Small Weser and Werdersee

View from the Neustadt to the water

View from the Karl-Carstens-Bridge to the west on the Werdersee

View from the north bank of the bird island

The Kleine Weser in Bremen is a 2 km long tributary of the Weser. It separates the western part of Stadtwerder including the Teerhof from the Neustadt including Buntentorsvorstadt.

The Werdersee is a 1953-1960 scale and enlarged 1981-1987 lake in the flood channel Weser upstream of the Kleine Weser.

history

From the Middle Ages until the construction of the weir in 1968 at Teerhof was little Weser (in the 17th century three and a half kilometers long, up to Huckelriede ) an upstream blindly ending Tide -Gewässer, the only river flooding by a flood channel water from the direction Mittelweser received, to be exact so a narrow, elongated bay in an old river bed. It was also called "Ohle Weser" ("Old Weser" in the sense of old water ). In the 1930s, Bremen's building director Gerd Offenberg planned the construction of a Werdersee with a regatta course, which had not yet been implemented.

From 1953 to 1960, the flood channel was relocated and partially deepened to improve flood protection. If it had previously branched off from the river bed of the Weser opposite the Peterswerder , i.e. below the Hemelinger Weser weir built in 1911 , it has since branched off two kilometers above this weir. This made it possible to relieve the Weser weir during floods. In addition, the previously existing partially parallel flood channel through the Peterswerder could be saved. As part of these measures, the Werdersee was laid out from around 1953 under the slogan "From the city center to the landscape" according to plans by Wilhelm Hübotter . It began on Deichschartweg and was 2.4 kilometers long. Its surroundings were designed like a park with lawns and playgrounds. The Werdersee was separated from the Kleine Weser by a land bridge through which there was only a relatively narrow connection.

In 1968, a weir was built into the Kleine Weser 320 meters east of its confluence with the Weser, which shields it above the tide .

When the Weser floods in March 1981 , the flood channel failed. The masses of water flowing in from the Mittelweser mostly took a different route, already flowing into the Unterweser at the Werder Bridge (today Karl Carstens Bridge ) and dug a deep new bed in the process.

After the gaps in the dyke that resulted from the flooding were closed, substantial redesigns were carried out between 1981 and 1987 so that the water should have better guidance in the event of similar floods in the future, but which have not yet occurred: The easternmost part of the flood channel was raised by to slow down the speed of the overflowing water. At the same time, the summer dike at the junction of the channel was removed from the Mittelweser. A summer dike now limits the flood channel to the side of Stadtwerder. In the area of the Karl Carstens Bridge , the flood channel was deepened to keep flowing water away from the bridge foundations. As a result, the Werdersee was lengthened by one kilometer up the Weser and now extends under the bridge to the Wehrstraße . The land bridge between Werdersee and Kleiner Weser was removed so that any flood that had crossed from the Mittelweser can flow unhindered into the Unterweser.

North of the flood channel, i.e. through the eastern end of the diked Stadtwerder, the Werdersee feeder was created, which is provided with sliders at both dike passages, but was designed in a natural-like manner as a compensatory measure for construction work in the port area.

Current condition

Part of the “wild” flood bed created in 1981 was left in place (see also: Weser breakthrough 1981 ). The New Weser nature reserve is now located here with a lake rich in bays. The larger eastern part of the Little Weser, together with the adjoining Werdersee, forms a 5.22 km long standing body of water (technical term " still water "). The shoreline does not clearly show the boundary between the two. By definition, it lies in the former course of the Deichschartweg . The water throughput is kept at 4 m³ / s by the gate valve of the Werdersee feeder, i.e. 1.2% of the average Weser runoff of 325 m³ / s. This means that the Werderseezuleiter is suitable as a fish pass, as is the fish ladder at the weir of the small Weser. The water level of the Werdersee is 3.8 m above sea level, 70 cm below that of the Mittelweser (here 4.5 m above sea level).

Today the lake has an area of about 37 hectares, making it Bremen's largest swimming lake. Its maximum depth is three meters and its maximum width is 308 meters. West of the Karl-Carstens-Bridge on its north bank is a bird island that is closed to the public, east of this bridge on the south bank there are two small islands and a peninsula, and a smaller peninsula on the north bank.

The lake is used for a variety of sports and leisure activities, so there are several water sports clubs, large sunbathing areas and an artificially created beach with a non-swimmer area on its shores. In addition, the Great Bremer Rowing Regatta takes place here every year .

The western 300 meters of the Kleine Weser are still tidal water. The weir in the Kleiner Weser, which blocks the tidal range, forms the separation from the still water. The weir was built in 1972, ten years after the floods of 1962, between the Teerhofinsel and the old dike on the Neustadt side.

bridges

The Bridal Bridge was demolished in 1972

Pedestrian and bicycle bridge on Buntentorsdeichschart (looking towards Wilhelm-Kaisen-Brücke)

The Kleine Weser has four bridges or crossings:

The Bürgermeister-Smidt-Bridge (previous building 1872) crosses the Weser and the tide-dependent part of the Kleiner Weser at the tip of the Teerhof.
The weir of the small Weser, reserved for pedestrians and cyclists, is located a little to the north-west of the historic bridal bridge, which was the only crossing over the small Weser until 1872. This transition is therefore often referred to as the bridal bridge .
The Wilhelm Kaisen Bridge (southern part) is the successor to the southern continuation of the Great Weser Bridge built in 1895 . The Wilhelm Kaisen Bridge actually consists of two bridges and the 100 meters of normal road connecting them.
The nameless bridge for pedestrians and cyclists on the Buntentorsdeichschart was built as part of the redesign since 1981 and is located a few meters west of the former land bridge between Werdersee and Kleiner Weser (with the Deichschartweg). As an idyllic motif, Bremen filmmakers also like to use the bridge for filming.

A bridge has spanned the Werdersee since its extension:

The Werder Bridge , built between 1966 and 1971, stretches on pillars from Peterswerder (foreland of the Osterdeich ) to over the habenhauser dike . In 1999 it was renamed Karl Carstens Bridge . Colloquially, the connection in Bremen is also known as the “Strawberry Bridge”. This is reminiscent of the large strawberry plantations that used to exist in habenhausen. It is still called that by many people from Bremen today.

swell

Topographic map 1:50 000, sheet L 2918, Bremen, LGN Lower Saxony, Hanover 1980 and 1999
Official city map of Bremen 1:20 000, land registry office Bremen (now Geoinformation Bremen), 1980 and 1992
City maps of Bremen from 1882 and 1931, viewed in the Bremen State Archives, reduced in Das Bremer Haus. The Sparkasse in Bremen, 1982.
Bremen and its districts. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-685-9 , p. 263. (Map of the Swedish siege of Bremen in 1666) (typo in the caption) .