The Mulde () is a river in
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
and
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
. It is a left tributary of the
Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Rep ...
and is long.
The river is formed by the confluence, near
Colditz, of the
Zwickauer Mulde (running through
Zwickau) and the
Freiberger Mulde (with
Freiberg on its banks), both rising from the
Ore Mountains. From here the river runs northwards through Saxony (
Grimma,
Wurzen,
Eilenburg,
Bad Düben) and Saxony-Anhalt (
Jeßnitz and
Dessau
Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Ro� ...
, the old capital of
Anhalt). The Mulde flows into the Elbe north of Dessau.
[ 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]
In August 2002 a flood caused severe damage, that even endangered the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
"Dessau-Wörlitzer Gartenreich" and the city Dessau.
Its name could be derived from Old German (possibly
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
) "Mulda" (𐌼ᚢ𐌻ᛞᚨ), meaning "dust" and a cognate of English "
mould
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. No ...
"). But more possibly it is related to the German "mahlen" which means "to mill". Therefore, Mulde probably means "the milling river" and corresponds to the great number of water mills driven by the river in former times.
See also
*
List of rivers of Saxony
*
List of rivers of Saxony-Anhalt
References
*
Notes
Rivers of Saxony
Rivers of Saxony-Anhalt
Rivers of Germany
{{SaxonyAnhalt-river-stub