The Windgfällweiher is 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 contro ...

between the

Titisee The Titisee is a lake in the southern Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg. It covers an area of and is an average of deep. It owes its formation to the Feldberg glacier, the moraines of which were formed in the Pleistocene epoch and nowadays for ...

and the

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 ...

in the south 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 ...

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 is located within the

High Black Forest The High Black Forest (german: Hochschwarzwald) is a touristic and geographical region in the south-west of the German federal state Baden-Württemberg, primarily in the Southern Black Forest. History of the name The term ''Hochschwarzwald'' o ...

and lies in a hollow formed by

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 ...

glaciation between the villages of Altglashütten, Falkau and Aha on the territory of the municipality of

Lenzkirch Lenzkirch is a municipality in the Black Forest. It lies in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Lenzkirch is on the Black Forest plateau, in the valley of the river Haslach, which near the south ...

. The lake lies in a trough that runs from the Seebach valley in the northwest to the Schluchsee in the southeast and thus crosses the generally northeastward-running streams in the area. This remnant of a former valley is followed by the

Three Lakes Railway The Three Lakes Railway (German: ''Dreiseenbahn'', or sometimes, ''Drei-Seen-Bahn''.) is a long line in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The line is electrified to the standard 15 kV, 16⅔ Hz system commonly used throughout the German ra ...

that was built between 1920 and 1926 and by the transfer channel (''Überleitungskanal''), built in 1932 and belonging to the

Schluchseewerk The Schluchseewerk AG is the operator of five pumped storage hydroelectric power stations in the Southern Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Its head office is in Laufenburg (Baden). The shareholders of the Schluchseewerk ar ...

, which takes water from the Seebach valley via the Haslach valley to the Schluchsee Basin. North of the low-lying

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

in this trough, between the Haslach in the north and the Ahabach in the south, now drowned by the impounded Schluchsee, the

glacier 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#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

of the last ice age carved out a basin, in which a small

bog lake A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; ...

formed, the natural precursor to today's reservoir. This was enlarged in 1895 by the former Falkau Screw Works (''Schraubenfabrik Falkau'') with a dam in the north and the water surface raised by about 6 metres. At the same time the lake, which had only hitherto been fed from the east by the Kähnerbächle, was given another inflow in the form of a small

leat A leat (; also lete or leet, or millstream) is the name, common in the south and west of England and in Wales, for an artificial watercourse or aqueduct dug into the ground, especially one supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Other ...

(''Hangkanal'') from the southwest. Since 1932 the Windgfällweiher has been incorporated into the transfer of water from the Seebach to the Schluchsee (covered leat) and drained since then in the opposite direction i.e. to the south. The water is led via a ditch over the low watershed, initially as the ''Windgefällbach'' and later, the ''Schwarzach'', into the Schluchsee. Since 1950 the lake has been protected. In 2002 an angling and fish consumption ban was announced, because

PCB PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * ...

had been discovered in the sediment depositions on the bottom of the lake. On the wooded eastern shore of the Windgfällweiher, a lake barely touched by the streams of visitors to the area, lies a rather less picturesque bathing beach with a listed building. The Windgfällweiher, together with the Schluchsee and

, contributed to the name of the

. Windgfaellweiher 5929.jpg, View of the bathing area Windgfaellweiher im Winter.jpg, The Windgfällweiher in winter

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Windgfallweiher Lakes of Baden-Württemberg Lakes of the Black Forest LWindgfallweiher

See also

References

External links