Top 10 Volcanoes in Germany
Germany does not erupt today. But the Eifel hills west of the Rhine contain dozens of young volcanic features — maar lakes, scoria cones, lava flows — and the most recent eruption (Ulmener Maar) is only about 11,000 years old. The country sits on a hot spot that is currently quiet but not extinct.
1. Laacher See
A 2-km-wide caldera lake — the largest in the Eifel — formed by a major explosive eruption around 13,000 years ago that scattered ash as far as Italy. Now a beautiful crater lake with a Benedictine abbey on the shore.
2. Ulmener Maar
The youngest maar in central Europe, formed about 11,000 years ago. Now a small round lake near Ulmen — easily visited on foot.
3. Gemündener Maar
One of the three "Dauner Maare" — a perfect circular crater lake in the Vulkaneifel. Easy walks circle each lake; the visitor centre at Daun explains the geology well.
4. Weinfelder Maar (Totenmaar)
The largest of the Dauner trio, with a quiet shore and a small chapel overlooking the water. The name "death maar" comes from a medieval graveyard nearby, not from any deadly volcanic event.
5. Schalkenmehrener Maar
The third of the Dauner Maare, with a partially infilled basin used for agriculture and a small lake at one end.
6. Hohe Acht
The highest point of the Eifel at 747 m, a Tertiary basaltic plug — older than the Quaternary maars below, but volcanic in origin.
7. Vulkanpark (Mendig / Mayen)
A network of lava-mining tunnels under the town of Mendig, where basalt from the East Eifel was quarried for centuries for millstones. Open to visitors and partly preserved as cold-storage cellars for breweries.
8. Kaiserstuhl
A small isolated volcanic massif in south-western Germany, in the Rhine graben between the Black Forest and the Vosges. Tertiary in age, extinct, with vineyards on its sun-warm volcanic slopes.
9. Vogelsberg
The largest contiguous volcanic area in continental Europe by area — a broad shield in Hesse built 10–18 million years ago. Long extinct, deeply eroded into rolling forested uplands.
10. Rhön
A volcanic region on the Hesse-Bavaria-Thuringia border, with basalt domes (Wasserkuppe, Milseburg), rolling pastures and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Tertiary in origin, eroded but visible.
Is the Eifel dead?
Geologists describe the Eifel as "dormant rather than extinct." Seismic imaging shows a hot mantle plume beneath it; the inflation rate suggests it is currently rising. There has been no eruption in historical time, and the next, if it comes, may be tens of thousands of years away — but it is not zero.
Safety and access
All German volcanic sites are open to walking and study. The Eifel National Park and the Vulkaneifel Geopark offer marked trails and visitor centres. No active eruption hazard exists.
On the map
Open the map and filter to Germany to see the volcanic centres clustered in the Eifel, the Kaiserstuhl in the south-west and the older Vogelsberg-Rhön complex in the centre.