclines. The Lahn Syncline in the
south, the Dill Syncline in the north, have strata of the De-
vonian and Culm, which strongly resemble the area of El-
bingerode and the Upper Harz, and with them undoubtedly
must be assigned to the Sauerland depositional region in
the broad sense. Volcanoclastics, iron ore-bearing Stringo-
cephalus Limestone and other strata are linked in all these
areas to a related facies group.
Between these two strongly tectonized synclines there is
a facies which is particularly connected with the region on
both sides of the Hörre.
Ahlburg (Kegel, 1922) referred to it as the northern
marginal facies of the Lahn Syncline and designated its area
as “horst area of the Hörre”. Klippen quartzite [Silurian?,
possibly also Lower Devonian], Koblenz beds, Middle Devo-
nian slate with the famous deposits of the “Hercynian” lime-
stones of Greifenstein, Ballersbach, Günterode and with oc-
currences of Pentamerus Quartzites characterize this “Horst
area”. It is remarkable tectonically that the strip of the above-
mentioned Hercynian limestones of Greifenstein, Ballers-
bach, and Günterode forms precisely the northern margin of
the Hörre Zone, which has been pushed up on Culm strata of
the Dill Syncline. In the Marburg area, that is, in the eastern
extension in strike direction of the “Horst Zone”, graptolite-
bearing Silurian and Hercynian Lower Devonian have been
identified. The occurrence clearly points to the moderately
distant area of the southern Kellerwald.
The Hörre Greywacke and the Plattenschiefer associated
with them caused great difficulties. After having been as-
signed to the Silurian for a long time, Ahlburg has placed
those in the Upper Devonian16. The flora of the Platten-
schiefer did not seem to contradict it. Kegel has recently
come to the following conclusion: “It is indeed clear that
most of the feldspar-rich greywackes, which have hitherto
been designated as Hörre Greywacke, cannot be distin-
guished from the Culm greywacke in the hand specimen as
well as in the composition of the rock sequence, as long as
certain quartzitic sandstones and greywacke sandstones are
disregarded. This part of the Hörre Greywacke, which the
16We are reminded of the changing views about the Tanne
Greywacke.
new recordings have taught, is now connected with platy
slates (a part of the Schiffelborn beds) in such a way that
as a normal succession the series of lydite, clay slate, and
greywackes catch someone’s eye in numerous places. It was
found that these rocks are located in smaller and larger syn-
clines and fragments of a different kind of core of the Hörre
rocks. Where, as for instance south of the Mühlberg near
Katzenfurt, the axis of such a Culm syncline comes up, the
lydites have been preserved in larger thickness. On the flanks
of the synclines they are often no longer detectable, whether
they were originally lacking or were falling victim to tectonic
movements” (Kegel, 1925, p. 293, 294).
The presumption that it was Culm was confirmed by the
fact that occasional Lepidodendra were discovered by the
Geological Institute at the University of Giessen in the Hörre
Greywacke, which W. Gothan recognized as undoubtedly
Culmian. Also the previously identified flora of the Platten-
schiefer of Sinn is to be assigned to the Culmian; it was as-
signed in the past to the Upper Devonian only on account of
its geological reasons.
At the same time, a clarification has also been made
on the Giessen Greywacke, which had previously been as-
signed to the Upper Carboniferous. They are, like the Hörre
Greywacke, accompanied at the base by lydite and also be-
long to the Culm. In the region of Giessen, that is, in the
middle part of the Giessen Greywacke Syncline, Silurian and
Pentamerus-bearing Middle Devonian limestone near Linden
has been found, where it disappears below the post-Variscan
strata. Ahlburg has thus already put this “horst region on the
south-eastern margin of the Lahn Syncline” in relation to the
“horst region of the Hörre” (Kegel, 1922, p. 64). This results
in the remarkable picture that the Lahn Syncline is accompa-
nied not only in the north, but also in the east by areas of the
Lower Harz facies which, like extraneous matters, penetrate
into the area of the normal facies of the Lahn–Dill Syncline.
In my opinion one must, at least, consider the question of
whether the apparent horst regions on the northern margin of
the Lahn Syncline and the region near Giessen are trapped
remains of klippes.
I would assume that the thrust stacks of Günterode and
Eisenroth to the north of the Hörre are still part of the thrust
system (II B), which corresponds to their Hercynian Devo-
nian facies.
The question as to whether the Hörre Greywacke, which is
recognized as Culm, belongs to the suggested klippe area or
to its underlayer cannot be discussed here.
The conditions are complicated in the Lahn–Dill area by
the fact that the entire systems of strata are affected by an in-
tense stacking. This is the case, for example, of the Deckdi-
abas Thrust Fault, the margin of which overlaps the southern
part of the Hörre Culm (Kegel, 1922).
Of course there are so many problems in the tectonically
and stratigraphically unusually difficult areas, as we find
them in the Lahn and Dill areas, that it would be a mistake
to come up with a new interpretation without further ado on
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 37
the basis of the work to date. One will have to wait patiently
for what the field observations will bring. But these ques-
tions must be raised now. As I think, in the whole of the
mountain range from the Harz to the Lahn area, the afore-
mentioned references are so closely combined that one can
see here an argument for the justification of the pronounced
chain of thought.
As has already been said in the discussion of the
Sauerland–Upper Harz Zone, the fold axes rise somewhat
higher in the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge than in the Harz.
It is thus in agreement that the continuation of the compara-
tively coherent Lower Harz Nappe, perforated only by a few
windows, is merely reduced to narrow ridges. According to
the above interpretation, the Sauerland–Upper Harz forma-
tion, which we saw in the Lower Harz only in the form of
the windows mentioned, now forms the widespread folds and
imbricate thrust stacks of the Lahn–Dill Syncline. If we fol-
low the mountains still further to the south-west to the Rhine,
not only the last klippes of the apparent horst zone have dis-
appeared, but also the Culm and younger Devonian strata of
the Lahn–Dill Syncline. We are located in Koblenz in a wide
synclinal region, which is complicated by isoclinal folding
(Fuchs, 1907), of the Lower Devonian Koblenz beds, which
here separate the Siegen Syncline from the Hunsrück–Taunus
Zone.
The question as to how the above-tried reinterpretation of
Ahlburg’s horst or klippe zone is related to the phenomena
indicated by Gerth from the Taunus Mountains in 1910 must
remain open for the time being. Gerth (1910) has argued that
in the Taunus large thrusting have taken place, which have
brought the old Devonian Taunus Quartzite widely into the
hanging wall of younger Devonian strata. He assumes a sub-
sequently folded Taunus Nappe, under which here and there
the covered sequence is exposed in the form of windows.
Gerth (1910), whose view has recently been counteracted
(Michels, 1926), has, in my opinion, the merit of having been
brought up one of the most important problems in the forma-
tion of the eastern Rheinisches Schiefergebirge.
Leppla (1925), on whose work cand. Geol. Gellert recently
drew my attention to, has found in profiles of the Saar in the
continuation of the Taunus Zone to the west of the Rhine
still relations, which, with all cautious restraint, he interprets
as the thrust margin of the Taunus quartzite. Further north,
on the northern margin of the Hunsrück slates against the
higher Lower Devonian, thrust faults are known, and it may
well be supposed that the Middle Devonian of Olkenbach at
the east end of the Triassic Bay of Trier does not owe its
preservation to a mere depression. The Rhine profile shows
isoclinal folding where the Koblenz Syncline at Goarshausen
crosses, which in principle are reminiscent of the imbricate
thrust stacks structure of the Lahn area (Fuchs, 1907). Many
tectonic features are still to be expected.
