Leitha

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Leitha
Lajta, Sárviz, Sár
Pitten and Schwarza unite to form the Leitha

Pitten and Schwarza unite to form the Leitha

Data
location Lower Austria , Burgenland ( Austria ),
Hungary
River system Danube
Drain over Danube  → Black Sea
origin Confluence of the Schwarza and Pitten rivers
47 ° 44 ′ 11 ″  N , 16 ° 13 ′ 49 ″  E
muzzle in Mosonmagyaróvár in the Moson-Danube Coordinates: 47 ° 52 ′ 8 "  N , 17 ° 17 ′ 17"  E 47 ° 52 ′ 8 "  N , 17 ° 17 ′ 17"  E

length 180 km
Catchment area 2,138.1 km²
Discharge at the Nickelsdorf gauge (sewage treatment plant)
A Eo : 2,131.3 km²
Location: 16.31 km above the mouth 		NNQ (08/09/2007)
MNQ 1984–2012
MQ 1984–2012
Mq 1984–2012
 MHQ 1984–2012
HHQ (08/06/1991) 		110 l / s
2.63 m³ / s
8.14 m³ / s
3.8 l / (s km²)
 30.2 m³ / s
62.9 m³ / s
Left tributaries Mühlbach, Warme Fischa , Leithakanal, Kleine Leitha, Komitatskanal
Right tributaries Leidingbach, Klingfurther Bach, Ofenbach, Johannesbach, Arbach, Steinbach
Medium-sized cities Wiener Neustadt , Mosonmagyaróvár
Leitha origin during floods

Leitha origin during floods

The dry river bed of the Leitha near Bad Erlach

The dry river bed of the Leitha near Bad Erlach

Plaque at the origin of the Leitha in Haderswörth

Plaque at the origin of the Leitha in Haderswörth

The Leitha (Hungarian Lajta ; Old Hungarian Sárviz or Sár ) is a 180 km long tributary of the Danube in Lower Austria , Burgenland and Hungary . It is created by the confluence of the Schwarza and Pitten rivers in the municipality of Lanzenkirchen . The Leitha flows into the Little Danube (Mosoni-Duna) at Mosonmagyaróvár west of the island Szigetköz (Kleine Schütt ) .

The river regime

The river bed lies dry for long stretches.

On the one hand, a lot of water is already being taken from its source river Schwarza. From their catchment area, the karst water reservoir of Schneeberg , Rax and Schneealpe , the first Viennese high spring water pipeline is fed, which runs from Kaiserbrunn (municipality of Reichenau an der Rax ) along the thermal line through natural slopes to Vienna and carries around 220,000 m³ of water daily into the capital .

On the other hand, some canals are derived from Schwarza and Leitha. In Peisching (township Neunkirchen) of the branches Kehrbach on the Schwarza and results (since the 12th century) to Wiener Neustadt. The actual river bed of the Schwarza is usually dry from here (exception: high water). After the union of Schwarza and the Pitten to the Leitha near Haderswörth - here the Leitha is mostly only fed from the water of the Pitten - the Mühlbach branches off in Katzelsdorf . From then on, the Leitha river bed usually remains dry again - with the exception of flood situations - up to the Zillingdorf-Eggendorf-Ebenfurth area.

In the Ebenfurth-Haschendorf area, the gravel of the stone field wedges out. The (cold) Fischa (or “Dagnitz”) rises between Eggendorf and Haschendorf , to the east of it the river bed of the Leitha in Ebenfurth fills with water again.

Most of the water previously taken from Peisching through Kehrbach and Mühlbach comes back into the Leitha river system about 20 km north of Wiener Neustadt on the following route (except for a feed into the Wiener Neustädter Canal ): The Mühlbach flows into the park of the Wiener Neustadt Military Academy in the Kehrbach. This still feeds the Wiener Neustädter Canal north of it. The "rest" -Kehrbach is on the northeastern outskirts of Wiener Neustadt (against Lichtenwörth in the way of) Bad Fischau coming Warm Fischa passed. The Warme Fischa flows into the Leitha around 20 km further north near Wampersdorf (municipality of Pottendorf ).

