The Eckbach (locally known as the Eck and in the lower reaches also as Neugraben or Leiniger GrabenWasserwirtschaftsverwaltung Rheinland
/ref>) is a small river in the northeastern Palatinate and the southeastern

Rhenish Hesse Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (german: Rheinhessen) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland- ...

. It is slightly over long.

Name

Linguistic Research Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

into the old name of ''die Eck'' shows that it is related to the

Upper German Upper German (german: Oberdeutsch ) is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area (). History In the Old High German time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle High ...

word ''Ache'', which means "river" or "creek" and is derived from the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

''aha''. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, the river was known as ''Leinbach''. This name refers to the ''Leinbaum'', that is, the Lime tree (''

Tilia × europaea ''Tilia'' × ''europaea'', generally known as the European lime, common lime (British Isles) or common linden, is a naturally occurring hybrid between ''Tilia cordata'' (small-leaved lime) and ''Tilia platyphyllos'' (large-leaved lime). It occurs ...

'' L., not related to the ''Citrus aurantifolia'', the tree that produces the

lime (fruit) A lime (from French ''lime'', from Arabic ''līma'', from Persian ''līmū'', "lemon") is a citrus fruit, which is typically round, green in color, in diameter, and contains acidic juice vesicles. There are several species of citrus trees ...

). In those days, both the

Norway Maple ''Acer platanoides'', commonly known as the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia, from Spain east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran. It was introduced to ...

(''Acer platanoides'') and the Large-leaved Linden (''Tilia platyphyllos'') were called ''Leinbaum'' in German. Both species were common on the banks of the Eckbach. One difference between the species is the shape of the leaves: maple leaves are five lobed, lime leaves are undivided. The coat of arms of the

House of Leiningen The House of Leiningen is the name of an old German noble family whose lands lay principally in Alsace, Lorraine, Saarland, Rhineland, and the Palatinate. Various branches of this family developed over the centuries and ruled counties with Imp ...

shows a stylized tree with five-lobed leaves and five-pointed flowers clearly point to a maple. The House of Leiningen originated in the area around the upper Eckbach. It is entirely possible that they named their ancestral castle after the river. The family was later named after their castle and the area around the upper Eckbach is now called ''Leininger Land''. In the early 19th century, the local name of the river was Eck, as it is today. The

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German ...

acquired the Palatinate in 1816. When Bavarian cartographers mapped the area, they were unaware of the meaning of the word ''Eck'' and wanted to make it clear that the "Eck" is a brook, so they recorded the name as ''Eckbach''. Linguistically speaking, this name means "brook brook".

Course

The Eckbach rises near Carlsberg in northern Palatinate forest. The spring is framed in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

and is southeast of A6 ( Saarbrücken-

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

) at an elevation of above sea level in the ''Kleinfrankreich'' ("Little France") section of the Hertlingshausen district of Carlsberg. The spring is marked by a so-called '' Ritterstein''. The area surrounding the upper Eckbach is known as the ''Leininger Land'' or ''Leiningerland'', after the aristocratic Leiningen family who ruled the area in the High Middle Ages. The Eckbach is the central watercourse in this area. This part of the river is managed by the , a division of the county of

Bad Dürkheim Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Win ...

. The river initially flows in an easterly direction through Hertlingshausen, then northeast through

Altleiningen Altleiningen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location The municipality lies at an e ...

, where it receives water from the artificial

20-Pipe Well The 20 Pipe WellRothbach from the left, then the long Höninger Bach from the right. After flowing through the

Eckbachweiher The Eckbachweiher in the Palatine Leiningerland in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate is a ''woog'' on the Eckbach stream. A ''woog'' is the name given to still bodies of water, especially man-made reservoirs, in southwest Germany. Geograph ...

reservoir at Neuleiningen-Tal, the Eckbach breaks through the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest, the Haardt, between the village of Battenberg on the south bank and Neuleiningen on the north bank. It reaches the

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...

-covered hills around the

German Wine Route The German Wine RouteScheunemann J., Stewart J., Walker N. and Williams C. (2011), ''Back Roads Germany'', Dorling Kindersley, London. . or Wine Road (german: Deutsche Weinstraße) is the oldest of Germany's tourist wine routes. Located in th ...

Kleinkarlbach Kleinkarlbach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location The municipality is a winegr ...

. In Kirchheim an der Weinstrasse, the Eckbach, now flowing eastward, passes under the north-south running B271 highway, before flowing through Bissersheim. From there, the Eckbach flows in a northeasterly direction to

Großkarlbach Großkarlbach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Großkarlbach lies near the ...

