The Salzbach, which is initially called the Kröppenbach and then the Buchbach, is with a length of around the longest tributary of the

Lauter Lauter may refer to: People * Lauter (surname) Places *Lauter, Saxony, town in the district of Aue-Schwarzenberg, Saxony, Germany * Lauter, Bavaria, village in the district of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany Rivers * Lauter (Baunach), tributary to th ...

, which here in its upper reaches is known as the ''Wieslauter''. It flows through the northwestern

Wasgau The Wasgau (german: Wasgau, french: Vasgovie) is a Franco-German hill range in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the French departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle. It is formed from the southern part of the Palatine Forest and the north ...

, a hill range which comprises the southern part of the Palatinate Forest in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

and the northern part of the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

in the French departments of

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

and

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

Course

Strictly speaking the stream called the Salzbach does not have a spring source because it is formed by the confluence of the Kröppenbach/Buchbach, which

hydrologically Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is call ...

is the source of the Salzbach, and the Storrbach which empties into it from the right between the villages of Langmühle and Salzwoog below the Devil's Table of Salzwoog. The Kröppenbach/Buchbach rises on the Hoher Kopf (467 m); the good Storrbach on the

Großer Spießkopf Grosser or Großer is the masculine nominative singular form of the German adjective "gross", meaning "big", "great", "large", "tall", and the like. It is part of many placenames, especially of mountains. It is also a surname. People with that surn ...

(414 m). After this confluence, the Salzbach forms the parish boundary, for the rest of its course, between

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

and

Hinterweidenthal Hinterweidenthal is a municipality in Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in E ...

, then between

Ruppertsweiler Ruppertsweiler is a municipality in Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany and belongs to the municipal association Pirmasens-Land Pirmasens-Land is a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the Südwestpfalz ...

and Hinterweidenthal. In the hamlet of Salzwoog it flows through an eponymous

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

. At the height of the Hinterweidenthal hamlet of Kaltenbach and below the Devil's Table of Kaltenbach, the Salzbach discharges from the right into the Wieslauter.

Tributaries

*Kleiner Kröppenbach (''left''), *Großer Kröppenbach (''left''), *Ransbächel (''left''), *Brunnentalbach (''left''), *Schimmelbach (''left''), *Katzenbach (''right''), *Storrbach (''right''), *Steinbach (''left'') *Lindelbach (''right''), *Schiffelsbach (''left'') *Walmersbach (''left''), *Kaltenbach (''left''), {{cvt, 1.4, km

History

The name of the stream does not refer to its salt (German: ''Salz'') content, but to the old customs station of Salzwoog, where salt traders had to pay a tax on crossing the border between the territories of the

Bishopric of Speyer The Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, formerly known as Spires in English, (German: ''Hochstift Speyer, Fürstbistum Speyer, Bistum Speyer'') was an ecclesiastical principality in what are today the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Würt ...

and the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. The former border post of Salzwoog lay on the bridge above the Salzbach, that now carries the state road, L 487 (Hinterweidenthal– Fischbach) and L 486 (Lemberg–

Dahn Dahn is a municipality in the Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Palatinate Forest, approximately 15 km southeast of Pirmasens, and 25 km west of Landau. It is part of the ''Verbandsgemeind ...

) over the pond.

Course

Tributaries

History

See also