At the "Kotzen-Mühle" between Seibersdorf and Hof am Leithagebirge, most of the water is diverted into canals (formerly for spinning mills, today for small power plants) for energy generation. From here, too, the Leitha is mostly only water-bearing during floods. After passing the “Brucker Pforte” and the “Heideboden”, it reaches Hungarian territory near Nickelsdorf and flows into the Moson-Danube near Mosonmagyaróvár . The most important cities along its route are Wiener Neustadt , Bruck an der Leitha and Mosonmagyaróvár.

Between Katzelsdorf and Leithaprodersdorf , the Leitha forms the border between Lower Austria and Burgenland in parts , furthermore it forms the border between these two federal states from Bruck an der Leitha to the height of Gattendorf . Until November 1921 (when Burgenland joined Austria), the Leitha formed the border between Austria and Hungary for long stretches. After the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy and the state separation, there was a lot of smuggling across the river.

The name "Leitha"

On March 4, 833 in a document is King Louis the German (a grandson of Emperor Charlemagne ) the Lithaha , located in the Awarenprovinz mentioned. This means that the name of this not so large, but extremely important river as a border river, is significantly older than the place names along its banks. In the long version of the Confirmatio Ludovici Pii made around 985 one finds the spelling Litaha .

There are several theories about the origin of the name “Leitha”. However, there is agreement that the Old High German Lîtaha must have been the basis of today's name, but there are different opinions about its meaning. A simple explanation would be: The suffix -aha means “flowing water” (cf. “Ache” for river in western Austria and Bavaria ), the Old High German Bavarian lît or lîtte “Bergabhang, Halde” (cf. Leite , dialectal today Leiten ). The Leitha would therefore be “the body of water flowing along a slope”. However, this interpretation has a decisive weakness and is therefore to be rejected: The Leitha is a flatland river, only its two source rivers Schwarza and Pitten flow along slopes.

Lîtaha must therefore have other roots. Elisabeth Schuster suspects a pre-individual language water name, which was extended to the Indo-European root loidh ("slimy, slippery") and was transformed by the Romans to Laidawa ( Ledawa ). The further development to Lîtaha is likely to come from Lombard times. The interpretation of the Leitha as a slippery river, perhaps better than "the loamy one", suspects Walter Steinhauser , who suspects Lîtaha to come from the Pannonian or Illyrian. Finally, its old Hungarian name also proves the above thesis. Today the Leitha is called in Hungary similar to the German Lajta , but its earlier name was Sárviz ("Kotwasser") or just Sár , which thus corresponded to a translation of Lîtaha or Laidawa .

From these statements the clear picture of the Leitha emerges as the loamy river, which apparently had this name in its name from the earliest, pre-Germanic times.

The Leitha as a historical border

Magyar-Austrian border in the Middle Ages

At the end of the 9th century, Magyars came from the east to invade the Pannonian lowlands . They moved to the west - pressed by Turkic peoples in the Crimea and in today's Ukraine as well as by Russians . At the end of the 9th century the land was finally taken over in Pannonia . After the battle on the Lechfeld in August 955, the advance of the Magyars to the west came to an end, they remained settled in the Pannonian lowlands.

The Holy Roman Empire then undertook a counteroffensive to regain lost territories. 991 defeated Duke Heinrich II . from Bavaria the Hungarians, the German (re-) settlement crossed the Vienna Woods Belt . By 1000 you had probably already reached the Leitha. This creates Ostarrîchi , the Marcha orientalis , as a border march. To the south of it, a mark , the Karantanische Mark (today's Styria ) was set up as an outpost of the Duchy of Carinthia , separated from Bavaria . Here in southern Lower Austria and in almost all of Burgenland, a broad, poorly penetrable border strip, a no man's land that the Hungarians called Gyepű , developed between these rulers .

In the 12th century, both the rule of the Babenbergs in Austria, who also acquired Styria through inheritance, and the rule of the Hungarian kings were consolidated . Fortifications were built on both sides of the borders. On the Austrian-Styrian side, Wiener Neustadt , Bruck an der Leitha and Hainburg emerged as fortified cities near Leitha . At this fortification line there were repeated large and small border feuds and skirmishes between the Austrians and the Hungarians.

