The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of 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 ...
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 ...
or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region.
Geography
The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north by a line from
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
to
Pforzheim
Pforzheim () is a city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany.
It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the nickname "Goldstadt" ("Golden City") ...
and, in the south, by a line running from the
Rench
The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau (Baden (Land), Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is ...
valley to
Freudenstadt
Freudenstadt ( Swabian: ''Fraidestadt'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is capital of the district Freudenstadt. The closest population centres are Offenburg to the west (approx. 36 km away) and Tübingen to the eas ...
. Its northern boundary largely coincides with the emergence of the extensively forested
bunter sandstone
The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...
strata from the arable region of the
Kraichgau
The Kraichgau () is a hilly region in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Odenwald and the Neckar to the North, the Black Forest to the South, and the Upper Rhine Plain to the West. To the east, its boundary is c ...
; its southern boundary with the
Central Black Forest
The Central Black Forest (german: Mittlerer Schwarzwald), also called the Middle Black Forest, is a natural or cultural division of the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It generally refers to a region of deeply incised valleys from t ...
(or, in the case of a bipartite division, the
Southern Black Forest) varies depending on the definition or natural regional division used (see also
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 ...
). Earlier, the Northern Black Forest was the entire northern half of the mountain range as far as the
line of the Kinzig valley, which divides the Black Forest east of
Lahr
Lahr (officially Lahr/Schwarzwald since 30 September 1978) (); gsw, label= Low Alemannic, Lohr) is a town in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany, approximately 50 km north of Freiburg im Breisgau, 40 km southeast of Strasbourg, and 95&nb ...
. To the west it is bounded by the
Upper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...
, to the east by the
Gäu In the south German language (of the Alemannic-speaking area, or in Switzerland), a ''gäu'' landscape (''gäulandschaft'') refers to an area of open, level countryside. These regions typically have fertile soils resulting from depositions of loe ...
landscapes.
The Northern Black Forest is not the same as the spatial-planning region of
Northern Black Forest
The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region.
Geography
The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north b ...
, which covers the eastern area.
Landscape and geology
With its rather angular – in places trapezoidally-shaped – summits, the Northern Black Forest rises above the Rhine Plain by more than . By contrast, its eastern slopes descend gradually and there is less of a height difference with its neighbouring regions. Its highest peak is the
Hornisgrinde
The Hornisgrinde, 1,164 m (3,820 ft), is the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest of Germany. The Hornisgrinde lies in northern Ortenaukreis district.
Origin of the name
The name is probably derived from Latin, and essential ...
at . Woods cover on average 73% of the whole land area and make the Northern Black Forest the most cohesive forested part of the Black Forest, but there are also extensive areas of so-called "
Grinden
A ''grinde'' (plural: ''grinden'') is an almost treeless area of wet heathland found on the rounded bunter sandstone ridges of the Northern Black Forest in Germany. The ''grinden'' reached their greatest extent in the early 19th century when they r ...
": treeless,
wet heaths, on its highland slopes.
Geologically
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other E ...
, the dominant rock of the Northern Black Forest is
bunter sandstone
The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...
, although in the deeply incised west its
gneiss
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...
bedrock reaches the surface.
Granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
s (e.g. Forbach granite) and
porphyries
Porphyry ( ) is a textural term for an igneous rock consisting of coarse-grained crystals such as feldspar or quartz dispersed in a fine-grained silicate-rich, generally aphanitic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocr ...
have intruded forming
crags and
tor
Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to:
Places
* Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain
* Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city
* Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano
* Tor Bay, Devon, England
* Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia
Sc ...
s. The highland regions of the Northern Black Forest are among the regions of the German
Central Uplands
The Central UplandsDickinson (1964), p.18 ff. (german: die MittelgebirgeN.B. In German die ''Mittelgebirge'' (plural) refers to the Central Uplands; das ''Mittelgebirge'' refers to a low mountain range or upland region (''Mittel'' = "medium" and ...
with the heaviest rainfall (up to 2,200 mm per annum). Its most important rivers are the
Murg,
Nagold
Nagold is a town in southwestern Germany, bordering the Northern Black Forest. It is located in the ''Landkreis'' (district) of Calw (Germany/Baden-Württemberg). Nagold is known for its ruined castle, Hohennagold Castle, and for its road viad ...
