Murg (Northern Black Forest)


The Murg is an 80.2-kilometre-long river and a right tributary of the Rhine in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It flows through the Northern Black Forest into the Upper Rhine Plain, crossing the counties of Freudenstadt and Rastatt.

Geography

Course

The Murg valley is one of the largest and deepest valleys in the Black Forest and generally runs in a northerly direction. It separates the precipitation-rich main crest of the Northern Black Forest, including the Hornisgrinde, to the west, from the densely forested bunter sandstone plateaux in the east.
The Murg originates from 2 large headstreams in the western part of the municipality of Baiersbronn. Below the Schliffkopf at about, the main headstream of the Right Murg is formed by the Schurbach stream and Tränkenteich pond, a little above the Murgursprung. The other, left-hand headstream is the Red Murg, whose source is the Red Murg Spring which leaves the pass summit of Ruhestein and is fed by brooks such as the Finsterbächle and Muckenbächle.
From the confluence of its two headstreams at about 595 m the Murg flows southeast through the valley of Mitteltal to Baiersbronn, where it swings into line with the Forbach which joins from the south. From here it is followed by the B 462 and the Murg Valley Railway. Initially it runs northeastwards to Klosterreichenbach, but thereafter it heads north-northwest. In the wide Wiesental valley it passes the villages of Röt, Huzenbach and Schönmünzach. After flowing through a narrow, sparsely populated and steep-sided gorge the river passes a rocky section in which are the settlements of Forbach, Gausbach, Langenbrand and Au im Murgtal. In its slowly widening valley, the villages of Weisenbach, Hilpertsau, Obertsrot, Scheuern, the town of Gernsbach and finally the village of Hörden follow in quick succession. Between the now gently rising hillsides the Murg runs northwest through Ottenau, past the industrial town of Gaggenau and the villages of Bad Rotenfels, Oberndorf, Bischweier and Kuppenheim, where it reaches the Upper Rhine Plain. Here it crosses under the A 5 motorway near Niederbühl and, in the area of Rastatt, the B 3, the Rhine Railway the Mannheim–Basel railway . Below Rheinau the Murg empties into the Rhine near Steinmauern at about 110 m at Rhine kilometre number 344.5.
On the French side the Sauer from the North Vosges joins the Rhine almost opposite the Murg.

Waterbody data

From the confluence of its two headstreams in Baiersbronn-Obertal to its mouth on the Rhine the Murg is 72.350 km long. Together with the Rotmurg which rises at the Rotmurgbrunnen near Ruhestein it is 79.661 km long and together with the Rechtmurg which begins on the Schliffkopf at the Murgursprung and has a length of 7.881 km it is 80.231 km long.
The catchment of the Murg covers 617 km².
In relation to its catchment the Murg has a high volumetric flow. The catchment areas of the Murg headstreams and its tributary, the Schönmünzach, have an area flow rate of 50 l/s.km², the highest in Baden-Württemberg.

Natural regions

The Murg flows from south to north through four very different valley landscapes.
The Murg does not flow through the middle of its elongated catchment, but further to the east, so that more and larger tributaries join it from the west than from the east. Its left-hand tributaries included the Tonbach, Schönmünz, Raumünzach and Oos ; its right-hand tributaries include the Forbach and Sasbach.

Administrative divisions

The old state border between the Kingdom of Württemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden runs between Baiersbronn-Schönmünzach and Forbach-Kirschbaumwasen. The upper, formerly Württemberg part of the valley belongs today to the county of Freudenstadt. The lower, section, which from the 12th century was ruled by the Ebersteins and later went to Baden, is today part of the county of Rastatt.

Towns and villages

The following towns and villages lie along the Murg, from source to mouth:

Dialects

Several dialect regions meet one another in the Murg Valley. The area around the upper reaches, around Old Württemberg Baiersbronn, forms the westernmost tip of the Swabian dialect region. The old state border with Baden further downstream is identical with the dialect boundary with Upper Rhine Alemannic, which is strongly defined even today, and which dominates the lower part of the Murg valley. On the lower reaches of the Murg on the Rhine Plain is an Alemannic-Franconian transition dialect with numerous South Franconian dialect features.

