Sieber () is a river of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

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 ...

, in the

Harz The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, 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'' der ...

mountains. It is long and a right hand

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

Oder The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...

. The Sieber rises at 760 metres on the

Bruchberg At , the Bruchberg in the Upper Harz is the second highest mountain in Lower Saxony and the third highest in the Harz mountains in North Germany. It lies between Altenau and Torfhaus in the middle of the Harz National Park. The Bruchberg is more ...

massif and flows through Herzberg before discharging at

Hattorf Hattorf am Harz is a municipality in the district of Göttingen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the southern Harz, approx. 10 km south of Osterode am Harz. Hattorf is also the seat of the ''Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipal ...

into the Oder which, in turn, flows into the

Rhume The Rhume () is a long river in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Leine. Its source is the karstic spring of Rhume Spring in Rhumspringe, south of the Harz mountain range. The water drains with high pressure from the ground of ...

. Its tributaries include the Große Kulmke,

Große Lonau Große Lonau is a river in Lower Saxony, Germany. Course The Große Lonau rises at an elevation of 730 m in the vicinity of the Hanskühnenburg on the ridge of Auf dem Acker. Then it flows mostly in a south-southwest direction to Lonau, where ...

and Goldenke. In February 1910, as part of his hydrological research into the '' Rhumequelle'', Karl Thürnau dyed the Sieber tributary of the ''Eichelbach'' (Herzberg) with six kilogrammes of

fluorescein Fluorescein is an organic compound and dye based on the xanthene tricyclic structural motif, formally belonging to Triarylmethane dye, triarylmethine dyes family. It is available as a dark orange/red powder slightly soluble in water and alcohol. ...

. Three days later, weakly dyed water appeared in the main source of the ''Rhumequelle''. This was confirmed in 1980 by

dye tracing Dye tracing is a method of tracking and tracing various flows using dye as a flow tracer when added to a liquid. Dye tracing may be used to analyse the flow of the liquid or the transport of objects within the liquid. Dye tracking may be either qu ...

carried out by the Geological Survey of Lower Saxony (''Niedersächsischen Landesamtes für Bodenforschung''). This also indicated links between the ''Rhumequelle'' and the Sieber near Hörden and the Oder near Scharzfeld. The construction of a dam was planned but never realised. As a result the Sieber valley is the only unregulated river valley in the western Harz. The upper Sieber valley has been out-of-bounds to motor traffic since the 1980s from the Forsthaus Königshof and lies partly within the

Harz National Park Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the Germany, German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg am Harz, Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern ...

– the road leads to the B 242 federal highway northwest of

Sonnenberg Sonnenberg is a municipality in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, 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 Alp ...

. The river gives its name to the village of Sieber in the middle of the Sieber valley. File:SieberSchluft.jpg, The Schluft is the 'transport hub' of the upper Sieber Valley.

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

walked here. File:SieberParadies.jpg, The Sieber in "Paradies" (''paradise'') between Herzberg and the village of Sieber File:SieberWehrHerzberg.jpg, The Sieber Weir near the Herzberg paper factory File:LonauEinmuendung.jpg, Confluence of the

with the Sieber near Herzberg

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Lower Saxony Rivers of the Harz Rivers of Germany

See also

References