One can sometimes read that the Variscan Mountains were
much more denuded than the Alps, that those upper thrust
nappe masses, which occupy such a broad area in the lat-
ter, are eroded to the root. This is certainly not the case.
The Variscan Mountains are, to this day, not at a substan-
tially different denudation level than at the Rotliegend time,
which is at the end of the folding. They are scarcely as deeply
eroded as the Alps would be if the present-day valley floors
were taken as a denudation surface. However, if so, the upper
Alpine thrust nappe series, e.g. those of the northern Lime-
stone Alps, would not have disappeared yet.
On the whole, the tectonic main structure of the Rheno-
hercynian zones of the Variscan Mountains from the Rhine
to the Harz provide the following order.
II A. Sauerland–Upper Harz Zone, predominantly with quite
clear folds and thrust stacks of Devonian and Culm
strata.
II B. Lower Harz Nappe, pushed upon II A. It consists of all
strata from the Silurian up to the Culm and rises to the
west, so that in the border region between Lahn and Dill
syncline we find their last imbricate stacks in narrow re-
mains, which were still preserved from the denudation.
II C. The Stieger Nappe of the southern Harz, consisting pre-
dominantly of Devonian and Culm and interpreted as a
far advanced southern hanging wall of II B. Their west-
ern continuation is at times unknown, if it is not to be
found in the southern margin of the Taunus.
None of the Rhenohercynian mountain zones enters the area
of Saxony. They all pass far in the north of the country. Only
the next interior of the large Variscan mountain units is in-
volved in the formation of the Saxon underground, and here
it even reaches its typical appearance, so that Eduard Suess
was able to borrow the name of the entire mountainous sys-
tem from the Vogtland.
III. The Thuringian–Erzgebirge zones (Saxothuringian
Zone of Kossmat)
The type of relation between the southern margin of the
greywacke belt and the nearest interior mountain ranges is
not known. Both south of the Hunsrück–Taunus, and south
of the Harz, the old mountains have been sunk and covered
by younger strata. From the fragments, however, which are
visible at a short distance from the break-off edge, we see that
a crystalline basement passes through here. We see some of
these in the Kyffhäuser, in the north-western Thuringian For-
est, in the Spessart, Odenwald, and finally in some summits
at Albersweiler, west of the Rhine.
With regard to the tectonic relation of this crystalline re-
gion to the greywacke belt, it may be assumed that this is not
a simple appearance of the deeper rock groups. The studies
of Schriel in the area of the southern Harz have shown that
the so-called Stieger Series dips southward under the Culm,
and that the greywackes of the latter are pushed to the north
along shear planes. As a part of gneisses and of mylonite
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38 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
granites is already lying south of the margin of the Harz,
at the Kyffhäuser hillside with the floodplain of the Gold-
ene Aue, I suspect the hypothesis that this crystalline zone
had been pushed towards the submerged Paleozoic series of
the Harz from the south, and that the abovementioned shear-
ing phenomena in the hanging wall of the Stieger Series are
related to this assumed thrusting of the crystalline rocks of
Zone III.
The best insights into the structure of Zone III are obtained
in the Thuringian–Erzgebirge region, according to which this
unit can be appropriately named. We are concerned here
with a seemingly concordant series of rocks, the basal parts
of which consist of different types of gneiss. They are fol-
lowed by muscovite-rich mica schists and phyllites with oc-
casional intercalations of various other metamorphic sedi-
mentary rocks and of lenses of various amphibolites. With-
out passing a sharp border, one comes from the upper parts of
the metamorphic series into the Cambro–Silurian clay-slate
group and into the Silurian; in the upper section of the latter
the graptolite-bearing alum slates and lydites form an impor-
tant marker horizon. The hiatus of the Lower Devonian is
not noticeable by any conspicuous angular discordance. The
Middle and Upper Devonian, which are characterized by nu-
merous diabase intercalations, are followed by Culm slates
and greywackes, which are still involved in folding. Only
in the progressively coarser formation of the higher Culm
strata is the approach of the mountain-forming process ex-
pressed. The main folding was at the end of the Culm; but
a weaker phase occurred within the area of the Erzgebirge
in the transitional period between Waldenburger and Saar-
brücker level. The Asturian, Saxon and Palatine phases show
only the ending of the movements. The intrusion of the large
granite batholiths probably took place in the main area to-
wards the end of the earlier stages of mountain formation.
It would be an unnecessary repetition if the structure of the
Saxothuringian fold region was discussed here. For this rea-
son, reference should be made to the overview in the Geolo-
gie von Sachsen (Kossmat, 1925a), Johannes Walther’s Ge-
ologie von Thüringen, as well as to the new publications of
the Thuringian Geological Society. The crystalline basement
of the Saxothuringian Zone is exposed in three large saddle-
like regions.
III A. The northernmost is the zone Kyffhäuser–western
Thuringian Forest. In the latter, the gneiss–mica schist re-
gion of Brotterode and Ruhla, which is intruded by granite, is
worth mentioning. The connection with the gneiss and mica
schist area of the Vorder-Spessart is indicated by crystalline
xenoliths in the basalt near Fulda. The Böllstein Massif in the
eastern Odenwald, with biotite gneisses, muscovite gneisses,
mica schists, and marbles, also belongs to this zone (Suess,
1926, p. 99, 191). The western Odenwald has a different
character with its mica schists, its contact-metamorphosed
old Paleozoic sediments, and the various basic to acidic plu-
tonites. F. E. Suesss has pointed out major tectonic problems
here, but the extent of the crystalline basement is too much
interrupted to allow for far-reaching conclusions.
III B. The second large saddle-like region of Zone III in
the Fichtelgebirge and Erzgebirge region offers much better
information. In the latter it has been shown that the seemingly
simple dome structure of this “saddle zone” contains very
complicated structures. The gneisses and their slate cover are
tectonically intermixed by tangential sliding movements and
intercalated with each other to form an “onion-shell struc-
ture”. The structure is reminiscent of the Penninic basement
tectonics of the Alps (Kossmat, 1925a).
These tectonic movements took place in the depths of the
mountains, and were accompanied by the recrystallization
characterized by abundant muscovite formation, which are
called “lepidoblastic”. But the central gneiss cores remained
deeply connected with the magmatic region, because we can
see in the Erzgebirge near Fleyh, Bobritzsch and other local-
ities, as well as in the Fichtelgebirge, as the last intrusions
in the domed area still granites, which have lasted the fold-
ing process in the liquid phase. The Erzgebirge may well
be described as a “nucleus autochthonous”. However, be-
cause of tangential movements the hanging wall of the gneiss
dome, as already mentioned, has been metaphorically speak-
ing drawn-out into flags. Certainly the seemingly concordant
slate cover in the roof of the gneisses has also undergone
considerable tangential movements.
On the basis of the tectonic experiences in the Erzgebirge,
it must be assumed that the crystalline basement has also ex-
perienced similar stresses in the Spessart–West Thuringian
Zone. We are in the area of “Wander tectonics”, as Franz Ed-
uard Suess calls it.
The relatively small granite dome, which is visible north
of the Erzgebirge as the core of a wide anticline, has a special
position under a strongly fragmented gabbro and a metamor-
phic slate cover. The latter has moved tangentially to the core
and, like the peripheral parts of the granulite, shows traces of
this stress in the form of lepidoblastic recrystallization. The
granulite core itself, however, has a texture which, according
to Scheumann (1925) and myself, points to syntectonic intru-
sion, i.e. to a solidification of the granulite with simultaneous
tectonic stress.
