Saarbrücken (German: [zaːɐ̯ˈbʁʏkn̩] (
The city is also the capital of the Saarland. Saarbrücken has 180,000 inhabitants. It is on the Saar River.
In 999 the place name is first mentioned in documents in the form "Sarabruca". In 1065 then "Sarebrucca" and in 1126 "Sarebrugge". The name of the town means exactly what it appears to be today: a bridge over the Saar. The name goes back to an early High German *Sara-bruggja. In the late 8th century the "j" disappeared (Early High German *bruggja < Old High German brugga < Middle High German brücke, brucke < New High German Brücke). However, the word "bridge" here can also mean landing bridge, landing stage or pier. A stone bridge over the Saar, the so-called Alte Brücke (Old Bridge), connecting St. Johanner Markt and Saarbrück Schlossplatz, was built in 1546/47 under Count Philipp II after Emperor Charles V was unable to cross the river at this point for several days due to high water. After the Roman bridge a little further upstream, which fell into disrepair in the early Middle Ages, the Old Bridge was the first Saar bridge on site in centuries.
The underlying river name Saar is a pre-Germanic water name derived from Indo-Germanic *Sarawa. It is composed of the Indo-Germanic root *sor-, *sar- (German: strömen) with the suffix -ava. The first element of the place name ("Saar") is, according to the rules of Germanic and German word formation, the determinative determiner, which narrows down the base word ("bridge").
The modern city name on "-en" originated from the dative name *bi of the Sarebrücken (German: bei der Saarbrücke). A similar development of endings can be found in places of the surroundings, which originated from names of water bodies, field names and place names: for example Bliesbrücken (at the Bliesbrücke), Bliesen (at the river Blies), Differten (at the deep ford of the Bist), Wadern (at the mudflats of the Wadrill).
There are now two possibilities for motivating the naming of places:
Explanations of the town's name that point to a Celtic origin are considered outdated.
In some other languages, the word for Saarbrücken is formed according to the sound, in some with the literal translation of the component -bridge. In many languages, the name is also simply "Saarbrucken". Some forms deviating from this are more, some less common today.
| Language | Name | Common |
| Sarrebruck | only | |
| Saarbrécken | only | |
| Saarbruggen | adjacent to Saarbrücken | |
| z. E.g. English | Saarbrücken | adjacent to Saarbrucken |
The inhabitants of the city are called "Saarbrücker" (in the Rhine-Franconian dialect "Saarbrigga", in the Mosel-Franconian dialect "Saarbrekger"), not, as is often assumed, "Saarbrückener". The same applies to the associated adjective; for example, it is called "Saarbrücker Zeitung" and "Saarbrücker Zoo".
→ Main article: Dialects in Saarland
In terms of language history, between the end of the 17th and the middle of the 19th century, due to changing political influences, there was a shift from the original Mosel-Franconian dialect to the Rhine-Franconian dialect used today, and finally to a uniform city dialect, the Saarbrigga Platt.
In the area of today's urban area of Saarbrücken, the following natural structure prevails:
The 4 km wide and 10 km long valley widening of the Saar in the Middle Buntsandstein is a climatically favoured, asymmetrical basin framed by forested heights. Through the confluence of numerous side valleys, the Saarbrücker Talweitung is connected to the adjacent areas:
The wide bottom and the wide flat slopes of the valley are almost completely covered by the settlement and industrial area of the city of Saarbrücken. The lower valley floor (190 m) is about one km wide and borders in the southwest on a 60 m high steep rise, which is divided by small dry valleys (Reppersberg and Triller). This escarpment is topped by the Winterberg (301 m), an isolated knoll with a roof of Kordel sandstone. At the eastern edge of the valley floor rise the two similarly built hilltops of the Halberg (270 m) and the Kaninchenberg (266 m) in the mouth of the Scheidterbach. The Scheidterbach has formed an extensive alluvial cone with the Saarbach (Fechinger Bach) in the outlet valley funnel. In the south the Spicherer heights break off abruptly against the Saar in a 120 m high steep slope with overhanging rocks in the red sandstone. The opposite slope (200-240 m) to the Spicherer Höhen, which rises slowly to the Saar coal forest in the north, is divided into red sandstone spurs and broad ridges by narrow exits of the two coal valleys and short notch valleys. The ridges carry two levels of extensive river terraces. The formerly meandering course of the Saar has been straightened by canalisation and has been relocated several times in the wake of road construction measures.
