Breitbach (Rhine)

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Breitbach
The Breitbach at the Lower Castle

The Breitbach at the Lower Castle

Data
Water code DE : 271917622, DE : 27191762, DE : 2719176
location Rheinbreitbach
River system Rhine
Drain over Rhine  → North Sea
source north of Bruchhausen
50 ° 36 ′ 27 ″  N , 7 ° 15 ′ 0 ″  E
Source height approx.  175  m above sea level NHN
muzzle in the Rhine coordinates: 50 ° 37 ′ 15 ″  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 54 ″  E 50 ° 37 ′ 15 ″  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 54 ″  E
Mouth height 49  m above sea level NHN
Height difference approx. 126 m
Bottom slope approx. 32 ‰
length 4 km
Catchment area 6.228 km²
Communities Rheinbreitbach , Unkel

The Breitbach is a brook in the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Neuwied , which flows into the Middle Rhine from the right at Rheinbreitbach . Over a length of four kilometers, it mostly flows through this local community, which is partly named after it.

course

The Breitbach rises at an altitude of about 175  m above sea level. NHN below the Bruchhausen pit St. Marienberg on the district of Unkel . In the further course it takes up the Hattenbach on its right side , which comes from the Dockenmühlen-Weiher on the border to Bruchhausen, and flows in a northerly direction through Scheurener district. There he takes at 120  m above sea level. NHN opens another tributary from the right and flows from then on in a westerly direction. He passes the brickworks group of houses , half of which belongs to Rheinbreitbach and Scheuren , and where a mining smelter was once operated. From now on it runs parallel to Westerwaldstraße, which leads from the Breiten Heide down to Rheinbreitbach.

It passes the so-called forest swimming pool below the forest cemetery to the south and then flows into the local area. There it dips into the sewer system for the first time near the sports field, but reappears shortly afterwards at the Lower Castle - set in masonry. Once again it crosses under Rheinbreitbach and only comes to the surface about 800 m further west at the end of the local area. On a short, near-natural route, it passes under the federal highway 42 and shortly afterwards the railway line . Then it flows between two ponds of the so-called Rheinbreitbacher Maar 100 m in a northerly direction. While it is partially tied through to the Honnefer or Rheinbreitbacher Graben in the north, its main arm turns to the west and flows into the Middle Rhine at river kilometer 639.0.

geology

In the Breitbachtal there are sandstone banks at various points, a rock layer that is attributed to the Devonian . In the Holocene , the Breitbach accumulated an extensive alluvial fan within the Rhine Valley, the deposits of which consist essentially of clayey-sandy silt .

history

Pond in the Rheinbreitbacher Maar

The founding of the place Rheinbreitbach, presumed for the Franconian period, and its subsequent settlement are closely connected to the eponymous Breitbach. The first operation of water mills on the Breitbach is documented in 1364 by the documentary mention of a mill valley . He left further traces in the street name Mühlenweg and in the name of the Mühlenberg . Most of the mills were built and then leased by the local lords of Breitbach . The Breitbach was used in particular by the copper mining , which was intensively carried out in the area , for which it served as drainage and for processing the ores in so-called stamping works .

Already on the upper reaches near the mouth of the Hattenbach, the existence of a grinding mill is proven by a field name . Further below, east of the brickworks group of houses, there was a grain mill, first mentioned in 1376 (so-called Upper Mill ). After several tenant changes and a rebuilding, it fell into disrepair around 1730. In the further course of the Breitbach there were some stamping works at the beginning of the 19th century. This was followed by a short distance as a lower mill called grinding mill with a 1819 resulting storage pond and an oil mill . The Untere Mühle, a quarry stone building , which was occupied from 1376 onwards , was no longer used as a mill in the mid-20th century and was demolished in the 1970s. There are no more traces of the oil mill, which was abandoned at the end of the 19th century and then left to decay.

In the area of ​​its lower reaches, the Breitbach was dammed again in a pond. There he operated the so-called hammer mill from 1828 at the latest . It served as a forge at the end of the 19th century, was closed in the 1930s and still exists as a building today (Rheinstrasse 29). Further west was the last mill operated directly by the Breitbach: The Bendenmühle (also Kreftensche Mühle ; Rheinstraße 62). It was built after 1796 to relieve the lower mill and was used, among other things, to chop millet and barley husks . In 1885 the Benden residential area (= wet meadow ) had two buildings and seven residents. Another reservoir followed in the maar on today's Heerstraße, where a ditch led its water to the Rolandsmühle located about 500 m to the north .

  • The Bendenmühle (2012)

  • Former hammer mill (2015)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GeoExplorer of the Rhineland-Palatinate Water Management Authority ( information )
  2. ^ Biotope complex "Former excavation and ponds between Rheinbreitbach and Scheuren" ( Memento from May 16, 2018 in the Internet Archive ), Osiris Rhineland-Palatinate
  3. ^ Geological State Office North Rhine-Westphalia (ed.); Gangolf Knapp, Klaus Vieten: Geological map of North Rhine-Westphalia 1: 25,000. Explanations for sheet 5309 Königswinter . 3rd, revised edition, Krefeld 1995, p. 15.
  4. ^ Community encyclopedia for the Kingdom of Prussia. Volume XII Province of Rhineland . Publisher of the Royal Statistical Bureau, 1888, page 44. ( online )

Web links

Commons : Breitbach (Rhein)  - Collection of images