Franz Eduard Suess considers the granulite as an out-
landish element in the area of Zone III, of course. He suspects
that it came from the area of the Moldanubian intrusion tec-
tonics, and that it had come to its place by thrusting over the
Erzgebirge. On the other hand, I regard the Granulite Massif
as a nucleus autochthon and as a particular intrusion stage at
the time of folding. The connection with the magma source
remained beyond the latter, because the granulite is every-
where intruded by young granites, which are connected to
it, but did not solidify until after the main phase of folding
(Philippsborn, 1923; Kossmat, 1925a).
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 39
IV. The thrust nappes of basement block of
Münchberg–Wildenfels–Frankenberg and the main
region of the Bohemian Massif (Moldanubicum,
according to Franz Eduard Suess)
The occurrences of gneiss massifs in the area of the Vogt-
land Paleozoic have been so frequently discussed in the liter-
ature in the course of recent years that it suffices to refer to
them. After Gümbel had already made the observation that
the Münchberg Gneiss Massif seemingly superimposed the
surrounding Paleozoic, Suess (1912b), on the basis of his in-
vestigations, concluded that it is a rootless nappe. The small
amphibolite slice of the Wartturmberg, which is isolated from
the main massif, overlying the Paleozoic at Hof, contributes
significantly to supporting this view. The new work of Wurm
(1926) confirmed the opinion of Franz Eduard Suess and pro-
vided further arguments for the existence of a tectonic klippe
which is to be found south of the Fichtelgebirge dome at the
northern margin of the Bohemian Massif. Similar consider-
ations also apply to the small Wildenfels Gneiss Klippe and
to the Frankenberg Zwischengebirge17 (Scheumann, 1924;
Kossmat, 1925a), whose gneiss and amphibole rocks occur
completely isolated in the middle of the Paleozoic syncline,
which separates the Erzgebirge and Granulite Massif from
each other.
An interpretation of these occurrences as “piercing” gneiss
horsts is opposed to quite similar reasons, as at that time
induced the Alpine geologists to reject the interpretation
of the Swiss klippes as local ridges and to recognize the
rootless character of these nappes. There are undoubtedly
quite tremendous processes, as the distance from the tectonic
klippes to the source region, namely the border of the central
Bohemian Massif, is to be estimated with at least 50 km. This
circumstance was probably the most important reason for re-
straint against the interpretation of the Münchberg Klippe
given by Franz Eduard Suess.
In the Frankenberg region, the margin of the thrusting must
have reached the Erzgebirge Basin at the end of the Culm,
as the conglomerates of the Waldenburg beds (the so-called
Upper Culm of Hainichen and Berthelsdorf near Chemnitz)
are already transgressive over the western margin of the tec-
tonic klippe. They have, however, still experienced together
with these bending and faulting. It is of interest that the
post-tectonic granite intrusion of the Eibenstock Massif in
the western Erzgebirge from the Moldanubian gneiss region
transverses through the zone of thrusting up to the Erzge-
birge. Similarly, in the Harz, the Brocken Granite has also
penetrated the thrust plane.
17T: The term Zwischengebirge (Zwischen-Gebirge in the Ger-
man original) was coined by Suess (1909, p. 435). This term is of-
ten translated into English as median massif, intermediate range or
betwixt mountains, with betwixt mountains (Collet, 1935, p. 24)
being the best translation. For convenience, throughout the text the
German word is preferred instead of the English term.
A description of the Moldanubian core area of the Bo-
hemian Massif would only be an excerpt from the repre-
sentation of Franz Eduard Suess. It is, therefore, only to be
pointed out briefly that here biotite gneisses of the deeper
basement (catogenic gneiss), in association with numerous
highly metamorphosed sediments and mixed rocks, are pen-
etrated by voluminous granite masses. There is a highly com-
plex structure in the gneiss area, which often follows the out-
line of granite batholiths. Franz Eduard Suess describes the
whole phenomenon as intrusive tectonics and sharply con-
trasts it with the wander tectonics, i.e. the thrusting structures
of the basement of the Erzgebirge–Thuringian Zone (Suess,
1926).
The tectonic separation between the Erzgebirge and Cen-
tral Bohemian Massif is also strongly expressed in stratig-
raphy. In the latter, as is well known, the Algonkian and
old Paleozoic series of strata of Central Bohemia occur in
a large folded syncline. It is very important that in this re-
gion the Middle Cambrian and Lower Silurian discordances
are preserved intact. In the Erzgebirge–Thuringian Zone, on
the other hand, these discordances are clearly blurred by the
intense tangential movement under great strain, so that one
can see a concordant profile from the crystalline basement to
the old Paleozoic in the Erzgebirge.
In the facies of the Cambrian, in the calcareous Upper
Silur and Devonian facies, as well as in the fossil content, the
Central Bohemian sequence shows many fundamental differ-
ences compared to the Vogtland–Thuringian sedimentary se-
quence. It furthermore already finishes with a plant-bearing
upper Middle Devonian. It is evident that the early Variscan
movements have already been active in the Upper Devonian,
and have increased in the Culm to the prominent thrust move-
ments18.
It is difficult to answer the question of how the crys-
talline zones of Saxony and Franconia continue to western
Germany. The mighty Erzgebirge and Fichtelgebirge dome
seems to disappear under its slate cover.
The latter closes very clearly around the Fichtelgebirge
dome. Even this circumstance implies that the Black For-
est and the Vosges, i.e. the so-called Upper Rhenish horsts,
already belong to Zone IV, i.e. the Moldanubicum. Eduard
Suess has already expressed this view, and in doing so he
was guided by the phenomena of intrusive tectonics, which
in the two Upper Rhine massifs, as in the central Bohemian
Massif, are of similar prominence. Inevitably, the continua-
tion of the Moldanubic type into the French Central Plateau,
which has many parallels with the central Bohemian Massif,
happens via the Vosges.
18Only on the western margin of the Münchberg Gneiss Massif
has Adolf Wurm found in the extremely complicated tectonic slices
a facies of the old Paleozoic which is reminiscent of that of the Cen-
tral Bohemia, which he describes as “Bavarian facies”. According
to his observations, it appears that these are beds which have been
detached from their underlayer and dragged at the thrust front.
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40 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
For the time being, there is nothing to be sure about
whether the Moldanubian Thrust is present in the Upper
Rhine massifs. It is important that in the Vosges the old
Paleozoic Steiger and Weiler slates dip under the gneisses
of the Urbeis area, and so abruptly that one can think of
the continuation of the Moldanubian Thrust over the exten-
sion of the Vogtland–Thuringian Paleozoic. It is questionable
whether the displacement is as great as that in the area of
the Münchberg–Frankenberg tectonic klippes. It might well
be that the amount of thrusting here is less. This would per-
haps reconcile the fact that the Culm (which lacks the actual
Moldanubian territory) plays a similar role in the Black For-
est and in the Vosges, as in the northern border mountains
of the Bohemian Massif – as in the Erzgebirge and in the
Sudetes. To the latter particularly reminiscent is in the Vos-
ges and the Black Forest the prominent Culm discordance
above folded basement, perforated by batholiths. The discor-
dance is undoubtedly connected with the proximity of the ax-
ial region of the Variscan Mountains, in which the pre-Culm
movements were much stronger than in the outer belts.
B. The eastern part of the Variscan arc
I. The Upper Silesian–Polish coal field
This represents a broadly developed syncline, which only oc-
casionally shows a slight overturned folding, which is di-
rected towards the centre of the syncline, but only at the
western margin; otherwise, it has very simple tectonostrati-
graphic conditions. We are here again in the former margin of
the Variscan Mountains. The Culm and Devonian folds rise
up in the Nízký Jeseník19 Mountains, while the Lower Car-
boniferous limestones of the Kraków region and Devonian
strata, which are closely related to those of the Kielce Moun-
tains, are already found in a relatively simple tectonostrati-
graphic position, outside the eastern margin of the hard coal
region. We must already consider the north-westerly-striking
folds of the Cambrian, Silurian, and Devonian of Kielce as a
zone of folds of the Russian region lying outside the actual
Variscan system.
