Wutach (river)

The Wutach at Tiengen between Steina and Schlüchtmündung

The geographical location of Wutach

The Wutach a 91 km long, north and right tributary of the Rhine in the south-eastern Black Forest and in the Unterklettgau in southern Baden -Württemberg in Germany. She is in her underflow in parts border river to the canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland.

Course

The river changed the name twice before he opens near Waldshut in the Upper Rhine:

It rises in the Black Forest as Seebach in the high basin of the Grüble, a few meters below the 1448 m high Seebuck at Feldberg. Shortly after, he collapsed in about 25 m high field seawater in case the rocky cirques of circular field lake. In a north-easterly direction then the stream follows the glacier shaped Barental by the municipality of Feldberg to Titisee.

From Titisee is called the now sluggish flowing Wiesbach Gutach ( " Oh good "). Before Neustadt he swung suddenly to 90 ° to the right in the southeastern direction of the almost equally powerful side stream Josbach / Langenordnach. Beneath the city two large bridges crossing the valley, the Gutach Viaduct B 31 and the Gutachbrücke the Höllentalbahn. From here, the river rushes through the remainder of increasingly deep canyon.

From the confluence of Haslach that approach flows from the west of Lenzkirch, called the river fittingly Wutach ( " Mad Oh "). He cuts in now predominantly easterly direction a total of about 30 km long series of gorges through the plateau between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb, the nationally known Wutachschlucht. In the valley widening of the river bends Achdorf one more time from now to about 100 °, and forms the Wutach knee. In the new direction to the southwest, the valley narrows to the lowermost part of the Wutach gorges, the Wutachflühen.

As the input of Wutachschlucht is also spans the output at Grimmelshofen by a high railway bridge, the bridge Wutach the extremely complex trassierten Wutachtalbahn.

The straight, wide -soled consistently lower Wutachtal is fairly densely populated. The river is in parts border waters to Switzerland and then channeled mainly. Most important places of this valley portion are the city Stühlingen and Eggingen and Wutoeschingen.

Before Lauchringen the Wutach swung again in the direction of a by Bach a, now in that of coming out of the Unterklettgau in a broad valley blade trench / Kotbachs. In sub Lauchringen the Wutach formed one of the largest river waterfall in Germany, because of its hydraulic force here Lauffenmühle arose, the largest industrial company in the Wutach. Largest city of Wutach valley is the neighboring Tiengen where open out from the Black Forest, next to the Kotbach, important tributaries Steina and Schlücht. Between Kuessaberg - Kadelburg and Koblenz Wutach empties into the Upper Rhine, a little below the rapids of Kadel Burger / Koblenz running.

Catchment area

The Wutach drained almost the entire south-eastern slope of the Black Forest. There, the water flow through glacial initially formed Talwannen that are sunk into the crystalline rocks of the Black Forest. There are Feldsee and Titisee ( Gutach ) Windgfällweiher ( Haslach ) Schluchseewerk ( Schwarza ) and Schlüchtsee ( Schlücht ). After some very narrow canyon routes the rivers reach the edge of the Black Forest and the slightly southeast incident sand, lime and Tonsteinserien the South German cuesta landscape. The bent to the southwest lower reaches of the Wutach runs at the foot of the dominant Jurassic stage of the Swabian Alb and the Randen transverse to the slope and collect as several more Black Forest Rivers one. The parallel to the High Rhine from the east flowing from the other side Kotbach follows a glacial Rhine trough ( Unterklettgau gutter ). So the Wutach drained not only areas of the Black Forest and is similar in this respect, the Enz

The mean annual runoff depths of the catchment area vary considerably; they range from about 1100 mm in the Black Forest to less than 300 mm in Unterklettgau. The visible flow of Wutach is covered by water leads to Schluchseewerk that particularly affect by far the largest tributary Schlücht, less of, as would be expected under natural conditions in its 1140 km ² of the catchment area and its drainage height.

Because of their average gradient of 1.3% occur at the Wutach often critical flood peaks on; a well-known historical lithograph shows the valley floor covered in Stühlinger twisting entirely by water. Your underflow was therefore channeled and dammed for flood protection in the early 20th century. Meanwhile, even former flood plains have been designated as development areas.

