Saale (Germany): two rivers sharing a name

Source

The Saale rises in the Fichtelgebirge between Zell and Weißenstadt on the north-western slope of the Großer Waldstein. The official source of the Saale lies at 707 m above sea level. A syenite plate is attached to the former mouth hole of a mine tunnel, which is faced with rough granite blocks, with the inscription: "Quelle der Saale, gefasst von den Städten Münchberg, Schwarzenbach, Hof, Weißenfels, Halle 1869". The initiative to convert the mouth hole into the official source of the Saale came from the town of Münchberg and the towns mentioned in the inscription contributed to the costs. The entire area is now a protected natural monument. The source of the Saale is the starting point of the 427 kilometre long Saale cycling trail.

Upper reaches

Between Zell and Hof, on the Münchberg plateau, the Saale flows relatively slowly. Between the confluence of the Tannbach and the Selbitz, it forms the border between Bavaria and Thuringia, formerly part of the "Iron Curtain". The river then runs right through the Thuringian Slate Mountains. There the Saale is dammed several times, the largest reservoirs of a five-stage cascade are the Hohenwarte and Bleiloch reservoirs.

The area of the middle Saale begins at Kaulsdorf-Weischwitz with the emergence of the river from the Thuringian Slate Mountains and the breakthrough through the marginal plates of the Thuringian Basin. There the river touches Saalfeld/Saale, Rudolstadt and Jena, among others.

At Naumburg the Saale takes in the Unstrut, which at 192 km is the second longest tributary of the Saale.

Underflow

After leaving the Saale-Unstrut-Triasland Nature Park in Weißenfels, the lower course of the Saale begins in a flat landscape through the towns of Weißenfels, Bad Dürrenberg, Merseburg and Halle (Saale).

In the Old Pleistocene the Saale flowed from Naumburg towards Zwenkau, divided at Lützen into the Leipzig and the Schkeuditz-Lützen arms of the Saale and took in the White Elster south of Zwenkau. It joined the Mulde north of Leipzig, but did not reach the Leipzig area by the beginning of the Elster cold period in the middle Pleistocene. Since then it has flowed northwards via today's Weißenfels, while its former riverbed is used by the White Elster (Leipzig Saalearm).

South of Halle lies the ecologically valuable Saale-Elster floodplain, in the Halle city area there are several islands and rocks on the banks (Klausberge, Kröllwitzer Felsen with the Saale breakthrough) and the Giebichenstein with the castle ruins. Below Halle, the Saale passes the steep banks of the Brachwitz Alps, Wettin and the Rothenburg sandstone rocks from the Upper Carboniferous and Bernburg (Saale).

The Saale flows into the Elbe at Barby.

Reservoirs

The following reservoirs are located on the upper reaches of the Saale River, in that order:

• Bleiloch dam
• Burgkhammer Dam
• Walsburg Dam
• Hohenwartetalsperre
• Eichicht Dam

They form the Saale cascade, the second largest network of hydropower plants in Germany.

Run-of-river power plants

There are hydroelectric power plants at both the Rasenmühlenwehr and the Paradieswehr in Jena. They were built in 1999/2000 at the existing weirs. Previously, there were locks for rafting at the weirs.

In Halle (Saale) there is a hydroelectric power plant near the district of Planena, and two more are to be built at the Pulverweiden and Trotha weirs.

There are further run-of-river power stations in Unterpreilipp, Uhlstädt, Jena-Burgau, Döbritschen and Camburg as well as in Walsburg, in the old Ziegenrück cardboard factory and in the Ziegenrück hydroelectric power museum.