,
Enz
The Enz is a river flowing north from the Black Forest to the Neckar in Baden-Württemberg.
It is 106 km long.
Its headstreams – the Little Enz (german: Kleine Enz) and the Great Enz or Big Enz (''Große Enz'') – rise in the Northern B ...
,
Alb
The alb (from the Latin ''albus'', meaning ''white''), one of the liturgical vestments of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed and Congregational churches, is an ample white garment coming down to the ank ...
,
Acher
The Acher is a 53.6-kilometre-long river and right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the county of Ortenau, in the south German state of Baden-Württemberg. It flows in an northwesterly direction from the Black Forest to the Rhine, between the two ...
,
Rench
The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau (Baden (Land), Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is ...
,
Oos and the upper reaches of the
Wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...
.
In 2001, the
Central and Northern Black Forest Nature Park (''Naturpark Schwarzwald Mitte/Nord'') was established and its coverage includes the whole of the Northern Black Forest. In addition, an area of about 10,000 hectares has been designated since 1 January 2014 as the
Black Forest National Park
The Black Forest National Park (german: Nationalpark Schwarzwald) is a national park in the state of Baden-Württemberg in the southwest of Germany.
It has an area of and is located on the main crest of the Northern Black Forest, mainly between ...
. It has numerous highly popular tourist attractions as well as winter sport areas in addition to the towns named below and the
Black Forest High Road
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...
and
Kaltenbronn.
Towns and villages in the Northern Black Forest (selection)
Mountains (selection)
Lakes
Numerous
tarns
A tarn (or corrie loch) is a proglacial mountain lake, pond or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn.
Etymology
The word is derived from the Old Norse word ''tjörn'' ("a small mount ...
in the Northern Black Forest are evidence of
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 ...
glacial formations, The best-known is the
Mummelsee
The Mummelsee is a 17-metre-deep lake at the western mountainside of the Hornisgrinde in the Northern Black Forest of Germany. It is very popular with tourists travelling along the Black Forest High Road. According to legends, the lake is inhab ...
on the Hornisgrinde. Other tarns are the Ellbachsee,
Herrenwieser See,
Huzenbacher See,
Sankenbachsee,
Schurmsee and the
Wildsee near Ruhestein. Many of them were also impounded in order to supply excess water for
timber rafting
Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mean ...
which was common until the 19th century. Other former tarns have silted up.
The
Hohlohsee and the
Wildsee near Gernsbach-Kaltenbronn are raised bog lakes on the highlands between the Murg and Enz valleys that are only fed by local precipitation.
There are several
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 ...
s in the Northern Black Forest. The
Schwarzenbach Dam and the
Murg Dam are part of the ''Rudolf-Fettweis-Werk'', a
pumped storage
Pumping may refer to:
* The operation of a pump, for moving a liquid from one location to another
**The use of a breast pump for extraction of milk
* Pumping (audio), a creative misuse of dynamic range compression
* Pumping (computer systems), th ...
and
run-of-the-river
Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amou ...
power station in Forbach. The
Nagold Dam
The Nagold Dam (german: Nagoldtalsperre, also ''Erzgrube'') is a dam in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It was built between 1965 and 1970, and provides flood and drought protection in the Nagold valley. The dam lies within the county of ...
regulates the water level of the Nagold. The
Kleine Kinzig Dam is used for drinking water, water regulation and electricity generation.
Tourism
Due to the vast preserved natural scenery, the region is popular among hikers.
Hiking trails (selection)
* Panorama hike:
Hornisgrinde
The Hornisgrinde, 1,164 m (3,820 ft), is the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest of Germany. The Hornisgrinde lies in northern Ortenaukreis district.
Origin of the name
The name is probably derived from Latin, and essential ...
–
Mummelsee
The Mummelsee is a 17-metre-deep lake at the western mountainside of the Hornisgrinde in the Northern Black Forest of Germany. It is very popular with tourists travelling along the Black Forest High Road. According to legends, the lake is inhab ...
