After everything had been done in the years after the Second World War to turn the Große Aue into a canal-like river and thereby to create a flood-free river channel, initiatives during the 1980s in the Minden-Lübbecke region led to the decision to renaturalise the landscape.
When the first cut of the spade for the renaturalisation took place in 1989 this project was unique in North Rhine-Westphalia.