The Alb (also: ''Hauensteiner Alb'') is a river in the southern
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 ...
. It arises from two
headwaters, the Menzenschwander Alb and Bernauer Alb, and flows in a southerly direction. It ends after (including ''Menzenschwander Alb'') at a confluence with the
High Rhine at Albbruck.
Etymology
The name ''Alb'' is possibly derived from a
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...
word ''*albhos'' meaning "white" or perhaps "river".
Headwaters
The headwaters of the Menzenschwander Alb lie on the southern slope of the
Feldberg mountain range in the
Landkreis
In all German states, except for the three city states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a '' Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the (official term in all but two states) or (official term in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia ...
of
Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald. The Bernauer Alb rises on the southern slope of the
Herzogenhorn. The Menzenschwander Alb is about long and flows south-east past
Menzenschwand. The Bernauer Alb is about long; it also flows south-east, past
Bernau. The confluence of the two headwaters is at ''Glashofsäge'', about from
Sankt Blasien.
The valleys of both headwaters were widened by
glaciers
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
during the
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 gre ...
. Both are about high and dominated by grassland. The Bernau valley is a broad basin, characterized by
moraines
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice she ...
, marshy valleys, ravines, and
Roche moutonnées. The
hamlets and isolated farms that make up the valley lie some distance above the frost-prone valley floor.
The
glacial features in the Menzenschwand valley are even more striking. The ''Menzenschwander Kluse'' is a well-known
terminal moraine. Below the Kluse, the Menzenschwand Alb plunges with several waterfalls through a small ravine to a basin created by the former Krunkelbach valley glacier.
Middle reaches
The area occupied by the municipality of Sankt Blasien's area is dominated by the
classicist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Cla ...
dome of Sankt Blasien's
Cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...
. Below the village centre, the Alb form a waterfall, locally known as , after the Roman town of
Tusculum
Tusculum is a ruined Classical Rome, Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable dist ...
. The Alb, like most rivers in this part of the Black Forest, then changes its course by about 60 degrees, towards the south. This is thought to be caused by
tectonic movements of the Earth's
crust, which have increased the
gradient
In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...
to the
High Rhine. The only valley that continues in a south-eastern direction is about higher, in the saddle near
Häusern. During the ice age, the Alb glacier was about high in this area, and its meltwater overflowed the Häusern saddle, into the
Schwarza valley.
Below this bend, the Alb water is collected in a
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...
, the
Alb Basin
The Alb Reservoir (german: Albstausee), or Alb Basin (''Albbecken'') is a storage reservoir in the valley of the Alb (High Rhine), River Alb near St. Blasien in the Southern Black Forest in south Germany. It is part of the pumped storage network o ...
. Its average surface area is ; it is impounded by a dam of about in length. Most of the water is piped to the ''
Schwarzabruck'' reservoir. Both reservoirs are owned by the
Schluchseewerk AG.
The Alb then flows through a wide valley, lined by meadows, which contains the villages of Schlageter and Immeneich. The valley is no longer bordered by narrow, wooded ridges, but instead by the undulating
Hotzenwald
The Hotzenwald is a landscape and region in the Southern Black Forest in the county of Waldshut. Its headquarters was the ''Waldvogteiamt''.
Location and topography
The region of Hotzenwald is not precisely defined in the records. In a narro ...
plateau in the municipalities of
Dachsberg und
Höchenschwand. The plateau is indented by bogs and rocky hilltops.
During the
Würm ice age, the Alb glacier ended at the point where we now find the village of ''Niedermühle''. With a length of , the Alb glacier was the longest in the Black Forest. Downstream of Niedermühle, the valley is very narrow, leaving no room for settlements.
Alb Gorge
The slope of the Alps increased greatly in the ravines and the river forces its way through the more canyon-like passages and blocked sections known as the ("Devil's Kitchen"). The Ibach and Höllbach join from the right, each emerging from its own narrow gorge. The Höllbach has two waterfalls in this area. Because the gorge is so narrow, the road is up to higher, on the left bank. On a wider spot in the valley, is the saw mill ''Tiefenstein'' and two tributaries, Schildbach and Steinbach. Halfway up the slope, there are granite quarries and the ruins of two castles.
The narrowest and most dangerous passage begins downstream of Tiefenstein. Long ago, the Alb followed a different course and flowed to
Hauenstein through the valley now occupied by the Mühlbach. This route was blocked by glacial deposits during an earlier ice age, forcing the Alb to find a new route to the Rhine. Since then, the "new" gorge cuts through the granite rock. This section cannot be travelled without special equipment, even though the water flow is usually low, because most of the water has been diverted. It there is sufficient water,
canoeing
Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. Common meanings of the term are limited to when the canoeing is the central purpose of the activity. Broader meanings include when it is combined with other act ...
is possible, although this is considered the most difficult stretch of
whitewater
Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...
in Germany.
[Josef Haas: ''Wildwasserperlen'', Constance, 1980, p. 25] In this section the road runs up to above the river and passes through five short tunnels drilled through the cliffs, giving it the nickname "Axenstraße of the Black Forest". From the hamlet ''Hohenfels'', the road descends to the valley floor at
Albbruck
Albbruck is a municipality of the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is on the southwestern border of Germany with Switzerland.
History
In 1805 during the process of German mediatisation, a restructuring of certain juris ...
, where the Alb flows into the High Rhine.
Gallery
File: Menzenschwand 7688.jpg , Waterfalls in the gorge of Menzenschwander Alb
File: Herzogenhorn in Richtung Bernau.jpg , The valley north of Bernauer Alb
File: St Blasien 1900.jpg , St Blaise and the upper Alb valley in 1900
File: StBlasienFluss.jpg , The Alb in St. Blasien
File: AlbStausee.jpg , The Albbecken below St. Blasien
File: AlbNiedermuehle.jpg , The Alb valley above the gorge at ''Niedermühle''
File: AlbTiefenstein.jpg , Widening of the Alb gorge at Tiefenstein
File: Albtaltunnel.jpg , One of the five tunnels in the upper canyon wall
See also
*
Alb (Northern Black Forest)
The Alb is a river in the Northern Black Forest in Germany. It is a tributary of the Rhine, and flows through the cities of Karlsruhe, Ettlingen and Bad Herrenalb.
Geography
The river Alb begins about from Bad Herrenalb. From its source it flow ...
Footnotes
{{Authority control
Rivers of Baden-Württemberg
Rivers of the Black Forest
Rivers of Germany