Flow history

The lower Wutach flows on the valley line of the once much more powerful upper ancient Danube, but this counter. Even at the turn of the Miocene / Pliocene, with already hebendem Black Forest, but then less low-lying Rhine Graben, the Danube originated in the area of ​​today's upper Rhone. This current system collapsed and was gradually especially the river system of the Rhine tributary ( Details please see Wutachschlucht ). Recently formed the upper and middle course of today's Wutach as Feldberg Danube the upper reaches of the Danube. But after the watershed between the aufschotternden Feldberg Danube and the related drastic Ur - Wutach had been greatly reduced to the last ice age, broke about 20,000 to 70,000 years ago, the Feldberg Danube southwest to the Rhine Valley and since then is the distinctive Wutach knee in Blumberg. Because of the new drain towards the Rhine towards high gradient intersects the river until today the 30 kilometer Wutachschlucht in the plateau. He cleaned out about two cubic kilometers of rock. The valley slopes tend to slip; this makes the Wutachschlucht even more than her in places rugged relief in a traffic obstruction and makes the maintenance of roads and paths, even to hiking trails, consuming.

In the abandoned bed of the old Feldberg Danube from the Flussanzapfung to its confluence with the Danube in today's Kirchen-Hausen the Aitrach flows. In its top, very flat part of the valley at Blumberg created fells.

In its upper reaches the Wutach forms ( there still as Gutach ) from another knee; it ends there in the former main valley, which is about the Kandel began but was cut off and diverted for quite some time by the Wilde Gutach. Similar kinks in the course of the tributaries from the Black Forest also indicate ( much older ) diversion events, most markedly the Schwarza when leaving the Schluchsee transverse to the trough direction.

In the lower reaches of the Wutach Wutachtal opens into the Unterklettgau gutter, and the Wutach then follows the direction of the Kotbachs. By the end of the Riss glaciation about 200,000 years ago flowed here instead of small blade trench and the Kotbachs the Rhine westward through the Unterklettgau. Only towards the end of the Würmkaltzeit he moved his run from Schaffhausen to the south and there was the famous Rhine Falls arise.

Nature Reserves

About a third of Wutach run is under protection.

The river rises in the Feldberg nature reserve, the largest in Baden- Württemberg.

One of the oldest nature reserves in the country since 1939 includes the Wutachschlucht, one of the last wild river landscapes of Central Europe with great historical landscape, geological and ecological significance. Almost every rock occurring in southern Germany is represented in the gorge, which is one of the richest and most intensively studied natural areas in Central Europe. A full-time nature warden takes care of balancing the interests of the summer months up to 100,000 visitors to the demands of nature and landscape protection ( inter alia, guided hikes ). One of the peculiarities of the Middle Gorge is the seepage of water in the limestone Wutach. At low water levels can completely dry up the river to 1.3 km river length here until the water cataract -like ( presumably complete) comes to light again.

More nature reserve stretches of river are the naturalistic floodplain above Stühlingen on the border with Switzerland ( large Schachtelhalmbestände ) and the mouth area into the Rhine.

Pestwurzbestand

Faulrüssler ( Liparus ) on butterbur

Giant horsetail

Hair worm ( Trochulus )

Limestone benches in Gauchach bed

Wutach

Haslach gorge with rocks computing

Culture Spot

Nature Scenic Wutach is attributable only to a part of the Black Forest. The mean Wutach country with the middle and lower Wutachschlucht is already outside. But you can see here, as in the Baar, the Black Forest culture area belonging, not only in terms of tourism. It acts also continued the earlier common belonging to Baden. The Wutachtalbahn is often counted among the technically also remarkable Black Forest tracks. The Wutach field below Stühlingen belongs to Unterklettgau and the Upper Rhine region.

