Schmerach

	Schmerach
	The Schmerach is the last major tributary of the Bühler
	Data
Water code	DE : 238668
location	Swabian-Franconian forest mountains Burgberg Vorhöhen and Speltach Bay; Hohenloher and Haller level Haller level; Kocher-Jagst Plains Middle Kocher and Lower Bühlertal; Baden-Württemberg Schwäbisch Hall district City of Ilshofen ; City of Crailsheim ; Municipality Wolpertshausen ; ;
River system	Rhine
Drain over	Bühler → Kocher → Neckar → Rhine → North Sea
source	In the northwest corner of the Burgbergwald in the Wolfsklinge , approx. 1.2 km southeast of the Eckartshausen train station . ; 49 ° 8 ′ 38 " N , 9 ° 56 ′ 50" E
Source height	approx. 449 m above sea level NHN
muzzle	to Ilshofen- Oberscheffach in the Bühler coordinates: 49 ° 7 '47 " N , 9 ° 51' 41" E 49 ° 7 '47 " N , 9 ° 51' 41" E;
Mouth height	288.5 m above sea level NHN
Height difference	approx. 160.5 m
Bottom slope	approx. 11 ‰
length	14 km
Catchment area	35.654 km²
	The Schmerach about a kilometer from the mouth

The Schmerachklinge below the Klingenfels castle ruins

The Schmerach is by 14 kilometers the longest and largest river basin by far right tributary of Buhler in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in the northeastern Baden-Wuerttemberg . At the end of its course, which curves to the left, it flows in a roughly south-westerly direction immediately after the hamlet of Oberscheffach in the small town of Ilshofener from the Schmerachklinge forest gorge of its second half of the course into the lower course of the river.

geography

course

The source of the Schmerach is in the Keuper , in the northwestern foothills of the Burgbergwald , about one kilometer southeast of Eckartshausen . Initially flowing to the east, the Schmerach gradually turns in a semicircular arc to the left. Just a few hundred meters after its origin, it leaves the forest and then first runs in a straightened drainage channel on the edge of meadows through a wide, moist depression. After the completed bend of its first four kilometers, it maintains its westerly direction for three kilometers, passing the small town of Ilshofen close to the south and then feeding the approximately 2 hectare Lerchensee reservoir in front of the Lerchenmühle.

Then the shape of the valley changes. After it has moved along a wide meadow in the Gipskeuper or Lettenkeuper with a leisurely 5 ‰ gradient, from here to the confluence with 18 ‰ it cuts noticeably steeper into the hard Upper Muschelkalk. Its valley, now a narrow, winding forest ravine with steep slopes, the Schmerachklinge, initially hardly allows any passage next to the stream bed made up of large limestone banks and occasional small waterfalls. It soon turns to the south-southwest and takes up the tributaries of some side blades. At the confluence with one of them, on top of the mountain spur, lies the ruins of Klingenfels Castle , of which, however, little more than two neck ditches still exist, the longer of which reaches 100 m in length. In the meantime, a hiking trail follows the watercourse, now on the bank, now crossing it on stones that are often laid and just as often washed away, which exposes and undercuts rocky slopes on its bulging slopes, piles gravel banks in its bed and thus relocates small tributaries. After 14 km of running, the Schmerach flows into the Bühler from the right and northeast in the floodplain on the northern edge of Unterscheffach, shortly after it emerges from its valley cut, which is ultimately almost opposite to that of the Bühler .

Catchment area

The Schmerach has a catchment area of around 35.7 km², the greater part of which lies to the left of its course, mainly because of the deeper erosion base of the Jagst, which competes strongly in the north . In terms of natural space, it arises in a north-western corner of the sub-area Burgberg-Vorhöhen and Speltachbucht of the Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains , from which, while still on the east side, it soon emerges into the lower area of the Haller level of the Hohenloher and Haller level . Their section in the lower Schmerachklinge is finally included in the subspace Middle Kocher and Lower Bühlertal of the Kocher-Jagst plains .

The Schmerach lies for the most part in the area of the community of Ilshofen or borders it against that of the city of Crailsheim (on the upper course) or the community of Wolpertshausen (on the longest part of the Schmerachklinge).

Tributaries and lakes

List of tributaries and lakes from source to mouth. Length of water, lake area, catchment area and altitude according to the corresponding layers on the LUBW online map. Other sources for the information are noted.