The old settlement nuclei of today's large city of Saarbrücken lie on the only slightly elevated lower terrace and the neighbouring terrace ridge. The settlements first extended over the entire valley floor, then over the surrounding slopes. Newer residential areas found their place on the slopes. The anemic flood channels were initially left unsettled. In the narrow, now canalised bed of the Saar, floodwaters can rise up to 6 m due to the high water pressure and then flood the urban motorway built along the bank in the 1960s. The southeastern part of the valley lowland is occupied by fat meadows. The works of the Burbacher Hütte (Burbach Ironworks) used to dominate the town area in the west, those of the Halberger Hütte (Halberg Ironworks) at the exit of the Scheidterbach valley in the east. The steep hills at the edge of the Saartal widening have parks and forests: Halberg, Kaninchenberg, Winterberg and zoo grounds below the Eschberg.
Open slabs or forest-covered ridges and hilltops surrounded by forests, which slope steeply on all sides, and deep-cut, steep-sided valleys are demarcated from the Saar-Blies Gau to the south. The Scheidterbach Valley forms the connection between the Middle Saar Valley in the southwest and the St. Ingbert-Kaiserslauter Depression in the northeast.
Narrow valleys are carved into the red sandstone with walls up to 100 m high. In the densely populated Scheidterbach valley runs the old traffic route of the Napoleonic imperial road. Away from it lies the Grumbach valley. The slabs are covered by areas of Kordel sandstone. Among the forested islands of shelly sandstone are the Scheidter Berg (340 m) and the Eschberg (350 m). Two smaller hilltops are located in front of the steep slope of the Eschberg at the edge of the Saarbrücken valley. Schwarzenberg (377 m), Bartenberg (359 m) and Gehlenberg (359 m) are situated on the watershed between the Scheidterbach and the Saar and are pushed northwards towards the Neuweiler-Spiesener Höhe, towering over it in steep slopes by up to 100 m. The Eschberg was formerly used as farmland. On the Eschberg, formerly used as farmland, the Eschberg residential quarter was built in the 1960s. The former orchard area of the Scheidter Berg is now largely built over. The Halberg is covered with high beech forest. The Grumbachtal valley, rich in woods and meadows, is used for local recreation. The Scheidterbach valley has been reshaped by old settlement cores and extensive industrial plants.
The area, which is rich in precipitation, is a heavily chambered and relief-covered forested mountainous area, which is mainly strongly dissected by parallel longitudinal valleys and is criss-crossed by closed settlements. In the northeast this is done by the transverse valley of the Blies, in the northwest by the Köller valley. The middle Saartal forms the southern border, the southeastern one is the St. Ingbert-Kaiserslauterer Senke (192 m). The area is bordered by the Saarbrücken-Kirkeler Wald and in the north by the Prims-Blies-Hügelland. The heights reach an average level of 350 to 400 m height. The highest point is the Göttelborner Höhe (444 m) on the main watershed between the Saar and the Blies. The valleys draining to the Saar are deepened to 210-250 m and sharply separated from each other by transverse and longitudinal watersheds. The mountainous area, which extends in a southwest-northeast direction, is 8 km long and 20 km wide. The coal valleys, which are oriented towards the Saar, follow the slow subsidence of the main saddle under the red sandstone and rip open the seam-bearing strata. This made historic coal mining possible and the Saar industry was able to begin here. The settlements are bordered by large reforestation areas of beech and coniferous trees.
In the precipitation-rich core area of the Saar coal forest, which is framed by heights and strongly relieved by parallel valleys, the forest cover is closely interlocked with dense settlement and industrial plants. The area opens in the south to the Saarbrücken valley widening, in the northeast it is separated from the Neunkirch valley basin by a transverse ridge, and to the north it is connected to the Prims-Blies hill country by a wide gate.
The two coal valleys of the Sulzbach and Fischbach (240-190 m) are narrowly deepened into shales, mudstones and fine-grained sandstones of the Saarbrücken strata by 100-150 m. The coal seams contained therein are exposed. In doing so, they expose the coal seams contained therein. Fischbachtal and Sulzbachtal are separated by an elongated ridge (307-360 m) of sandstone conglomerates. Road traffic from the Saartal to the northeast (old Rennweg, today Grühlingstraße) is concentrated on the ridge. Rail traffic runs through the two side valleys of the Saar. The ridge is connected to the broadly arched to sharply ridged transverse ridge in the northeast, which forms the main watershed between the Saar and the Blies. It reaches a height of 403 m with the Hoferkopf and a height of 397 m with the Erkershöhe. The ridge is separated from the Göttelborner Höhe (444 m) by the extensive original hollows of the Fischbach. The Fischbach is fed by numerous brooks and channels which originate at the Holzer conglomerate. The widely curved slopes of the Sulzbach valley are subdivided by short notch valleys. In the lower reaches of the Sulzbach, it cuts a red sandstone plateau embedded in the coal mountains and forms a wide basin in which the village of Dudweiler is located.
