The Red Main ( or ''Rotmain'') is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

in southern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is the southern, left headstream of the river Main. It rises in the hills of

Franconian Switzerland Franconian Switzerland (, ) is an upland in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany and a popular tourist retreat. Located between the River Pegnitz in the east and the south, the River Regnitz in the west and the River Main in the north, its relief ...

, near Haag and flows generally northwest through the towns Creußen,

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

Heinersreuth Heinersreuth is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the district of Bayreuth (district), Bayreuth in Bavaria in Germany. People * Rolf Schmidt-Holtz (born 1948), German businessman and journalist References

Bayreuth (distric ...

and Neudrossenfeld. It merges with the

White Main The White Main ( or ''Weißmain'', not to be confused with the Weismain), is the larger and shorter of the two headstreams of the river Main. It rises in the Fichtel Mountains and merges near Steinenhausen, southwest of Kulmbach, with the left ...

near

Kulmbach Kulmbach () is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town, once a stronghold of the Principality of Bayreuth, is renowned for its University of Life Sciences, a branch of the University of Bayreuth, the massive Plasse ...

to form the Main. The Red Main is long and descends a total of . The waters of the Red Main flow through a region of clayey soils, which is why the river carries a lot of

suspended solids Suspended solids refers to small solid particles which remain in suspension in water as a colloid or due to motion of the water. Suspended solids can be removed by sedimentation if their size or density is comparatively large, or by filtration ...

, especially after rainfall, and acquires a red-brown colour, hence the name ''Red'' Main.

Sources

The Red Main rises south of

near Hörlasreuth ( Creußen) in the Lindenhardt Forest at a height of . The source of the Red Main (''Rotmainquelle'') was impounded in stone in 1907, the water flows out of a small wooden pipe. Its source region lies in the

- Veldenstein Forest Nature Park. Geologically, it belongs to the Brown Jura.

Course

The Red Main flows initially in a southeasterly direction, before it swings northeast and passes through Creußen. From there it heads almost due north and then turns west beyond Eremitage. It passes through the town of

from east to west. In the town centre it has been confined since the 1970s in a concrete channel and partially covered. In the vicinity of the Bayreuth folk festival square the river divides into two branches. The southern branch is called the ''Mühlkanal'', because it used to feed several mills within the town. Its water flow is held roughly constant by a weir and it runs above ground as far as the ''Münzgasse''. Behind the former state central bank it disappears into a tunnel and surfaces again opposite the Graser School just before reuniting with the northern branch. In the late 1990s a section of the channel in ''Opernstraße'' was exposed and swept up as part of the rebuilding at the southern end of ''Luitpoldplatz''. The northern arm usually carries only a small amount of water, but acts as a flood channel at times of high water and has a very wide river bed. It is partly covered by two car parks. Beyond Bayreuth the Red Main flows northwest in wide meanders through a broad valley, past the villages of

Bayreuth (distric ...

and Neudrossenfeld. South of

, near Steinenhausen Castle, it is united with the

, which rises in the

Fichtel Mountains The Fichtel Mountains (, ; ) is a mountain range in Germany and the Czech Republic. They extend from the valley of the Red Main River in northeastern Bavaria to the Karlovy Vary Region in western Czech Republic. The Fichtel Mountains contain an ...

near

Bischofsgrün Bischofsgrün is a municipality in the district of Bayreuth in Bavaria in Germany. Bischofsgrün is situated in the Fichtel Mountains between the range's two largest mountains; Schneeberg (1051 m) and the Ochsenkopf (1024 m). The Ochsenkopf No ...

. The Red Main is long (source to mouth), the White Main . At the confluence of the two headstreams a bridge was built in 2009 where the young Main may be crossed right at its beginning. Information boards on the bridge describe the rest of the river's course, the local walking and cycle routes and the surrounding countryside.

Bodenmühlwand geotope

In the vicinity of the Bodenmühle mill east of Bayreuth, the Red Main has carved out a bluff (''Prallhang'') on a bend in the river caused by

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

, the so-called ''Bodenmühlwand'', a steep slope in height. This has exposed rock strata from the Middle Keuper period. Around 225 million years ago the area was a coastal region with frequent changes caused in the influence of land and sea. As a result, today, layers of

claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too small to ...

and Benker sandstone (''Estheria'') lie on top of each other. In the latter, geologists found

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

of ostracods (''Palaesteria minuta''), after which the layers are named (in German), the remains of

coelacanth Coelacanths ( ) are an ancient group of lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii) in the class Actinistia. As sarcopterygians, they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (the terrestrial vertebrates including living amphibians, reptiles, bi ...

as well as the scales, teeth and fin spines of prehistoric sharks. The highest and thickest rock layer belongs to reed sandstones (''Stuttgart-Formation'') of the

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Triassic series (stratigraphy), Series (or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Triassic Epoch (reference date), Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227.3 ...

stage.