History

The Murg historically was important for timber rafting. Wood was rafted first as far as Steinmauern, where it was dried and combined into bigger rafts. From Steinmauern the larger rafts were floated down to Mannheim and onward to the Netherlands.

Economy and Infrastructure

Transport

The Murg Valley Railway and the Black Forest Valley Highway follow the Murg Valley. Both are amongst the most notable transportation routes in Germany for civil engineering and natural beauty.
The gorge-like character of the middle Murg valley was a major obstacle to the development of the transport routes for centuries. The first road from Gernsbach to the upper valley bypassed this section: the Old Wine Road, as the old trading route was called, ran steeply uphill at first and then ran along the heights of the eastern flanks of the valley. It was not until the second half of the 18th century that a continuous road was built along the bottom of the valley.
The construction of the Murg Valley Railway began with independent sections from Rastatt and Freudenstadt. On the Baden side the first section from Rastatt to Gernsbach went into operation in 1869, Württemberg followed in 1901 with the route from Freudenstadt to Klosterreichenbach. After several expansion stages, a continuous railway connexion was finally established in 1928, i.e. 60 years after the start of construction, and only when the respective national railways were under the sovereignty of the German Reich.

Timber rafting

Until the 19th century, the Murg was an important route for timber rafting in the valley. Timber merchants and sawmill owners in the Eberstein part of the valley merged to form the trading company of the Murg Shipping Association whose earliest statutes date to 1488. The logs felled in the middle and lower parts of the Mur valley, were floated down the Murg to Steinmauern, where they were dried and assembled into larger rafts. These were transported by Rhine raftsmen, who had a monopoly on this section, on the Rhine to Mannheim. At Mannheim, even larger floating wooden structures were built, some of which were rafted down to the Netherlands.
In the 18th century, the great demand for logs from the Netherlands led to a boom in the timber trade, which led to extensive clearing of the forests until the end of the century. Instead of the Murg Shipping Association, which specialized in sawn timber and did not have enough capital to manage the log trade, other timber companies took over this business.
The transportation of timber was hampered by the rocky gorge in the middle valley. This section could not be traversed by rafts until 1768. As early as the early 18th century, Wüerttemberg's timber trading companies had attempted to create a rafting route by blasting through the rock in the riverbed in order to float the logs from the upper valley down to the Rhine and the Netherlands. However, due to differences with the Bishopric of Speyer in Gernsbach, most of the Württemberg timber at Huzenbach had to be transported about 200 metres up the mountain and then transported to the neighbouring valleys of the Nagold and Enz. For this purpose, a lift called the "machine" was built in 1755. The logs were hoisted up the steep mountain slope using a series of man-powered wheels. However, this rickety structure was abandoned after a few years and the transport was taken over again by wagons.
In order to float the logs from the side valleys into the Murg, splash dams were built in the forest, such as the Herrenwieser Schwallung, and existing lakes were further impounded to raise their levels.
Rafting became less important after the construction of the Murg Valley Railway. In 1896, the last raft floated down the river Murg. In 1913 the rafting company closed and was officially banned in 1923.

Hiking and cycling

In 1981, the Murg Valley Trail was established, running for approximately 100 kilometres following the course of the Murg from its source to its mouth. The Murgleiter trail runs for 110 km between Gaggenau and Schliffkopf along the heights on the other side of the river. The Gernsbacher Runde explores the heights of the Murg valley near Gernsbach. In Forbach the West Way crosses the valley as part of the E1 European long distance path.
The 67-kilometre-long cycle route known as the "Tour de Murg", begins in Freudenstadt and accompanies the river from Baiersbronn to Rastatt.

Gallery

Literature

Historical descriptions: