The Teutoburg Forest — Teutoburger Wald — is the ridge of wooded sandstone hills that runs southeast of Osnabrück, reaching up to four hundred metres and offering good walking and cycling through well-maintained trails and varied landscape. The forest is criss-crossed with marked paths, and the high ridge of the Hermannsweg provides a long-distance trail with views north over the North German Plain. It is an easy escape from the city for an afternoon or a full day.
The forest carries considerable historical weight: somewhere in these hills in 9 AD, a coalition of Germanic tribes led by Arminius destroyed three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus, ending Rome's ambitions to expand its empire east of the Rhine. The site of the battle — the Varusschlacht — was long debated and is now placed near Kalkriese, about fifteen kilometres north of Osnabrück, where a museum and park interpret the archaeological finds. The giant statue of Arminius, the Hermannsdenkmal, stands in the forest further southeast near Detmold and is worth the trip if you are spending more than a day in the region.