The Red Main (german: Roter Main or ''Rotmain'') is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in southern

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 the southern, left headstream of the river

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

. It rises in the hills of

Franconian Switzerland Franconian Switzerland (german: Fränkische Schweiz) is an upland in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany and a popular tourist retreat. Located between the River Pegnitz in the east and the south, the River Regnitz in the west and the River Main ...

, near Haag and flows generally northwest through the towns

Creußen Creußen is a town in the district of Bayreuth in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the Red Main river, 13 km southeast of Bayreuth. Creußen is famous for its stoneware beer steins. Creußen is the starting point of the Red Main bran ...

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

Heinersreuth Heinersreuth is a municipality in the district of Bayreuth in Bavaria 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

Neudrossenfeld Neudrossenfeld is a municipality in the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. Boroughs left, Church, castle and mill left, Old bridge over Roter Main river Neudrossenfeld is composed of the following boroughs: Sport The towns associat ...

. It merges with the

White Main The White Main (german: Weißer Main or ''Weißmain'', not to be confused with the Weismain), is the larger and shorter of the two headstreams of the river Main. It rises in the Fichtelgebirge and merges near Steinenhausen, southwest of Kulmbach, ...

near

Kulmbach Kulmbach () is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town is famous for Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its sausages, or ''Bratwürste''. Geography Location Ku ...

to form the Main. The Red Main is long and descends a total of . The waters of the Red Main flow through a region of clayey soils, which is why the river carries a lot of

suspended solids Suspended solids refers to small solid particles which remain in suspension in water as a colloid or due to motion of the water. Suspended solids can be removed by sedimentation if their size or density is comparatively large, or by filtration. It ...

, especially after rainfall, and acquires a red-brown colour, hence the name ''Red'' Main.

Sources

The Red Main rises south of

near Hörlasreuth (

) in the Lindenhardt Forest at a height of . The source of the Red Main (''Rotmainquelle'') was impounded in stone in 1907, the water flows out of a small wooden pipe. Its source region lies in the

Veldenstein Forest The Veldenstein Forest (german: Veldensteiner Forst) lies in the east of the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park between the towns of Pegnitz and Plech. Its name is derived from Veldenstein Castle, a large, well preserved, med ...

Nature Park. Geologically it belongs to the Brown Jura.

Course

The Red Main flows initially in a southeasterly direction, before it swings northeast and passes through

. From there it heads almost due north and then turns west beyond Eremitage. It passes through the town of

from east to west. In the town centre it has been confined since the 1970s in a concrete channel and partially covered. In the vicinity of the Bayreuth folk festival square the river divides into two branches. The southern branch is called the ''Mühlkanal'', because it used to feed several mills within the town. Its water flow is held roughly constant by a weir and it runs above ground as far as the ''Münzgasse''. Behind the former state central bank it disappears into a tunnel and surfaces again opposite the Graser School just before reuniting with the northern branch. In the late 1990s a section of the channel in ''Opernstraße'' was exposed and swept up as part of the rebuilding at the southern end of ''Luitpoldplatz''. Main Vereinigung Roter und Weißer Main bei Kulmbach-001

Main Vereinigung Roter und Weißer Main bei Kulmbach-001

The northern arm usually carries only a small amount of water, but acts as a flood channel at times of high water and has a very wide river bed. It is partly covered by two car parks. Beyond Bayreuth the Red Main flows northwest in wide meanders through a broad valley, past the villages of

and

. South of

, near Steinenhausen Castle, it is united with the

, which rises in the

Fichtelgebirge The Fichtel MountainsRandlesome, C. et al. (2011). ''Business Cultures in Europe'', 2nd ed., Routledge, Abingdon and New York, p. 52. . (german: Fichtelgebirge, cs, Smrčiny), form a small horseshoe-shaped mountain range in northeastern Bavaria ...

mountains near

Bischofsgrün Bischofsgrün is a municipality in the district of Bayreuth in Bavaria in Germany. Bischofsgrün is situated within the Fichtelgebirge mountain range between the range's two largest mountains; Schneeberg (1051 m) and the Ochsenkopf (1024 m). T ...

. The Red Main is long (source to mouth), the White Main . At the confluence of the two headstreams a bridge was built in 2009 where the young Main may be crossed right at its beginning. Information boards on the bridge describe the rest of the river's course, the local walking and cycle routes and the surrounding countryside.

Bodenmühlwand geotope

In the vicinity of the Bodenmühle mill east of Bayreuth the Red Main has carved out a bluff (''Prallhang'') on a bend in the river caused by

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

, the so-called ''Bodenmühlwand'', a steep slope in height. This has exposed rock strata from the Middle Keuper period. Around 225 million years ago the area was a coastal region with frequent changes caused in the influence of land and sea. As a result, today, layers of

claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone, slate, and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too sm ...

and Benker sandstone (''Estheria'') lie on top of each other. In the latter, geologists found

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

of ostracods (''Palaesteria minuta''), after which the layers are named (in German), the remains of

coelacanth The coelacanths ( ) are fish belonging to the order Actinistia that includes two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'': the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae''), primarily found near the Comoro Islands off the east coast ...

as well as the scales, teeth and fin spines of prehistoric sharks. The highest and thickest rock layer belongs to reed sandstones (''Stuttgart-Formation'') of the

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage of the Upper Triassic Series (or earliest age of the Late Triassic Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227 million years ago (Ma). The Carnian is preceded by the Ladinian and is followed by t ...

stage.

