During the last decade, interdisciplinary archaeo-biogeological studies have been carried out in the open cast lignite mine Schoningen in eastern Lower Saxony. In the sequence intervening the glacial deposits of the Elsterian and Saalian ice sheet advances palynological evidence has been found of three Middle Pleistocene interglacials. Additionally, several temperate forest periods of interstadial character are recognized, most of them without known equivalents in Northwest Europe. Tentative correlations are discussed with other European pollen records reflecting climatic change during the Holsteinian and Saalian stages. -from Author