Geochemical and palynological studies of lacustrine sediments from the standard Eemian-Early Weichselian profiles Gröbern, Neumark-Nord and Klinge (Germany, Central Europe) document at least two warming events during the transition from the Eemian to the Early Weichselian. The first pronounced warming phase takes place towards the very end of the Eemian Interglacial during pollen assemblage zone E7, just before the actual transition into the Weichselian Glacial period. Its amplitude is not on the scale of the Eemian climatic optimum, but is comparable with the conditions found in the first Early Weichselian Interstadial (Brörup). An additional event of climatic amelioration was detected within the period of the first Weichselian Stadial (Herning). In the high-resolution Eemian-Early Weichselian limnic sequence from Ples in the Upper Volga region (Russia, Eastern Europe), we also found indications of climate warming events at the very end of the Eemian during pollen assemblage zone E7 and within the Herning Stadial recorded both in palynological and in geochemical records. Furthermore, the δ¹⁸O results of the new Greenland ice core presented by the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP) members record ‘a hitherto unrecognised warm period initiated by an abrupt climate warming about 115 000 years ago (towards the end of the Last Interglacial), before glacial conditions were fully developed’.

In this paper, we discuss possible correlations between our terrestrial results in Central and Eastern Europe and their possible connection to the NGRIP record. It appears that both in Central and Eastern Europe and in Greenland, warming phases towards the end of the Last Interglacial preceded the final transition to glacial conditions. Thus, natural warming episodes during the end of the Last Interglacial appear to be a global phenomenon for the Northern Hemisphere.