It is the river that shapes and forms this landscape and – last but not least – gives it its name: the Havel. It rises in Mecklenburg and flows into the Elbe near the border between Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. Most of its course is in Brandenburg. Here the Havel flows like a protective arm around the Havelland – one of the most charming cultural landscapes in Brandenburg. Many people know the region just outside Berlin as an orchard and from Theodor Fontane's poem “Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland”. But Havelland has much more to offer.