Fauna

The Red Main is a habitat for

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

, grayling,

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprini ...

, bullhead,

lamprey Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are a group of Agnatha, jawless fish comprising the order (biology), order Petromyzontiformes , sole order in the Class (biology), class Petromyzontida. The adult lamprey is characterize ...

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

tench The tench or doctor fish (''Tinca tinca'') is a freshwater, fresh- and brackish water, brackish-water fish of the order Cypriniformes found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including Great Britain, Britain and Ireland east into Asia as far ...

, carp bream, roach,

perch Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...

, pike, pike-perch,

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

and

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota''), also known as bubbot, mariah, loche, cusk, freshwater cod, freshwater ling, freshwater cusk, the lawyer, coney-fish, lingcod, or eelpout, is a species of coldwater ray-finned fish native to the subarctic regions of ...

.Bayreuth District Fishing Association: Red Main
/ref>

Tributaries

* Simmelbach (''right'') * Eschingbach (''right'') * Hühnerbach (''right'') * Kupfergraben (Kaingraben) (''left'') * Tiefenbach (''left'') * Schwarzbach (''right'') * Metzelersbach (''right'') * Gosenbach (''left''), (''7.95 km'') * Schliefgraben (''right'') * Schwarzweiherbach (''left'') * Weihersgraben (''left'') * Brunnengraben (''right'') * Schamelsgraben (''right'') * Mühlwässerlein (''left'') * Schnerfenbach (''right'') * Thiergatenweihergraben (''left'') * Ölschnitz (''right''), (''with the Laimbach 14.72 km'') * Gereutbach (''right'') * Bühlersbach (''left'') * Warme Steinach (''right''), (''24.61 km'') *

Mistel ''Mistel'' (German language, German, 'mistletoe', a parasitic plant) was the larger, unmanned component of a composite aircraft configuration developed in Germany during the later stages of World War II. The composite comprised a small piloted ...

(''left''), (''11.42 km'') * Grünbaumgraben (''right'') * Preuschwitzerin (''left'') * Cottenbach (''right'') * Tannenbach (''left'') * Dühlbach (''left''), (''7.01 km'') * Seebach (''right'') * Köhlersgraben (''left'') * Rottelbach (''left''), (''6.93 km'') * Pechgraben (''right'') * Erlgraben (''right'') * Reuthbach (Rotbach) (''left''), (''5.94 km'') * Schellenbach (''right'') * Friesenbach (''left''), (''8.85 km'') * Aubach (''right'') * Erlenbach (''right'') * Hirtengraben (''left'') * Krummer Lachengraben (''right'') * Proßer Bach (''right'')

Trails

The Red Main Trail (''Rotmainweg''), which was laid out by

Fichtelgebirge Club The Fichtelgebirge Club ( or ''FGV'') is a large walking club and local heritage society in Bavaria and recognised Conservation movement, conservation group with 20,000 members in 55 local groups. As the name says, its main sphere of activity is i ...

, begins near the source. This main footpath is marked by a red M on a white background throughout its length. Its 60 kilometre long route is as follows: Source of the Red Main-Creußen-Eimersmühle-Schlehenberg-Eremitage-Bayreuth-Martinsreuth-Altenplos-Grüngraben-Jöslein-Langenstadt-Affalterhof Katschenreuth-Steinenhausen Castle near Kulmbach (confluence with the White Main). The Main-Mies Trail (''Main-Mies-Weg''), established by the Upper Palatinate Forest Club (''Oberpfälzer-Wald-Verein'') also begins near the source. Here the trail is marked by at red diagonal cross on a white background. The 93 km long route is as follows: Source of the Red Main-Creußen-Seidwitz-Frankenberg-Neustadt am Kulm-Erbendorf-Falkenberg-Tirschenreuth-Griesbach.

Sources

* M. Johann Willen: ''Das Teutsche Paradeiß in dem vortrefflichen Fichtelberg.'' In: ''Archiv für Geschichte von Oberfranken.'' Band 15, Heft 3, p. 167 * Johann Christoph Pachelbel: ''Ausführliche Beschreibung des Fichtel-Berges im Nordgau liegend.'' Leipzig 1716, p. 18 * Faltblatt des Fichtelgebirgsvereins: ''Der Rotmainweg'' (detailed route description) * Gustav Schmidt: ''Der Obermain von den Quellen bis Bamberg.'' In: ''Heimatbeilage zum Oberfränkischen Schulanzeiger.'' Nr. 325/2005 * Franz X. Bogner: ''Der Obermain. Ein Luftbildporträt von Bayreuth bis Bamberg.'' Ellwanger-Verlag, Bayreuth 2006,

References

External links

''Main River''
Website on the River Main by the Tourist Board of Franconia. {{Authority control Rivers of Bavaria Bayreuth (district) Bayreuth Kulmbach (district) Rivers of Germany