The Hassberge escarpment landscape developed from a widely extended original etchplain surface which represents the Middle to Upper Miocene final stage of undifferentiated etchplain lowering within the study area. The decisive processes of Upper Miocene and Pliocene landform differentiation were continuing planationsurface lowering increasingly governed by the structural differentiation of the bedrock substrate and local expansion of planation surfaces. This formation led to valley cutting since the Pliocene/Pleistocene transition period in the course of progressive reduction of the areas still subject to planation. The extent of structural adaptation and the interpretation of correlative sediments confirm a differentiated course of Late Tertiary climatic change, which, within the overall trend towards lower temperatures since the Lower to Middle Miocene, expressed itself in increasingly dry conditions during the Late Upper Miocene and Pliocene (BOLDT 1997). Taking the Lower Franconian scarplands (Main River region of southern Germany) as an example, the compatibility of the formation of stepped planation surfaces with the structural forcing of landform development is explained and confirmed in a world-wide comparison for regions of sedimentary rocks of varying resistance. The differentiated morphological context based on climate and geology is pointed out (BOLDT 1998).