Grabenbach (Saalach)
The Grabenbach is a four kilometer long - partly underground - tributary of the Saalach in the urban area of Bad Reichenhall . The Grabenbach was created in the first half of the 16th century to drain fresh water from the saltworks and thus prevent watering of the brine springs .
history
In 1441 there were the first plans to separate the fresh water from the brine springs via a natural slope and a ditch. The Munich foreman Hans Karst had the idea. He also dug an underground trench, which ended in a pit. Although the system worked satisfactorily, the execution without a brick lining was not durable. For several decades, experts have called for lifting devices for the fresh water to be dispensed with and for an underground ditch to be walled up instead, the water to be diverted into the Saalach , thus enabling a permanent and trouble-free solution to the problem. However, these proposals always failed due to the high costs that the Reichenhaller boiling families could not afford.
After Duke Georg the Rich brought most of the Reichenhall boiling plants into his possession and thus under state control, he also pursued the goal of redirecting the extraction of brine . A panel of over 20 experts was convened, which included councilors, workers and miners of the city, the architect and stonemason Erasmus Grasser and the miners of the salt mines of Hallein and Berchtesgaden, as well as an Augsburg builder. The central question was again how one could divert the fresh water that had entered the brine well. The plans of the past decades were taken up again. They spoke out against an economy version as in 1441, especially because they feared an even greater influx of fresh water that could not have been brought under control. Grasser presented the Duke with a construction program with 30 points, but refused to take over the construction management and responsibility. Italian hydraulic engineers also refused to build a canal and to provide a guarantee for it. After the death of George the Rich and the War of Succession for his successor, plans to renovate the saltworks in Reichenhall were suspended for the time being.
After the Landshut War of Succession and the union of Bavaria-Landshut with Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Munich to form the Duchy of Bavaria , Duke Albrecht IV devoted himself to the salt industry in Reichenhall. He continued the work of his predecessor to bring salt production in the city completely under state control. The building of the Salzmeierhaus as the seat of the civil servants probably also fell during this time. However, the renewal of the brine fountain and the fountain house again presented the duke with a financial challenge. The new well alone should cost 20,000 guilders and salt production would have stalled for a year and a half. After Erasmus Grasser feared that the brine would be further contaminated by even more fresh water due to the construction work, he offered to build brine wells and well house himself and for significantly less money and in a shorter time. Grasser received the order and from 1507 he deepened the well shaft to 14 meters, merged the brine rivers, laid the first underground passages and thus laid the foundation stone for today's spring construction under the old salt works . After the fountain was completed, the fountain house, which was largely made of wood, was replaced by a new three-story stone building with a St. Chapel dedicated to Rupertus was built. The building was completed in 1512 and at 7,000 guilders it was significantly cheaper. In addition, the salt works only had to be interrupted for nine days. However, the result of the construction work was unsatisfactory and the freshwater content was still too high.
The great city fire of 1515, which the stone-built fountain house survived, destroyed the wooden framework of the paternoster plant and the bucket creature. After the city was rebuilt, in 1521 - three years after Grasser's death - the problem of fresh water in the brine well was discussed again. It was agreed that only a natural and maintenance-free drainage of fresh water through a dug tunnel would provide a solution. The Bergmeister from Dürrnberg and von Schellenberg certified that the project had a prospect of success after leveling .
construction
In 1520, the first construction work began on the open trench in an oxbow arm of the Saalach . In 1524 you reached the meadows of Hofmark Froschham, from there the canal was continued 1911 meters underground by mining work. 80 stonemasons were employed during the summer months and around 30 during the winter months, carving the marble blocks that were used to vault the canal. Five air shafts were created for the supply and disposal of the material. According to Paul Rotthofer, the provost of St. Zeno , the tunnel was built on July 5, 1532 after about eight years of construction. At that time the canal, which was only temporarily excavated during the construction period, was only partially lined with stone vaults. Therefore, the Grabenbach could only go into operation after a construction period of 14 years.
The Grabenbach was not laid out according to plans by Erasmus Grasser , but an idea by Hans Karst from 1441 was used and this was implemented as an ideal solution.
course
The Grabenbach begins below the old saltworks in the Quellenbau and originally came to the surface between today's Münchner Allee and the Freilassing – Berchtesgaden railway , roughly at the level of today's Klingerweg. When Münchner Allee was laid out in the 1960s, the Grabenbach was lengthened to the north-eastern end of the street, where it now runs above ground from the Nord Verkehrsverteiler ( B20 / B21 ). The current underground length is around 2.5 km. The Grabenbach flows a further two kilometers above ground - partly along the Freilassing – Berchtesgaden railway line - until it flows into the Saalach in the Marzoller Au .
One of the shafts was renovated in the area of Kurstrasse, and the Grabenbach stream can now be seen through a glass plate.
Trivia
The Grabenbachstraße, which is a north-eastern extension of the Frühlingstraße, runs parallel to the Grabenbach and is named after it.
literature
- Johannes Lang : History of Bad Reichenhall. Ph.CW Schmidt, Neustadt / Aisch 2009, ISBN 978-3-87707-759-7 .
- Herbert Pfisterer: Bad Reichenhall in its Bavarian history. Motor + Touristik, Munich 1988.