The clashes of the year 1246 between the Babenberg duke Friedrich II (the "arguable") and the Hungarian king Béla IV were of particular importance . In June there was a momentous battle . The exact location is unknown.

In several border regulations in the late Middle Ages, reference was always made to the river. An important document on this is from 1411: King Sigismund decreed in October 1411 that the Leitha should remain the border: “... Item daz the leytta that should be remembered, ... and where the memory of the leyta geent, and from old have gone so that it should also remain by the same noted fusbasz ... so that the leyta ye remain by irem old gang. ”The Leitha thus remained the border roughly from Katzelsdorf to Nickelsdorf. At the end of the Middle Ages, however, five places came to Austria: In the Wiener Neustadt area there was the Zillingdorf , in the Bruck an der Leitha area there were Au , Hof , Mannersdorf and Sommerein - four villages of the former Scharfeneck rule. There the border was moved from the river to the south to the ridge of the Leithagebirge . The Hungarians protested against these border changes until the end of the Habsburg monarchy.

Cisleithanien and Transleithanien

The name of the otherwise rather insignificant river acquired historical significance through the terms Cisleithanien and Transleithanien . After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, Cisleithanien was the slang term for the part of the monarchy that did not belong to Hungary . This part was only referred to as Austria from 1916 to 1918. Before 1916, the Bohemian Landtag referred to the fact that the Kingdom of Bohemia was not a subset of the Austrian hereditary lands, so that one could not accept this discriminatory designation. The parts of the monarchy that did not belong to Hungary were then referred to as "the kingdoms and countries represented in the Imperial Council". Since this designation was not suitable for normal language usage, the Leitha was taken as by no means an exact dividing line, but useful from a Viennese perspective. The analogous term "Transleithanien" was hardly used, the term Hungary was chosen.

Crossings

International flood protection

Since the Leitha floods again and again, especially in Hungary, but also in Austria, the state of Lower Austria took over the leadership in 2010 to share the river basins with Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, to which the Leitha also belongs Within the framework of the CEframe project (Central European Flood Risk Assessment and Management in CENTROPE) to develop the basis for future flood management.

literature

  • Josef Lampel: Discussions and materials on the history of the Leithag limit . Pages of the Association for Regional Studies of Lower Austria, 33rd year, No. 6–8. Vienna 1899
  • Heinrich Zwittkovits: From Cyligendorf to Zillingdorf . Self-published by the municipality of Zillingdorf, 2004

Web links

Commons : Leitha  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (ed.) : List of areas of the Austrian river basins: Leitha, Rabnitz and Raab areas. Contributions to Austria's Hydrography, Issue 63, Vienna 2014, S. Leitha 29 ( PDF; 4.2 MB  ( 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 remove it then this note. )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bmlfuw.gv.at  
  2. ^ Ministry for an Austria worth living in (ed.): Hydrographisches Jahrbuch von Österreich 2012. 120th volume. Vienna 2014, p. OG 283, PDF (13.6 MB) on bmlrt.gv.at (yearbook 2012)
  3. ^ A b Franz-Reiner Erkens : Ludwig the Pious Document of June 28, 823 for Passau (BM2 778) . In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages 42, 1986, p. 87 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Elisabeth Schuster: The Etymology of Lower Austrian Place Names . Volume 2, Lower Austria State Archives , Vienna 1990, p. O. A.
  5. ↑ Walter Steinhauser: The name of the Leitha and the battle of the hun on the Nedao . In: Yearbook for regional studies of Lower Austria. New episode 36, volume 2, Vienna 1964 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  6. ^ Heide Dienst : The Battle of the Leitha 1246. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-215-02786-0 .
  7. ↑ In the course of a border regulation on the occasion of the engagement of his daughter Elisabeth to the then 14-year-old Habsburg Albrecht V (later King Albrecht II ).
  8. ↑ CEframe - Central European Flood Risk Assessment and Management in CENTROPE on the website of the Lower Austrian state government from December 22, 2010, accessed on February 17, 2013.
  9. ↑ CEframe , accessed February 17, 2013.