Erlenseegraben , from the right and east to just under 430 m above sea level. NHN west of Ilshofen-Saurach, 0.6 km.

Sauerbach , from the right and east to about 429 m above sea level. NHN west of Saurach, 0.9 km.

Seebeetgraben , from the left and south to about 425 m above sea level. NHN a little below Ilshofen-Ober- like Unterschmerach, 1.4 km.

Tiefenbach , from the right and east to about 422 m above sea level. NHN at the junction of the L 1040 to Kirchberg from the L 2218 Crailsheim – Ilshofen, 1.8 km.

Brühlbächle , from the right and northeast to about 418 m above sea level. NHN a little below the Schmerachbrücke of the K 2605 Großallmerspann – Eckartshausen, 1.9 km.

Nixbrunnenbach , from the right and northwest last along the main road to about 425 m above sea level. NHN at the exit of the district road, 0.6 km.

Eckertshauser Bach , from the left and southeast to about 413 m above sea level. NHN above the Ilshofener sewage treatment plant, 1.7 km and 2.3 km².

Close to the upward triangle of the mouth of the previous one is a 1.9 hectare lake in the Rosslauf valley .

Dorfbach , from the right and north-northeast from Ilshofen to about 413 m above sea level. NHN a few steps further, 0.7 km.

Passed at about 409 m above sea level. NHN the Lerchensee on the right bank in front of the valley basin crossing of the K 2668 Oberaspach-Ilshofen, 1.6 ha. It is the former mill pond of the Lerchenmühle. This property is across the street to the left of the stream.

Sommerbach , from the left and south-southeast opposite the Lerchensee, 1.1 km

Kirchwegbach , from the right and east-southeast
Grauwiesenbach , from the left and south

(Pond discharge from Galgenweg), from the right and north-northeast through the Lerchensee, 0.8 km.

(Source pond of the pond runoff), on Galgenweg , 0.2 ha.

Buchluckenbach , from the right and north to about 400 m above sea level. NHN a little below Ilshofen-Klingenhof along the edge of the Buchlucke forest tip that juts out onto the plateau , 1.0 km.

Urtelbach , from the right and north to about 381 m above sea level. NHN opposite the abandoned Muschelkalkbruch north of Ilshofen-Steinbächle, 1.2 km and 4.9 km². The Urtelbach , which is often dry except at the mouth itself, runs in the continuation of the basin of the 1.8 km long Hegenbach , which sinks into a creek about half a kilometer east of the hamlet of Wolpertshausen-Rudelsdorf . The Urtelbach arises south of Rudelsdorf and along the Mulde just under a kilometer below the Schwinde.

Steinbach , from the left and northeast to about 348 m above sea level. NHN about 1 km southwest of Steinbächle at the foot of the spur of the Klingenfels ruins , 1.9 km.

Hohteichbach , from the left and east-northeast to about 315 m above sea level. NHN after passing through the Hoheteichklinge, which begins at the end of Ilshofen-Unteraspach, about 1.5 km west of the town, 5.6 km and 6.1 km².

Lindlesbach , from the right and northeast to about 405 m above sea level. NHN in Unteraspach, 1.9 km.

Finsterbach , from the left to about 304 m above sea level. NHN a little above the barbecue area in the Schmerachklinge, approx. 2.2 km and approx. 2.1 km².

geology

The Schmerach rises in a northwestern branch of the Burgberghöhen, where Gipskeuper ( Grabfeld Formation ) is located. After the forest emerges, its hollow is in the Lettenkeuper ( Erfurt formation ). After its headwaters, the Schmerach reaches the Upper Muschelkalk between the inlet of the Eckertshauser Bach and the Lerchensee . In this it deepens steeply into the Schmerachklinge. Opposite the valley inlet of the Urtelbach there is a no longer operated quarry in this layer with a high open rock face at the bend to the lower blade. A little before the inlet of the Hohteichbach brook, clods that have slipped off the corridor lie in the valley. From around the inflow of the last major tributary Finsterbach, the Middle Muschelkalk strikes on the lower slope , into which the Schmerach also flows.

The predominant surface layer in the catchment area is the Lettenkeuper, in which most of the tributaries run above the Muschelkalkklingen at the entrance to the Schmerachklinge. Between these, the hill caps often consist of loess sediment from Quaternary deposits. Occasionally there are also tiny layer islands made of gypsum keuper outside the foothills of the Burgberg.

