Elbe

Coordinates: 53°55′20″N 8°43′20″E / 53.92222°N 8.72222°E / 53.92222; 8.72222
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Elbe
Elve
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
  • Hamburg
  • Schleswig-Holstein
  • Cities
    Physical characteristics
    SourceElbe Meadow
     • locationGiant Mountains, Czech Republic
     • coordinates50°46′32.59″N 15°32′10.14″E / 50.7757194°N 15.5361500°E / 50.7757194; 15.5361500
     • elevation1,386 m (4,547 ft)
    MouthNorth Sea
     • location
    Germany
     • coordinates
    53°55′20″N 8°43′20″E / 53.92222°N 8.72222°E / 53.92222; 8.72222
     • elevation
    0 m (0 ft)
    Length1,112 km (691 mi)
    Basin size148,268 km2 (57,247 sq mi)
    Discharge 
     • locationmouth
     • average870 m3/s (31,000 cu ft/s)
     • minimum493 m3/s (17,400 cu ft/s)
     • maximum1,232 m3/s (43,500 cu ft/s)
    Discharge 
     • locationDěčín
     • average303 m3/s (10,700 cu ft/s)
    Basin features
    Tributaries 
     • left
    Schwarze Elster, Havel, Elde, Bille, Alster, Mrlina

    The Elbe (German:

    Upper and Lower Sorbian: Łobjo, pronounced [ˈwɔbʲɔ]) is one of the major rivers of Western Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 kilometres (68 miles) northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is 1,094 km (680 mi).[1]

    The Elbe's major

    The Elbe river basin, comprising the Elbe and its tributaries, has a catchment area of 148,268 square kilometres (57,247 sq mi), the twelfth largest in Europe. The basin spans four countries; however, it lies almost entirely just in two of them, Germany (65.5%) and the Czech Republic (33.7%, covering about two thirds of the state's territory). Marginally, the basin stretches also to Austria (0.6%) and Poland (0.2%). In the Elbe catchment area, inhabited by 24.4 million people, the biggest cities are Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Dresden and Leipzig.[1]

    Etymology

    Albis or Albia are old medieval names for the river Elbe

    First attested in Latin as Albis, the name Elbe means "river" or "river-bed" and is nothing more than the

    High German version of a word (*albī) found elsewhere in Germanic; cf. Old Norse river name Elfr, Swedish älv "river", Norwegian elv "river", Old English river name elf, and Middle Low German elve "river-bed".[2]

    Course

    In the Czech Republic

    The Elbe (Labe) rises on the slopes of Mt. Violík at an elevation of 1,386 metres (4,547 ft) in the Giant Mountains on the northwest borders of the Czech Republic. Of the numerous small streams whose waters compose the infant river. After plunging down the 30 metres (98 ft) of the Elbe Falls, the latter stream unites with the steeply torrential Bílé Labe, and thereafter the united stream of the Elbe pursues a southerly course, emerging from the mountain glens at Jaroměř, where it receives Úpa and Metuje.

    Here the Elbe enters the vast vale named

    Brandýs nad Labem, the Jizera
    enters in.

    At Mělník its stream is more than doubled in volume by the Vltava, a major river which winds northwards through Bohemia. Upstream from the confluence the Vltava is in fact much longer (434 kilometres (270 mi) against 294 kilometres (183 mi) of the Elbe so far), and has a greater discharge and a larger drainage basin. Nonetheless, for historical reasons the river retains the name Elbe, also because at the confluence point it is the Elbe that flows through the main, wider valley while the Vltava flows into the valley to meet the Elbe at almost a right angle, and thus appears to be the tributary river.

    Some distance lower down, at Litoměřice, the waters of the Elbe are tinted by the reddish Ohře. Thus augmented, and swollen into a stream 140 metres (460 ft) wide, the Elbe carves a path through the basaltic mass of the České Středohoří, churning its way through a picturesque, deep, narrow and curved rocky gorge.

    In Germany

    Shortly after crossing the Czech-German frontier, and passing through the sandstone defiles of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, the stream assumes a north-westerly direction, which on the whole it preserves right to the North Sea.