The lowest point of the city area is 178.5 m above sea level at the Luisenthal lock. The highest point, 401 m above sea level, is at Steinkopf, north of Saarbrücken Airport.
After the first ice age, the Saar, the Fechinger Bach, the Scheidterbach, the Sulzbach and the Fischbach began to wash out the Saarbrücken valley floor in the soft red sandstone. The tributaries of the Saar brought debris and sand from its catchment area. The Saar itself also moved an immense load of gravel. After the three post-glacial periods, the late Tertiary Saar valley at the site of present-day Saarbrücken was widened to 4 km and reshaped several times by water erosion. In the process, the Kaninchenberg and the Halberg had been carved out as outliers. In the constantly moving valley bottom, wide gravel fields were heaped up and redeposited. In the drier periods, the main course of the Saar dug deep into the alluvial gravel bed and thus created the river terraces still recognisable today in several stages.
On the cleared Buntsandsteinsohle sandy gravels form today the floodplain and the only slightly elevated lower terrace, which is over 1 km wide in the center of the Saarbrücker Talweitung. The gravels have a thickness of 2 to 5 m. After the initially wildly rushing water masses had slowed down, finest mineral particles were deposited and formed alluvial loams, which offered a good starting substrate for the re-emerging flora. Apart from inconspicuous remnants, the sandy gravel soils with the alluvial loams of the low terraces and the boulder-rich loamy sand soils of the middle and high terraces are now completely covered by buildings. The former floodplain has been covered and altered by repeated alterations and extensions of the Saar. The steep southern and western slopes as well as the gently sloping northern and eastern slopes of the Saarbrücken valley widening have been built on.
In the districts of Malstatt, Burbach and Altenkessel, clayey parabraun soils, loamy fine sand and sandy-silty loam predominate as a result of the Carboniferous subsoil. On the slopes of St. Johann, Alt-Saarbrücken, St. Arnual, in the Scheidter Tal and on the southern slopes of Dudweiler, lighter, more permeable soils such as loamy sand and loamy fine sand are found in the area of the middle Buntsandstein. The Eschberg forms an island-like exception. Here, base-rich, clay-loamy calcareous brown soils have developed due to the Muschelkalk overburden. The same soil situation is found on the Scheidter Berg, the Fechinger Berg, the Güdinger Berg and the Bübinger Berg, in Ensheim, in Eschringen, in Bischmisheim and on the Bübinger Hang. A nutrient-rich parabrown soil formed from diluvial and alluvial sediments is found in the districts of Fechingen, Brebach and Güdingen.
Saarbrücken, with its humid climate, would be an almost closed forest area without the influence of man outside the flood channels of the Saar and the rocky sites. The history of vegetation after the last ice age is revealed by pollen analysis. The arc of development spans from the treeless tundra to the developed high forest. Earlier archaeological finds date from the first interglacial period (ca. 600,000 to 550,000 BC). In a Paleolithic cave discovered near Spichern in 1927, worked wood and charcoal remains were found in addition to bone remains from hunting prey. The wood came from spruces (Picea), silver firs (Abies) and pines (Pinus). These wood finds are an indication that at this time Saarbrücken had a high proportion of evergreen conifers with Nordic characteristics.
Around 10,000 BC, when the longest and most extensive glaciation (Würm Ice Age, lasting 120,000 years) came to an end, there was almost no higher vegetation in the area of today's Saarbrücken. The landscape had a tundra-like vegetation with sedge meadows, dwarf shrubs, lawn and water plant communities. With increasing temperature, a stunted forest and tree tundra with robust pioneer woody plants such as willow, birch and pine followed.
During a time when the heights of the neighbouring Vosges and the peaks of the Black Forest were still permanently covered in snow, a loose, sparse forest with birch, pine and willow and occasional oaks developed in the area of present-day Saarbrücken. With increasing warmth, the hazel bush quickly found its way in and soon formed a dense shrub layer in the loose forest stands. Ash settled on nutrient-rich sites. In swampy depressions and along the oxbow lakes of the Saar, alder joined the willow, so that dense swamp forests soon formed.
