The Mandelholz Dam (german: Mandelholztalsperre) holds back the Kalte Bode Flood Control Basin (''Hochwasserschutzbecken Kalte Bode'') which is a flood protection reservoir located between the villages of Elend and Königshütte near

Wernigerode Wernigerode () is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,041 in 2012. Wernigerode is located southwest of Halberstadt, and is picturesquely s ...

in the

Harz mountains The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German w ...

of Germany. It impounds the waters of the

Kalte Bode The Kalte Bode is the left-hand headstream of the Bode in the High Harz Mountains in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is long. Name The names of the Warme and Kalte Bode ("Warm" and "Cold" Bode) come from their actual temperature differenc ...

when water levels are high. The dam was built from 1952 to 1957 and consists of an

earth-fill dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi- plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface an ...

with integrated concrete inspection walkway. In order to protect the crest from overspill, a

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure t ...

has been constructed south of it to handle excess water. The last time the dam was overspilled due to high water was in 1994. The height of the dam is variously given as 26 m (probably height above valley floor) or 28.4 m (probably

structural height A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and func ...

). Near Mandelholz on the

Wormke The Wormke is a river of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, in the Harz Mountains. It is a left tributary of the Kalte Bode, about long. Course The Wormke rises north of Schierke above the ''Jakobsbruch'' at about above sea level in the Harz National P ...

(to the rear of the Mandelholz Dam) are the ruins of an older dam that supplied the Mandelholz Iron Works with water from 1612. Catastrophic flooding in 1855 destroyed the dam and it was not rebuilt. The name Mandelholz as a place name may be derived from the

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ( taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the sub ...

forests in the area, because spruce trees used to be called ''Mandel'' in German. MandelholzAutumn

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External links

''Talsperrenbetrieb Sachsen-Anhalt''
Dams in Saxony-Anhalt Dams in the Harz Earth-filled dams Dams completed in 1957 1957 establishments in East Germany

See also

External links