Weschnitz

The course of the Weschnitz

The Weschnitz is a 58.9 km long right tributary of the Rhine in the south of Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg.

River Name

The name " Weschnitz " is attributed to Visucius, the name of a Celtic river god. Further details are explained in the Walpurgis Chapel in Fürth. This chapel stands at a former place of worship of the Celts, near ore was mined at that time Such chapels on old pre-Christian places of worship are not rare, think of the Michaelis chapel on the Holy Mountain at Heidelberg. Large stone crosses in the Odenwald are often an indication of a pagan site, because some menhir was umgemeißelt after the Christianization of a cross.

Geography

Course

The Weschnitz rises in the Odenwald, in the district Hammelbach the community Grasellenbach, east of the 536 meter high mountain car. Your source of running water is located on a signposted leisure area with lake and barbecue hut. It flows initially a little way to the village Weschnitz to the north and then turns along the B 460 in a U-bend to the southwest, breaks on two kilometers in length in a narrow V-shaped valley between the 399 meter high Krehberg in the south and 435 meters high carbon forest in the north by the Tromm -Odenwald to further reach over Fürth, and later along the B 38 via Rimbach, Morlenbach and Birkenau Weinheim. Between Fürth and Birkenau, the Front Odenwald expands to Weschnitzsenke. The area of the prevailing here relatively soft and susceptible to weathering Granodioritgesteins has received the designation Weschnitzpluton after the river. In Weinheim, where the Weschnitz leaves the Odenwald and enters the Upper Rhine Valley, it bends in a new arc from the northwest. Here it divides into two arms, the Old and the New Weschnitz Weschnitz, forming the approximately 10 -kilometer Weschnitzinsel that B crosses under 3 and Hemsbach the A 5 continues to flow to Lorsch, where both her arms reunited a small piece once again runs along the B 460 and crosses then the B 47 and a 67 then they reached the communities Einhausen and Biblis, then joins in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant Biblis into the Rhine.

In the Odenwald section between Fürth and Weinheim, named after the river Weschnitztalbahn runs.

Inflows

• Krumbach, from right at the bath on the northern edge of Fürth.
• Kröckel Bach, from the left in Fürth.
• Steinbach, from left in Fürth.
• Schlierbach, from right in Fuerth, 8.391 km and 18.751 km ².
• Take Bach, from the left in Fürth driving Bach.
• Lörzenbach, right on the northern edge of Rimbach.
• Rimbach, from left in Rimbach.
• Albersbach ( Weschnitz ), right on the southern edge of Rimbach.
• Zotzenbach, from left northwest from Rimbach- Zotzenbach.
• Holzgraben or Breitenbacher Bach, from the right Morlenbach wholesale Breitenbach.
• Erbach, from left in Morlenbach Klein Breitenbach.
• Morlenbach from the left in Morlenbach, 9.344 km and 15.357 km ².
• Bed stream, from right at Morlenbach - bed stream.
• Mumbach, right to the Moerlen Bacher treatment plant, 5.734 km.
• Schimbach from the left in Birkenau trips.
• Hornbach, from left at Birkenau Hornbach.
• Gram Bach, from right in Birkenau.
• Dear Bach, from right in Birkenau, 7.089 km.
• Kallstädter Bach, from the left in Birkenau, 6.742 km.
• Grundelbach from the left in Weinheim, 10.864 km and 5.388 km ².
• Leaving the left side of the Old Weschnitz on Weinheimer station, right through the Weschnitz from here as New Weschnitz. Both branches flow soon between dams.
• Leaving the left side of the New Weschnitz the Long Meadow at about the level of Lampert Home Hüttenfeld, then long runs between the two dammed branches.
• Neugraben, from the right to the New Weschnitz at the crossing of the L - 3398 Heppenheim Hüttenfeld, 9.331 km.
• Schwalbe number ( ditch ), from the right to the New Weschnitz, 1.334 km.
• Mouth of the Long Meadow from the right in the Old Weschnitz at Lorsch, 5.777 km.
• Mouth of the Old to the New Weschnitz Weschnitz, from left shortly thereafter, 12.665 km.
• Landgraben from the left in the reunified Weschnitz shortly thereafter, 23.657 km. Mündungsfernste source under the Ursenbacher height, the largest part of the barrel in the Rhine valley as a ditch.
• Half- Meuse Trench from left at Wattenheim, 6.894 km.

History

In ancient times, Weschnitz used in the Hessian Ried the river bed of the Ur - Neckar river and resulted in Trebur into the Rhine, so much further north than today. Only in historic time she got the present course, by breaking through the sand-hill near Lorsch; therefore it is channeled in the Upper Rhine Plain (District mountain road ). The current Weschnitzlauf is certainly evidence from the mid 17th century, before the Weschnitz was probably south of Lorsch, where they ( today part Seehof ) fed the Lorsch lake. Your mouth was upriver of the late antique Rhine harbor Zullestein which is thus only after the object of the castle on the Weschnitz. Therefore, it is never as to the Weschnitz mentioned lying in historical sources. The opening out there, Bach was called " Steinerbach ".

It is wrong to repeatedly stated view that stone products from the rocky mountain and from Auerbach had been transported across the Weschnitz to the Rhine. The Rhine itself was before the Tullaschen straightening at the Weschnitzmündung not deep enough to eg Barges with large granite columns to carry the rock mountain.

After a major flood in 1956, was erected in Ried high dams on Weschnitz and leading- waters, in Lorsch was placed in the context of further channelization in the 1960s, a retention basin for flood protection, and to protect the curlew the nature reserve Weschnitzinsel was reported in 1979.

In the years 2006/2007 is designed in the area of the place Einhausen the Weschnitzgraben something. You left it, although the earlier depth streambed and the stream encountered, but extended the on something and put the brook here larger boulders as obstacles in the way. Also dams were partially replanted to beautify the watercourse and its immediate surroundings. Intention in these changes so it was not so much the creek again to its original splendor, but rather to create in him a space of experience, which is why even the bank of the stream made ​​accessible in some places. Since then, it can be seen playing on the water in summer children.

Then the city Lorsch began in the area below the bridge Wattenheimer In March 2007, trying to renature the Weschnitz. For this, about 30,000 cubic meters of earth were moved. The northern Weschnitzdamm was dismantled so that a habitat could form. The renaturation, lay their costs 470,000 euros, was done to compensate for the development of the Lorsch commercial zone " Daubhart ". The Weschnitz clearly got more space to train meanders can. It Ablaichplätze were created for the nose fish that have settled there. Along the river were planted black poplars to new. Archaeologists accompanied the construction work around the Wattenheimer bridge. They hoped for finds from the Celtic period, such as pottery shards and remnants of spearheads.

The water quality of Weschnitz has improved markedly in recent years. Meanwhile, nearly one water quality is achieved at the Wattenheimer bridge.

The Wattenheimer bridge leads at Lorsch on the Weschnitz

View from the Weschnitzinsel from the northern tip of the reserve. Left the New Weschnitz and right the Old Weschnitz.

Which began in March 2007 restoration measures at the Weschnitz at Lorsch in June 2007

The newly designed stream of Weschnitz in Einhausen

The straightened Weschnitz at Biblis

Map of the mouth of the Weschnitz into the Rhine.

The mouth of the Weschnitz into the Rhine. In the background the Biblis.

Flood of Weschnitz May 2013, town center Einhausen