Around 8000 BC a period of less rainfall favoured the spread of the pine, which became the dominant tree species in the Saarbrücken area until 7000 BC. With the increase of precipitation due to a stronger Atlantic influence, the proportions of alder, ash, oak, elm, lime and maple increased, whose seeds were easily and widely dispersed by wind and forest animals. Instead of the previously predominant pine forests, a deciduous mixed oak forest developed, which is also documented by an archaeological find from Burbach.
Here, the horn of an aurochs from the period 5500-4000 BC was found with washed-in bank mud during laying work on the Saar. The Saar mud contained pollen from oak (18 %), lime (24 %), birch (19 %), pine (27 %), alder and hazel (7 %) as well as 5 % indeterminable remains.
When, around 3000 to 2500 B.C., the temperature dropped slightly and there was more rainfall, the beech, which had already been present in the Tertiary, migrated back into the Saarbrücken mixed forest and gradually conquered most of the forest areas at the expense of ash, elm, lime and maple.
Human influence on the vegetation can be proven in today's Saarbrücken from the beginning of the Later Stone Age (4000 to 1800 BC). Pollen diagrams with wild herb pollen (goosefoot, mugwort, plantain and dock) indicate increasing shifting cultivation. This is also evidenced by stone implements from this period that have been found in larger numbers. With the help of these stone tools, people now increasingly cleared forest areas in the flood plains of the Saarbrücken valley widening in order to plant shifting cultivation fields in their place.
As the fields were not fertilized or rotated, they were abandoned after the soil had been depleted and a new cultivated area was created in another cleared area. On the abandoned arable land, a wild herbaceous flora and gradually salt willow, aspen, birch and hazel settled. Around 1000 B.C. the hornbeam invaded from the east. In the Bronze Age, shifting cultivation continued, as indicated by finds of bronze axes from the Saarbrücken valley.
With the end of the Bronze Age around 800 BC, the climate cooled down again and precipitation increased. During this phase, the beech spread further in the Saarbrücken area. This phase lasts until our days.
Due to the massive influence of man, no natural vegetation can be found in Saarbrücken's urban area today. Horticultural cultures determine the cityscape in streets, gardens, parks and green spaces. The development of the enclosed forest land, in which two-thirds of the original forest was cleared by large-scale clearing until the late Middle Ages, significantly changed the vegetation of Saarbrücken. The reclaimed areas were used as fields, meadows and pastures. Further overexploitation of the forest was largely avoided in Saarbrücken. Apart from the clearings at the Rodenhof (= clearing yard), the St. Johanner Wald and the large princely forests of the Saarkohlenwald were largely preserved by the Nassau-Saarbrücken dynasty. To this day, Saarbrücken is surrounded by dense forests with dominant beech vegetation outside the Saar valley widening. Oak and sycamore maple also thrive here. Hornbeams are increasingly found in frost hollows. A species-rich stream ash forest grows along small stream channels.
With the introduction of targeted forestry planning, the forest around Saarbrücken also changed its appearance. Large-scale plantations with non-native tree species (spruce, Douglas fir, larch), planned felling and controlled natural regeneration resulted in uniform and age-equal forest sections with a high susceptibility to damage. These monocultures have been abandoned in favour of more natural forestry.
Due to industrialisation since the 19th century, the districts of Alt-Saarbrücken, St. Johann, St. Arnual, Malstatt-Burbach, Rodenhof, Jägersfreude and Dudweiler were almost completely built up to the forest border over a period of 150 years. Today, agricultural use is only possible in the later incorporated districts of Ensheim, Eschringen, Bischmisheim, Bübingen, Güdingen and Fechingen.
Numerous arable areas became building land. With the use of chemical growth promoters and pesticides, the mechanization of agriculture, and the abandonment of traditional small-scale farming, yields increased disproportionately, but numerous flowering plants (e.g. corn cockle, chamomile, corn poppy, cornflower, yellow vetch) were lost. With regard to the flora of winter cereal fields on calcareous soils, plants such as ray-thistle, field stonecrop, hairy vetch, sticky-thistle or ribbon flower have completely disappeared since about 1960. Rare plants include field buttercup, broadsedge, summer devil's-eye, Venus's-comb and tuberous cumin. More robust species survive along open roadsides and field margins, such as crescent carrot, goosegrass and corn poppy. In wet depressions are complexes of pipegrass meadows with marshroot, caraway-leaved silge and yellow mountain clover. Columbine thrives on shaded corners. On shallow, dry slopes, semi-arid grasslands with a rich flowering flora and orchid species (e.g. helmeted orchid, bee orchid, small orchid, bumblebee orchid, purple orchid) have developed.
