Elsterfloßgraben

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Elsterfloßgraben
Floßgraben
Historical map of the Elsterfloßgraben from 1748 (course marked in red)

Historical map of the Elsterfloßgraben from 1748
(course marked in red)

Data
location between the lower reaches
of the Saale and Weißer Elster
River system Elbe
Drain over Saale  → Elbe  → North Sea
Source as a branch of
the White Elster 		until 1681 at Pötewitz
from 1681 at Crossen
50 ° 58 ′ 49 ″  N , 11 ° 59 ′ 12 ″  E
Source height 160  m above sea level NN
Mouths at Pegau in den Mühlgraben  ⊙
Kötzschau in the Bach  ⊙
Wallendorf in the Luppe  ⊙
Bad Dürrenberg in the Saale
Leipzig in the Pleiße Coordinates: 51 ° 17 ′ 25 ″  N , 12 ° 3 ′ 43 ″  E 51 ° 17 ′ 25 ″  N , 12 ° 3 ′ 43 ″  E

Big cities Halle , Leipzig
Medium-sized cities Zeitz , Weißenfels , Merseburg
Small towns Lützen , Bad Dürrenberg ,
Pegau , Zwenkau
Communities Crossen , Poserna , Tollwitz ,
Kötzschau , Wallendorf
Water cross near Kötzschau 2013

Water cross near Kötzschau 2013

The Elsterfloßgraben is a canal built in the 16th century to transport wood from the Weißen Elster to the area east of Weißenfels and Merseburg as well as to Leipzig . The transport was carried out by unbound rafting (drifting) of short, maximally one fathom (about 1.7 meters) long trunks and above all logs.

Construction and use

The main reason for creating the canal was the desire of the Electorate of Saxony for its own salt production. This happened in salt pans by evaporating brine in large pans, for which wood was used as fuel. A brine spring intended for this purpose was located in Poserna east of Weißenfels. The wood for this should come from the Vogtland .

Salt production according to Georg Agricola

In the years 1578 to 1580, Elector August I of Saxony therefore had a raft ditch built according to plans by Martin Planer and under the construction management of Christian Kohlreiber, which, fed with water from the White Elster , should lead to the Rippach and thus enable wood rafting to Poserna. The junction from the Elster was initially at Pötewitz, which is now part of Wetterzeube , but was relocated 3 km upstream to Crossen around 100 years later . The artificial body of water was about 3 m wide at the top and 1 m at the bottom. Its length was 77.5 km with a difference in altitude of only 25 m. The gradient in the upper reaches was even lower at approx. 2 cm per 100 m. This and the relatively high junction at the Elster were necessary to be able to cross the watershed between the Weißer Elster and the Saale. The flow rate was between 1,500 and 700 liters per second. More water was added to the trench during rafting in spring and autumn. The construction project also included numerous bridges (initially made of wood, later stone, in 1780 there were 81), crossing over and under smaller watercourses or their integration, guide and collecting rakes for the wood, teeing points (discharge of floods) and with a corresponding terrain profile ( Raft ditch by order) also dikes.

The Poserna saltworks had to be abandoned after a few years due to unprofitability, whereupon the saltworks in Teuditz , which today belongs to Tollwitz, and in Kötzschau were to be upgraded. For this purpose, the raft ditch was led north from Kitzen and its water branched off into two new ditch arms a little south of Lützen . The elector's engineers let the branch flowing through the Lützen and Teuditzer Grund flow into the Saale at Bad Dürrenberg , and the second ditch arm, which opened up the Kötzschau salt works from 1590, into the Luppe at Wallendorf . The raft ditch branch to Poserna zur Rippach was closed.

In addition to the salt works, the logging was also important for the supply of firewood to the cities. At first these were mainly Lützen, Merseburg and Halle. From the middle of the 16th century, Leipzig initially used the rafting on the Pleiße . But the forests in their catchment area were exhausted, whereupon the city sought the connection to the Elsterflößerei. For this purpose, a further raft route was laid from Stöntzsch , which led via Pegau and Zwenkau to Leipzig. It was called Kleiner or Leipziger Floßgraben and was largely created by linking and expanding the existing river and mill ditch system. The Elster itself, its arm Batschke branching off at Zwenkau and the Leipzig Pleißemühlgraben were integrated into this part of the trench system, which was first flooded with wood in 1610. The material was transshipped on the Leipzig Raft Square , which was located directly in front of the city at the time . a. the street sign reminds of the same place.

Rafting and mills are almost mutually exclusive because of the risk of damage to the mill equipment and the fact that water in the raft ditch is only needed at raft time. Nevertheless, over the course of time there was a combined use, so that mills on neighboring streams received impact water from the raft ditch, and mill ditches were used for rafting, provided that a diversion could be set up during the rafting and vice versa. That is why the raft ditch soon had constant water, at least outside the ice-free period.

