Audio stations
Discover the Leine Polder with audio guides
The Nature Scouts association offers visitors a new way to experience and learn more about the Leine Polder thanks to six audio stations. Such stations are usually found in museums or in cities to provide tourists with information. Use of them in the countryside of southern Lower Saxony is a first.
A good view: Polder 1 between Salzderhelden and Sülbeck
Nature is something that never fails to inspire Thomas Spieker all year round. “Every season has its appeal and offers you the chance to relax, do something different and experience wonderful things,” says the chairman of the Leine Valley Nature Scouts association. The association’s main activities are staging guided tours and events in the countryside for kindergartens, schools, adult education establishments and companies. “In particular, we now offer companies – their employees, business partners or visitors – individual guided tours of varying lengths in German and English.” One particular reason why it’s always worth taking part in tours by the Scouts is the EU bird sanctuary between Salzderhelden and Northeim on account of its size and the diversity of this wet meadow landscape with its wealth of different bird species.
Together with other responsible institutions, the registered nature conservation association has developed and implemented a holistic concept for providing visitors with information and guiding their steps. Apart from offering guided tours, it has erected observation platforms and information boards, created a special homepage on the region and developed an app that allows users to find their way about and record their own observations.
The Nature Scouts have now created an additional way of experiencing the Leine Polder acoustically: six stations where visitors can listen to a total of seven spoken commentaries and thus immerse themselves in the region, its history and its nature. “Anyone with an interest can discover the Leine Polder on their own using the audio guides. And even though it wasn’t planned, we can offer a digital alternative now that we’ve had to cancel guided tours due to the coronavirus,” says Thomas Spieker.
At the observation points Salzderhelden, Kiebitz Fleck (which you access by going up the levee between Salzderhelden and Immensen), Immensen observation tower, the check dam, Hollenstedt and Weißer Budenweg, visitors can call up a commentary about the spot they’re at on their smartphone using a QR code or by calling a number. A further commentary supplies general information on the Leine Polder. The seven audios, lavishly created with great professionalism, make the information come alive and inspire you emotionally.
Götz Bielefeldt, the winner of the Grimme Award and famous from many German TV programs such as Terra X, ZDFzoom and Auslandsjournal, lends his unmistakable voice to the texts. The composer Oliver Völker has written and produced an empathetic Leine Polder melody for the guides. The Nature Scouts were helped in collecting information by representatives of the local history association, the Lower Saxony Water Management, Coastal Defense and Nature Conservation Agency, and ornithologists. The project received substantial support and funding from the AKB Foundation. |
Information
The AKB Foundation
The AKB Foundation was established in 1998 by Carl-Ernst Büchting (1915– 2010), the long-standing Chairman of the Executive Board and later of the Supervisory Board at KWS. Its work centers on the Southern Lower Saxony region, specifically Einbeck, and on Klein Wanzleben (Saxony-Anhalt), the place where KWS was founded. The foundation’s values are steeped in the concepts of sustainability, humanity and future viability. The foundation promotes charitable goals and offers funding in five categories: “the church, Christian faith and ecumenism,” “art and culture,” “education and social welfare,” “science and research,” and “protection of the environment, countryside and nature.” More information: www.akb-stiftung.de |
© KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA 2025
