The Elz 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 ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, Germany, a right tributary 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 ...

. It rises in the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

, near the source of the Breg. The Elz flows through

Elzach Elzach (; Low Alemannic: ''Elze'') is a town in the district of Emmendingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Elz, 26 km northeast of Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities ...

Waldkirch Waldkirch () is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located 15 kilometers northeast of Freiburg im Breisgau. While the English translation of its name is ''Forest Church'', it is known as the "town of mechanical organs", where fairground org ...

and

Emmendingen Emmendingen (; ) is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the Emmendingen (district), district Emmendingen of Germany. It is located at the Elz (Rhine), Elz River, north of Freiburg im Breisgau. The town contains more than 26,000 residents, ...

before reaching the Rhine near

Lahr Lahr (officially Lahr/Schwarzwald since 30 September 1978) (); ) is a city in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany, approximately 50 km north of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, 40 km southeast of Strasbourg, and 95 km southwest of Ka ...

. Its length is approx. . The lower reaches of the Elz are by-passed by the Leopold Canal, a flood relief canal.

Course

The Elz rises north of

Furtwangen Furtwangen im Schwarzwald (; Low Alemannic: ''Furtwange im Schwarzwald'') is a small city located in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. Together with Villingen-Schwenningen, Furtwangen is part of the district (German: Kreis) of Sch ...

in the area of the

Brend The river Brend () is a right-bank tributary of the Fränkische Saale ''(Franconian Saale)'', in Lower Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. It is situated in the district Rhön-Grabfeld. Its source is in Oberweißenbrunn, which is part of the town Bisc ...

and the

Rohrhardsberg The Rohrhardsberg is a mountain in the Central Black Forest in southern Germany. At 1,152.1 metres (3,780 ft) above sea level, it is the northernmost summit of the elongated, north-south oriented Farnberg Plateau that has several high points ...

mountains (between the Furtwänglehof and the Kolmenhof) not far from the source of the Breg which is hydrographically the

source of the Danube The Danube is conventionally taken to be formed by the confluence of the two streams Brigach and Breg just east of Donaueschingen. The source of the Donaubach, which flows into the Danube, in the park of Donaueschingen Palace is often refer ...

. In its upper reaches the Elz flows in a northerly direction, initially through a

high valley High Valley is a Canadian country and bluegrass band originally from Blumenort, Alberta, a small community near the hamlet of La Crete. The group is composed of Brad Rempel (lead vocals) and his supporting band, Dave Myers (bass guitar), Raymon ...

with pasture land, bog and

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

glacial landforms. Then after a steep drop at the little '' Elz Falls'', it continues through a deeply incised, wooded and sparsely populated V-shaped valley. Rohrhardsberg-Elztal

In the ''Oberprechtal'' valley it bends sharply towards the southwest. This is the start of the middle (actual) Elz valley, which runs in a straight line towards the southwest, separating the

High Black Forest The High Black Forest () is a touristic and geographical region in the south-west of the German federal state Baden-Württemberg, primarily in the Southern Black Forest. History of the name The term ''Hochschwarzwald'' originally became well kn ...

(700 to 900 m) to the southeast from the far lower parts of the

Central Black Forest The Central Black Forest (), also called the Middle Black Forest, is a natural or cultural division of the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It generally refers to a region of deeply incised valleys from the Rench valley and southern ...

. In the now densely populated valley are the town of

, the villages of Winden and

Gutach im Breisgau Gutach im Breisgau (, ; Low Alemannic: ''Guetich im Brisgau'') is a municipality in the district of Emmendingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Gutach includes six villages: * Gutach * Bleibach * Siegelau * Stollen * Kregelbach * Oberspitzen ...

, where the Elz receives the waters of the Wild Gutach, which is just under half its size. Below the town of

the Elz enters the

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben ( German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the ...

near

Denzlingen Denzlingen is a municipality in the district of Emmendingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated north of Freiburg. Geography Denzlingen is located in the Upper Rhine Valley (''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'') at the edge of the Black ...

in the Freiburg Bay. From now on it flows in a northwesterly direction, past

and

Teningen Teningen is a municipality in the Emmendingen (district), district of Emmendingen, in the state Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated on the river Elz (Rhine), Elz, 15 km north of Freiburg. Geography Location Teningen is set o ...

. Some of the water of the Elz is diverted into a millstream through Emmendingen, where it drives several

hydropower station Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

s and enhances the appearance of the town. Near Riegel on the Kaiserstuhl the Elz merges with the

Dreisam The Dreisam (Celtic: ''*tragisamā'', "the very fast one") is a 29 km long river (48.8 km including its source river Rotbach), and a tributary of the Elz in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The waters of the Dreisam feed the fam ...

from

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

and the Old Dreisam. Soon thereafter the Elz forks again: a certain amount of water (up to 8.5 m³/s) flows down the Old Elz (''Alte Elz'') through the

Europapark Rust Europa-Park is a theme park in Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Covering a total area of 95 hectares, twenty themed areas offer around a hundred attractions, including shows and fourteen roller coasters. The park also includes six hotels, a ca ...

to its mouth on the Rhine. Other quantities of water, on average about 13.2 m³/s, is fed along the Leopold Canal, built by

Johann Gottfried Tulla Johann Gottfried Tulla (20 March 1770, in Karlsruhe – 27 March 1828, in Paris) was a German engineer who accomplished the straightening of the Rhine, improving navigation and alleviating the effects of flooding. His measures gave the Upper Rhine ...

