Menzenschwand ( Alemannic: ''Menzèschwand'') is a climatic

health spa Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain ...

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 ...

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 ...

. The village lies within the borough of

St. Blasien St. Blasien (; sometimes spelled in full as Sankt Blasien) is a small town located in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Southern Black Forest, 17 km northeast of Waldshut-Tiengen. St. Blaise's Ab ...

in the state 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 ...

Geography

Menzenschwand comprises three villages, ''Vorderdorf'' ("front village"), ''Mitteldorf'' ("middle village") and ''Hinterdorf'' ("rear village"), has a population of just under 550 inhabitants and belongs to the borough of

. It lies in the valley of Menzenschwander Alb which runs south from the 1,493-metre-high Feldberg. The valley joins the westward-running valley of the Bernauer Alb above

. In the valley to the east lies the lake of Schluchsee. The valley landscape of Menzenschwand is shaped by the glacial streams of the Feldberg Glacier from several

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 ...

s. The main glacier, which was up to 300 metres thick, carved out trough-shaped valley of the Krunkelbach that starts at the large cwm west of the

Herzogenhorn The Herzogenhorn is a mountain, , in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg. It lies within a nature reserve in the municipality of Bernau im Schwarzwald. Location and surrounding area The Herzogenhorn is the source region for thre ...

. The Alb valley to the south joins the Krunkelbach valley at a small

valley step A valley step ( or ''Talschwelle'') is a prominent change in the longitudinal slope of a valley, mainly in trough valleys formed by glaciers. Typically, a valley formed by glaciers has a series of basins with intervening steps formed by the lo ...

about 20 metres high. The Alb has a

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

there with small

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s, one of them manmade. A little higher up, a prominent

end moraine A terminal moraine, also called an end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front e ...

embankment crosses the valley. The narrow water gap of the stream, the Menzenschwand splash dam reservoir (''Menzenschwander Kluse''), was previously used to store water for log rafting. The basin-shaped mouth area is a sedimented, former lake. Numerous

roches moutonnée Roche (F. Hoffmann–La Roche) is a Swiss healthcare company. Roche may also refer to: Companies *Roche Diagnostics, a division of F. Hoffmann–La Roche ** Roche Applied Science, a business group of Roche Diagnostics *The Roche Group, an Austra ...

characterise the meadows of the lower slopes. To the west of the ''Hinterdorf'', in a cym below the Spießhorn (1348.9 metres), lies the circular Scheibenlechtenmoos, a raised mountain bog. Valuable small bogs of various stages of development can also be found in the summit area of the Bärhalde north. Large parts of the district belong to the Feldberg Nature Reserve.

Sights

* Several ensembles of well preserved

Black Forest house The Black Forest houseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 154. . () is a byre-dwelling that is found mainly in the central and southern parts of the Black Forest in southweste ...

s in the village * Feldberg summit area *

summit area * Wildlife of the steep alpine mountainsides (including

chamois The chamois (; ) (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope native to the mountains in Southern Europe, from the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennines, the Dinarides, the Tatra Mountains, Tatra to the Carpa ...

and

birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as (although not the same as) raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively predation, hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and smaller birds). In addition to speed ...

) *

Gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

and

s of the Menzenschwander Alb below the ''Menzenschwander Kluse'' (see also

Waterfalls of Germany This list of notable waterfalls of the world is sorted by continent, then country, then province, state or territory. A waterfall is included if it is at least tall and has an existing Wikipedia article, or it is considered historically sig ...

) *

Raised bog Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens, are exclusively fed by precipitation (ombro ...

of '' Scheibenlechtenmoos'' in a

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

below the

Spießhorn The Spießhorn is a mountain, high, in the Black Forest just east of the Herzogenhorn. The summit is on the boundary between St. Blasien and Bernau im Schwarzwald Bernau is a municipality in the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg in ...

* ''Le Petit Salon'' and its Winterhalter exhibition

Trivia

During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

the Krunkelbach Pit was the only active

uranium mine Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...

in West Germany. At the same time, East Germany was one of the world's largest uranium producers through

SDAG Wismut SAG/SDAG Wismut was a uranium mining company in East Germany during the time of the Cold War. It produced a total of 230,400 tonnes of uranium between 1947 and 1990 and made East Germany the fourth largest producer of uranium ore in the world a ...

Literature

* Frank Bode: ''Subrezenter Vegetations- und Landschaftswandel im Südschwarzwald. Untersucht am Beispiel des Menzenschwander Tals''. Dissertation, University of Freiburg, 2005, * *

References

External links

Website of Menzenschwand
{{Authority control St. Blasien Spa towns in Germany