The White Main Spring () is the

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...

of the

White Main The White 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 Fichtel Mountains and merges near Steinenhausen, southwest of Kulmbach, with the left ...

river, the right-hand and northern headstream of the

River Main The Main () is the longest tributary of the Rhine, one of the major European rivers. It rises as the White Main in the Fichtel Mountains of northeastern Bavaria and flows west through central Germany for to meet the Rhine below Rüsselsheim, ...

, a major tributary of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is located at a height of 887 metres above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

on the eastern slopes of the Ochsenkopf mountain and is viewed as the source of the Main, even though the

Red Main The Red Main ( or ''Rotmain'') is a river in southern Germany. It is the southern, left headstream of the river Main (river), Main. It rises in the hills of Franconian Switzerland, near Haag, Upper Franconia, Haag and flows generally northwest th ...

is several kilometres longer. Usually the White Main Spring is stronger (i.e. has a higher volumetric flow) than the Red Main Spring. Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg had it traced in 1717 and impounded in granite blocks bearing the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, ; , ; ) is a formerly royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) German dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. ...

coat of arms. The spring bears the name ''Fürstenbrunnen'' ("Prince's Well"), but is not to be confused with the Upper and Lower Fürstenbrunnen on the Ochsenkopf. By contrast, in 1785

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

considered the ''Seehausbrunnen'' () southeast of the Schneeberg as the source of the Main and wrote: ''"the source of the Main, which rises right by the house here and makes the brook look like a tin wash"''. The White Main Spring gets its name from the light-coloured,

granitic A granitoid is a broad term referring to a diverse group of coarse-grained igneous rocks that are widely distributed across the globe, covering a significant portion of the Earth's exposed surface and constituting a large part of the continental ...

subsoil which gives the river its white appearance. Over the Ochsenkopf runs the European Watershed between the source of the Main, whose waters reach the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

via the

, and the nearby Fichtelnaab Spring, which drains via the Fichtelnaab and

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

. The White Main Spring is a station on the Spring Way maintained by the

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

Geotope

The spring is designated by the Bavarian Department of the Environment as Geotope 472Q003. Geotop: Weissmainquelle
(retrieved 26 August 2013; pdf; 192 kB)

Literature

* Dietmar Herrmann: ''Der Ochsenkopf im Fichtelgebirge''; Band 17/2009 der Schriftenreihe des Fichtelgebirgsvereins ''Das Fichtelgebirge'' (comprehensive description of the spring)

References

{{Coord, 50.029792, N, 11.82395, E, type:waterbody_region:DE-BY, display=header, format=dms Springs of Germany SWhite Main Spring