–
Wildsee –
Karlsruher Grat – Edelfrauengrab waterfalls (20 km, duration 6:30 h)
*
Maulbronn Monastery
Maulbronn Monastery (german: Kloster Maulbronn) is a former Cistercian abbey and ecclesiastical state in the Holy Roman Empire located at Maulbronn, Baden-Württemberg. The monastery complex, one of the best-preserved in Europe, was named a UNESCO ...
hike:
Mühlacker station
Mühlacker station is in the town of Mühlacker in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is at the junction of the Karlsruhe–Mühlacker line and the Western Railway. With its five platform tracks, it is the largest station in Enz distr ...
–
Wannenwald (alongside the historical ''Landesdefensionslinie'') –
Maulbronn
Maulbronn () is a city in the district of Enz in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.
History
Founded in 1838, it emerged from a settlement, built around a monastery, which belonged to the Neckar Community in the Kingdom of Württemberg. In ...
(17.3 km, duration 4:30 h). The Maulbronn Monastery is considered the best preserved medieval monastery north of the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
.
* Bernsteinfels circular hike:
Bad Herrenalb
Bad Herrenalb is a municipality in the district of Calw, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the northern Black Forest, 15 km east of Baden-Baden, and 22 km southwest of Pforzheim.
The town is connected to the city of K ...
– Bernsteinfels ("amber rock") – Wasenhütte (14.3 km, duration: 4:30 h)
In the winter time, the Northern Black Forest region attracts tourists with the ski resorts
Mehliskopf
The Mehliskopf is a mountain, , on the main chain of the Northern Black Forest in Germany. It lies above the Black Forest High Road, between Sand (junction to Herrenwies and the Schwarzenbach Dam) and Hundseck (junction to Forbach-Hundsbach). ...
, Hundseck – Bühlertallifte,
Kaltenbronn,
Simmersfeld
Simmersfeld is a town in the district of Calw in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
History
The village of Aichhalden was acquired in 1345 by the County of Württemberg and was assigned to the district of Neuweiler, then to that of Calw in the early ...
.
See also
*
Waterfalls in the Northern Black Forest
*
Central/North Black Forest Nature Park
The Central/North Black Forest Nature Park (german: Naturpark Schwarzwald Mitte/Nord) is located in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It covers an area of 3,750 km2 and was founded in December 2000. As of 2018, it is the third-largest nature pa ...
References
Literature
* Sönke Lorenz (ed.): ''Der Nordschwarzwald. Von der Wildnis zur Wachstumsregion.'' Markstein-Verlag, Filderstadt, 2001,
* Rudolf Metz: ''Mineralogisch-landeskundliche Wanderungen im Nordschwarzwald, besonders in dessen alten Bergbaurevieren.'' 2nd, full revised edition, Schauenburg, Lahr, 1977,
; Wander- & Reiseführer, Bilderbücher
* Bernhard Pollmann: ''Schwarzwald Nord und Mitte.''
Bergverlag Rother
Bergverlag Rother is a German publisher with its headquarters in Oberhaching, Upper Bavaria. Since 1950 the company, that formerly went under the name of ''Bergverlag Rudolf Rother'', has published the Alpine Club Guides in cooperation with the Ge ...
, 2003, , Wanderführer
* Wolfgang Benz: ''Schwarzwald Nord. Wanderführer mit Tourenkarten und Wandertipps.'' Deutscher Wanderverlag D. Mair & Schnabel & Co. 2003,
* Cornelia Ziegler: ''Schwarzwald - Der Norden.'' Reise Know-How-Verlag 2000, 264 pp., über 80 Fotos, 16 Karten und Stadtpläne,
* Baedeker: ''Schwarzwald''. Baedeker Allianz-Reiseführer, Ostfildern, 2006, 466 pp.,
* HB Bildatlas: ''Schwarzwald Norden.'' HB Verlag 2004, 113 pp.,
;Film
* Bilderbuch Deutschland: ''Der nördliche Schwarzwald.'' documentary, 45 min., a film by Willy Meyer,
SWR, first broadcast: 5 March 2006.
External links
Official Black Forest Tourism website
{{coord missing, Baden-Württemberg
Black Forest
Baden-Württemberg
Ski areas and resorts in Germany
Hiking trails in Baden-Württemberg