Menzenschwand (

Alemannic Alemannic (''Alamannic'') or Alamanni may refer to: * Alemannic German, a dialect family in the Upper German branch of the German languages and its speakers * Alemanni, a confederation of Suebian Germanic tribes in the Roman period * Alamanni (surna ...

: ''Menzèschwand'') is a climatic

health spa A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health ser ...

in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The village lies within the borough of

St. Blasien St. Blasien (Sankt Blasien) is a small town located in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Southern Black Forest, 17 km northeast of Waldshut-Tiengen. St. Blaise's Abbey in the Black Forest is locat ...

in the state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

Geography

Menzenschwand comprises three villages, ''Vorderdorf'' ("front village"), ''Mitteldorf'' ("middle village") and ''Hinterdorf'' ("rear village"), has a population of just under 550 inhabitants and belongs to the borough of

. It lies in the valley of Menzenschwander Alb which runs south from the 1,493-metre-high Feldberg. The valley joins the westward-running valley of the Bernauer Alb above

. In the valley to the east lies the lake of

Schluchsee The Schluchsee is a reservoir lake in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, southeast of the Titisee in the Black Forest near Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Name In the Alemannic dialects of the region the name of the lake is the ''Schluec ...

. The valley landscape of Menzenschwand is shaped by the glacial streams of the Feldberg Glacier from several

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

s. The main glacier, which was up to 300 metres thick, carved out trough-shaped valley of the Krunkelbach that starts at the large cwm west of the

Herzogenhorn The Herzogenhorn is a mountain, , in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg. It lies within a nature reserve in the municipality of Bernau im Schwarzwald. Location and surrounding area The Herzogenhorn is the source region for three ...

. The Alb valley to the south joins the Krunkelbach valley at a small

valley step A valley step (german: Talstufe or ''Talschwelle'') is a prominent change in the longitudinal slope of a valley, mainly in trough valleys formed by glaciers. Typically, a valley formed by glaciers has a series of basins with intervening steps f ...

about 20 metres high. The Alb has a

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

there with small

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

s, one of them manmade. A little higher up, a prominent

end moraine A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...

embankment crosses the valley. The narrow water gap of the stream, the Menzenschwand splash dam reservoir (''Menzenschwander Kluse''), was previously used to store water for log rafting. The basin-shaped mouth area is a sedimented, former lake. Numerous

roches moutonnée Roche (F. Hoffmann–La Roche) is a Swiss healthcare company. Roche may also refer to: Companies *Roche Diagnostics, a division of F. Hoffmann–La Roche ** Roche Applied Science, a business group of Roche Diagnostics Places France *Roche, I ...

characterise the meadows of the lower slopes. To the west of the ''Hinterdorf'', in a cym below the Spießhorn (1348.9 metres), lies the circular Scheibenlechtenmoos, a raised mountain bog. Valuable small bogs of various stages of development can also be found in the summit area of the Bärhalde north. Large parts of the district belong to the Feldberg Nature Reserve.

Sights

* Several ensembles of well preserved

Black Forest house The Black Forest houseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 154. . (german: Schwarzwaldhaus) is a byre-dwelling that is found mainly in the central and southern parts of the Bla ...

s in the village * Feldberg summit area *

summit area * Wildlife of the steep alpine mountainsides (including

chamois The chamois (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe, from west to east, including the Alps, the Dinarides, the Tatra and the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the Ril ...

and

birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predators ...

) *

Gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

and

s of the Menzenschwander Alb below the ''Menzenschwander Kluse'' (see also

Waterfalls of Germany This list of notable waterfalls of the world is sorted by continent, then country, then province, state or territory. A waterfall is included if it has an existing article specifically for it on Wikipedia, and it is at least high, or the fa ...

) *

Raised bog Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens, are exclusively fed by precipitation ( ombro ...

of '' Scheibenlechtenmoos'' in a

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...

below the

Spießhorn The Spießhorn is a mountain, high, in the Black Forest just east of the Herzogenhorn The Herzogenhorn is a mountain, , in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg. It lies within a nature reserve in the municipality of Bernau im Schwar ...

* ''Le Petit Salon'' and its

Winterhalter Winterhalter is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert G. Winterhalter (1856–1920), admiral in the United States Navy, commander in chief of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet from 1915 to 1917 * Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–1873), ...

exhibition

Trivia

During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

the Krunkelbach Pit was the only active

uranium mine Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Over 50 thousand tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account f ...

in West Germany. At the same time, East Germany was one of the world's largest uranium producers through

SDAG Wismut SAG/SDAG Wismut was a uranium mining company in East Germany during the time of the Cold War. It produced a total of 230,400 tonnes of uranium between 1947 and 1990 and made East Germany the fourth largest producer of uranium ore in the world ...

Literature

* Frank Bode: ''Subrezenter Vegetations- und Landschaftswandel im Südschwarzwald. Untersucht am Beispiel des Menzenschwander Tals''. Dissertation, University of Freiburg, 2005, * *

References

External links

Website of Menzenschwand
{{Authority control St. Blasien Spa towns in Germany