The question of whether the coal deposits in the subsur-
face of the northern German lowlands continually pass to the
north-western section of the coal belt, the last of which we
are acquainted with at Osnabrück, has not yet been decided
with the inclusion of the Upper Silesian–Polish Coal Basin
to the marginal belt of the Variscan Mountains. The marginal
basin will not have the same width and depth everywhere. It
may have been narrowed where the protruding Variscan arch
approached the border of the rigid northern European conti-
nental region, so that the Carboniferous zone may have been
displaced here, or may have fallen victim to later denudation.
Originally, however, there would probably have been a coher-
19T: Nízký Jeseník is the Czech name for a mountain range of the
eastern Czech Republic. The German name is Niederes Gesenke.
ent belt of deposits, which is still known in western Asia. The
Carboniferous on the north-eastern coast of Asia Minor has
striking features in common with our Carboniferous in the
foreland basins (Wilser, 1927), especially when one consid-
ers that in a southerly adjoining zone of the Bosporus region
the Devonian shows a Rhenish character.
II. The East Sudetic Greywacke Zone
In southern Moravia, between Brno and Weißkirchen, the
Sudetes area of the Nízký Jeseník Mountains emerges from
the young deposits of the Carpathian foreland. With north-
eastern to north-north-eastern strike, it stretches only to the
extent of the broad Oder plain of Silesia; then, it remains
buried under the deposits of the lowland, only covered by the
expanded deposits of the March valley near Olmütz. Within
this Devonian and Culm belt there is a complicated struc-
ture of folds, on which the sheets of the Austrian geological
special map, recorded by Emil Tietze, Gejza von Bukowski,
and Leopold von Tausch, shed light. Under the Devonian, the
basis of which is constituted by conglomerates in different
places, an old basement consisting of phyllites, amphibolites,
and perhaps gneisses appears in places, for example, on the
map sheet of Olmütz (Tietze, 1893). From the northern part
of this Sudetes Zone, Bederke (1925, p. 104) mentions the
occurrence of gneiss pebbles in the foliated Lower Devonian
conglomerates near Dürrseifen west of Engelsbach and near
Ober-Grund south-west of Zuckmantel.
These important observations from different parts of the
Eastern Sudetes Devonian zone prove that the Variscan fold-
ing has here affected a region which had already been influ-
enced by the Caledonian orogeny. In many respects one can
remember the circumstances of the Brabant horst in the fore-
land of the West Variscan mountain section. The Devonian
discordances in the Ardennes also belong to this group of
phenomena.
The relations in the area of the Brno Granite–Syenite in-
trusions are still unclear. Here the geological mappings show
a coarse clastic basal formation of the Devonian, reminiscent
of Old Red, above the plutonic basement. Contact metamor-
phic features do not exist. New investigations, however, have
to show whether the boundary here must be regarded as an
original superposition over a pre-Variscan basement, or as
a shear plane, as Franz Eduard Suess is inclined to accept
(Suess, 1926, p. 228).
The boundary between the East Sudetic Greywacke
Zone and the Moravian–Silesian Unit
In the west, the zone of the non-metamorphic Devonian
strata of the Nízký Jeseník Mountains adjoins intensively
tectonized crystalline rocks of the Moravian–Silesian Zone,
as its investigator Franz Eduard Suess called it. While in
the West Variscan section we can nowhere see the con-
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 41
tact between the Greywacke Zone (II) and the crystalline
belt of Spessart–Kyffhäuser (Zone III), the boundary of
the Moravian–Silesian region is considerable and promises
many interesting discoveries on tectonic questions. It should
be mentioned that Bukowski records irregular blocks of Sile-
sian chlorite gneiss in the region of the steeply dipping
folded Devonian in his mapped sheet Mährisch-Neustadt–
Schönberg (Bukowski, 1905). The nature of the occurrence
of these blocks, which are partly folded but irregularly cross-
ing the strike of the Devonian, and which not infrequently
rest upon Devonian on a longer stretch, does not, in my opin-
ion, speak of saddle-like structures, but of trapped tectonic
klippes.
The boundary between the well-known Würbental Lower
Devonian quartzite and the crystalline basement of the Alt-
vater is, as Franz Eduard Suess pointed out, not a simple su-
perposition, but shows strong tectonic disturbances (Suess,
1912a). Bederke also describes conspicuous planes of move-
ment on the eastern boundary of the Altvatergneis, but em-
phasizes that the latter must have already formed the base-
ment of Devonian deposits and had pre-Devonian metamor-
phosed (Bederke, 1925, p. 104).
Franz Eduard Suess summarizes his impressions of the na-
ture of the western boundary of the Devonian and Culm re-
gion in the following manner: “If we consider the Silesian–
Moravian structure in its larger contexts, it is seen that the
non-metamorphic Devonian is widely spread under the Culm
of the outer zone, but that it then engages under the thrust
nappe, and has best preserved its non-metamorphic character,
where it forms the base of the pushed up Moravian nappes”
(Suess, 1926, p. 232).
A closer tectonic comparison of the Devonian–Culm zone
of the Sudetes with the individual units of the West Variscan
Rhenohercynian zones in the Harz and the Rheinisches
Schiefergebirge is, of course, excluded. It seems almost im-
possible that individual folds and thrusts, though they may
be so major, can be traced to such a distance.
The narrow width of the greywacke belt is striking in the
Sudetic section, compared to the wide expansion in the West
Variscan area. One is reminded of the phenomena in the
Carpathian arch, where the Flysch Zone, which is broadly
developed in the main section of the Carpathians, narrows
further to the east, and is almost overwhelmed by the crys-
talline zones that penetrate the interior. This is especially the
case where the mountains bend back with a sharp turn to the
Danube Gorge area at the Iron Gates. One can almost com-
pare the Sudetes loop with this Wallachian loop.
III. The Moravian–Silesian Zone and the Lugian Zone
Moravian–Silesian Zone. The Moravian Zone recognized
by Franz Eduard Suess on the eastern margin of the Bo-
hemian Massif as a special tectonic unit decays in length
into a Thaya dome near Znaim and into a Schwarzawa dome
at Gross-Bittesch. According to Franz Eduard Suess, it is “a
mountain for itself”, of Alpine nappe structure, indeed in a
dome-shaped arrangement.
The Moravian hanging wall is the sericitic “Bittescher”
augen-gneiss, which is matched to the parallel structure of
the Moldanubian mica slate (see Zone IV) with a concor-
dant assembly and is surrounded and overlain by them. At
the core of the dome, the Thaya batholith emerges, which
becomes flaser gneiss at the margin, similar to the Zentral-
gneisses of the Alps. Between the core batholith and the
Bittescher Gneiss Nappe, metamorphic sediments, namely,
slate, greywackes, quartzites, and grey limestones, are inter-
calated, which are interpreted as a modified Devonian. Their
metamorphic grade ranges from phyllitic to the formation of
garnet and staurolite-bearing mica schists. The entire zone
belongs to a shallower depth of metamorphism than that of
the Moldanubicum which has been pushed up. The latter is
to be assigned to the deepest basement in central Europe.