By designating a number of natural forest cells free of use (e.g. in a larger area in the Steinbach valley between Von der Heydt and Neuhaus), the State Forestry Administration is attempting to find out how and in what period of time potential natural vegetation, i.e. plant cover without human influence, will re-establish itself in the largely undisturbed natural forest areas.
The climate of the Saarbrücken region is largely Atlantic in character. Decisive for this are the constant westward drift and the relative proximity to the sea coast, the surface structure as well as the altitude levels rising to the northeast. Due to the relief, however, there are differences even within a very small area. The low-lying Saar valley and its edges are designated as the warmest climatic zone. The annual mean temperature is more than 8 °C.
The middle Saar valley in its southeast-northwest direction and especially the Saarbrücken valley widening lie in the lee of the Buntsandstein and Muschelkalk strata, which accompany the valley course of the Saar on its left bank. On the right bank of the Saar, the Carboniferous saddle rises behind the Saarbrücken Weichbild. The valley lies between 170 and 200 m above sea level. The altitude levels reach 350 to 400 m in the adjacent highlands on both sides of the Saar. From the long-term series of measurements (1951-1970) of the meteorological observation station St. Arnual (191 m above sea level), the annual mean value of the air temperature for the valley zone was 9.6 °C. In the winter half-year, it was 4.5 °C. In the winter half-year it was 4.3 °C, in the summer half-year 14.9 °C. For the high altitudes, the measurements of the aviation meteorological station Ensheim (323 m above sea level) resulted in an annual mean value of 8.9 °C (winter half-year 3.6 °C / summer half-year 14.2 °C). The annual mean of frost days with a daily low temperature of less than ±0 °C was recorded for the valley location with 74 days, for the high altitudes with 84 days. The mean of summer days with a daily maximum temperature higher than 25 °C was 34 days in the valley zone and 22 days at high altitude. From June to August it is warmest with an average of 16.9 °C and from December to February it is coldest with an average of 0.8 °C.
Southwesterly winds predominate in the mountain current, closely followed by wind currents from the northeast. Due to the course of the Saar valley from southeast to northwest as well as the lee position of the valley along the strata, a substantially changed valley wind flow is generated. Here, winds from the southeast to the south predominate.
The Atlantic rain clouds brought in by the westward drift only release their precipitation in the stagnant position of the Saar coal forest, so that the middle Saar valley is conspicuously dry. The long-term precipitation mean (1951-1970) of the station St. Arnual was with 790 mm clearly below the value of the measuring station Ensheim with 840 mm, but considerably below the value of Göttelborn with 1140 mm and Kleinblittersdorf with 1047 mm precipitation. The most precipitation falls in August with 80 mm.
In addition to the summarised macroclimatic conditions, the mesoclimatic and terrain climatic conditions are particularly important. During dry high-pressure conditions in autumn and winter, weather conditions with low air exchange and windlessness (inversion) lasting a whole day or several days are typical, with stable atmospheric stratification. With increasing altitude, immobile warmer air layers lie above the cold air near the ground. The consequences are occasional frosts, fog formation and the accumulation of harmful exhaust gases and suspended matter in the lower air zone, which affects settlements in the valleys and basins.
More frequent are the short-term ground inversions, when on clear, light-windy nights accumulated cold air leads to late frosts as well as heavy dew and fog formation. With a strong horizontal air flow (advective weather situation) from north to east, a sufficient air exchange is guaranteed in the city centre of Saarbrücken. The rising of warmed city air during relative calm, i.e. during vertical air movement (convective weather conditions), creates a suction current in the air layer near the ground, which brings in cooler fresh air from the less heated outskirts of Saarbrücken.
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| Monthly average temperatures and precipitation for Saarbrücken
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See also: List of the districts of Saarbrücken
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Saarbrücken city centre
According to § 1 of the "Statutes on the division of the state capital Saarbrücken into city districts", the urban area of Saarbrücken is divided into the four city districts of Mitte, Dudweiler, West and Halberg, whereby the city district of Dudweiler has its own district administration. In each borough there is a district council and a district mayor. The district councillors must be consulted on important matters affecting the district. However, the final decision on a measure is then the responsibility of the city council of the city of Saarbrücken as a whole. The city districts are subdivided into city parts and these in turn into districts. The subdivision into districts, however, only serves statistical purposes.
The city districts with their official number as well as their associated city districts
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