Fauna

The Red Main is a habitat for

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...

, grayling,

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprinid ...

, bullhead,

lamprey Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are an ancient extant lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiformes , placed in the superclass Cyclostomata. The adult lamprey may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like s ...

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

tench The tench or doctor fish (''Tinca tinca'') is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the order Cypriniformes found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. It is also ...

carp bream The common bream, freshwater bream, bream, bronze bream, carp bream or sweaty bream (''Abramis brama''), is a European species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is now considered to be the only species in the genus ''Abramis''. ...

roach Roach may refer to: Animals * Cockroach, various insect species of the order Blattodea * Common roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), a fresh and brackish water fish of the family Cyprinidae ** ''Rutilus'' or roaches, a genus of fishes * California roach ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

pike-perch ''Sander'' (formerly known as ''Stizostedion'') is a genus of predatory ray-finned fish in the Family (biology), family Percidae, which also includes the perches, Gymnocephalus, ruffes, and Darter (fish), darters. They are also known as "pike-pe ...

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

and

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...

.Bayreuth District Fishing Association: Red Main
/ref>

Tributaries

* Simmelbach (''right'') * Eschingbach (''right'') * Hühnerbach (''right'') * Kupfergraben (Kaingraben) (''left'') * Tiefenbach (''left'') * Schwarzbach (''right'') * Metzelersbach (''right'') * Gosenbach (''left''), (''7.95 km'') * Schliefgraben (''right'') * Schwarzweiherbach (''left'') * Weihersgraben (''left'') * Brunnengraben (''right'') * Schamelsgraben (''right'') * Mühlwässerlein (''left'') * Schnerfenbach (''right'') * Thiergatenweihergraben (''left'') * Ölschnitz (''right''), (''with the Laimbach 14.72 km'') * Gereutbach (''right'') * Bühlersbach (''left'') * Warme Steinach (''right''), (''24.61 km'') *

Mistel ''Mistel'' (German for " mistletoe", a parasitic plant) was the larger, unmanned component of a composite aircraft configuration developed in Germany during the later stages of World War II. The composite comprised a small piloted control airc ...

(''left''), (''11.42 km'') * Grünbaumgraben (''right'') * Preuschwitzerin (''left'') * Cottenbach (''right'') * Tannenbach (''left'') *

Dühlbach Dühlbach is a river of Bavaria, Germany. It flows into the Red Main near Heinersreuth. See also *List of rivers of Bavaria A list of rivers of Bavaria, Germany: A * Aalbach *Abens * Ach * Afferbach * Affinger Bach * Ailsbach *Aisch * Aiterac ...

(''left''), (''7.01 km'') * Seebach (''right'') * Köhlersgraben (''left'') * Rottelbach (''left''), (''6.93 km'') * Pechgraben (''right'') * Erlgraben (''right'') * Reuthbach (Rotbach) (''left''), (''5.94 km'') * Schellenbach (''right'') * Friesenbach (''left''), (''8.85 km'') * Aubach (''right'') * Erlenbach (''right'') * Hirtengraben (''left'') * Krummer Lachengraben (''right'') * Proßer Bach (''right'')

Trails

The Red Main Trail (''Rotmainweg''), which was laid out by

Fichtelgebirge Club The Fichtelgebirge Club (german: Fichtelgebirgsverein or ''FGV'') is a large walking club and local heritage society in Bavaria and recognised conservation group with 20,000 members in 55 local groups. As the name says, its main sphere of activit ...

, begins near the source. This main footpath is marked by a red M on a white background throughout its length. Its 60 kilometre long route is as follows: Source of the Red Main-Creußen-Eimersmühle-Schlehenberg-Eremitage-Bayreuth-Martinsreuth-Altenplos-Grüngraben-Jöslein-Langenstadt-Affalterhof Katschenreuth-Steinenhausen Castle near Kulmbach (confluence with the White Main). The Main-Mies Trail (''Main-Mies-Weg''), established by the Upper Palatinate Forest Club (''Oberpfälzer-Wald-Verein'') also begins near the source. Here the trail is marked by at red diagonal cross on a white background. The 93 km long route is as follows: Source of the Red Main-Creußen-Seidwitz-Frankenberg-Neustadt am Kulm-Erbendorf-Falkenberg-Tirschenreuth-Griesbach.

Sources

* M. Johann Willen: ''Das Teutsche Paradeiß in dem vortrefflichen Fichtelberg.'' In: ''Archiv für Geschichte von Oberfranken.'' Band 15, Heft 3, p. 167 * Johann Christoph Pachelbel: ''Ausführliche Beschreibung des Fichtel-Berges im Nordgau liegend.'' Leipzig 1716, p. 18 * Faltblatt des Fichtelgebirgsvereins: ''Der Rotmainweg'' (detailed route description) * Gustav Schmidt: ''Der Obermain von den Quellen bis Bamberg.'' In: ''Heimatbeilage zum Oberfränkischen Schulanzeiger.'' Nr. 325/2005 * Franz X. Bogner: ''Der Obermain. Ein Luftbildporträt von Bayreuth bis Bamberg.'' Ellwanger-Verlag, Bayreuth 2006,

References

External links

''Main River''
Website on the River Main by the Tourist Board of Franconia. {{Authority control Rivers of Bavaria Bayreuth (district) Bayreuth Kulmbach (district) Rivers of Germany