Kirnitzsch

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Kirnitzsch
Křinice
View of the Kirnitzsch in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains

View of the Kirnitzsch in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains

Data
location Czech Republic , Germany
River system Elbe
Drain over Elbe  → North Sea
source in the Bohemian Netherlands in the Czech Republic west of Studánka
50 ° 54 ′ 42 ″  N , 14 ° 33 ′ 4 ″  E
Source height 490  m nm
muzzle in Bad Schandau in the Elbe Coordinates: 50 ° 55 '0 "  N , 14 ° 9' 36"  E 50 ° 55 '0 "  N , 14 ° 9' 36"  E
Mouth height 105  m above sea level NHN
Height difference 385 m
Bottom slope 8.5 ‰
length 45.3 km
Catchment area 157 km²
Discharge at the Kirnitzschtal
A Eo gauge : 154 km²
Location: 3.5 km above the mouth 		NNQ (06/04/2005)
MNQ 1912/2014
MQ 1912/2014
Mq 1912/2014
 MHQ 1912/2014
HHQ (08/07/2010) 		267 l / s
624 l / s
1.44 m³ / s
9.4 l / (s km²)
 14.1 m³ / s
96 m³ / s
Left tributaries Red raft
Right tributaries Zeidlerbach, Weißbach, Heidelbach
Reservoirs flowed through Upper lock
Small towns Bad Schandau
Residents in the catchment area 2266 (status: 1999)
in the Kirnitzschtal

The Kirnitzsch , formerly also called Kirnischt in Bohemia ( Czech. Křinice ) is a north-eastern and orographically right tributary of the Elbe , which passes the Czech Republic and the Free State of Saxony in its course .

geography

course

Weir system at the Neumannmühle
The Kirnitzsch in the spa gardens of Bad Schandau (2014)
The Kirnitzsch flows into the Elbe from the right

The Kirnitzsch, formerly and still dialectically called Kirnscht or Kirnsch , rises in the Lusatian Uplands in Bohemia west of the village of Studánka (Schönborn) at an altitude of 490 meters and flows through the town of Krásná Lípa (Schönlinde) on its course to the west . Behind the village of Kyjov (Khaa) it makes its way through narrow gorges through the sandstone cliffs of Bohemian Switzerland ; the wild and romantic valley is also known as the Khaatal (Kyjovske údoli) .

The Weißbach flows from the north into the valley of the Hinterdaubitz ( Zadní Doubice ) , which was demolished after 1945 . It is followed by the border between the Czech Republic and Saxony , which follows the course of the Kirnitzsch for more than 8 kilometers from its mouth. In the Kirnitzschklamm the brook is dammed, except in winter, at the upper lock ; Boat trips take place on the reservoir, which is lined with sandstone rocks.

At the end of the gorge there was once the border village of Hinterdittersbach ( Zadní Jetřichovice ) and the one-layer Kirnscht (Křinice) . The Kirnitzsch now flows into Saxon Switzerland , where it can be dammed again in the Niedere Schleuse . Only a few hundred meters further on, it takes in the Dorfbach coming from the left, which comes from Hinterhermsdorf. In the actual narrow Kirnitzschtal that follows , it flows for some time in a north-westerly direction, and after several kilometers of flowing it meets the Schandauer Straße, to which it will now flow parallel to Bad Schandau. At the Buschmühle, it takes on the village stream coming from Ottendorf on the right.

A little further on it passes the Neumannmühle. The Affensteine massif is now located southwest of the Kirnitzsch . A little further on, near the Lichtenhainer mill, it takes on the Knechtsbach on the right, which is one of the cleanest brooks in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. It now flows in a predominantly westerly direction northwest past the Kuhstall rock gate and after a short time passes the Lichtenhain waterfall , from where it is accompanied by the Kirnitzschtalbahn for over 8 kilometers . A little further to the west it takes on the Beuthenbach, which feeds the artificially created Beuthenfall.

In the narrow valley, rocks repeatedly open up on the mountain slopes, between the rocks mostly nameless tributaries pave their way through deep gorges to the Kirnitzsch. After passing Mittelndorfer and Ostrauer mills, the Kirnitzsch reaches the town of Bad Schandau after a few kilometers . There it flows through the spa park, turns in an easterly direction on the edge of its natural pouring cone around the historic city center and finally flows out at an altitude of 116  m above sea level. NHN from the right into the Elbe coming there from the southeast .

length

The Kirnitzsch is about 45.3 kilometers long. Of this, it flows 14.9 kilometers in the Czech Republic and 30.4 kilometers in Saxony. (See geoportals of Saxony and the Czech Republic)

Catchment area and tributaries

The catchment area of ​​the Kirnitzsch is about 157 km². Considered downstream, their tributaries include:

