Schweddrich
As Schweddrich a stationary is fishing facility at Muehl defend referred.
Name interpretation
Schweddrich , also Schwäderich, is derived from swaths , swaths - a term for the rippling movement of water, also for swaying over , splashing .
functionality
The fishing gear consists of a specially designed slatted frame that is installed behind a separate gate of the weir and is only opened for the purpose of fishing.
Shortly after the mill wheel gate has been closed, the river water flows at high speed into the now released lock opening of the Schweddrich. The fish that are still upstream in the vicinity of the weir are washed by the suction effect on the slatted frame, where the larger specimens remain and can be read by the fisherman. Small fish, on the other hand, should fall through the slats undamaged and find their way back into the river bed via the downstream drainage basin.
In order to prevent fish from escaping, both the side walls and the sweddrich floor are secured with appropriate cladding and shoulders.
Sacks or baskets were used to transport the fish away. There is also a web-like access path to the side next to the Schweddrich grate, which is intended to facilitate removal.
The Schweddrich von Sallmannshausen on the Werra
The attached illustration and photos document a listed Schweddrich on the Werra near Sallmannshausen . The undershot mill wheel (2) of the Werra mill (1) is located at the apex of a bend in the Werra river. To operate the mill, a specially dimensioned, transverse weir (3) was added in the Werra, which at the same time also had to enable the timber rafting that was operated until the 1920s. To operate the mill and the Schweddrich (5), appropriate gates (4) were installed at the end of the weir, with which the miller / fisherman could control the water flow between the upper stream (6) and the lower stream (7).
The right to catch fish in the manner described was associated with the Sallmannshausen mill for at least 150 years. In 1857 a corpse washed up on the Schweddrich and in this context the unusual fishing technique at the mill was described.
Historical evidence
Schwädderich or Schwederich ...
- These are eel boxes that have been attached to mills since the earliest times, with a length of 5 to 10 m, 1 to 2 m wide and about 1 m high. The miller lets the water run into the eel box or swedderich at night when the business is idle, it flows through the 1 to 2 cm wide crevices in the slatted floor, while the eels that drift down the stream or river at night are held back in the box. These very old miller rights still exist today in individual waters, and they are often already forbidden by law. Their preservation on individual rivers can only be explained by the very different treatment that the tolerance of these eel traps received over the centuries on the individual rivers. The Werra fish regulations of 1627 only forbade the millers from Sweden to shine.
The oldest Jena fish regulation from 1752 contains the following regulation:
- No miller, or someone who has his own fishing water, should not hang a Schwädrich day or night ...
A fish order from Landgrave Georg von Hessen dated April 8, 1642 orders:
- Swedes and day quivers are also said to be forbidden in common water and interest.