The Ecker Dam (german: Eckertalsperre) is a

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. ...

in the

Harz 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 ...

mountain range near

Bad Harzburg Bad Harzburg (; Eastphalian: ''Bad Harzborch'') is a spa town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort. Geogra ...

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 ...

. Constructed between 1939 and 1943, it is today operated by the

Harzwasserwerke The Harzwasserwerke GmbH (; English: Harz Water Works Limited) is a major German water company and dam operator based in Hildesheim, located within the German federal state of Lower Saxony. Founded in 1928, the Harzwasserwerke were tasked with sup ...

company. The dam's

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 ...

impounds the waters of the

Ecker The Ecker is a , right-hand, southeast tributary of the Oker which runs mainly through the Harz mountains in the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony. Course From its source to Abbenrode the Ecker is a border river, today running b ...

river and mainly serves for drinking

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...

Operation

The dam is used for the supply of

drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...

flood protection Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water levels ...

, and raising water levels during times of low rainfall. With an average discharge of 16 million m³ per year, it provides drinking water to the cities of Brunswick,

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...

, and

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's hea ...

. A pipe system leads to a central

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

near

Liebenburg Liebenburg is a municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography The municipal area is situated north of the Harz mountain range, within the eastern Salzgitter Hills of the Innerste Uplands. It borders on the dist ...

, where the waters of the nearby

Grane Dam The Grane Dam (german: Granetalsperre) is a dam above the village of Astfeld/Herzog-Juliushütte in the borough of Langelsheim in the Lower Saxon part of the Harz mountains. Dam system It is the newest dam in the Harz, built in 1969 in th ...

are also collected.

Electricity generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For electric utility, utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its Electricity delivery, delivery (Electric power transmi ...

is also provided through a small

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...

plant, operated by two turbines with an installed capacity of 2 x 300 kW and an annual generation of 1,400,000 kWh.

Construction

The Ecker Dam was the third modern reservoir built in the Harz mountains, after the construction of the

Söse Dam The Söse Dam is a dam in the Lower Saxon part of the Harz mountains near Osterode in the German state of Lower Saxony. It was the first modern dam and reservoir complex (German: ''Talsperre'') to be built in the Harz and was constructed by the ...

in 1928–1931 and the

Oder Dam The Oder Dam (german: Odertalsperre) is a dam in the Harz mountains of Germany. It lies above Bad Lauterberg in the district of Göttingen in Lower Saxony and impounds the river Oder. The dam went into service in 1934 after taking 3 years to build ...

in 1930–1933. It was laid out in the Ecker catchment area at the foot of the

Brocken The Brocken, also sometimes referred to as the Blocksberg, is the highest peak in the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak in Northern Germany; it is near Schierke in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt between the rivers Weser and Elbe. ...

massif, characterised by extended upland bogs and heavy

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

of up to a year. The reservoir uses a section of the river valley which, below a prominent

trough end U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...

, was dug out in the shape of a basin by an

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 ...

glacier. Construction started in 1939, mainly to meet the increasing demand for drinking water in the Brunswick greater area and around the recently opened

Wolfsburg Volkswagen Plant The Wolfsburg Volkswagen Factory is the worldwide headquarters of the Volkswagen Group, and one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world, in terms of area at just under 6.5 million m² (70 million sq ft). The Wolfsburg plant produced 815 ...

. For the first time in Germany, coarse-grained

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

(''Rüttelgrobbeton'') with an aggregate of up to 300 mm grain size was used to build the gravity structure. Works continued throughout

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

authorities also deployed

foreign workers Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...

(''Fremdarbeiter'') and

POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

to complete the facilities. Grenzpfahl auf der Eckertalsperre

After the war and the division into

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

from 1949, the

inner German Border The inner German border (german: Innerdeutsche Grenze or ; initially also ) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not including the ...

ran straight through the site. The

Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic The Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic (german: Grenztruppen der DDR) was the border guard of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1946 to 1990. The were the primary force guarding the Berlin Wall and the Inner German border ...

had walls and barbed wire mounted on the dam crest and only about two-thirds of the facilities were accessible from the west. Access rights to operate the facilities were settled by bilateral agreements in the late 1970s.

Tourism

Though not accessible by car, the Ecker Dam and the circular trail around its reservoir are popular destinations for daytrippers. The dam wall is checkpoint no. 1 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 trail network.

Notes

References

External links