The Edersee, also known as the Ederstausee, is an

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

Waldeck-Frankenberg Waldeck-Frankenberg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Höxter, Kassel, Schwalm-Eder, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Hochsauerland. History The district was created in 1972 by mergin ...

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 ...

holding back an estimated . It has the second-largest area (behind the

Forggensee The Forggensee, also called the Roßhaupten Reservoir, is a reservoir located north of Füssen in the county of Ostallgäu in Bavaria, Germany and one of many lakes in the region around Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. With a surface ...

), and the third-largest volume (behind the Bleilochstausee and Rurstausee), of all reservoirs in Germany. It is on the chief western tributary of the

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the city hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

, the Eder, behind the

Edersee Dam The Edersee Dam is a hydroelectric dam spanning the Eder river in northern Hesse, Germany. Constructed between 1908 and 1914, it lies near the small town of Waldeck at the northern edge of the Kellerwald. Breached by Allied bombs during Worl ...

near the town of Waldeck in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district of

North Hesse North Hesse (, ) describes the northern part and historical heart of the German federated state of Hesse. The region is – unlike the name Lower Hesse – not a historical territory and also has no established, standard and official administra ...

. The dam and reservoir are owned by the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, whose Hann. Münden Waterways and Shipping office is locally responsible. The primary purpose is provision of water for the federal waterways, the

Oberweser Oberweser (, ) was a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It was located north of Kassel and northwest of Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital ...

and

Mittellandkanal The Mittelland Canal, also known as the Midland Canal, (, ) is a major canal in central Germany. It forms an important link in the waterway network of the country, providing the principal east-west inland waterway connection. Its significance ...

. The dam also protects downstream residents from small and medium floods, generates electrical energy and the lake is used for sports and leisure.

Setting

Being in the Naturpark Kellerwald-Edersee and the Nationalpark Kellerwald-Edersee and overlooked by Waldeck Castle, it and its surroundings constitute a large recreational/touristic area, economically as well as a reserve for mature trees, woodland flowers, fungi and lichens, wildflowers, animals such as deer, foxes, badgers and occasionally the

Eurasian wolf The Eurasian wolf (''Canis lupus lupus''), also known as the common wolf,Mech, L. David (1981), ''The Wolf: The Ecology and Behaviour of an Endangered Species'', University of Minnesota Press, p. 354, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to Euro ...

. This fairly brief central portion of the Eder has its dam near Hemfurth-Edersee, about south-west of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, linked by a winding road. The lake stretches from the joining of a tributary, short of Herzhausen, in the west to the dam aforesaid. Beyond an intermittent band of tree-lined fields to the south associated with two shoreside villages is the "Ederhöhen", very high, often steep, wooded foothills to the

Kellerwald The Kellerwald is a low mountain range reaching heights of up to 675 m in the western part of northern Hesse, Germany. Its assets include Germany's largest contiguous beech woodland and it contains Hesse's only national park, the Kellerwald-Ederse ...

mountain range – together they form a protected upland forest roughly congruent with the Nationalpark Kellerwald-Edersee. Edersee Panorama Waldeck

This is the largest lake in Hesse. It takes in four bends, sharp meanders, to its south side.

References

{{Authority control Lakes of Hesse Reservoirs in Hesse REdersee

Setting

See also

References