The Lister runs within the Sauerland in the Sauerland-Rothaargebirge Nature Park. It rises within the Ebbegebirge, north of the Rothenstein mountain (approx. 600 m above sea level). Its source, located in the Grundlose raised bog, is in the Auf'm Ebbe/Ebbemoore nature reserve, which stretches between the hamlets of Schürfelde and Nocken in the north, which belong to the Meinerzhagen urban area, and the village of Willertshagen in the south, around 870 m east-northeast of the Rothenstein rest area (540 to 580 m) on the A45 federal highway (Sauerland line) at an altitude of around 560 m.
The Lister flows in a predominantly southeasterly direction between the Ebbegebirge in the northwest and the Listertalsperre in the southeast through the Ebbegebirge Nature Park: initially the stream heads south towards the village of Willertshagen, a few kilometers east of Meinerzhagen, which it passes immediately to the east.
From now on, the Lister flows through numerous hamlets in the urban area of Meinerzhagen and, among other places, through the Krummenerl district to the Hunswinkel district, where it flows from the west into the Listertalsperre (319.52 m), a branch of the Biggesee reservoir through which the Bigge flows, which abuts directly on the air side of the Lister dam.
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