  • the Weißbach (right)
  • the Heidelbach (right)
  • the Dorfbach (which comes from Hinterhermsdorf, right)
  • the Saupsdorfer Bach (right)
  • the Dorfbach (which comes from Ottendorf, right)
  • the Great Zschandbach (left)
  • the tributary from Vogelsberg (right)
  • the little Zschandbach (left)
  • the deep rooster (right)
  • the Knechtsbach (one of the cleanest brooks in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, right)
  • the Minzbach (left)
  • the Lichtenhainer Bach (which feeds the Lichtenhainer waterfall, right)
  • the Dietrichsgrund (left)
  • the Beuthenbach (which feeds the Beuthenfall, right)
  • the Croatian Gorge (right)
  • the wet reason (left)
  • the brook from Mittelndorf (right)
  • the Altendorfer Bach (right)
  • the gold sheaf (right)

history

From the Middle Ages to the 20th century, the river was used for timber rafting and was artificially dammed several times. The Kirnitzsch was one of the most important rafts in Saxon Switzerland. On the 25-kilometer-long Trift route, large quantities of wood could be brought to the banks of the Elbe in Bad Schandau inexpensively and in a time-saving manner from areas in the rear of Saxon Switzerland that are difficult to access. At the floodplain , the four to five meter long wood was then tied into rafts or loaded onto ships. The most important customer at the time was the Sächsischer Hof in Dresden , which needed the wood as fuel and from the 18th century also for the Meissen porcelain manufactory .

Already in the 16th century the sovereign had the sovereign right to the Kirnitzsch rafting and issued strict raft rules. In 1582 the Saxon elector was granted an agreement to cut down and float wood from the Bohemian rule of Hainspach for 80 years . This is how the Upper Lock was probably built around 1567, the Lower Lock before 1612 and numerous raft ponds on the Bohemian side. In the 19th century, rafting was finally replaced by road transport and rafting on the Kirnitzsch was also discontinued.

The 15-kilometer-long Flößersteig from Bad Schandau on the Kirnitzschufer upstream past the Lichtenhain waterfall to the Neumannmühle today reminds of the trade of the rafters and the history of objects in the immediate vicinity with the help of documentation boards. Below the cowshed , about two kilometers before the Felsenmühle , this hiking trail crosses the Alte Straße , which in the 15th century connected the castle on the Neuer Wildenstein with the Hohnstein family castle over a distance of about 16 kilometers.

Water quality and flow rate

The water quality of the Kirnitzsch is reduced by some wastewater fungi and a not insignificant nitrogen content. For example, municipal wastewater from the Altendorf settlement reaches the Kirnitzsch via the Dorfbach, and increasing fertilizer input from rapeseed fields reaches the river via the groundwater.

In the lower reaches, the Kirnitzsch only achieves the lowest water quality class due to the high nutrient content ( nitrate , phosphate ) . In the storage area of ​​the Upper Lock, organic substances and environmental toxins are not broken down due to the lack of oxygen in the sediment, which also affects the water quality there.

The Kirnitzsch has an average flow speed of 0.5 meters per second. (See topographic map 1: 25,000 Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland National Park of the Free State of Saxony)

Upper lock

The upper lock in the Kirnitzschtal was built in 1567 in order to accumulate the surge water required for logging. After the lock was opened, tree trunks up to 11 m long could be transported to the Elbe with the water surge. There was no other way to transport the felled wood from the narrow valley. The original wooden dam was replaced by a stone dam between 1816 and 1817. The current lock was built in 1931 and is a protected technical monument. The reservoir is around 700 m long and 7 m deep at the dam.

On May 25, 1879, a wooden boat began to operate for the "summer visitors" on the Upper Lock. The idea to set up a boat trip came from Hinterhermsdorf's chief forester Hermann Schlegel and the members of the “Fatherland Mountain Association Saxonia”, which is why the first boat was called “Saxonia”. In the following year, a second boat was added because of its great popularity. Only during the two world wars did the punting not take place. Until before the Second World War, responsibility lay with the mountain association - from 1952 with the community of Hinterhermsdorf. Until 1964, wood was still rafted here, only since then has this facility been used exclusively for tourism.

The journey time is around 20 minutes. The water temperature does not rise above 8 ° C even in midsummer. During the winter months the water is not dammed, so the river flows in its original bed. Today 45,000–60,000 guests visit the Upper Lock every year.

Lower lock

The lower lock

The lower lock 50 ° 54 ′ 47 ″  N , 14 ° 20 ′ 3 ″  E offers an insight into the past rafting days. With its 32-meter-wide dam wall, it was able to hold back around 28,000 cubic meters of water over the now silted up storage length of 750 meters. Your water gate in the middle of the lock and the small weir are still functional today and are used as flood protection by inserting wooden blocks, especially when the snow melts. For this purpose, as with rafting, raft hooks are used, the storage location of which is the wooden structure. From 1985 to 1993 forest workers reconstructed the crumbling complex and thus made an important contribution to the preservation of monuments. Considerations of expanding the Niedere Schleuse barrage were rejected in favor of the fauna living in the Kirnitzsch.

Economy and Transport

Traffic development

Kirnitzschtalstraße and Kirnitzschtalbahn at the Beuthenfall (2011)

In connection with the establishment of rafting, paths and narrow driveways were created in the Kirnitzsch valley as early as the 16th century. In the middle of the 16th century there was at least one continuous road from Bad Schandau to the Mittelndorfer Mühle. Wilhelm Leberecht Götzinger stated at the beginning of the 19th century that the early "Swiss travelers" could already be driven from Bad Schandau to Haidmühle. The steadily increasing flow of guests to the rear of Saxon Switzerland required the expansion of the old raftsman trails, which crossed the Kirnitzsch several times in their course. In 1825, the current road was expanded by the Hohnstein office and built as a “Kuhstallchausee” from Bad Schandau to the cowshed . The road was straightened and widened in 1872–74. Today it runs as the state road S 165 from Bad Schandau to Hinterhermsdorf. The road leaves the Kirnitzsch valley shortly after the Buschmühle.

In order to promote tourism, the first plans to build a horse-drawn tram through the Kirnitzschtal came up as early as 1870 . In 1893 the "Executive Committee for the construction and operation of a motorized tram from Schandau via the Lichtenhain waterfall to the Kirnitzschschänke" was founded. A corresponding route was to be built from Bad Schandau via the Lichtenhain waterfall to the Kirnitzschtalschenke in Hinterdittersbach on the Saxon-Bohemian border. In the end, only the route to the Lichtenhain waterfall was built. The originally planned route was not implemented later due to cost reasons. On May 27, 1898 (Whit Saturday) the first train then ran on the new Kirnitzschtalbahn . The tracks of the railway were laid on the existing road.

Mills and mills

For a long time more than 16 mills (mainly sawmills , but also paper mills ) were operated on the Elbe tributary . One of the oldest mills in the Kirnitzschtal is the Niedermühle zu Hinterhermsdorf .

Other former mills:

as well as on the tributaries

  • Obere Mühle Hinterhermsdorf (in the Heidelbachtal)
  • Dorfmühle Hinterhermsdorf (am Dorfbach)
  • Gnauckmühle Saupsdorf (at the Räumichtbach)
  • Rölligmühle Saupsdorf (on the Räumichtbach)
  • Räumichtmühle Saupsdorf (on the Räumichtbach)
  • Waldmühle Saupsdorf (am Waldmühlenbach)
  • Richtermühle Saupsdorf (am Waldmühlenbach)
  • Niedermühle Ottendorf (at the Ottendorfer Dorfbach)
  • Pietschmühle Ottendorf (at the Ottendorfer Dorfbach)

literature

  • Wieland Büttner: The Buschmühle in the Kirnitzschtal. In: Petra Binder (Ed.): From the mountain to the valley - water that flows to the Elbe. Country calendar book for Saxon Switzerland and the Eastern Ore Mountains 2009. Schütze-Engler-Weber-Verlag, Dresden 2008, ISBN 978-3-936203-11-0 , pp. 94–94.
  • Andreas Laube: The construction of the traffic routes and the transport of travelers in the Kirnitzschtal from Schandau to the Great Waterfall. In: Petra Binder (Ed.): On roads, rails and paths. Country calendar book 2011 for Saxon Switzerland and the Eastern Ore Mountains. Schütze-Engler-Weber-Verlag, Dresden 2010, ISBN 978-3-936203-14-1 , pp. 130-138.
  • Jürgen Phoenix: The Kirnitzsch - a nationally significant river system in Saxony and Bohemia. in: Saxon State Ministry for Environment and Agriculture / Saxon Switzerland National Park Administration (ed.): Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland. Series of publications by the Saxon Switzerland National Park, issue 3, Dresden 1999, pp. 58–88
  • Manfred Schober : Rafting on the Kirnitzsch . In: Petra Binder (Ed.): From the mountain to the valley - water that flows to the Elbe. Country calendar book for Saxon Switzerland and the Eastern Ore Mountains 2009. Schütze-Engler-Weber-Verlag, Dresden 2008, ISBN 978-3-936203-11-0 , pp. 23-28.

Web links

Commons : Kirnitzsch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ mapy.cz
  2. ↑ a b Catchment area of ​​the Kirnitzschtal level of 154 km² plus remaining catchment area of 2.94 km² below, measured in the Sachsenatlas
  3. ^ German Hydrological Yearbook Elbe Region, Part I 2014. (PDF) State Office for Flood Protection and Water Management Saxony-Anhalt, p. 106 , accessed on November 3, 2018 (from: lhw.sachsen-anhalt.de).
  4. ↑ Mes table sheet no. 86 Hinterhermsdorf, published by the Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme, Landesaufnahme Sachsen 1935, digitized at www.fotothek.de
  5. ^ Mills in Saxon Switzerland