To the north of the Moravian Zone through the embed-
ded Rotliegend of Mährisch–Trübau–Boskowitz appear rock
assemblages of a similar character only on the left side of
the Morava River and form the high, north-northeast striking
Hrubý Jeseník20 Mountains, which continues into the area
of Freiwaldau. Significant traces of this zone are observed
in the hills of the Rummelsberg Group, which rise north of
the young Sudetic Marginal Fault, east of Nimptsch in the
form of mica schists, quartzites, crystalline limestones, and
amphibolites. This is the “Silesian Zone” of Franz Eduard
Suess.
Completely open is the question of where the equivalent of
the Moravian–Silesian Zone is to be found in the western part
of the Variscan arch. It is not impossible that a metamorphic
equivalent of the innermost regions of the Rhenohercynian
belt will appear.
Lugian Zone.21 In the west, the Silesian Zone, from
Buschin in Moravia to Friedeberg in Silesia, descends along
the so-called Ramsau Line near Goldenstein under the crys-
talline region of the Králický Sneˇžník22 Mountains, which
belongs to the Lugian system of Franz Eduard Suess. The
strike here is north-northeast, but it bends into the north-
north-westerly direction near the Sudetic Marginal Fault,
which, in my opinion, shows the tendency of incorpora-
tion into the arc. On the Ramsau Line near Goldenstein,
slate-like phyllites and non-metamorphic limestones of the
Silesian Zone dip below coarse-grained garnet-bearing mica
schists of the Králický Sneˇžník Mountains, so that the con-
20T: Hrubý Jeseník is the Czech name for a mountain range of
Eastern Sudetes in northern Moravia and Czech Silesia. The Ger-
man name is Altvatergebirge or Hohes Gesenke.
21Named after the tribe of the Luger in Tacitus (Suess, 1926,
p. 4).
22T: Králický Sneˇžník is the Czech name for a mountain in
the Eastern Sudetes. The German name is Glatzer Schneeberg or
Spieglitzer Schneeberg.
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42 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
trast is particularly striking. Further north, this does not seem
so much the case, since on both sides of the tectonic line
garnet–mica schists with intercalations of two-mica gneisses
are mentioned.
“The prominent rocks of the Králický Sneˇžník Moun-
tains are two-mica gneisses (Rosiwal’s red gneisses), also
muscovite gneisses, mica schists and gneiss mica schists,
graphite layers, very diverse hornblende rocks, partly epi-
dote or augite bearing, and crystalline limestones, as well
as ridges of biotite gneiss in the area from the Morava val-
ley near Platsch, northward, and in the place cited. It is al-
most the whole irregular mixture of diversity of Moldanubian
rocks” (Suess, 1926, p. 151). Franz Eduard Suess considers
this series to be the foothills of the Moldanubian Plain, partly
with lepidoblastic foliation (Suess, 1926, p. 240).
I must say, however, that this rock formation, in which the
gneiss also plays a part, reminds me much more of the pet-
rographic composition of the western Erzgebirge in the sur-
rounding area of Wiesenthal.
The lepidoblastic foliation with abundant muscovite for-
mation also characterizes this region and distinguishes it fol-
lowing Suess from the Moldanubicum.
The character of the Paleozoic in the Lugian section of the
Sudetes has, I believe, very much to say. In the crystalline
region of the Králický Sneˇžník, the Glatzer region, with its
phyllites, its Silurian alum slates and lydites, its diabase –
for which Bederke (1924) assumed a pre-Devonian age – its
fossil-bearing Upper Devonian, and its Culm strongly remind
one of the Vogtland–Thuringian facies. The appearance of
the Paleozoic in the Bober-Katzbach mountain range, which
lies on the northern margin of the Western Sudetes, which is
still in the Lugian area, also agrees with this. The difference
with the Moldanubian Paleozoic with its calcareous Upper
Silurian–Devonian beds is so profound that the question as
to whether the Lugian mountain section has closer relations
to the Saxothuringian Zone (III) or the Moldanubian Zone
(IV) is also from this point of view to be answered in favour
of the first.
The crystalline rocks of the Eastern Sudetes belong to-
gether with those of the Western Sudetes to one and the same
“Lugian” basement regions. They are, as Suess (1926, p. 122
and 136) emphasized, connected with them. From the crys-
talline belt, which encircles the eastern Krkonoše23 Moun-
tains, units depart to the south-east, which unmistakably con-
tinue in the “Bohemian ridge” (Adler and Habelschwerdter
Gebirge), which is already part of the Eastern Sudetes.
In my work of 1925 (Kossmat, 1925, p. 353, 354), I have
remarked as follows about the connecting region between
the Western Sudetes and Eastern Sudetes: “In the Middle
Sudetes, the crystalline basement plunges down relatively
deeply. As long as the connection can be found below the
23T: Krkonoše is the Czech name for a mountain range in the
north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland. The Ger-
man name is Riesengebirge.
transgressive overlying Carboniferous–Dyas–Upper Creta-
ceous strata, it may be assumed that a narrow strip of gneiss
and mica schist in the south-easterly direction, from the crys-
talline slate belt, forms the connection with the Adler and
Habelschwerdter Gebirge. In the further course, the latter is
connected with the extended basement uplifts of the Eastern
Sudetes (“Hrubý Jeseník”).”
IV. The Moldanubian Nappe of Góry Sowie24
“To the north of the Habelschwerdter gneiss–mica schist’s
ridge, phyllites and Silurian–Devonian strata must occupy
by far the largest part of the subsurface, because they are
exposed in the north-west and north of Waldenburg, as well
as in Glatz, surrounded by transgressive overlying younger
strata. Here, therefore, lies the deepest depression of the old
fold zone, dividing it into a western and eastern Sudetic sec-
tion.
It is therefore all the more striking that in this synclinal-
like depression the gneiss massif of the Góry Sowie rises like
an island pointed to the west. In very small, often scarcely
1 km distances from the margin of the gneiss, unaltered Sil-
urian slates and calcareous beds of Upper Devonian strata
(e.g. at Oberkunzendorf, Adelsbach, Ebersdorf, and Her-
zogswalde) occur in the north-west and south-east and con-
tinue into the Glatzer Kessel.
The immediate contact with the gneiss is covered by
a conglomerate with Productus giganteus (upper stage of
the Lower Carboniferous). It is local to the heights of the
Eulengebirge, and is evidently similar in structure to the
conglomerate of the Hainichen–Berthelsdorf beds in the
Frankenberg region. The age difference is certainly not big:
it is about the time span of the upper Lower Carboniferous to
the lower Upper Carboniferous.
If we consider the whole layout, we have the presump-
tion that the Góry Sowie occupies an analogous position
in the mountain structure, like the Frankenberg–Wildenfels–
Münchberg Gneiss Klippes” (Kossmat, 1925b, p. 354).
In this view of the Góry Sowie, Suess and I agree abso-
lutely, and have expressed this idea independently of one
another. The question now is whether the crystalline region
of the Králický Sneˇžník Mountains of the Eastern Sudetes,
which was pushed up onto the Silesian Zone along the Ram-
sau Thrust Fault, is to be regarded as an area lying below the
Góry Sowie, but also a Moldanubian Zone, or as a Sudetic
partial nappe. From my point of view, the important facts,
especially the description of their composition of rocks by
Franz Eduard Suess and their connection with the relatively
autochthonous Krkonoše crystalline and the facies of their
Paleozoic, are decisive for the latter interpretation.
24T: Góry Sowie is the Polish name for a mountain range in the
Central Sudetes in south-western Poland. The German name is Eu-
lengebirge. The English name Owl Mountains has not been used
here.
