Eckbach Mill Trail

The Eckbach (locally known as the Eck and in the lower reaches also as Neugraben or Leiniger GrabenWasserwirtschaftsverwaltung Rheinland
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Name

Linguistic Research into the old name of ''die Eck'' shows that it is related to the Upper German word ''Ache'', which means "river" or "creek" and is derived from the Old High German ''aha''.

In the Middle Ages, the river was known as ''Leinbach''. This name refers to the ''Leinbaum'', that is, the Lime tree (''Tilia × europaea'' L., not related to the ''Citrus aurantifolia'', the tree that produces the lime (fruit)). In those days, both the Norway Maple (''Acer platanoides'') and the Large-leaved Linden (''Tilia platyphyllos'') were called ''Leinbaum'' in German. Both species were common on the banks of the Eckbach. One difference between the species is the shape of the leaves: maple leaves are five lobed, lime leaves are undivided. The coat of arms of the House of Leiningen shows a stylized tree with five-lobed leaves and five-pointed flowers clearly point to a maple. The House of Leiningen originated in the area around the upper Eckbach. It is entirely possible that they named their ancestral castle after the river. The family was later named after their castle and the area around the upper Eckbach is now called ''Leininger Land''.

In the early 19th century, the local name of the river was Eck, as it is today. The Kingdom of Bavaria acquired the Palatinate in 1816. When Bavarian cartographers mapped the area, they were unaware of the meaning of the word ''Eck'' and wanted to make it clear that the "Eck" is a brook, so they recorded the name as ''Eckbach''. Linguistically speaking, this name means "brook brook".

Course

The Eckbach rises near Carlsberg in northern Palatinate forest. The spring is framed in sandstone and is southeast of A6 (Saarbrücken- Mannheim) at an elevation of above sea level in the ''Kleinfrankreich'' ("Little France") section of the Hertlingshausen district of Carlsberg. The spring is marked by a so-called ''Ritterstein''.

The area surrounding the upper Eckbach is known as the ''Leininger Land'' or ''Leiningerland'', after the aristocratic Leiningen family who ruled the area in the High Middle Ages. The Eckbach is the central watercourse in this area. This part of the river is managed by the , a division of the county of Bad Dürkheim. The river initially flows in an easterly direction through Hertlingshausen, then northeast through Altleiningen, where it receives water from the artificial 20-Pipe Well from the left, then the long Höninger Bach from the right.

After flowing through the Eckbachweiher reservoir at Neuleiningen-Tal, the Eckbach breaks through the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest, the Haardt, between the village of Battenberg on the south bank and Neuleiningen on the north bank. It reaches the vineyard-covered hills around the German Wine Route at Kleinkarlbach. In Kirchheim an der Weinstrasse, the Eckbach, now flowing eastward, passes under the north-south running B271 highway, before flowing through Bissersheim. From there, the Eckbach flows in a northeasterly direction to Großkarlbach, where it crosses the A6 motorway before flowing through Laumersheim.

In Dirmstein, the Eckbach collects the long Floßbach, locally known as the ''Landgraben'', which is the Eckbach's largest tributary. To the left, that is, to the north of the Eckbach, the structure of the hills is clearly defined. There is a long, low ridge with three summits marking the divide between the Eisbach and the Eckbach: the Wörschberg, elevation , north of the road connecting Obersülzen and Dirmstein, the Schneckenberg, elevation , between Dirmstein and Offstein and the Stahlberg, elevation , between Dirmstein and the Heppenheim district of Worms.

The area south and to the right or the Eckbach is flatter and the Großkarlbach-Laumersheim-Dirmstein-Gerolsheim area used to be a boggy lowland, which was used as pasture land. Further south lies the divide between the Eckbach and its southern neighbour, the Fuchsbach. This was a left tributary of the Isenach until the second half of the 20th century, when most of its water was diverted into Schrakelbach. The area between Laumersheim, Dirmstein, Gerolsheim and Heuchelheim contains a number of irrigation canals: ''Weihergraben, Altbach, Kühweidegraben, Altgraben, Bittinggraben and Lerchengraben''. These ditches begin as distributaries of the Eckbach and return to the Eckbach downstream, some of them directly into Eckbach, some flow into Schrakelbach. East of Heuchelheim and to the north of the Frankenthal Interchange, the A61 crosses the Eckbach.

The Eckbach then flows past Beindersheim