, where it crosses the A6 motorway before flowing through Laumersheim. In

Dirmstein Dirmstein ( pfl, Dermschdää) is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With its roughly 3,000 inhabitants, ...

, the Eckbach collects the long Floßbach, locally known as the ''Landgraben'', which is the Eckbach's largest tributary. To the left, that is, to the north of the Eckbach, the structure of the hills is clearly defined. There is a long, low ridge with three summits marking the divide between the Eisbach and the Eckbach: the Wörschberg, elevation , north of the road connecting Obersülzen and Dirmstein, the Schneckenberg, elevation , between Dirmstein and

Offstein Offstein in the Wonnegau is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography The municipality lies in Rheni ...

and the Stahlberg, elevation , between Dirmstein and the Heppenheim district of

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...

. The area south and to the right or the Eckbach is flatter and the Großkarlbach-Laumersheim-Dirmstein- Gerolsheim area used to be a boggy lowland, which was used as pasture land. Further south lies the divide between the Eckbach and its southern neighbour, the Fuchsbach. This was a left tributary of the Isenach until the second half of the 20th century, when most of its water was diverted into Schrakelbach. The area between Laumersheim, Dirmstein, Gerolsheim and

Heuchelheim Heuchelheim (official name: ''Heuchelheim a. d. Lahn'') is a municipality in the district of Gießen, in Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. ...

contains a number of irrigation canals: ''Weihergraben, Altbach, Kühweidegraben, Altgraben, Bittinggraben and Lerchengraben''. These ditches begin as distributaries of the Eckbach and return to the Eckbach downstream, some of them directly into Eckbach, some flow into Schrakelbach. East of Heuchelheim and to the north of the Frankenthal Interchange, the A61 crosses the Eckbach. The Eckbach then flows past Beindersheim. Just north of Beindersheim, it accepts from the right the Schrakelbach, which contains water from the Fuchsbach and from some of the irrigation canals mentioned earlier. The Eckbach the flows through the western part of 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 ...

, flowing north-northeast past the villages Großniedesheim and Kleinniedesheim. It continues northeast through Bobenheim, which is the northern part of

Bobenheim-Roxheim Bobenheim-Roxheim is a municipality in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated approximately 5 km south of Worms, and 13 km northwest of Ludwigshafen. It is mentioned in the Wormser wall-building ordinance ...

. The next section is called ''Neugraben'' ("New Ditch") and flows due north. Southeast of Worms Airport, the Eckbach swings east. The river then flows into the ''Wormser Ried'' nature reserve. It crosses the municipal border into Worms, where it is known as ''Leininger Graben''. The last bridge across the Eckbach carries the B9. It flows past the recreational area ''Bürgerweide'' on the southern side, then into the

Upper Rhine The Upper Rhine (german: Oberrhein ; french: Rhin Supérieur) is the section of the Rhine between Basel in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany, surrounded by the Upper Rhine Plain. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529 (the ...

at an elevation of .

History

The old name of the river, the ''Eck'' is thought by linguistic experts to be derived from the word ''Ache'', commonly used in the

dialects of

South Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

to mean "river" or "stream", which in turn came from the

word ''aha''. In the

the Eckbach bore the name ''Leinbach'', which is where its association with the lime tree arose. ''Leinbaum'' is the local word for both the

large-leaved lime ''Tilia platyphyllos'', the large-leaved lime or large-leaved linden, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae (Tiliaceae). It is a deciduous tree, native to much of Europe, including locally in southwestern Great Britain, growing ...

and the

Norway maple ''Acer platanoides'', commonly known as the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia, from Spain east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran. It was introduced to ...

; two species of tree that used to be very common on the banks of the ''Eckbach''. They differ, however, especially in terms of the leaf shape: maple leaves have five lobes; lime leaves are undivided. The Leiningen family coat of arms of displays a stylised tree, whose leaves - and its five-petalled flowers – are clearly those of a lime. The noble family of Leiningen who came from the region of the upper Eckbach were permitted to name their family castle after the old name for the stream; from which in turn the subsequent name of the family was derived. The fact that the stream, originally called the ''Eck'', now bears the name ''Eckbach'' goes back to the

, which was granted that part of the Palatinate west of the Rhine in 1816. When Bavarian officials surveyed the Palatine

cartographically Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...

they changed the name, in ignorance of the name's origin, in order to make clear that the ''Eck'' was a river (otherwise the word ''Eck'' or ''Ecke'' in German means "corner"). The result is that the present name of ''Eckbach'' linguistically means "stream stream".