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 43
More recently, the view was expressed (Zimmermann,
1924; Schindewolf, 1925, p. 84ff.) that on the northern side
of the Góry Sowie the gneiss-bearing conglomerates with the
accompanying greywackes do not correspond to the Culm
conglomerates with Productus giganteus, which lie above
the gneiss at Silberberg, but belong to the upper Devon. The
Góry Sowie ought to have already taken its present posi-
tion in the latter period. The other tectonic arguments, which
speak for the rootless character of the Góry Sowie, are, by
the way, likely to be around for the foreseeable future.
It seems to me that the reasons given are not valid for the
revision made in the age assignment. Coarse conglomerates,
such as those in the limestone graben near Alt-Liebichau,
which, besides Góry Sowie gneisses and other rocks, also
include Upper Devonian Sphaerocodium Limestone (Schin-
dewolf, 1925) and thus look similar to the real Culm in the
wider surrounding, are very suspect. The narrow tectoni-
cally disturbed parts of fossil-bearing Upper Devonian slates,
which appear to be intercalations, and which gave rise to the
new conception of the age assignment, give me the impres-
sion that they are pushed-up thrust slices of the substrata.
Zimmermann has now placed on the map of Schweidnitz
the entire, several-kilometre-wide range of the greywackes
and conglomerates mentioned in the vicinity of the Kunzen-
dorfer limestone quarry (Zimmermann, 1924, p. 17, 26), on
the grounds of strike and dip, in the Upper Devonian, and
writes: “If this is the case, then the Schweidnitzer Upper De-
vonian has a petrographic character which up to now has not
been known either from Silesia or elsewhere from Germany,
and has, therefore, an exceedingly great thickness, which is,
perhaps, 1100 m” (Zimmermann, 1924, p. 17).
Now the following is to be considered: The con-
glomerates and greywackes, which appear to lie below
the Sphaerocodium-bearing, fossil-rich Kunzendorfer Lime-
stone, and are designated as the lowest Upper Devonian by
Zimmermann, extend to the west in uninterrupted manner in
the map sheet of Freiburg. They pass via Liebichau into the
area of Fürstenstein, whose rocks are still left as Culm for
good reason by Bederke (1924, p. 39), while consequently
Zimmermann must place them to his lowermost Upper Devo-
nian. Now, in the Fürstenstein conglomerate near settlement
Zeisberg (Dathe and Zimmermann, 1912, p. 45), there are
pebbles of granites and gneisses, and many other rocks, also
pebbles of limestones with frequent remnants of Clymenia
laevigata, that is, a fossil of the very high Upper Devonian.
If all these facts are held together, then I must conclude that
there are internal contradictions, the solution of which must
be unconditioned before giving up the idea of the Culm age
to which former geologists have been lead, and an Upper De-
vonian pseudo-Culm in this part of the Sudetes accepts.
In addition, the possibility of assuming that it is a con-
glomeratic deposit of the Wocklumeria and the Gattendorfia
zone of the uppermost Devonian (in the classical outcrops not
more than a few tens of metres thick) would not eliminate the
contradictions mentioned above, as the stratigraphic assign-
ment of the conglomerates in question to the Upper Devonian
is based on the fact that they are apparently intercalated with
Buchiola slates of the lower Upper Devonian.
I also briefly discussed the above questions occasionally at
a geological colloquium in Halle in November 1926.
The relationship of the Lugian Zone with the
Erzgebirge region
A question of great theoretical importance is the relation
of the Lugian part of the Sudetes to the Erzgebirge. It was
always clear to the Saxon geologists that, at the critical
point where both systems come together, there is no turn-
ing from one to the other, but an important tectonic trunca-
tion takes place here. Hermann Credner always strictly dis-
tinguished an Erzgebirge and a Lusatian province in Sax-
ony. He drew the boundary of both on the south-western
side of the Elbtalschiefergebirge. The gneiss domes of the
north-eastern Erzgebirge suddenly disappear at the Nossen–
Tharandt–Gottleuba Fault (Middle Saxon Thrust Fault after
Pietzsch, 1917) and are completely abruptly bordered by the
old Paleozoic strata of the Elbtalschiefer system intruded by
granitic and syenitic magmas. It is clear that this zone con-
tinues south-eastward under the transgressive Cretaceous. It
is exposed in the Elbe gorge north of Tetschen, and must
continue in the subsurface to the crystalline and old Paleo-
zoic slate zone of the southern side of the Krkonoše Moun-
tains. Franz Eduard Suess therefore rightly connects it with
his Lugian system. On the other hand, there can be no doubt
for the Saxon geologist that in the north-west near Wals-
druff and Döbeln the Elbtalschiefer Zone is associated with
the slate cover of the Granulite Massif, which is part of the
Erzgebirge–Thuringian system, and in the Vogtland, further-
more, forms the cover of the Fichtelgebirge and Erzgebirge.
Franz Eduard Suess has questioned the autochthonous na-
ture of the Granulite Massif and suggested the possibility of
being, together with its slate cover, juxtaposed as a tectonic
nappe between the Erzgebirge region in the footwall and
the Moldanubian Frankenberg Gneiss Klippe in the hanging
wall. It would have migrated from the south over the lying
folds of the Erzgebirge. According to what was said above
about the Elbtalschiefer system, this view would lead to the
conclusion that with the Granulite Massif the Lugian Zone of
the Western Sudetes was to be regarded as a tectonic nappe
system which crossed the Erzgebirge dome and its eastern
continuation in the subsurface.
However, I cannot find this approach viable for vari-
ous reasons. Firstly, there is only the normal Vogtland–
Thuringian stratum, just as we find it above the crys-
talline basement of the western Thuringian Forest, between
the Moldanubian Münchberg–Frankenberg klippes and the
domes of the Fichtelgebirge–Erzgebirge region. No cover
system corresponding to the slate cover of the Granulite Mas-
sif occurs between the Erzgebirge–Fichtelgebirge crystalline
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44 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
and its Paleozoic. Secondly, the granulite dome, despite the
peculiarity of its petrographic features, which makes Franz
Eduard Suess doubt the autochthonous character of this zone,
must nevertheless be connected with the autochthonous base-
ment. We see that in the whole granulite dome, with the
restriction to this, the “post-tectonic”, i.e. after the major
movements, Mittweida granites intruded. This is not only
the larger dyke stocks of this rock, which are recorded on
all maps, but also the numerous branched granite apophy-
ses, of which probably not a single larger granulite exposure
is free. This magmatic impregnation, the material of which,
according to the investigations of Scheumann and Philipps-
born (Philippsborn, 1923), is connected with the granulite,
would, in my opinion, be absolutely impossible if the gran-
ulite was not “nucleus autochthonous”, i.e. if it was not fully
connected till the late stages of the folding processes with
the original magma source. However, this would have to be
excluded if, as a tectonic klippe coming from the south, it
would rest above an outlandish stratum.
The West Sudetic mountain range is distinguished by the
even more extensive batholiths, namely the Meissen Syenite
Granite Massif in the Elbe Zone, the Lausitzer and Jizera–
Krkonoše Granite massifs beyond the Elbe. Especially the
massif of the Krkonoše Mountains, which has ascended in
the gneiss and crystalline slate area and has pushed aside
large parts, reminds me of the granite mass, which has largely
consumed the core of the definitely autochthonous Fichtelge-
birge gneiss. To this end we must take into account that the
granite poorness of the Erzgebirge is only an apparent pe-
culiarity due to the accidental elevation of the surface of the
denudation. If the mountains were cut deeper, the granites of
Bobritzsch near Freiberg, Fleyh in Bohemia, and other small
occurrences would merge into gigantic batholith regions. In
this case, a picture would emerge which, like that of the West
Lugian section of the Sudetes, should remind us of the intru-
sive tectonics of the central Bohemian Massif.
