The Selbitz is a river of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

and

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

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-bank tributary of the river

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

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 average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

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 and

Naila Naila is a town in the Frankenwald hills, in the Hof district of Bavaria. Naila is from the larger city of Hof, on both banks of the Selbitz river. History The earliest documentation of Naila dates at 9 January 1343. The first settlements ...

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

inner German border The inner German border (german: Innerdeutsche Grenze or ; initially also ) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not ...

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

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 an 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 r ...

'', 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