Decline

In the first decade of the 19th century, the amount of wood rafted reached its maximum and was already falling significantly in the 1820s. The reasons for this were the expansion of the road system in the forest areas as well as, from the middle of the century, the advent of cheaper rail transport and the increasing replacement of firewood with lignite . In 1864 the Elster rafting was finally stopped. In some places the water of the raft ditch was still used to operate mills. However, the water throughput was significantly reduced. Since it has now passed through different countries (Duchy of Altenburg, Prussian Province of Saxony and Kingdom of Saxony), a joint purpose association was established for its maintenance and further operation , which existed until almost the middle of the 20th century.

From 1958 the Elsterfloßgraben was interrupted by open-cast lignite mining. Behind the opencast mines, attempts were made to maintain its course by pumping water from the White Elster. After these open-cast mines were shut down, sections of the old raft ditch between Elstertrebnitz and Werben were rebuilt on slightly modified routes from 1992 onwards. The reconstructed Kleine Floßgraben has been carrying water since 1996 and, via the Elstermühlgraben, again connects parts of the water system originally used for the Leipzig rafting. In the current Schwerzau mining field , however, further dismantling of the raft ditch is necessary, which cannot be redesigned before 2030.

Irrespective of the problems caused by mining, there has been an increasing number of leaks since the 1950s, which were made worse by burrowing animals. This and the partially unauthorized withdrawal of water led to the trench frequently falling dry. Seals with grass grid plates , but also piping, were tried. Heavy weeds and civilization-related littering of the ditch do the rest. What remains is a constant struggle to preserve the trench through at least partial repairs with constantly tight budgets from the three federal states of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony involved for this purpose. In 2009 the Elsterfloßgraben e. V., which has set itself the goal of "re-establishing and maintaining the Elsterfloßgraben as a continuous flowing water, taking into account the interests of the neighboring communities with their residents, nature conservation and monument preservation as well as the improvement of the tourist infrastructure in the region".

Today's meaning

The mouth of the Leipzig raft ditch in the Pleiße (2009)

The Elsterfloßgraben is primarily important as a technical monument. It is a nationally significant engineering structure with services in surveying , water management , hydraulic engineering and transport. With a total length of approx. 93 km, of which more than 80 km are still available, it represents the most important canal system of the 16th century on the European continent. At the same time, with 284 years of rafting, it also represents a successful Saxon business enterprise for almost 300 years.

The part of the raft ditch still in existence there, officially called "Batschke - raft ditch", has a special rank for the New Lakeland region in the Leipzig region. From Markkleeberg near its interruption by the Cospuden opencast mine , the raft ditch through the Leipzig floodplain forest to its confluence with the Pleiße still carried water. Now it is fed by the Lauer Grenzgraben and the Cospudener See , which was created after the mining shutdown, is connected to the still existing part of the raft ditch by a newly created trench. Since the latter was dredged in 2004, both parts have been navigable by boat. For their navigable connection, a piped underpass under the Brückenstraße was replaced by a concrete bridge. There is a boat lock at the outlet of the new raft ditch from the lake, and another at the Connewitz Pleißen weir. Since its completion there has been a continuous boat connection from Leipzig city center via Pleiße and Floßgraben to the Cospudener See and, after the completion of the Harth Canal, also to the Zwenkauer See and thus to the upper reaches of the Batschke.

A cycle path in the area of ​​the municipality of Kötzschau was built along the trench.

literature

Web links

Commons : Elsterfloßgraben  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • History. In: Website of the Elsterfloßgraben development association. Retrieved September 6, 2018 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The trench source was relocated to Falk in 1681, to Schulz as early as 1596; see references
  2. ↑ Rudolf Ludley: Der Floßgraben ... a monument to the history of technology (German, html). Website of the city of Lützen. July 1, 2011, archived February 19, 2013 , accessed February 19, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b c historic estuary near Wallendorf an der Luppe, from around 1975 the Kötzschauer Elsterfloßgraben was diverted into the stream after open-cast mining activities
  4. ↑ Bifurcation of the Großer Elsterfloßgraben in Teuditzer and Kötzschauer outflow south of Lützen at 51 ° 14 ′ 40 ″  N , 12 ° 9 ′ 19 ″  E
  5. ↑ a b branch of the reconstructed little raft trench in height of the corridor Pegauer Stöntzsch at 51 ° 10 '2 "  N , 12 ° 13' 51"  O , from about 1962 to 1996 by the open pit Profen interrupted
  6. ↑ concerns. In: Website of the Elsterfloßgraben development association. Retrieved September 6, 2018 .
  7. ^ Website of the city of Leipzig
  8. ^ Website of the city of Leuna