Hasenwinkel, Nature reserve in Fretterode, Germany.

Hasenwinkel is a roughly 3 km long, 500 m wide ridge of Zechstein dolomite and gypsum rising 60 to 80 m above the surrounding land west of Fretterode. Grey, hole-weathered rock outcrops crown the crest, including the Spitzer Stein (360 m) and Breiter Stein (330 m). Steep slopes of shallow, stony Rendzina soil carry dry grassland and juniper.

The Hasenwinkel was among the first nature reserves in Thuringia, secured between 1937 and 1942 under the Reich Nature Protection Act of 1935. Franz Neureuter (1874–1936), commissioner of the Eichsfeld nature monument office, had campaigned for protection after years of observation. After grazing was abandoned and pines, spruces and beeches were planted, the landscape changed so much by the late 1970s that protection was questioned; clearing and renewed grazing in the 1980s restored open pasture, and from 1988 the woodland was removed from the forestry plan.

The name Hasenwinkel refers to the ridge's shape, and the open juniper heath on the crest is a product of centuries of sheep and goat grazing. Franz Neureuter, commissioner of the Eichsfeld nature monument office, described the juniper stands in the 1920s as resembling the heathland of the North German plain and pressed for protection. Since the 1980s, grazing has been resumed to keep the turf open.

The reserve lies about 500 m west of Fretterode, framed by the Schierbach valley to the northeast and the Kringelsbach to the south. The ridge rises 60 to 80 m above the surrounding land, with the Spitzer Stein (360 m) and Breiter Stein (330 m) as landmarks. The dolomite slopes are stony, shallow and dry out in summer, so wear sturdy footwear.

The ridge's thin dolomite soil was never ploughed, so for centuries it served only as pasture for sheep and goats. Grazing kept juniper low and open; when it stopped and pines were planted, the open heath shrank until clearing and grazing from the 1980s brought back the crags called Spitzer Stein and Breiter Stein.