The Auer (also called Mühlbach or Ziegelbach) is a river in
Hesse
Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
,
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 ...
which springs from the western edge of the
Felsberg in the Hessian
Odenwald between
Balkhausen and
Bensheim-Hochstädten. It measures 6.7 kilometers in length and is part of the
Rhine
The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
river system.
Mühlbach
The Auer has ten tributaries and flows through the
Bensheim district of
Hochstädten, past the
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...
factory and the through the valley
Mühltal towards
Bensheim-Auerbach. In the past, there were seven mills in the Mühltal powered by the Auer's water. Therefore here the brook's vernacular name is Mühlbach (mill brook). The mill in the village's center is nowadays a wine restaurant, another mill is a nursing home, and another mill is the studio and residential house of an Auerbach-based artist. The other four mills (Kadelsmühle, Wiemersmühle, Mößingersmühle and Jungmühle) are used as residential houses.
The Mühltal is bordered to the north by the
Auerberg hill along with
Auerbach Castle, an old castle ruin, and to the south by the federal park Fürstenlager.
Auerbach
In the district of Bensheim-Auerbach, the Auer is split into two parts, one above ground and the other being a subterranean channel. Because of the recurring floods in the street Bachgasse, the largest part of the Auer was channeled in the 1980s. Like at the antetype
Freiburg Bächle, an ever constant part of the Auer flows openly through the Bachgasse, through the old village of Auerbach passing numerous half-timbered buildings towards the
Bundesstraße 3 (Darmstädter Straße).
Ziegelbach
After the two streams united again, the Auer crosses the
Bundesstraße
''Bundesstraße'' (, ), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' are labelled with re ...
underground and flows towards the Auerbach railway station. Since around 1850 there was a brick and porcelain factory; there the Auer is also called ''Ziegelbach'' (brick brook).
[Landesamt für Denkmal-Pflege Hessen]
Porcelain factory
/ref>
After crossing the railway line Darmstadt-Heidelberg, the Auer reaches after approximately 1 km its mouth. It flows into the Winkelbach coming from Bensheim, which is called upstream of the Auer's mouth Lauter. The Winkelbach flows at Gernsheim into the Rhine
The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
.
The total length of the Auer from the source to the mouth is 6.7 km.
See also
*List of rivers of Hesse
This is a list of rivers of Hesse, Germany:
A
* Aar, tributary of the Dill
* Aar, tributary of the Lahn
* Aar, tributary of the Twiste
* Aarbach
* Affhöllerbach
* Ahlersbach, tributary of the Kinzig in Schlüchtern-Herolz
* Ahlersbach, tributa ...
References
External links
*{{commons category-inline, Auer (Winkelbach)
Rivers of Hesse
Rivers of Germany