In my view, therefore, in tectonic, petrographic, and strati-
graphic relations, there is no reason to take the Lugian Zone
out of Zone III and to regard it as a branch of Unit IV, the
Moldanubian Zone.
This is not to say, for example, that the Sudetes ridge is
the continuation of the Erzgebirge. The crystalline basement
of Unit III, the most common feature of which is, among
other things, the concordant relation of the gneisses with their
muscovite schist cover, which is caused by tangential move-
ments, occurs in the West Variscan section, as we have seen,
in several exposures. The Spessart–West Thuringian Zone
and the Fichtelgebirge–Erzgebirge Zone represent only spe-
cial highs of their joint crystalline basement. It seems as if
the Fichtelgebirge–Erzgebirge dome as such has no direct
continuation either in the west or in the east. It submerges
and is replaced by its new, emerging parts of the basement
region of Zone III.
The Erzgebirge and Lugian system are, in my opinion,
vicarious. If we consider that such tectonic layer repetition
as occurs in the domes of the Erzgebirge is not observed in
the crystalline schists of the Krkonoše Mountains, I should
note, however, that the 2-fold, apparent intercalation of mica
schists in gneiss north of the Krkonoše Mountains is also due
to strong tangential movement respectively. The alternation
of gneiss and crystalline schists described by Berg (1912) in
the eastern Krkonoše Mountains reminds me of Erzgebirge-
type tectonostratigraphy. The classical dome form of the
Erzgebirge region is not visible in the Krkonoše Mountains
since the late batholithic intrusions have destroyed too much
of the former basement. In this respect, in the Fichtelgebirge,
whose affinity, and even togetherness with the Erzgebirge
dome, remains unquestionable in the whole situation, is not
much better than in the Western Sudetes.
K. Pietzsch has recently investigated the geological con-
ditions in the critical boundary zone between the Erzge-
birge and the Lugian sections of the Variscan Mountains.
He gives an account of this in Volume 2 of the Abhandlun-
gen des Sächsischen Geologischen Landesamts. In particu-
lar, I draw attention to the proof which he produced, that
a strong transversal displacement has taken place along the
Elbtalschiefer Zone. It has carried the Lugian section consid-
erably towards the south-east in relation to the Erzgebirge.
The accumulation of the great masses of batholiths in this
section of the mountains is probably also connected with this
process. Here, on a large scale, we find transversal disassem-
bling connected with dragging phenomena in the inner part
of the Variscan arch25. Similar phenomena on a smaller scale
are also to be found within the actual Saxothuringian region
itself. Compare, for example, the sigmoidal dragging of the
Berga Anticline north of the Kirchberg granite region (Koss-
mat, 1925a).
It may be remembered that the Lugian Zone, the west-
ernmost of which is very strongly reminiscent of the types
of Freiberg we see in northern Saxony near Sageritz and
Strehla on the Elbe, is still connected directly with the West
Thuringian–Spessartian arching of the crystalline mountains.
However, I believe that this combination is not necessary
to justify the affiliation of the Lugian system with Variscan
Zone III, i.e. with the Saxothuringian basement.
2 Closing remarks
If we are entering the coherent Moldanubicum of the Bo-
hemian Massif, which is crowned by a few tectonic klippes
of Moldanubian origin, from the Erzgebirge, or from the
Sudetic mountain range, we are located in the core part of
the Variscan Mountains, for whose appearance Franz Eduard
Suess has proposed the term intrusion tectonics. Over Black
Forest and the Vosges, this type continues into the French
Central Plateau and the southern parts of the Breton Basin.
25Also in the middle and eastern Harz the tectonic zones show
a sigmoidal deflection. It even appears that the appearance of the
Brocken and Ramberg granites was linked to it.
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 45
We also encounter similar conditions in certain central parts
of the Spanish Meseta.
With regard to the facies of the Paleozoic deposits, there
are already more southern elements in the middle of the Bo-
hemian Massif. The profile of the central Bohemian Basin
from the Algonkian26 up to the Middle Devonian has a lot
of analogies with the Montagne Noire on the southern mar-
gin of the French Central Plateau, especially in the Cam-
brian and Silurian sections, and with occurrences in the Span-
ish truncated highland27. South of the Bohemian Massif, in
the Carnic Alps, we are no longer in the central region of
the Variscan Mountains, but already in its southern sedimen-
tary zone, which has continued to the Pyrenees and Asturias.
The layer sequences are completed here; we come into the
realm of paralic and marine Carboniferous and Permian oc-
currences, which already indicate the margin of the great
Mediterranean of this time. I would like to describe these
southern folds of the Carboniferous mountains as Zone V
with the name Paleodinaric belt.
We have thus traversed the area of the Carboniferous
mountain range, somewhat similar, as if we were walk-
ing through the young mountain range from the Alpine
Carpathian foreland to Vienna to the Adriatic. Of course, the
southern sedimentary folds of the Carboniferous mountain
range are overprinted by the young Mediterranean folding in
central Europe. Only in the north of Spain do they still show
clear remains of their former fold structure. This is the great
value of the beautiful profiles of Asturias, tectonically rem-
iniscent of Dinaric fold structures, which were shown last
year during the excursions of the International Geological
Congress.
Within Germany we must content ourselves with com-
bining the fragments of the northern to inner zones of the
Variscan Mountains, as far as they are visible to us under the
younger cover. Despite all the difficulties, despite the frag-
mentation by the “Karpinsky’s” north-western faults, which
corresponded to the marginal rupture of the Russian plat-
form, and particularly those of the Sudetes, the great features
of the Variscan structure became more and more clear. Iso-
lated island hills and some drill results in the wide flat in-
termediate area between the eastern and western parts of the
arch help this. We find the West Sudetic Silurian quartzite
near Görlitz again at Dobrilugk, and we know, from a hole
at Dessau, mylonitized granites as a possible link between
the Kyffhäuser and the granites of the Western Sudetes.
Only the Rhenohercynian zones in the large section between
Magdeburg–Zerbst and the outer Eastern Sudetes have so far
completely escaped our observations.
26T: The term Algonkian (Algonkium in German) was coined by
Walcott (1889, p. 383, 384) and officially defined by the United
States Geological Survey (Powell, 1890, p. 20, 66). It is used in the
older literature as a synonym for Proterozoic.
27T: A truncated highland is the heavily eroded remains of a fold
mountain range. The German term is Rumpfgebirge.
An interesting addition to the picture of the Variscan arc is
given by the large Upper Carboniferous–Rotliegend troughs,
which, with their porphyry eruptions, characterize the final
phases of Variscan mountain formation. In spite of the devi-
ations which existed between the relations of this period and
those of the main period of the folding, a certain connection
with the large arrangement of the mountain chain is not to be
overlooked. Born (1921) has shown this in a very clear form.
We can see from this that the large Rotliegend trough, which
can be traced from the Saar region via Thuringia, western
Saxony, and the southern Harz margin, can be found on the
basis of individual drill results at Hillmersdorf and elsewhere
in the northern foothills of the Western Sudetes (Löwenberg
Syncline) and into the Middle Sudetes. In the vast majority
of its extent, it evidently adheres to the Saxothuringian Zone,
and marks its subsequent decline towards the outer Rheno-
hercynian Zone of the Variscan Mountains. It is also remark-
able that the Moldanubian region, which had been pushed up,
was likewise broken down in the hinterland of the Erzgebirge
and the Sudetes during the Upper Carboniferous–Rotliegend
time. In fact, we see the mentioned Paleozoic continental de-
posits spreading widely in north-western and north-eastern
Bohemia, and continuing as a filling of the Boskovic depres-
sion into the region of Rossitz in Moravia (west of Brno).