    The river rolls through

    marshlands (Elbe Marshes
    ), former flood plains of the Elbe now diked.

    At Magdeburg there is a viaduct, the Magdeburg Water Bridge, that carries a canal and its shipping traffic over the Elbe and its banks, allowing shipping traffic to pass under it unhindered.

    The Middle Elbe in the North German Plain near the village of Gorleben. In this section, the river had been part of the Iron Curtain between West and East Germany during the Cold War. For that reason, the river banks even today look relatively natural and undeveloped. (Photo taken 2011)

    From the

    Köhlbrandbrücke
    , the last bridge over the Elbe before the North Sea.

    The Northern Elbe passes the

    Elbe-Weser Triangle with Stade until it flows into the North Sea at Cuxhaven. Near its mouth it passes the entrance to the Kiel Canal at Brunsbüttel before it debouches
    into the North Sea.

    View of the Elbe in Saxon Switzerland, an area in Germany

    Towns and cities

    The Port of Hamburg on the Elbe
    The Elbe passing Dresden
    The Elbe flows through Magdeburg
    Town Population
    Špindlerův Mlýn 979
    Vrchlabí 11,968
    Dvůr Králové nad Labem 15,170
    Jaroměř 12,260
    Smiřice 2,969
    Hradec Králové 90,596
    Pardubice 88,520
    Kolín 32,046
    Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav 18,755
    Mělník 19,472
    Štětí 8,438
    Roudnice nad Labem 12,506
    Litoměřice 22,950
    Lovosice 8,605
    Ústí nad Labem 90,378
    Děčín 47,029
    Bad Schandau 3,423
    Königstein 2,085
    Pirna 38,361
    Heidenau 16,540
    Dresden 555,351
    Radebeul 33,743
    Coswig (Saxony) 20,462
    Meissen 28,080
    Riesa 28,850
    Strehla 3,651
    Belgern-Schildau 7,579
    Torgau 19,625
    Wittenberg 44,984
    Coswig (Saxony-Anhalt) 11,494
    Dessau-Roßlau 78,731
    Aken (Elbe) 7,363
    Barby 8,173
    Schönebeck 30,067
    Magdeburg 236,188
    Tangermünde 10,350
    Wittenberge 16,682
    Dömitz 2,991
    Hitzacker 5,020
    Bleckede 9,613
    Boizenburg 10,689
    Lauenburg 11,644
    Geesthacht 31,539
    Hamburg 1,906,411
    Wedel 34,151
    Stade 47,579
    Glückstadt 10,719
    Brunsbüttel 12,381
    Otterndorf 7,443
    Cuxhaven 48,318

    Navigation

    The Elbe has always been navigable by commercial vessels,

    Elbe-Weser Shipping Channel connects the Elbe with the Weser
    .

    By the Treaty of Versailles the navigation on the Elbe became subject to the International Commission of the Elbe, seated in Dresden.[4] The statute of the commission was signed in Dresden on 22 February 1922.[5] Following articles 363 and 364 of the Treaty of Versailles, Czechoslovakia was entitled to lease its own harbour basin, Moldauhafen in Hamburg. The contract of lease with Germany, and supervised by the United Kingdom, was signed on 14 February 1929, ending in 2028. Since 1993 the Czech Republic holds the former Czechoslovak legal position.

    Before Germany was reunited, waterway transport in Western Germany was hindered by the fact that inland navigation to Hamburg had to pass through the German Democratic Republic. The Elbe-Seitenkanal (Elbe Lateral Canal) was built between the West German section of the Mittellandkanal and the Lower Elbe to restore this connection. When the two nations were reunited, works were begun to improve and restore the original links: the Magdeburg Water Bridge now allows large barges to cross the Elbe without having to enter the river. The often low water levels of the Elbe no longer hinder navigation to Berlin.[6]

    Islands

    Cuxhaven
    The mouth of the Elbe with the island of Trischen in the North Sea

    Headwaters

    Upper reaches

    Middle Elbe

    Between Northern and Southern Elbe (Norderelbe/Süderelbe)

    Lower Elbe

    Outer Elbe (estuary)

    • exclave
      – in Hamburg's borough of Mitte
    • Scharhörn – an exclave Hamburg's borough of Mitte
    • Nigehörn – an exclave Hamburg's borough of Mitte

    Former islands

    Ferries

    The Dolní Žleb Ferry
    The Wörlitz Coswig Ferry
    The Zollenspieker Ferry

    The Elbe is crossed by many ferries, both passenger and car carrying. In downstream order, these include:[7]

    Many of these ferries are traditional reaction ferries, a type of cable ferry that uses the current flow of the river to provide propulsion.

