Kinzig-Murg-Rinne

Quarry forest in the nature reserve Weingartener Moor , a near-natural remaining area of ​​the Kinzig-Murg-Rinne

Karlsruhe-Rüppurr, Battstrasse: The row of trees marks the impact slope of a meandering arch of the Kinzig-Murg channel. Today the channel is traversed by the Seegraben and used as a flood channel from the Alb to the Oberwald during floods.

Kinzig-Murg-Rinne is the name for a damp depression on the eastern edge of the Upper Rhine Plain along the Black Forest , Kraichgau and the Little Odenwald .

The depression can be detected from the city of Bühl in the south to south of Heidelberg . To the south of Bühl, the rim depression can hardly be separated from the Rhine channel. It is particularly pronounced in the Karlsruhe area ; further north it follows the edge of the Kraichgau up to the Neckar alluvial cone . Similar depressions can be found north of Heidelberg, through which the Neckar arms previously flowed.

The name Kinzig-Murg-Rinne goes back to the geologist Hans Thürach , who spoke of a Kinzig-Murg river in 1912 . This river did after the end of Würm in Lahr started the Black Forest rivers Schutter , Kinzig and Murg added and was at Hockenheim in the Rhine gemündet. In 1822 Johann Gottfried Tulla traced the depression back to a river known as the German Rhine , Ostrhein or Bergrhein , which branched off from the main stream south of the Kaiserstuhl , took up the inflows from the peripheral mountains and reunited with the Rhine above Mainz .

According to more recent publications, after the Worm Ice Age, the rim depression was, if at all, the bed of a continuous river only for a short time. This applies in particular to the section between Karlsruhe-Grötzingen and Heidelberg, in which sediments from the Black Forest are not detectable and age dating of moors shows that silting processes began as early as the late Ice Age . The term Kinzig-Murg-Rinne is therefore rejected in part, the area as is instead Talrandrinnensystem , edge sink , edge lowland or rim gutter referred. The formation of the rim depression is partly attributed to tectonic causes: The Upper Rhine Graben was created as a rift valley, with its eastern parts sank deepest. It is believed that these subsidence continues into the present.

In historical times the marshland that had formed in the rim depression was gradually drained. Even today, however, there are some wetlands of high ecological value along the Kinzig-Murg-Rinne, such as the Weingartener Moor or the Federbachbruch between Muggensturm and Malsch . In addition, there are alder forests .

The rim depression was also important for the construction of settlements. Settlements were created in particular on the alluvial cones of the brooks from the peripheral mountains or on so-called Hursten, linear gravel ridges within the depression. This is how the town of Rüppurr , today a district of Karlsruhe, came into being around 900 years ago on the still recognizable gravel deposits of the Kinzig-Murg channel. In the meantime, the historical water is no longer recognizable in the townscape. However, when the Alb floods , extensive lakes and watercourses form on the surrounding fields again, which reveal the channel.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ For the course in Karlsruhe see: Environment Office City of Karlsruhe: Naturführer Karlsruhe. Oberwald.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 3.4 MB, accessed March 31, 2012), p. 2.  
2. ^ Gerhard H. Eisbacher: Karlsruhe and its region. Northern Black Forest, Kraichgau, Neckar Valley, Upper Rhine Graben, Palatinate Forest and western Swabian Alb. (= Collection of geological guides , Volume 103) Borntraeger, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-443-15089-1 , pp. 103ff.
3. ^ Kurt Metzger: Geology and soil science. In: Hassler, Dieter (ed.): Wässerwiesen: History, technology and ecology of irrigated meadows, streams and ditches in Kraichgau, Hardt and Bruhrain. Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt-Weiher 1995, ISBN 3-929366-20-7 , pp. 97–112, here p. 98.
4. ^ State Institute for Environment, Measurements and Nature Conservation Baden-Württemberg : Moore and Anmoore in the Upper Rhine Plain. 4.4 Age dating.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   (Accessed March 10, 2012); Metzger, Geologie , p. 101.
5. ↑ Eisbacher, Karlsruhe , p. 103; State Institute for the Environment, Measurements and Nature Conservation Baden-Württemberg: Moors and Anmoore in the Upper Rhine Plain 1.5 Morphology of the Baden Upper Rhine Plain and its significance for the development of the moors.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   (Accessed March 10, 2012); Metzger, Geologie , p. 97.
6. ↑ Metzger, Geologie , pp. 99f; Eisbacher, Karlsruhe , p. 103.
7. ↑ Eisbacher, Karlsruhe , pp. 104f.

Web links

Commons : Kinzig-Murg-Rinne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Morphology of the Baden Upper Rhine Plain a. a. with a sketch of the course of the Kinzig-Murg River