This north-convex, half-moon-shaped, young Paleozoic de-
pression is the distinguishing point between the core of the
Bohemian Massif, and the Erzgebirge, as well as the Sudetic
boundary fault.
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about
the comparison between the Variscan and Carpathian moun-
tain arch. Such comparisons of mountainous elements of the
Earth’s crust, which are so far apart, are rejected by many ge-
ologists as incautious. Nevertheless, I believe that the anal-
ogy between the Variscan arc of the Carboniferous period
and the Carpathian Arch of the Tertiary period goes so far
that the comparison must be made. The Carpathians formally
show us a copy of the Variscan arch, which has been moved
to the south-east by 100 geographical miles (Kossmat, 1921,
p. 37). The margin of the northern rim, the Carpathian Flysch
Zone, which corresponds in many respects to the greywacke
belt of the Variscan Mountains, the klippe phenomena, and
the crystalline core zones are very similar. The impregnation
of the basement with syntectonic and late- to post-tectonic
batholith masses has, however, been much lower in these
mountains of the Tertiary period. Striking analogies, on the
other hand, again offer the internal fracture zones of both the
old and young arc and the accompanying volcanic effusions.
The trachytes, andesites, and basalts of the inner Carpathian
volcanic ridge repeat in great measure what we see in the
inner-Variscan porphyry, porphyrites, and melaphyres. The
analogies are repeated in the type of sulfidic veins connected
to this eruptive phase. In such phenomena deep-rooted laws
undoubtedly come to light. We must not, therefore, conclude
such comparisons, since, on the basis of considerations of
a similar nature, all our experiences are due to the develop-
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46 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
ment of the mountain ranges, their relations to geosynclines,
and their connections with the magmatic cycles. In this com-
parative way, we may eventually also expect information on
the great problems of crustal movements, especially on the
question of the tangential displacements of the Earth’s crust.
Data availability. No data sets were used in this article.
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 47
Appendix A: Kossmat’s supporting plates
In a set of supporting plates Franz Kossmat provides a
map showing his subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
and geological cross sections through important regions of
the Variscides. Kossmat refers to these plates in his contri-
bution, but all plates represent an independent part of the
Gliederung des varistischen Gebirgsbaues published 1927.
Here these plates are reproduced from the original printing.
Some brightness and colour adjustments have been made us-
ing image-editing software. The explanatory notes to the geo-
logical sections (Fig. A4) have also been translated into Ger-
man.
In the following, the explanatory notes of Fig. A4 are
translated into German.
Figure A1. Supporting plate showing the subdivision of the Variscan mountain belt. Explanation of letters in the map: A: Hrubý Jeseník; Ad:
Orlické Mountains; BK: Bober-Katzbach Mountains; BrH: Brabant Horst; D: Dill Syncline, Di: Dinant Syncline; E: Erzgebirge; Ei: Eifel; Eu:
Góry Sowie; F: Frankenberg Klippe; Fi: Fichtelgebirge; G: Granulite Massif; Gs: Gesenke; H: Hunsrück; K: Kellerwald; Ky: Kyffhäuser;
L: Lahn Syncline; La: Lausitz Massif; M: Münchberg Klippe; R: Krkonoše Mountains; Ro: Rocroi Massif; S: Sauerland Anticline; Sch:
Schwarzawa dome; Sp: Spessart; SS: Králický Sneˇžník Mountains; T: Taunus; Th: Thaya dome; V: Venn; W: Wildenfelser Klippe.
A1 Section through the western part of the Variscan arc
I. Westphalia Zone.
II. Rhenohercynian zones. II A.: Sauerland–Oberharz
Zone. II B–C.: western continuation of the Lower Harz
Nappe in the eastern Rheinisches Schiefergebirge.
III. Saxothuringian zones. III A.: Spessart–Thuringian For-
est Zone. III B.: Fichtelgebirge and Erzgebirge Zone.
IV. Moldanubian region with outliers/nappes.
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48 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
Abbreviations of mountain parts. RK: Ruhr Coal Belt;
S: Sauerland Anticline; D: Dill Syncline, H-K: Hörre–
Kellerwald Ridge; T: Taunus; RS: Ruhla Anticline; ZM:
Ziegenrück Syncline; Fi: Fichtelgebirge; M: Münchberg
Gneiss Klippe; Er: Erbendorf Basement Region.
Rock groups. krl: crystalline basement of the Moldanubian
region; kr: crystalline basement of the Saxothuringian zones;
p: phyllite and phyllitic clay slate; s: Silurian; t: Devonian;
cu: Culm; co: Upper Carboniferous; G: granite.
A2 Section of the Granulite Massif through the
Frankenberg Klippe to the Erzgebirge. Scale
1 : 100000.
Rock types of the Erzgebirge and Granulite Massif.
gnf: Freiberger Grey Gneiss; gnk: fine-grained-flaky
Grey Gneiss; mg: Muscovite gneiss (“Red Gneiss”) and
flaky Garnet-Muscovite Schist; ga: Gabbro; sp: Serpen-
tine; g: Granulite; Gr: Lagergranite; G: Mittweida Gran-
ite.
gg: gneiss–mica schists and Cordierite gneiss; m: mica
schist; p: phyllite; pq: phyllite quartzite; px: metamor-
phic Greywacke; I: trapped meta-lydite (Silurian?).
s: Silurian; t: Devonian; cu: Culm.
Rocks of the Frankenberg Klippe. gna: Frankenberg
augen-gneiss; hm: Muscovite-Hornblende Schist; hp:
Amphibole-Epidote Schist (“Prasinite Schist”).
P: Rotliegend Porphyre and Tuff.
A3 Schematic profile of the Harz Mountains. Scale
1 : 100000. (With use of the Geologic Special map
and others)
II A.: Upper Harz Zone: tl : Lower Devonian; t: Middle
and Upper Devonian; cul : Culm lydite and clay slate;
cu2: Culm greywacke and slate; cut1−2: Tanne Platten-
schiefer, lydite and greywacke (here also assigned to
Culm).
II B. Lower Harz Nappe. s: Silurian; eg: “Ecker gneiss”;
t: Devonian in general.
II C.: Stieger Nappe. st: Stieger Slate and Diabase; cu1:
Culm lydite and clay slate; cu2: Culm greywacke and
slate. Intrusive rocks: ga: gabbro; G: granite.
Postvariscan cover. z-ro: Zechstein and Upper
Rotliegend; bs: Buntsandstein; mk: Muschelkalk;
k: Keuper; j: Jurassic (Liassic); cr1: Lower Cretaceous.
Figure A2. Explanatory notes to Fig. A1.
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G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains 49
Figure A3. Supporting plate showing cross sections.
Figure A4. Explanatory notes to Fig. A3.
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50 G. Meinhold: Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains
Information about the references
In the following I list references cited by Kossmat in the orig-
inal text and references cited by me in the Introductory com-
ments and in footnotes. In the original text some references
were cited incorrectly. In the present translation I give the
correct references to the best of my knowledge.
Competing interests. The author declares that he has no conflict
of interest.
Acknowledgements. I thank Carl-Heinz Friedel for providing
high-resolution scans of the supporting plates and Arzu Arslan
for carefully reading the manuscript and constructive comments.
Finally, I am grateful to Franz Neubauer and Jürgen von Raumer
for their thorough reviews of an earlier version of the manuscript
that led to an improved final version.
Edited by: K. Schlegel
Reviewed by: J. von Raumer and F. Neubauer
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