, northwest of

Rheinhausen Rheinhausen () is a district of the city of Duisburg in Germany, with a population of 78,203 (December 31, 2020) and an area of 38.68 km². It lies on the left bank of the river Rhine. Rheinhausen consists of the neighbourhoods: Rumeln-Kald ...

into the Rhine. The Old Elz empties higher up, near Schwanau, into the Rhine. Today it is led down various Old Rhine channels parallel to the Rhine to the southern edge of

Kehl Kehl (; ) is a city with around 38,000 inhabitants in the southwestern Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg. It lies in the region of Baden on the Rhine River, at the confluence with the smaller Kinzig (Rhine), Kinzig River, directly oppo ...

, a distance of 121 kilometres from the source; formerly it was over 90 kilometres long.

Tributaries

The table shows all tributaries that are longer than 5 kilometres, with the exception of millstreams alongside rivers. Based on the

waterbody number A waterbody number, waterbody index number or waterbody ID is used for the Hydrography, hydrographic classification of waterbodies. Where classification only covers bodies of flowing water such as rivers, it may be called a watercourse number. Ma ...

('' Fließgewässerkennziffer''), the Frischnaubach is the highest tributary - it discharges into the Elz in the parish of Prechtal. The Ettenbach is the lowest tributary and empties into the Elz just before

Grafenhausen Grafenhausen is a town in the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg in 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 ...

. All tributaries have their catchment areas in the county of

, with the exception of the Ettenbach, which flows through in

Ortenaukreis Ortenaukreis (; ) is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the west of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (clockwise from north) Rastatt, Freudenstadt, Rottweil, Schwarzwald-Baar and Emmendingen. To the west it borders the French Ba ...

Fauna

Commonly found species of fish in the Elz are the:Schaubild IG-Elz *

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 ...

Chub Chub is a common fish name. It pertains to any one of a number of ray-finned fish in several families and general. In the UK, the term ''chub'' usually refers to the species '' Squalius cephalus''. In addition, see sea chub. In family Cyprinid ...

Dace A dace is a small fish that can be one of many different species. The unmodified name is usually a reference to the common dace (''Leuciscus leuciscus''). This, like most fish called "daces", belongs to the family Leuciscidae, mostly in subfami ...

* Riffle minnow *

Common minnow ''Phoxinus phoxinus'' (known colloquially as the Eurasian minnow, minnow, Channel minnow, or common minnow) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, minnows and related fishes. It i ...

River trout ''Salmo trutta fario'', sometimes called the river trout, is a river-dwelling freshwater predatory fish from the genus ''Salmo'' of the family Salmonidae. It is one of the three main subspecies of the brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), besides sea ...

Grayling Grayling or Greyling may refer to: Animals Fish * Grayling, generically, any fish of the genus ''Thymallus'' in the family Salmonidae ** European grayling (''Thymallus thymallus''), the type species of the genus ''Thymallus'' ** Arctic grayling ( ...

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 ...

Pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

Roach Roach or The Roach may refer to: Animals * Cockroach, various insect species of the order Blattodea * Common roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), a fresh and brackish water fish of the family Cyprinidae ** ''Rutilus'' or roaches, a genus of fishes * Cal ...

Rudd ''Scardinius'' is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related species. The fishes in this genus are commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without ...

Gallery

Wiki B3.001.650.jpg, View upriver via Emmendingen to the Kandel Elz.jpg, The "Old Elz" between Kenzingen and Rheinhausen (Breisgau) 20160521-00379-Obere-Elz.jpg, Upper Elz, looking north

References

* Length from the ''Gewässernetz (

AWGN Additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is a basic noise model used in information theory to mimic the effect of many random processes that occur in nature. The modifiers denote specific characteristics: * ''Additive'' because it is added to any nois ...

)'' layer from * Einzugsgebiet abgemessen auf dem Hintergrundlayer ''Topographische Karte'' des Online-Kartenservers der LUBW. * Der Altersbach mündet in einen nahen, etwa parallelen Gewerbekanal. Stationierung ungefähr auf die Elz übergepaust, entsprechend die Mündungshöhe.

External links

Course of the Elz
at:
Interessengemeinschaft-Elz e. V.
– numerous photographs, including some historical photographs.
EG Wasserrahmenrichtlinie Bericht zur Bestandsaufnahme Teilbearbeitungsgebiet 31 Elz-Dreisam
(pdf file; 1.15 MB)

{{Rivers of Germany Rivers of Baden-Württemberg Rivers of the Black Forest Rivers of Germany