The Neustadt Dam, also known as the Nordhausen Dam (german: Talsperre Neustadt or ''Nordhäuser Talsperre''), is the oldest
dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...
in the Free State of
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and lar ...
in
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 ...
. It supplies drinking water to the town of
Nordhausen.
The dam is a curved
gravity dam made of
rubble stone
Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an i ...
, based on the
Intze Principle. The dam was built in 1904–1905, in the southern
Harz mountains
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...
, and it was raised by a further 6.26 metres in 1922–1923. The impounded stream is the
Krebsbach. The operator of the dam is the ''Thüringer Fernwasserversorgung''; the water is supplied to the ''Wasserverband Nordhausen'' (Nordhausen Water Association).
Swimming and water sports are not permitted on the lake, but there is a public path around the lakeshore.
The dam was refurbished between 1997 and 2001. It was reinforced, waterproofed on the upstream side with
asphaltic concrete
Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parkin ...
, and given an inspection walkway and an impervious blanket.
On the western side of the valley is a checkpoint (no. 218) in the
Harzer Wandernadel
The Harzer Wandernadel is a system of hiking awards in the Harz mountains in central Germany. The hiker (or mountain biker) can earn awards at different levels of challenge by walking to the various checkpoints in the network and stamping his or ...
hiking system.
See also
*
List of dams and reservoirs in Germany
These are dams and reservoirs in Germany.
The German word ''Talsperre'' (literally: valley barrier) may mean dam, but it is often used to include the associated reservoir as well. The reservoirs are often separately given names ending in ''-se ...
*
List of dams in the Harz
In the Harz mountains, there is a higher than average number of dams with their associated reservoirs. The reason is that the Harz is one of the regions with the heaviest rainfall in Germany and so its water power was utilised very early on. The ...
External links
Information about the ''Wasserverband Nordhausen''Dam operatorInformation on the refurbishment(pdf file; 106 kB)
{{Authority control
Dams in the Harz
Dams in Thuringia
Buildings and structures in Nordhausen (district)
RNeustadt
Dams completed in 1905
1905 establishments in Germany