On both sides of the Schmerachklinge there are numerous sinkholes, mostly on the edge of the Lettenkeuper to the Upper Muschelkalks, some with a large diameter, others are arranged in a row of sinkholes. In some rivulets disappear. Most noticeable of these is the sinkhole east of Rudelsdorf, into which the water-bearing Hegenbach sinks.

Nature and protected areas

The upper Schmerach runs in front of its curve to the west near Saurach through some damp meadows and patches of alluvial forest that are under biotope protection.

The Upper Muschelkalk is heavily karstified in and around the Schmerachklinge . In midsummer, the Schmerach regularly falls dry on the upper, impassable part of the blade, and its bed itself then offers the rare visitor the only way through the narrow gorge. There are countless sinkholes and a few creek shrinkages in the area, one is located about 500 m west of the Lerchenmühle not far from the southern valley shoulder in the forest, there a small creek seeps away in a larger collapse doline; In a straight line of almost one kilometer to the west, the course of the gorge is followed by a series of partly filled, partly open sinkholes, the rock walls of which are darkly lost in the abyss. The sinkholes are often designated as geotopes and in some cases also as natural monuments.

The Schmerachklinge and the vicinity of the Lerchensee shortly before are part of the Bühlertal nature reserve between Vellberg and Geislingen with side valleys and adjacent areas .

leisure

The lower section of the Schmerachklinge, accessible with dry feet on a good forest path, is often visited by visitors in summer; A parking lot at the mouth of the valley offers the popular opportunity to find a barbecue area in a few steps on a sunny meadow on the bank, where the children are drawn to the stream that flows flat and wide over stone rubble.

literature

Topographic map 1: 25,000 Baden-Württemberg, as a single sheet no. 6825 Ilshofen
B. Kunz: The Bühler from the source to the mouth . Swiridoff Verlag 2003, ISBN 3-89929-007-0 (about Schmerach p. 90)

Individual evidence

LUBW

Official online waterway map with a suitable section and the layers used here: Course and catchment area of the Schmerach
General introduction without default settings and layers: State Institute for the Environment Baden-Württemberg (LUBW) ( notes )

↑ ^a ^b Height according to the contour line image on the topographic map background layer .

↑ Height according to black lettering on the background layer topographic map .

↑ ^a ^b Length according to the waterway network layer ( AWGN ) .

↑ Catchment area summed up from the sub-catchment areas according to the basic catchment area layer (AWGN) .

↑ Lake area after the layer standing waters .

↑ Catchment area according to the basic catchment area layer (AWGN) .

↑ Geotopes, mostly sinkholes, according to the relevant layer. In the terrain, especially in the forest, you can find many more than indicated there.

↑ Protected areas according to the relevant layers, nature partly according to the biotope layer .

Other

↑ Modeled values according to the discharge BW water node MQ / MNQ

↑ Wolf-Dieter Sick : Geographical land survey: The natural space units on sheet 162 Rothenburg o. D. Deaf. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1962. → Online map (PDF; 4.7 MB)

↑ Geology according to the layers for Geological Map 1: 50,000 on: Map server of the State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining (LGRB) ( notes )

Web links

Map of the course and catchment area of the Schmerach
Measuring table sheet 6825 Ilshofen from 1937 in the Deutsche Fotothek

[TK-HLB-Höhe-1] Height according to the contour line image on the topographic map background layer .

[TK-Schwarz-Höhe-2] Height according to black lettering on the background layer topographic map .

[GeNe-Länge-3] Length according to the waterway network layer ( AWGN ) .

[BEZG-Summe-EZG-4] Catchment area summed up from the sub-catchment areas according to the basic catchment area layer (AWGN) .

[SG-Seefläche-7] Lake area after the layer standing waters .

[BEZG-EZG-8] Catchment area according to the basic catchment area layer (AWGN) .

[Geotope-10] Geotopes, mostly sinkholes, according to the relevant layer. In the terrain, especially in the forest, you can find many more than indicated there.

[Schutzgebiete-11] Protected areas according to the relevant layers, nature partly according to the biotope layer .

[5] Modeled values according to the discharge BW water node MQ / MNQ

[BfL-162-6] Wolf-Dieter Sick : Geographical land survey: The natural space units on sheet 162 Rothenburg o. D. Deaf. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1962. → Online map (PDF; 4.7 MB)