Haußelberg, Summit in Lüneburg Heath, Germany

The Haußelberg is a wooded hill in the Lüneburg Heath, rising 119.1 metres above sea level in the district of Celle. It lies within the Südheide Nature Park and is crossed by the Heidschnuckenweg long-distance trail. Its summit, once open heathland, is now covered by forest planted in the second half of the 19th century.

Mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss selected this summit in 1820 as a surveying station for his major project to map the Kingdom of Hanover. This scientific work significantly shaped the development of modern surveying methods.

The hill's name is tied to the Heidschnuckenweg long-distance trail, which crosses its summit and brings hikers past the 2005 Gauss stone. The surveying network Gauss built here, including his vice-heliotrope, was reproduced on the back of the fourth-series 10-Deutschmark note.

The Heidschnuckenweg long-distance trail runs over the summit, so the hill is reached on foot; the climb is short but the surrounding terrain is otherwise flat. The hilltop lies in woodland, so the wide views Gauss used are now largely screened by trees. There is no military training area here.

The landscape was transformed from open heathland into dense forest through systematic tree planting beginning in the late 1800s. This ecological shift shows how deliberate human efforts can reshape an entire region.