    Prehistory

    Humans first lived in the northern Elbe region before about 200,000 years ago, during the Middle Paleolithic.

    History

    Vandalii
    then lived.

    The Elbe near Königstein Fortress in Germany

    The Elbe has long served as an important delineator of European geography. The

    attempt to move the border of their empire forward from the Rhine to the Elbe, and this attempt failed with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, after which they never seriously tried again. In the Middle Ages the Elbe formed the eastern limit of the Empire of Charlemagne (King of the Franks from 769 to 814). The river's navigable sections were essential to the success of the Hanseatic League in the Late Middle Ages
    , and much trade was carried on its waters.

    From the early 6th century

    Germanization ensued, including the Wendish Crusade
    of 1147.

    The Elbe delineated the western parts of Germany from the eastern so-called

    département (1807–1813) and Lower Elbe département (1810), and the French département Bouches-de-l'Elbe
    (1811–1814).

    On 10 April 1945,

    German Supreme Army Command in Fuerstenberg that his Twelfth Army had been forced back along the entire front. According to Wenck, no attack on Berlin was possible as support from Busse's Ninth Army could no longer be expected. Instead, starting April 24, Wenck moved his army towards the Forest of Halbe, broke into the Halbe pocket and linked up with the remnants of the Ninth Army, Hellmuth Reymann's "Army Group Spree", and the Potsdam garrison. Wenck brought his army, remnants of the Ninth Army, and many civilian refugees across the Elbe and into territory occupied by the U.S. Army
    .

    In 1945, as

    western Allies advancing from the west and those of the Soviet Union advancing from the east. On 25 April 1945 these two forces linked up near Torgau, on the Elbe. The victorious countries marked the event unofficially as Elbe Day. From 1949 to 1990 the Elbe formed part of the Inner German border between East Germany and West Germany
    .

    During the 1970s the Soviet Union stated that Adolf Hitler's ashes had been scattered in the Elbe following disinterment from their original burial-site.[9][10]

    See also

    References

    1. ^ a b c "Elbe River basin" (PDF). International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
    2. ^ Orel, Vladimir. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2003: 13
    3. ^ Ellmers, Detlev (1991). Brachmann, Hansjürgen (ed.). "Die Rolle der Binnenschiffahrt für die Entwicklung der mittelalterlichen Städte" [The role of inland shipping in the development of mediaeval cities]. Monum. Ger. Hist. Frühgeschichte der europäischen Stadt. 4 (425). Berlin: Akademie Verlag: 137–147.
    4. Saxony
      , and the United Kingdom each, with Czecholosvakia and the German states being those, whose territory was crossed by the Elbe and thus competent for maintaining navigation installations. Cf. Der Große Brockhaus: Handbuch des Wissens in zwanzig Bänden: 21 vols., completely revised ed., Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 151928–1935, vol. 5 (1930): Fünfter Band Doc–Ez, article: 'Elbe', pp. 400seqq., here p. 402. No ISBN.
    5. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 26, 220–247.
    6. ^ NoorderSoft Waterways Database
    7. ^ "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
    8. ^ "Public transport operators co-operating in the HVV partnership". Archived from the original on 2009-03-31. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
    9. ^ Hans Meissner, Magda Goebbels, First Lady of the Third Reich, 260–277
    10. ^ Maxim Tkachenko (11 December 2009). "Official: KGB chief ordered Hitler's remains destroyed". CNN. Retrieved 11 December 2009.

    Bibliography

    • Rada, Uwe (2013). Die Elbe. Europas Geschichte im Fluss (in German). Munich: Siedler. .

    External links

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