The Selbitz is a river of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

and

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

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 ...

. It is a left-bank tributary of the river

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...

in the eastern

Franconian Forest View to Döbraberg The Franconian Forest''Franconian Forest''
at www.britannica.com. Acce ...

. It is a watercourse of tertiary importance. Its source lies about above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

from a pond northwest of the Helmbrechts quarter of Wüstenselbitz, flows around Helmbrechts at first in an easterly direction and then towards the north. As it continues it runs through the towns of Schauenstein,

Selbitz Selbitz is a town in the district of Hof, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 12 km west of Hof. Sport The town's association football club SpVgg Selbitz greatest success came in 2012 when it qualified for the new northern division of th ...

and

Naila Naila is a town in the Hof district of Bavaria, Germany. It lies in the Franconian Forest. Naila is from the larger city of Hof, on both banks of the Selbitz river. History The earliest documentation of Naila was recorded on 9 January 1343. ...

, before flowing through the Höllental between Hölle and Blechschmidtenhammer cutting a channel into the dolorite rock up to deep. In the village of Hölle, a district of Naila on the left bank of the Selbitz, a mineral spring, the ''Höllensprudel'', has been bored. From the mouth of the Thüringische Muschwitz at the exit of the Hölle Valley and at its own confluence with the Saale near Blankenstein, the Selbitz forms the border between Bavaria and

for about . 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 ...

division of Germany (1945–1990), the Selbitz was part of the

inner German border The inner German border ( or ''deutsch–deutsche Grenze''; initially also , zonal boundary) was the frontier between the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West ...

, with fences and guard towers on the Thuringian side in the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

to prevent east-west traffic. The footbridge between the Bavarian hamlet of Untereichenstein and Blankenstein is also the end of the Thuringian ''

Rennsteig The () is a ridge walk as well as a historical boundary path in the Thuringian Forest, Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest in Central Germany. The long-distance trail runs for about from and the valley in the northwest to and the ...

'', a historical border path. The river is long and falls a total of during its course. The name "Selbitz" probably comes from the Slavic word ''zelenovica'' and would therefore mean something like "green stream". At almost any point the level of the Selbitz could rise theoretically without causing any problems, because it is mostly surrounded by meadows and in the town of Naila flows through a natural, but reinforced, channel between the station and the bridge by the football pitch. This enables the river to grow to more than twice its width during times of thaw, storms or heavy rain. From 2 to 4 December 2007 this could be observed. The area through which the river runs is surrounded to the left and right by strips of grassland that are used as meadows for sheep-grazing during times of the year when there is no snow. Image:Selbitzquelle.jpg, Source of the Selbitz Image:Naila-Bahnbruecke-ueber-Selbitz.jpg, Railway bridge over the Selbitz at Naila Image:Naila-Selbitz-Wehr.jpg, Weir in the Selbitz at Naila station

References

Literature

External links

Online data from the gauge at Hölle der Selbitz
{{Authority control Rivers of Bavaria Rivers of Germany

See also

References

Literature

External links