The Wutach severed in the region of Lake Constance Alemannic Wutachschlucht the dialect area north of the gorge from the high of Alemannic south. This is particularly evident at the different pronunciation of K. On the northern side it is called child and Kuchi ( = kitchen), while the south with Chind and Chuchi language already is closer to neighboring Switzerland. Locals consider each on the other side of the gorge living ends as Enne - Wiätler, which expresses the affiliation ( ennet =) to the area beyond the Wutach.

In two short stretches of the river - between Grimmelshofen and Eggingen - is the Wutach border between Germany and Switzerland.

Economic center of Wutach area is the town of Waldshut -Tiengen. Major industries in the Wutachtals are the Sto AG ( building materials and systems ) in Stühlingen and Lauffenmühle ( textile manufacturing ) in Lauchringen. The water power of the Wutach and its tributaries is used by the Schluchseewerk AG and Wunderklingen from the water and power plant Hallau for energy production. In the area of the Black Forest is still the wood-processing industry significantly, even after the closure of the paper mill Neustadt in 1989. Between 1624 and 1760 timber was floated on the Wutach from the area around the Titisee. Requires it was in the earlier iron melt of Eberfingen.

Spatial references

Regions

Southern Black Forest and Upper Rhine

Planning regions

  • Schwarzwald- Baar- Heuberg
  • Southern Upper Rhine
  • High Rhine Lake Constance

Counties

  • Breisgau in the Black Forest
  • Schwarzwald- Baar-Kreis
  • Waldshut

Tributaries

The tributaries in the region of the Black Forest are:

  • Saws Bach (from the Feldberg area opens into the Seebach said Wutach headwaters )
  • Langenordnach with Josbach ( opens in Gutach mentioned Wutach headwaters )

Several tributaries of the middle course also contributes to the formation of the system of Wutach canyons. Are known in addition to the water-rich

  • Haslach

Ranging waterfalls canyons of

  • Rötenbach ( from the wooded Schwarzwaldostabdachung in red sandstone )
  • Lotenbach ( from the eastern edge of the Black Forest near Bonn village through the Lotenbachklamm )
  • Gauchach ( largest tributary gorge ) with side canyons ( Tränkebachstrasse, Mauchach )
  • Loop Bach ( from the abandoned Talstumpf of Blumberg gate)

In the lower reaches of Wutach in Baden Unterklettgau following streams flow:

  • Because Erbach
  • Mühlbach (from the Fützener basin with the sweep of the Wutachtalbahn )
  • Ehrenbach
  • Schleitheimer Bach (from the Randental, mainly Swiss territory )
  • Mauchenbach

Only on the last eight kilometers of the Wutach open their three largest tributaries:

Towns

Are located on or slightly off the Wutach following localities:

  • Feldberg (southern Seebachtal )
  • Hinterzarten (northern Seebachtal )
  • Titisee -Neustadt
  • Lenzkirch ( Haslach Valley), with Kappel (start the Wutachschlucht )
  • Peace Weiler ( with Rötenbach at the beginning of Rötenbachschlucht )
  • Bonn village in the Black Forest (south of the Wutachschlucht )
  • Loeffingen (north of the Wutachschlucht )
  • Ewattingen (municipality Wutach, south of the Wutachschlucht )
  • Mundelfingen (city Huefingen, north of the Wutachschlucht )
  • Aselfingen (part of Blumberg )
  • Achdorf (part of Blumberg )
  • Blumberg (east of Wutachschlucht ), with Achdorf on Wutach knee
  • Stühlingen, with Grimmelshofen at the output of Wutachflühen
  • Hallau (east of Wutach, in Switzerland)
  • Schleitheim (east of Wutach, in Switzerland)
  • Eggingen
  • Wutoeschingen
  • Lauchringen
  • Tiengen

Trails

The upper Wutach area ( Seebach, Titisee, Schluchsee, high ridge) is one of the main walking areas of the Black Forest and is criss-crossed by a dense network of hiking trails. The Wutachschlucht is developed primarily on the following two main routes of the Black Forest Association:

  • Southern cross travel Freiburg -Bodensee
  • Ostweg
  • Schluchtensteig

South of the Wutachschlucht, from Grimmelshofen downstream, there are some cases on both sides of the river both trails as well as bike trails.

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