Nature

Increasing abandonment of agricultural land in the area around the Eckbach and measures

land restoration Land restoration, which may include renaturalisation or rewilding, is the process of ecological restoration of a site to a natural landscape and habitat, safe for humans, wildlife, and plant communities. Ecological destruction, to which land resto ...

measures have enabled the return or colonisation of rare plant and animal species. In the early winter of 2012

great egret The great egret (''Ardea alba''), also known as the common egret, large egret, or (in the Old World) great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and ...

s were seen on the Eckbach near Dirmstein, a bird whose native habitat is actually further south and east.

Sights

;Castles On the heights of the Palatine Forest and Haardt mountains above the Eckbach valley lies the castles of

, Neuleiningen and Battenberg. Since 1980, stage productions by the Altleiningen Castle Players (''Burgspiele Altleiningen'') have taken place during the summer months. ;''Blitzröhren'' The so-called ''Blitzröhren'' ("lightning pipes") on one of the roads leading to Battenberg are a natural monument. People used to think they were caused by lightning strikes, but they are now thought to be a result of geochemical action. ;Leiningen Valley Railway A section of the Leiningen Valley Railway used to run along the Eckbach for about between Kleinkarlbach and Altleiningen carrying both passengers and goods. ;Eckbach Mill Path In 1997 the Eckbach Mill Path was established alongside the Eckbach. Initially it only ran through seven villages that were part of the Grünstadt-Land collective municipality. Subsequently it has been extended as far as the source of the Eckbach near Hertlingshausen ( Hettenleidelheim) giving it a total length of . File:Burg Altleiningen Schwimmbad.JPG, Altleiningen Castle: lido in the moat File:Burg Altleiningen Jugendherberge.JPG, Altleiningen Castle: youth hostel File:Felsenmühle.JPG, Felsenmühle mill, Neuleiningen valley File:Battenberg.JPG, Battenberg Castle: tower File:Burg Neuleiningen Bergfried.JPG, Neuleiningen Castle: ruins of the ''

palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson ...

'' and ''

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under Germ ...

'' File:Neuleiningen St. Nikolaus.JPG, Neuleiningen Castle: the old castle chapel ;20-Pipe Well Today the Eckbach receives most of its water from the

20-Pipe Well The 20 Pipe Well adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adit ...

that was driven deep into the rock around 1600 in order to supply the castle above. The actual source of the Eckbach is upstream, but this no longer delivers water all year round due to the lowering of the

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

level. ;Eckbachweiher The Eckbach is impounded in the area of Neuleiningen-Tal to form the

. In the past the section from here to Dirmstein had 35

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

s, of which 23 have more or less survived; and some of which have been restored. File:2007.0601.03 Dorfmuehle Grosskarlbach.jpg, Village mill and mill museum, Großkarlbach File:2006 Dirmstein-Eckbachweg.jpg, Handmade waymarks on the Mill Path File:2007-Salier-Radweg-001.jpg, Salian Cycleway ;Mills In 2007 the Leiningerland Mill Museum was opened in the Großkarlbacher village mill, a building that dates to the

. Other mills worth visiting are the ''Felsenmühle'', operated as a hotel-restaurant in Neuleiningen-Tal and the Spormühle in Dirmstein, today a country hotel with an art gallery. The old Niedermühle mill in Dirmstein was converted in the 19th century into a manor farm. ;St Lawrence's Church, Dirmstein St Lawrence's Church in Dirmstein is a small jewel of baroque architecture that was built from 1742 to 1746 to plans by church architect, Balthasar Neumann, and local builder, Franz Rothermel. The Eckbach, which used to flow just south of the church, was re-routed in the 1920s to the southern edge of the village. ;Salian Cycleway Since 2007 the Salian Cycleway, which links buildings and structures of the

Salian The Salian dynasty or Salic dynasty (german: Salier) was a dynasty in the High Middle Ages. The dynasty provided four kings of Germany (1024–1125), all of whom went on to be crowned Holy Roman emperors (1027–1125). After the death of the l ...

dynastic period, has crossed the Eckbach Mill Path in Dirmstein. File:2006 Dirmstein-Spormuehle.jpg, The ''Spormühle'' mill, Dirmstein File:2007-Dirmstein-Niedermuehle-Haupthaus.jpg, The old ''Niedermühle'' mill, Dirmstein File:2006-Dirmstein-Laurentiuskirche-060910-1710.jpg, St. Lawrence's, Dirmstein ;Renovated village centres The general appearance of most of the villages, especially in Neuleiningen,

and

, is characterized by their renovated centres, some of which still date to the Middle Ages, but most of which date to the baroque period.

External links

Water management master plan for the catchment area of Isenach and Eckbach
(PDF; 2,81MB)

Footnotes

{{Authority control Rivers and lakes of the Palatinate Forest Anterior Palatinate Rivers of Rhineland-Palatinate Rivers of Germany