Hohenwarte reservoir

Hohenwarte reservoir
	View over the lake from the dam
Location:	District of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Tributaries:	Saale
Larger places nearby:	Hohenwarte , Wilhelmsdorf , Gössitz , Paska , Altenbeuthen , Drognitz , Reitzengeschwenda
	Thuringia , Germany
Coordinates	50 ° 36 '34 " N , 11 ° 29' 52" E Coordinates: 50 ° 36 '34 " N , 11 ° 29' 52" E
	Data on the structure
Construction time:	1936-1942
Height above foundation level :	75 m
Building volume:	510,000 m³
Crown length:	412 m
Crown width:	6 m
	Data on the reservoir
Water surface	7.3 km²
Reservoir length	27 km
Storage space	182 million m³

The Hohenwarte reservoir or Hohenwartetalsperre (also called the Thuringian Sea called) is a reservoir which in the 1930s by damming the Saale by a close to the eponymous Thuringian town Hohenwarte nearby dam was created. The curved concrete gravity dam was built from 1936 to 1942. Its height is 75 m, its length 412 m. 250 people had to be relocated when the dam was built. The village of Preßwitz was flooded.

use

With a storage capacity of 182 million cubic meters of water, this dam is the fourth largest in Germany. The water is dammed up to a water surface of 7.3 square kilometers (slightly fluctuating seasonally, depending on the water level). The purpose of the reservoir is flood protection, the process water supply and the generation and storage of electricity by the Hohenwarte I pumped storage power plant . This has turbines with a capacity of 63 megawatts and belongs to Vattenfall Europe AG .

Even before the dam was built, the Conrod power plant was in operation near Ziegenrück .

The Hohenwarte reservoir is part of the almost 80-kilometer-long, five-tiered Saale cascade . These include the Eichicht compensation basin down the hall and the Burgk compensation basin , the Walsburg dam and the Bleiloch reservoir upstream .

The dam wall has a fixed crest overflow in the middle with seven fields as flood relief .

Hohenwarte reservoir at the Linkenmühle

Overview plan of the reservoir

history

The construction took place from 1935 to 1941 (commissioning until 1945) by the Saaletalsperren AG. There was interest in flood protection, particularly stimulated by the floods in November 1890, and in electricity from the Carl Zeiss company in Jena . The hydropower plant was operated by the Thüringische Landes Elektrizitätsversorgungs-Aktiengesellschaft (Thüringenwerk) until 1945 , then - in the GDR - by VEB Kraftwerke Saaletalsperren, from 1954 by VEB Energieversorgung Gera and from 1979 by the Gera Energy Combine. After the reunification and peaceful revolution in the GDR , the energy combines were privatized by the Treuhandanstalt (within the framework of the so-called electricity contract ). In 1990, the east German hydropower plants were initially taken over by Vereinigte Kraftwerks AG, after which it merged with Verbundnetz Elektroenergie AG in 1991, when the power plants were transferred to Vereinigte Energiewerke AG (VEAG). In 1994 the Treuhandanstalt sold it to a consortium consisting of PreussenElektra AG, Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerke AG and Bayernwerk AG , and in 2001 the second sale to Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke AG (HEW), which had recently been taken over by the Swedish energy company Vattenfall. , so that today the power plant belongs to Vattenfall GmbH (previously Vattenfall Europe AG).

tourism

The reservoir can be navigated by sports boats with and without a combustion engine. It can be used for leisure boats from its start in Ziegenrück to the dam wall. There is also a passenger shipping service. At the Linkenmühle a 30 m high bridge led over the lake, which replaced an older viaduct in 1943 and was blown up on April 12, 1945 in order to hinder the advance of the Allies . As in many places, the demolition was completely pointless here, as the military vehicles of the US troops could easily negotiate the not yet dammed Saale. It is probably the only major road bridge in Germany that is still in the same condition as it was immediately after the war. The remains are visible at low tide. The previous building over the Saale is below the water level and can be dived. For some time now, pedestrians and cars have been able to take a ferry across from spring to autumn, depending on the water level. The Mühlfähre is the only car ferry in Thuringia. The bridge ruins are still visible. Plans to rebuild the bridge are met with vigorous protests from local residents, who fear that the bridge would generate heavy traffic through the now quiet places. The reservoir is considered good fishing water. The Hohenwarte Reservoir Blue Ribbon is a long-distance swim that has been taking place since 1966 . There is a diving center not far from the dam .

Adjacent places of the lower Saale

Lothramühle
Saalthal age
Port forge
Hop mill
Hackney
Neumannshof
Linkenmühle
Altenroth
Ziegenrück

literature

Harald Mitteldorf: The history of the Saale dams (1890–1945) . Jena 2007. ISBN 978-3-939718-03-1

Web links

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

Hohenwartetalsperre on the website talsperren.net

Individual evidence

^ Harald Mitteldorf: The history of the Saale dams (1890-1945) . Vopelius, Jena 2007, ISBN 3-939718-03-3 .
↑ Jörg Roesler, Dagmar Semmelmann: ... nothing works without energy! ”. The East German energy industry from the combines to VEAG (1980-2001) . Ed .: VEAG. Self-published by VEAG, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-00-009267-6 , p. 192 .

[1] Harald Mitteldorf: The history of the Saale dams (1890-1945) . Vopelius, Jena 2007, ISBN 3-939718-03-3 .

[2] Jörg Roesler, Dagmar Semmelmann: ... nothing works without energy! ”. The East German energy industry from the combines to VEAG (1980-2001) . Ed .: VEAG. Self-published by VEAG, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-00-009267-6 , p. 192 .